How Socrates' Philosophy Helps to Know Yourself Better

Socrates was considered the foremost philosopher in ancient times. He believed that you can really know who you are, what is good and what is bad, only with the help of philosophy, namely a specific approach to the evaluation of knowledge. The topic for this essay about knowing yourself is to evaluate Socrates' approach of understanding yourself through learning the world you live in.

Socrates was a known critic of intellectuals during his time, but he did not call himself as wise, rather, he considered himself as midwife that helped exploring minds achieve wisdom. He also believed that philosophy could have a man to live a life of virtue. And that knowledge is a virtue. He states that to know what is good is to do what is good which means if you were not doing the good, you were not knowing it. He formulated the Socratic Method which examines a topic by coming up with questions that let the learner examine and analyze his knowledge and views in regards with the topic.

In life, people strive hard to reach their goals in life. But there are times that they fall for it seems to be hard for them to have it. And sometimes the fall into other place wherein they did not expect that they are actually good at it. Socrate states that people must know themselves for them to be able to live in accordance with who they are. I totally agree with his statement. I strongly believe that in order for us to live our lives to the fullest is by doing what we really are good at. As what Socrates stated as well, the more a person knows, the greater his or her ability to reason or make choices that will bring us true happiness. Which simply means by knowing yourself means acquiring true happiness.

As what I have observed with people nowadays, they do things that they do not like just to survive. Mostly with people now, instead of knowing what they really are and what they are really good at, they focus on ensuring their survival. Like for example this pandemic that our country is currently facing right now. People would rather find different ways to survive. A lot of people sacrificed their dreams to be able to live longer. They sacrificed the things that they are really good at. There are many hindrances that would stop us to do what we really love. There are different challenges that would delay us to achieve our goals. It would take a lot of pain and tears to fully have them. But having them is like living your life fruitfully. That is why each and every sacrifices that we make, would all be worth it.

Socrates also formulated a method which examines a topic by coming up with questions which would help us, learners, to examine and analyze it for better knowledge and views in life. This basically means that in every situation, we need to question it, analyze it to know it deeply. Because he stated that to know what is good is to do what is good. Basically means, you are doing it because you knew it’s the good thing to do. Because if you are doing it even though you knew it is not good, then you are not knowing it. Because in reality, people do things because it’s convenient. Not minding if it’s right or wrong. It is because they don’t fully know and understand themselves.

That is why we should live in accordance with who we are so we can fully see and feel the true happiness. Because as what Socrates stated, “know yourself for the unexamined life is not worth living.” Which means living who we are is must thing to do.