The Last Word of Socrates

"The unexamined life is not worth living..."

Supposedly first said by Socrates, as found in Apology 38a, it articulates the fundamental and first instinct of every self-respecting philosopher. Curiously however, Socrates adds to the proposition by exclaiming that the listener may not be prepared to accept it at all. But why not?

Here one can identify 'lower' and 'higher' reasons to support the famous statement. The first happens to be that one simply cannot function adequately in daily, 'worldly' life if one ignores what is occuring or clinging to a particular explanation without inquiry and criticism. Since this statement of Socrates' might as well be philosophy's most famous advertising slogan, a word about what philosophy is. The 'core' comprises the branches of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Apart from being a study of intellectual history, it has occupied itself with 'unsolvable' problems and spawning new disciplines once it gets a decent handle on the specifics.

In other words, the three big questions that philosophers ask are: what is there? what to do? how do we know? Now it is instructive to note that one can't even buy the day's vegetables if one goes one's way trying not to examine and inquire, to say nothing of leading the life of the 'wealth-obsessed laity' that is supposed to abhor philosophy and other such 'impracticalities'. Of course, you shouldn't just take my word here, but the catch is that you'll need a bit of inquiry in the first place to begin to realise the fruitfulness of inquiry. But whether you come to see it today, next year or never at all, philosophy is as practical as it gets.

The second and holier-than-thou reason is that the life without serious intellectual pursuits is not worth living in itself -- it is intrinsically bad. Assuming that animals cannot do much philosophising as we seem to be able to do, it comes to be that philosophy is a humanising pursuit, an ennobling practice that uplifts our spirits, nourishes the soul etc. You get the drift. But let's just say that if you've already tasted the roughness of life, you will be led to philosophical thinking more by the necessity of escaping dukkha than to have a childlike delight of puzzles or to be in the more respectable 'disinterested pursuit of Truth'.

So one may paraphrase and say that to go on with life without inquiry is simply not worth the trouble. And no, before you think of suicide, remember that you might just be reborn -- no free rides I'm afraid. Besides, if God turns out to be as queer as theology likes Him to be, and if in the first place He exists, it will surely not be pleasant to belong to the wrong faith. So, start asking questions. Listen to what everyone is saying. And don't be in a hurry to reach an answer. There might not be one.