Joven Jaravata

BSN 1-A

How can you be truthful to the Socratic dictum "The unexamined life is not a
human life" given your particular context as a student of Panpacific University?

Socrates professed that philosophical reflection is necessary in the life of every

person. His pronouncement of “know thyself” and “the unexamined life is not worth
living” are to be understood this way. Socrates philosophized where people usually
gathered and compelled those he conversed with to think, to defend their views, to
account for what they know and do not know.

The series of questioning and answering that Socrates employed in engaging in

philosophical reflection is an effective method of education that is valued even to this
time. It is true that I need to be compelled to reflect about what I believe or claim to
know because I am the one responsible for my thoughts. What I believe to be true
becomes the basis for my actions. Moreover, if I know something, it is worth sharing to
others. If I am ignorant about something, I need to learn from others who know.

A life worth living is a life that examines what one thinks. An examination of
beliefs or thoughts provides us with opportunity to know ourselves better. We need to
know ourselves because we make choices daily. The choices we make, in turn create
who we are. Philosophical reflection is indispensable because we do not realize what
we truly believe in until we are challenged to defend them.

Change is constant and uncomfortable because the future’s unknown. You can
only know something when you know it, not a minute before. Every person must
confront the question “who am I?” because knowledge of oneself is crucial in life where
we make choices daily. If we do not know ourselves, we are bound to make wrong life
decisions. We would pursue things that are not suitable to us and would not truly make
us happy. We will have many regrets. If we do not ask ourselves who we are which
essentially, contains some other questions like what are our strengths, our weaknesses,
what satisfies us, what goals we have, we will end up feeling miserable without
understanding why.