“The Unexamined life is Not Worth Living.”
While Socrates proposes that one should know and understand thyself, some disagree. Nagel contends that there is no point to life, but also suggests that one does not need a life of transcendence to be happy. On the other hand, Solomon claims that humans live by a fiction and a fear of death, while Baumeister suggests that humans like being lied to by the society. Similarly, Becker proposes that human character is a lie. It seems that to them, it is better for humans to live an unexamined life, since nothing matters.
Nagel centres his article around the idea that, even though “there seems to be no point of life at all”, does it matter that what we do doesn’t matter? Life can have a meaning larger than oneself, such as making the world a better place for future generations. To him, “It’s not clear why the fact that we’ll be dead in two hundred years should imply that nothing we do now really matters.” Even if the future does not matter, life is about accepting the meaningless of life and enjoy temporary fulfillment. It is no wrong for life to be purposeless, those who disagree suffer from the “Incurable tendency to take ourselves seriously.” In fact, what makes life worth living is not whether or not life as a whole is meaningless, but recognizing the meaninglessness of life and making the most of it. We should thus keep sight on what is in front of us, and “the lives you connected.”
To Becker, it is perhaps better not to fully understand the examined life. Essentially, our lives are controlled by our desire for self-esteem, and are hence “animated by the artificial symbolism of self-worth.” In his concept of the “inner-newsreel”, Becker further emphasises how our self-worth and meaning of life is acquired from the perception of others, and how our entire life becomes “harangue to others to establish ourselves as peacocks.” By acting entirely of the mercy of other people, the only thing that matters to us is others’ perception, which has zero value realistically. Given that “the self is largely a confusion of insides, outsides, boundaries, alien objects, and it’s de-centered,” we might be better off without understanding the examined life. Alternatively, with reference to Harari, presumably Buddhist meditation will help us become not so attached to other people. By being “liberated from suffering from the impermanent nature of all their feeling”, humans can better examine the inner newsreel as something that is flying by, and not grab on to the obsession over others’ perception.
Similarly, Baumeister believes that our world is fictitious under the “Mutual bluff”, where men are fooled by society and themselves. Societally, our culture is constantly feeding us with goals and aspirations based on what would best optimize societal operations. We accept these meanings to be true because ‘human beings are addicted to meaning.” Eventually, we are left with self-deception and illusion in our meaning of life. Personally, individuals are constantly deceiving themselves with multiple bluffs. Firstly, we strive for fulfillment unrealistically, by wanting to believe that perfection is attainable. As we are encouraged to attain a reward that doesn’t exist, our pursuit of fulfillment becomes nothing but a wild goose chase. If fulfillment doesn’t exist, then “it is no longer quite viable to think of life as a journey toward a particular destination.” Also, since everything ends with our death, the examined life is not worth living. While this implies that what we do is irrelevant to the individual self who eventually perished, Baumeister suggests that one can still live for cultural influence, historical achievement, and temporary enjoyment. In the example of Lou Gehrig, happiness came from the “extraordinary quality of life experiences and intense fulfillment.” However, while transient fulfillment is sufficient, it is difficult to achieve in our society, where one tends to focus more on how to live a better, than actually living and enjoying a better life.
In concurrence, Solomon also believes that humans live by fiction and “symbolic mortality.” Many find meaning to their lives because their actions and achievements would continue after death, and that they are a part of a bigger cause that will be remembered. Solomon finds this a lie that most humans are not aware of. In reality, most meanings to life is merely “a defensive distortion and obfuscation of reality to blot out the inevitably of death.” Since humans are all afraid of death, we try to justify our actions by saying that we are contributing to a greater cause. In reality, nothing we do matters upon our death. Thus, the examined life is not worth living, because once we understand there is no meaning, nothing matters anymore.
So, is it better to live life unexamined? One would say that it is perhaps better not to live an examined life, since it is meaningless. However, perhaps understanding reality isn’t so bad, as we can at least try to make better lives for ourselves. The examined life is worth living to the extent that, it is a risky idea where men can live with the possibility of eventually understanding reality. The examined life can be worth living, but only if we try hard enough.
