Abelardo Mosqueda

Phil 1-L01

8/30/12

Socrates is said to be a paradigmatic individual, he is awed in depth by what we do not

know and can express what can’t truly be expressed in words. His philosophical journey allowed
him tom grow and develop. He was not close minded or submitted to one strict faith that limited
him from being a free mind, able to question everything and learn. His philosophies and ideas
provoked his actions, he behaved according to what he believed in, intellectualism. He
integrated his life with his philosophy because he had “techne”, the knowledge of what to do and
how to do it, and this allowed him to achieve excellence of function, or become virtuous. These
qualities resulted in welfare of his soul. He was content with himself and who he was as a
person, he knew himself. This was his mission and the essence of his teachings, to “know
thyself.”

Not everyone necessarily knows themselves. When one is a teenager and their mind is
still developing, they go through phases, struggling to figure who they are and who they will be
because our interests and circumstances can shape who we are, but we are responsible for whom
we become. In order to be fulfilled with who you are you must first know yourself in order to
take action and actualizing it. Perhaps part of the reason why many students in college change
majors or why gangsters who drop out of gangs is because they do not know themselves.

Socrates emphasized that what constitutes the soul and our essence of being is the
psyche, our consciousness, reasoning, and ability to reflect upon. It is psyche that we take for
granted, for it is what separates us from being an animal, an animal that is essentially pure
instinct for survival. It is through the psyche that we enrich our soul; it grants us possibility to
develop by attempting to understand, experience, and evaluate. In turn we could understand what
we desire, better understand what is good for us and what is not and therefore take adequate
action to actualize who we are and become and integrated individual. So if our soul is “the real
person” then we must be concerned not just with our outer self, our physical phenomenon but
with our inner spirit. Imagine that our body was stripped away, our desires, our ego, name, and
so forth, in the end we are simple consciousness, a soul which we take for granted while being
distracted by the material world.

Those persons who are self-centered, conceited, superficial, materialistic, and greedy fail
to look within their selves and are never truly satisfied. That is just an example of some people
who are simple and have no depth to their being and therefore are basically a waste of a life,
according to Socrates’ philosophy that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” It is
questioning, who we are, why we do the things we do, it is the natural curiosity within us that
drives us to look at life with different eyes and allows us to take in information and values that
will help attain excellence of function. A life without attempting to understand, questioning and
thinking beyond our typical concerns and interests is such a simple life in my opinion. Socrates’
philosophy involved knowing disciplines such as temperance, having self-control, he believed
that the less desires you have the happier you will be. There are people whose life’s focus and
goals are nothing but sex, money, cars, fame, with success comes greed, makes people change
for the worse, they become lost souls. This greed is a curse that will never let one be truly
satisfied with their selves. Thus, to live a fulfilled life, a satisfied life, a happy life, one must
examine their mind, their spirit in order to come to know their selves and therefore come to terms
with their goals, desires and adequately take action to enrich their soul and be content because of
it.