Journal 1 Inroduction/Prelection

Key Ideas:

The key idea to remember in this section is Socrates' quote "the unexamined life is not worth living."  This philosophy can be used as a fundamental lesson in life.  If we do not think of what we do in our day to day lives we will merely go through the motions of life and not fully realize the mistakes, or even triumphs which we may encounter.  Therefore, we must, as Socrates puts it, lead an "examined" life.  We have to scrutinize our own lives and see where we can improve.  Also, we must look at the world around us and do what is right.  Although, at times doing the right thing may be hard it is a necessary aspect of "living an examined life."  Socrates' quote can also be used to explain why we need to know the difference between opinions, beliefs, and facts.  This increases our knowledge to better examin our own thoughts and the thoughts of others.  When Deion Sanders and Eric Clapton examined their own lives they finally realized that they must overcome their addictions and faults.  In conclusion, Socrates' quote is very important and should be remembered.

Top 3:

1.  The Difference Between Fact, Opinion, and Belief. An opinion is one's personal thoughts, which don't necessarily have to have a factual base.  An opinion may be true or false.  A belief is, in a way, a deeper and more meaningful opinion.  Although, it is not written in stone as a fact, a belief profoundly shows how somebody feels about something.  A fact is without question a true, undeniable statement. 2.  Five Foundational Lessons -Making Decisions-We unavoidably have to make decisions in our day to day lives.  These decisions affect our life and what kind of person we'll become. -Biased-We can not help the fact that we are all biased to some extent. -Value Judgments-The values in which we all have determine how we will live our lives.  Our values will affect our happiness and mental health. -Beliefs-Any change in our beliefs will affect our lives. -Faith-Faith is a very real part of our existance.  Important decisions are most likely faith choices. 3.  Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" Plato's story takes place in a dark cave, whose inhabitants are chained to the wall.  They can't turn their heads because they are bounded.  All they see are shadows.  A man gets out who sees the glory of light and the sun.  He travels back into the cave to tell his fellow prisoners what he discovered.  The man is sentenced to death for what he saw and told the others.  The message in this story can be realated to many aspects of human exsistance.

-An image that reminds me of the overall topic "an unexamined life is not worth living" is Saint Ignatius Loyola.  Throughout his days, Loyola always lived an examined life.  He did a countless number of good works, he established numerous schools, and founded the Society of Jesus.  He always questioned the world around him and strove to make it better.

Pictures coutesy of and for further information, www.stignatiussf.org/himself.htm

Socrates was a great philosopher and thinker, but when faced with death and a chance to take back his comments criticizing Athenian traditions he refused.  I wonder how a person can be so devoted to what they believe in, but I suppose that is why Socrates said that "the unexamined life is not worth living."

In hoping for myself to be a better, more faithful person, I will continually strive in my life to see how I can live a more "examined life" in an attempt to be more like Socrates or Ignatius.  Like them I will make an effort to do good works and help out when I see somehting that needs helping.  As opposed to sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing to better anything except for my own personal interests or needs.