Socrates Good Life

What is the Good life? How does one achieve the good life? Is the good life attainable for all people? These questions were all juggled by Socrates in Ancient Greece between 300-400 BCE. Socrates was known for being a great speaker and being able to get his point across to those who listened. Socrates’ knowledge formed the basis for the start of his prodigy Plato, who went on to be a famous philosopher of his own right. In The Apology, Socrates’ idea of the Good Life is detailed through The Socratic Method, and The Riddle of Apollo.
Socrates spent a great deal of his time working on answering questions about the Good Life. First, he had to identify what the Good Life was. Socrates taught that the Good Life must be intentional and catered specially
to the individual. The Good Life depends on numerous variables unique to each individual person. Things such as: sex/gender, race, language, religion, social status, and age. Regardless of these attributes Plato states, “…preach to all men of all ages the necessity of virtue and improvement…” (Plato 13). This proves that Socrates expressed that the Good Life can be pursued by anyone from all different walks of life. Socrates will continually teach his views to all people in order to allow them to find their Good Life. All of these minor details in life add up to create a specific Good Life for each person. Socrates strives to find a common good that would allow people to find happiness. The Good Life is not something that just falls into place, it must be found through an intentional act or way of life. The Good Life according to Socrates is one of knowledge, self-discipline, and justice within one’s self. Socrates wrote that “above all, I shall then be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge…” (Plato 86), implying that people must ask questions and think about human existence to find the Good Life. Humans must not just live and go through life without examining and thinking. In The Apology Socrates states, “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 79). Socrates is saying here that humans must examine all aspects of life in order to find their personal Good Life. Socrates also details the Good Life as a human’s own personal calling in life. The Good Life according to Socrates is an inner life, the life of an inquiring and ever-expanding mind. Socrates is known for his well-established philosophy, but his philosophy also had its faults.
Socrates stated in The Apology, “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 79). What if a human was not advanced enough to examine his or her own life? For example, a person with a severe cognitive disorder might not be able to comprehend life enough in order to examine it. That person is still able to live a life of worth, yet they cannot examine life as Socrates outlines in his writings. Socrates needs to be broader in his ideas of the Good Life. A person with an inability to examine life, such as a man or woman with downs syndrome or a form of mental retardation can still have a Good Life. Although the Good Life would not be the same as the average person, all people have a specific Good Life. Also, why does Socrates have the ability to tell all other humans how to live? He is a human, not a celestial being. Socrates would have to be a higher being in order to have the credibility to tell humans how they must live in order to achieve the Good Life. Also, how can Socrates know the way to live the Good Life, if he himself is claiming to know nothing? In the Riddle of Apollo, Socrates claims in court that he knows nothing, therefore he is the wisest man. If Socrates knows nothing how does he know the steps to achieving the Good Life? Socrates seems to contradict himself, in telling people how to live their individual life in order to reach the Good Life, yet he claims to have knowledge of nothing. The idea of the Good Life is supposed to be subjective to each individual, yet Socrates makes direct claims as to how to achieve the Good Life. If the Good Life changes for one person, how can it only be reached through a few steps laid out by Socrates? Each individual person would have his/her own way to reach what they believe is their Good Life. Although Socrates is a well-respected in the Philosophy field, he is not exempt from multiple criticisms to his
work. My idea of the Good Life, like Socrates, is the idea that each person must determine what the Good Life is for them. My Good Life as a freshman college student at Saint Vincent College is not the same Good Life as a middle aged married man who went to trade school in the 80’s. My own personal Good Life right now is earning a higher education, getting a well-paid job, getting married, and starting a family. Although this life may sound ideal to many people my age, each minute detail of this life is what makes my Good Life different from others. The Good life is not something that I can be told about or shown the way to achieve it. I must, as an individual, discover the Good Life, and live that way so I can achieve my ultimate happiness. To some people, the Good life could be simply finding their next meal, while for others it could be earning that next five-million-dollar paycheck. The Good life must be tailored to a person’s own struggles and triumphs in life. Even if Socrates was able to find an answer to his question, “What is the Good Life?” In today’s world, the Good Life described by Socrates would not pertain to me. As times change and technology advances, the Good Life is ever changing. The Good life is something to strive for, but it is not necessarily attainable. In order to achieve ultimate happiness a person would have to be a divine figure. A person could reach what they believe is ultimate happiness, but they will always desire something that would make their life better or longer. At some point, we all run out of time on this earth, and I will not know I have fully lived the Good Life until I have reached an eternity in Heaven. “Nothing evil can happen to the good man either in life or death, and his own death has been permitted by the gods” (Plato 18). The Good Life on earth to me, in the end, is reaching an ever-lasting eternity with my Lord and savior.