Socrates said,The unexamined life is not worth living What did he mean - Essay Example

An Analysis of Socrates’ "The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living" Various academicians and scholars evaluate themeaning Socrates’ famous statement, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. One’s personal contention on the phrase is that there is a need for an individual to regularly remunerate on the life one lives, to determine if the path that one plans to trek is still the same one travelled, or there is a need to veer away and pursue another direction. It is also beneficial to learn from an article that revealed the meaning of the statement as “Socrates meant that he must be free to examine the wisdom of his actions, without the restrictions Athenian voters wished to place upon him, or he would not find it worth living” ( (Mathoda.com par. 2).

In Billy Eliot, the main character, Billy seems to live an unexamined life in terms of manifesting ambivalence in pursuing his dream. With his father restricting him to become a ballet dancer, his life exemplifies that led by Socrates: being prevented from exploring and maximizing his potentials to make it worth living. Again, from the film, one character that definitely examined her life and regarded it then as worth living was Mrs. Wilkinson, the ballet teacher. Her character was determined and strong as she knew that teaching ballet was the career for her.

Likewise, she recognized the predicament that Billy was in and was therefore determined to give her support to make Billy realize the need to examine his life in terms of pursuing what he really wants and not what his father wants for him. Works Cited Mathoda.com. Philosophers are wrong to state the unexamined life is not worth living. 27 April 2008. Web. 30 June 2011 .