THE UNEXAMINED LIFE

Socrates（470-399 BC）,the brilliant teacher in Athens,whose most renowned pupil was Plato（428-348 BC）,said that “the unexamined life is not worth living”（Plato’s Apology）.Nothing is more important,he said,than to develop one’s personality or character.Although he was not the first thinker to ask the question “What should I do,” he was among the first to focus upon the moral life as a central concern of philosophy.Earlier philosophers had been concerned with what we today call science.Socrates did not criticize the scientist,although he did say in the Apology that “the simple truth is… that I have nothing to do with physical speculations.” More important to him than speculations about physical things were the urgent question about human nature,about truth and goodness.

In Athens,Socrates engaged in vigorous debate with a group of teachers called Sophists or “intellectuals”.Some of them were teachers of the art of persuasion who could make an unjust cause appear just or make a bad case look good.The Sophists had said what there is no reliable truth and therefore there are no universally true moral principles.They pointed to the different customs among different peoples.They also referred to the disagreements among those who tried to describe the world of nature.One of the early Sophists,Protagoras（490-421 BC）,concluded that “man is the measure of all things”,meaning that whatever knowledge man could achieve about anything would be limited by his human capacities.And because each person’s perceptions will differ from another person’s,there cannot be one single absolute truth.There can be no knowledge of the “true” nature of anything.For similar reasons,Protagoras maintained that moral ideas are also relative,that is,different in each culture and at different times.Another Sophist,Thrasymachus,taught that there is no absolute standard for justice;actually,he said,“might makes right.” For this reason he urged individuals to pursue their own interests aggressively in a virtually unlimited form of self-assertion.He said finally that “the sound conclusion is that what is ‘right’ is the same everywhere：the interest of the stronger party.”

Socrates disagreed with the Sophists.He was convinced that there could be a solid basis for truth and that there are some moral principles to guide human beings,when they ask “What should I do?” He rejected the Sophists’ skepticism regarding knowledge and their relativism,concerning morality.Regarding our knowledge,Socrates was fascinated by the fact,for example,that we can say about something that it is beautiful or about a human action that it is good.How is it that we can recognize something as beautiful or an action as good? No particular thing,he said,is perfectly beautiful,but insofar as it is beautiful it is because it partakes of Beauty.Moreover,when a beautiful thing passes away,the Idea of Beauty remains.Socrates was struck by the ability of the mind to think about general ideas（Beauty,Goodness）and not only about particular things（this beautiful flower,that good mother）.Although various beautiful things differ from one another,whether they be flowers or persons,they are each called beautiful because in spite of their differences they share in common that element by which they are called beautiful.

True knowledge,said Socrates,is more than simply looking at specific things.Knowledge has to do with the power of the mind to discover in facts the permanent elements that remain after the particular fact disappear.To the mind an imperfect triangle suggests the triangle.All triangles are different.If our knowledge consisted only of these particular triangles,as well as all other particular things,we would conclude that everything is different.Similarly,if we based our definition of good upon the behavior we observed in each of several cultures,we would have as many definitions of good as there are cultures.What Socrates searched for was a definition of the good which makes it possible to say about any person that he is good.He thought he discovered a solid basis for the concept of “good”;an action is good,said Socrates,if it is appropriate to man’s nature.If man is a rational being,to act rationally is the behavior appropriate to human nature.The good person is the rational person.From this insight it was only a short step for Socrates to say that a person ought to act rationally.This is a view that Plato and Aristotle elaborated in considerable detail as they developed their theories of ethics.