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Konnor Barth

Intro to Philosophy

Dr. Lammer-Heindel

January 22, 2019

The Unexamined Life

The famous quote “The unexamined life is not worth living” is attributed to Socrates, but

was actually written by Plato in his apology also known as the apology of Socrates. The meaning

of apology in this sense refers to a defense rather than an apology as it is now commonly used as

another way of saying sorry. In order to understand the full meaning of the quote we must first

understand to person who would have said it. It’s important to realize that Socrates didn’t write

this quote down himself because he didn’t write down anything. Rather everything that was

attributed to Socrates was written down by his students. This particular quote was written down

by Plato who was present at Socrates trial. When trying to understand why Socrates would say

something like this, it’s crucial to realize who Socrates was as a person. Socrates was a person

who believed he was sent by the gods to help enlighten the people of Athens. Socrates was not

very loved or appreciated by the people of his time due to his abrasive questioning style that

often led to frustration in whoever he questioned. Socrates lived his whole life philosophizing

and from that fact is where the true meaning of this quote comes from.

Most people who read this quote take it just as it is rather than how it pertained to the

situation Socrates was in. First just looking at the quote by itself it quite clearly states that a

person who doesn’t examine their life aren’t truly living. All philosophers argue that just

believing something isn’t enough, but rather you need to understand why you believe what you
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believe. This quote can be ready in many different ways, but most of them all lead back to the

simple question of if you aren’t living life to the fullest, is it even worth living? This question

commonly yields two responses. On one hand you have the people who believe that this saying

is ridiculous. I would argue that they believe that we are all given our life and with it the ability

to use it as we see fit. If that means they don’t live life to its full extent, then that is their choice.

On the other hand, there are those who believe this statement to be true. I would argue that they

believe we are all given life and with that life we are told to examine it and all that comes with it.

They believe that those who don’t examine their life aren’t helping anyone and thus their life is

useless. While neither of these ideas is inherently wrong, neither of them understand the true

nature of this quote.

The true meaning of this quote comes from realizing the situation Socrates was in. In

Plato’s apology it tells of the trial of Socrates. As the story goes Socrates was charged with

impiety and corrupting the young due to what he was philosophizing about. While on trial he

was given two choices. He was told he could either stop philosophizing or he would have to be

put to death. This is where the famous quote comes into play. When asked to stop philosophizing

he responded with “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates felt that if he had to live a

life where he couldn’t philosophize it would just be better if he was dead. This quote was

originally focused only on Socrates and on his own prerogative. From that it has been taken and

used out of context as a deep philosophical claim about life. From this philosophical claim came

the idea for the short film we made.

Using the vague claim that “the unexamined life is not worth living” as the core belief,

the film applies this to the life of a person in the modern world. The film follows a young

basketball star, intentionally never named, as he lives a life of fame. The whole point of the film
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is to show the scary reality of what it would be like to live in a world where the quote “the

unexamined life is not worth living” is enforced. So many films show a bad person getting in

some terrible accident and then after realizing the error of their ways they return as good people,

but I felt like that didn’t portray the dark side of living an unexamined life.

The film starts out with a news clip introducing the star and talking about his rise to

stardom. The whole point of this clip comes from the foreshadowing found in it. Twice in the

span of the news segment it hints at the fact that the star is going to die in the end. The first

instance is in the commercial the star filmed. It ends by saying “the future is now.” This is meant

to show that he has nothing to look forward to because his future had arrived. The second

instance comes at the end of the news segment when Paige says something along the lines of

how his attitude will be what ends his career. The reference to the end of his career is hinting at

the end of his life. The image of the star partying was to make it seem like the attitude the

reporter was talking about referred to his physical behavior rather than his philosophical

behavior that leads to his death.

