What does it mean to live an examined life?
By John Dennis, Science and Enlightenment fan
“The unexamined life is not worth living” is one of Socrates’ most famous statements from Plato’s Apology. …… In my opinion living an examined life has different meanings for each individual:
- For Cicero the examined life was a life rooted in honesty and serving the public.
- For Socrates the examined life was the attainment of wisdom and intellectual humility.
- For Fyodor Dostoyevsky the examined life meant the resilience of the human soul against evil, pain, hardship and misery.
- For Seneca the examined life was to have a meaningful goal and strive to perfect one’s character.