Examined Lives
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
Publisher
Acumen Publishing Ltd
Abstract
The examined life has been at the core of philosophical ethics since the fourth century BCE, when it emerged as a central teaching of both Socratic and Confucian thought. For these philosophers, the imperative of self-examination answered a practical rather than a theoretical question, namely: how can we best secure the good life for ourselves and others? Since then, thinkers from Seneca to Nietzche to Emerson have championed habits of self-examination as essential to living well.
Recommended Citation
Vallor, S. (2013). Examined lives. The Philosophers’ Magazine, (63), 91–98. http://doi.org/10.5840/tpm201363132
