An Examined Life

When Socrates famously said that the unexamined life was not worth having, his declaration begged the question what, then, was an examined life? And when his student Plato described the prisoners in the cave living an unexamined life, philosophy began to speak of a life lived consciously and reflectively rather than mechanically and habitually. This book is part personal description of an examined life and part challenge to the reader to develop the means to awaken to a life lived consciously and reflectively. It was Henry Thoreau who set a high standard for the examined life when he wrote, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." That is the challenge, and the gifts to come are the rewards from the effort.