'The unexamined life is not worth living'

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view 13 essays on Philosophy that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

'The unexamined life is not worth living'

Following this theory initiated by Plato we can investigate the Analogy of the Cave and the concepts and ideas put forth by Plato from this allegory.

Plato presents an interesting theory of knowledge through this allegory, explaining to us that the only way of finding true knowledge is through a long and grinding process of studying, researching and thinking. Plato believed knowledge is innate within us so this process is simply of us re-discovering our innate knowledge. By using the theory of the cave Plato explained that general people choose to ignore the unanswerable questions of life, and go through life ignorant of these questions. Unlike philosophers who search for the answers, and eventually find them, giving them true knowledge. Of course, being a philosopher himself, Plato is considered to be an elitist. When describing the analogy of the cave Plato declares that the philosophers, being the greater minds with deeper understandings of the world should all be kings. Another point made by this allegory is that knowledge can only be rediscovered if the individual searching accepts that there are two worlds. The empirical world, dependent on the senses, and