The Examined or Unexamined Life

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the topic of the examined or unexamined life. The paper discusses the various opinions on what Socrates meant by saying, "The unexamined life is not worth living". Many do not believe it is ethical to question life or ethics, while others feel life is not lived until life is questioned.

From the Paper:

"One of Socrates teaching is on piety or moral duty. Socrates refuted the answer of Euthyphro (an over-confident young man) on this topic. "Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods" (Kemerling 2). This was a difficult question that Euthypho tried to argue in many different ways. "If right actions are pious only because the gods love them, then moral rightness is entirely arbitrary, depending only on the whims of the gods. If, on the other hand, the gods love right actions only because they are already right, then there must be some non-divine source of values, which we might come to know independently of their love" (Kemerling 2). Should life and ethics be examined and decided by each individual person?"

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