Socratic Method

First, we must understand what the Socratic Method is, and how it applies to the notion that the unexamined life is not worth living. The Socratic Method is a process of questioning in which Socrates would have an opponent state a thesis and would then deconstruct their argument through the use of questioning and critical thinking. Better ideas are found by identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. The Euthyphro offers a wonderful example of the application of this methodology. Socrates questions each of Euthyphro's definitions as to what piety is, and constantly shows how these definitions fail when examined critically. Socrates' contention is that Euthyphro is only giving descriptions and examples of pious things, rather
In order to understand exactly what justice is and what it means to live ethically, Socrates gives an example of a city as a large scale concept, and then examines it on a smaller more specific level. He discusses how the people of a city will have their own basic needs, but that the city as a whole will be shared and will have a structured system of education. Socrates also explains that there are four excellences in the city: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Socrates compares the city to a person and says that these four excellences must also exist in a person within the soul. Since they all exist in the soul and can often contradict, it is established that the soul is made up of parts and is not a whole. The soul consists of the rational, which judges truth, and makes wise and knowledgeable decisions in accordance with an examined life. The spirited part of the soul is the source of desires within a person such as love, and honor, while the appetitive aspect of the soul is the source of basic cravings that act as an anchor to the material and menial word. Within the city exists different classes of individuals; the guardians, the auxiliaries and the working class, all of which represent a different aspect or nature of the soul. The guardians are considered to be the rational, and ought to be the rulers of the city as they will be the best suited to attain knowledge and live and act ethically because the guardians act on their own knowledge and wisdom through their inherent rationality, just as the rational part should rule of the soul should rule over the other three aspects. From this, Socrates says that justice is establishing the parts of the soul so that they dominate and are dominated by each other according to nature and allow for the person and for the soul to pursue