only discernible accomplishment appears to be an academic doctoral degree in philosophy from a major university. Along with, perhaps, several unintelligible publications bearing their names. And, unfortunately, a teaching position that places them as ambassadors of philosophy in front of classrooms full of bewildered and yet sometimes bemused undergraduates. But things are not always what they seem. As the ancient poet Caecilius Statius once reminded us: “There is often wisdom under a shabby cloak.”
The enterprise of philosophy itself, philosophy as a genuine human activity, can and should be great. Not to mention the fact that philosophers can be our friends. They often enjoy being taken out to dinner, or for a celebratory libation or two. On this topic, I should perhaps quote the great poet John Milton, who wrote:
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo’s lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets,
Where no cruel surfeit reigns.
In other words, good stuff indeed.
The same Cicero who loudly voiced his irritation at bad philosophers didn’t shrink from praising a good one. He once described Socrates as “the first man to bring philosophy into the marketplace.” In many ways, it’s the example of Socrates that will be followed in this book. Philosophy can be brought back into the marketplace of ideas that are seriously contending for your attention. Some pretty lofty ideas can be pulled down to earth and examined for their amazing relevance to our day-to-day lives. The goal in this book is to help you get clearer on some of the issues that matter the most, but that you may ordinarily tend to think about the least.
I hope that together we can be explorers of the spirit, charting our way forward in new depths of awareness as we go. We take a close look at some exciting ideas, quite a few amazing questions, and several new perspectives for everything we think and do. We can’t nail down a definitive answer for every question that may arise, but if you stick with me for the duration, you’re likely to find yourself making more progress in appreciating and understanding these topics than you may at first imagine. I might sometimes ask some strange-sounding questions, but I promise you that, as you consider the answers, those queries can help you attain some pretty amazing perspectives on this life that we’re living. Our goal, throughout, is nothing less than a quest for wisdom itself. And that’s a vitally important matter, since, as the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson realized, “Life is a festival only to the wise.”
Consulting Socrates on What Counts
The original public philosopher, Socrates liked to walk the streets and go to parties, along the way engaging anyone he could in philosophical dialogue. For him, philosophy was not a dry, intellectual subject, a game for pedants and scholars, but a requirement for living well. He even famously proclaimed the following axiom:
The unexamined life is not worth living.
But what in the world does this statement mean? Everyone knows what it means to say, “This car isn’t worth $80,000,” or “This shirt isn’t worth $150,” or “The tickets to this concert aren’t worth $125 each.” But what exactly does it mean to say about a certain form of life, a particular lifestyle — what Socrates is calling “the unexamined life” — that it’s “not worth living”?
Essentially, an item is “worth” what it costs if the value or benefits that you derive from it are equal to or greater than the price you pay for it — which is ultimately the same value as the underlying effort or energy that you put into obtaining the resources required to pay that price. Whenever I think about making a certain purchase, I always ask myself whether the item is truly worth the asking price: Is it worth that amount of money? Is it worth the work it took for me to earn that amount?
A pair of shoes that a wealthy individual could see as a “very good deal” might be perceived by a person of more modest means as far too extravagantly expensive. The less well-off shopper may need to work far too hard or too long to earn that amount of money. He may then conclude that the shoes aren’t worth the cost.
But how exactly does this commonplace sort of judgment relate to Socrates’ famous claim? What is the cost — or the worth — of “the unexamined life”? Well, first we need to understand what Socrates means by this phrase.
What is “the unexamined life”? Unfortunately, it’s the form of life far too many people live: getting up, dressing, eating, going to work, breaking for lunch, working some more, going home, eating again, watching TV, leafing through magazines or endlessly scrolling social media, exchanging a few words with family members or or friends on the phone, bathing, changing for bed, checking messages again, and falling to sleep — just to repeat the same routine over and over and over, without ever thinking about what it all means or how life should really be lived.
We wake up already in motion in this life. The raft is out on the river, and the current simply carries us forward. Habit and the demands of others tend to eat up the day.
When we’re young, other people decide what we wear, what we eat, and when we can play. All too often, even after we’re older, other people still decide what we do during the day. We make choices, lots of them, but often from a limited selection of options that our environment, friends, families, employers, and simple routine together present to us. Rarely, if ever, do we stop to reflect on what we truly want in life, on who we are and desire to become, on what difference we’d like to make in the world, and so on what’s really right for us. And that is the unexamined life — the life that is lived at some level almost as a cosmic sleepwalker, somnambulating away the hours, days, and years. It’s a life that is experienced on automatic pilot — a life based on values and beliefs that we’ve never really looked at, never really tested, never examined for ourselves.
The unexamined life, on the other hand, isn’t one of deep personal understanding. It’s not a life of self-directed positive change. It simply continues on, largely out of inertia.
And you pay a big price for living such a life. Socrates identifies the price or the cost when he states that this form of life, the unexamined life, is not worth what you have to pay for it — when he, in fact, plainly says that this form of life simply is not worth living. The living itself, the spending of those precious hours, days, weeks, and years that you have is too high a cost to pay for an unexamined life.
The price that you pay for an unexamined life, therefore, is precisely that — your entire life. And you can pay no greater price for anything. Notice, however, that Socrates didn’t say that the unexamined life is not worth anything. He wisely left open the viewpoint that some positive value
