Is the unexamined life worth living?
Interesting question. Before I even considered taking Philosophy, a question I often found myself thinking about was "what am I living for?" We live in a world where it can sometimes be difficult to do the things that make us happy because they aren't "practical" or won't truly benefit us as we become established adults. I personally think everyone should live to be happy and I've always wondered why that's not the way it is. To answer the question, do I think an unexamined life is worth living? No. How enjoyable can life be if you're just going through the motions of living? I believe the true joy of life comes through creating your own individual experiences and figuring out who you are as a person. In all honesty, you simply cannot create yourself and your own bank of experiences if you stick to what everyone tells you. Things need to be questioned, that's just the way it is. How would a world with no questioning be? Sure, at some points the question "why?" can be quite a nuisance when you don't have an answer but at the same time that simple question causes so much information to blossom to more and more things to share. The world needs that.
Modern-Day Gadfly
Trying to rack my brain to figure out a single modern day gadfly was driving me crazy. Admittedly I'm not very knowledgeable on many figures in politics, talk-shows, or anything of that nature. Going back to the discussion we had in class, children will forever be gadflies. The only difference between a child and Socrates is that children are more often not taken seriously. When I'm doing something around a child and that start to ask questions, in many instances I might say anything to them. Many times I only do it to feed their imagination but at other times it's just to get them to go away. I will say that sometimes I genuinely don't know the real answers to the blunt questions they ask when I thought I did. With young minds your answers are never enough and that has made my question why the answers I had where at one point enough for me.
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