The next scene of significance is the one where he meets the mystery man for the first

time. This will prove more important than it seemed. As you will find out in the end, the mystery

man was actually in the stars head the whole time. This is why his teammate, Tony, asks who

he’s talking to because they can’t see this person. This was done to show the star refusing to

examine his life. With this in mind it makes sense why the mystery man wasn’t asking for

money, but was rather just asking for time to talk. This refusal to examine his life for what it is

would be what set in motion the rest of the film. The key phrase comes from the mystery man

when he tells the star to enjoy the rest of his day. The foreshadowing there will come to fruition

that night when he gets hit by a car.

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The next scene is the one where the star gets hit by the car. The key thing in this scene is

the music that is playing. This music will play again later in the film when he meets the mystery

man again. The first time the audience can realize he’s dead is when he wakes up after getting

hit. The key there is that it is now daytime rather than nighttime like when he was running. The

more obvious realization comes from the news scene in his teammates room where they quite

literally say he died.

After refusing to accept his own death he runs to the only place that matters to him, the

basketball court. That is where he breaks down and starts to realize that this may be real. Right

when he begins to comprehend that his life was over he hears the music that was playing on his

run. This prompts him to look up and find the mystery man again. He then thinks that this whole

thing is just a lesson so he says that he realizes he was wrong and asks what he can do to get his

life back. That’s when the man says that it’s not as easy as he might think. This is when the man

disappears leaving the star to try and cope with his new reality. As is made clear the star can’t

and breaks down mid court. It them fades to white and then fades back to show the sky. This is

meant to symbolize him looking up from the grave. The last image it shows is the mystery man

looking over the grave only to finally realize that the mystery man was himself the whole time.

This was done to express the star rejecting himself and the knowledge that could have come

with.

When it comes to the way we made this film we had our philosophical claim always in

mind. Many things we did had philosophical significance. Starting with the plot the idea of the

unexamined life was at the heart of this story. We chose to show what it would look like if this

quote was applied to the world we lived in. The plot was meant to show a person who doesn’t

examine the seemingly perfect life he had and ends up losing it. It was meant to show that no one
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could escape from having to examine their life no matter how much fame you have received.

Besides the plot we attempted to show this through how we filmed.

The use of film allowed us to show things that words couldn’t. The first example of this

comes when we see the mystery man. Obviously we don’t have the ability to make a person

disappear on command and also have me be in two places so we attempted to portray that with

what we had. How we did that was by having one person wear the hoodie and hat while Danny,

who was filming, said the lines of the mystery person while the mystery person and I were in the

shot. This created this feeling that the voice of the man was close rather than far which got at the

point that the voice was in the stars head the whole time. We did this a few other times to make it

seem like we just filmed it bad, but ended up making more sense in the end. The last way we

used film to express something was at the very end when we showed the video with myself

taking off the hat and hoodie to show that it was in his head the whole time. We originally filmed

that with me saying stuff off camera then walking into the shot to reveal it was himself the whole

time. This allowed us to create the idea that it was him crying from the grave while I also had the

ability to show up without the need for major editing.

The last way we expressed philosophical ideas was in the names we used. All of the

teammate’s names were meant to be nods to Socrates and his students Plato and Aristotle. The

names were Tony using the end of the name Plato, Ray using the middle of the name Socrates,

and Arin using the beginning of the name Aristotle. I intentionally chose these names to be a nod

at the idea we drew our film from. This is also interesting that Tony, the one named after Plato

who actually wrote down the idea, is the one after he died who said he deserved it. This shows

his support for his teacher’s idea. The main creative choice we made was to not give the star a

name. We wanted to show that it wasn’t just a single instance that would lead to his death, but
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rather that from the beginning he was doomed. We chose for his name to be nothing to show that

to the world he was nothing in the end. The people he was closest to end up talking about how

much of a jerk he was. He was nothing. We felt that by just never naming him we would show

that no matter what kind of stuff he did in his life; in the end he would always be nothing due to

his choice to never examine his life.

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Work Cited

"What Does "the Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living" Mean?" Reference. Accessed January

22, 2019. https://www.reference.com/world-view/unexamined-life-worth-living-mean

63939cf4e1a90a85.

Plato’s Apology of Socrates