PLATO
Plato was a classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the Academy in Athens—the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Told through the life and actions of Socrates, Plato’s discourse in his Apology on introspection and the contemplative life is a cornerstone of philosophy and science. According to Plato, the good life was one of reflection and introspection. The personal and public discussion of truth is a vital part of any man’s life; it is the measure of his soul. In the following excerpt, Socrates famously declares that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” Even after a jury had convicted him, Socrates would not abandon his quest for truth, declaring that he would rather die than give up philosophy. It is not unmanly to think and meditate on life.
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Far from it, men of Athens; a fine life indeed would it be for a man of my age, having gone into exile, to live changing from one city to another and being expelled. For I know well that, wherever I go, the young will listen to me discoursing, as they do here; and, if I drive them away, they will themselves expel me, persuading their elders; but if I do not drive them away, their fathers and kinsmen will expel me—for their sakes.
Perhaps then someone would say, “But will you not be able, Socrates, having gone into exile, to live being silent and remaining quiet?” It is just this, of which it is the hardest of all to convince some of you. For if on the one hand I say that this is to disobey the god and that for this reason it is impossible to remain quiet, you will not believe me, thinking that I am dissembling; or if on the other hand I say that this happens also to be a very great blessing to a man, to discourse each day on virtue and the other matters, about which you hear me conversing and examining myself and others, and that an unexamined life is not worth living, when I say this still less will you believe me. The facts are indeed as I say, men of Athens, but to convince you is no easy matter.