Can you state that Socrates was

wrong when stating that the

unexamined life is not worth
living? What was he trying to say Townsend Harris High School
hence stating this term?
Delenira Deleon
Physics Band 4

"The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living"

Many things we take for granted while living our lives. We live life without an

understanding or full knowledge of our behaviors and our existence. We are obligated to put

forth many questions with unknown answers. Is an unexamined life really not worth living?

Would Socrates today have the answers of why were inflicted with the power of free will? Or is

it just fate that determines our existence?

Upon hearing the words free will, we are obligated to question many ancient findings.

What is it that controls us into determining our choices, our beliefs, and the outcomes? Are the

laws that are inflicted upon us creating such destruction and chaos among the peace to our

existence? Why have we chosen to create such mythological creatures, such as gods and devils to

give us laws and guidance when we are given free will to make preferable choices? According to

Encyclopedia Britannica, free will is the power or capacity to choose among alternatives or to act

in certain situations independently of natural, social or divine restraints. Of this every man must

be sensible, because he who finds a power to begin or forbear, continue or end sever actions, will

do so barely by a thought or preference led by the mind. Free will is based on any form of

determinism; which is deeply tied with our understandings of the physical sciences, and the

views of human actions.

Early beliefs of free will revolved around determinism and the ability of being able

predict future occurrences with very minor error. During Socrates’ era, he had proposed that life
would not and could not be taken for granted. He was well aware that death would soon consume

them all, but gathered the belief that all souls lived on under the control of a god. He stated that

god chose of when to retrieve the soul of its body; for another to live there must be a death

(Plato’s Phaedo). However, modern sciences show to differ with those of earlier beliefs.

Current physical theories seem to question whether determinism is really truly present in

this world because of our predictions currently existing as probabilities; which have caused

outbreaks of different interpretations. Quantum physics provides an alternative approach to the

theory as combinations of specific events which include the human choices, decision and

sufficient causes with that of the contrary. In Robert Kane’s book, The Significance of Free Will,

he uses the many interpretations of quantum mechanics to foretell the existence and importance

of free will.

Free will is something that humans have been questioning our whole lives. Our existence

is taken over by choices, decisions which are done without probable causes. What is it that we

have done, to make ourselves believe what’s good and what’s wrong? Is stating that Socrates

was wrong when stating that the unexamined life is not worth living do us any harm? Or will we

ever be able to better decide what it is that’s caused us to behave, believe, and live the way we

do?

Works Cited
"Free Will (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 20 Jan. 2011.
<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/>.

"Free Will [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web. 20 Jan. 2011.
<http://www.iep.utm.edu/freewill/>.

"The Internet Classics Archive | Phaedo by Plato." The Internet Classics Archive: 441 Searchable Works of
Classical Literature. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. <http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html>.

Kane, Robert. The Significance of Free Will. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.