Quora Answer: Given that the unexamined life is not worth living, could the argument be taken further by saying that the person who chooses to live an unexamined life, or adopts the idea that ‘ignorance is bliss’, is somehow less worthy of a life to begin with?

Oct 18 2014

Reflection is embedded in life. I would argue that in reality there is no unexamined life. Part of consciousness itself is its reflective nature. As with so much of Plato there is an ironic side. When Socrates says that the unexamined life is not worth living, basically he is bringing up the question of whether it is possible to live an unexamined life. An unexamined life is actually not possible and is actually only death. So not only is it not worth living but it is impossible because only death can be completely unexamined by the person who dies. If you are living you are reflecting. But then the question is the depth to which you examine your life, and for most of us it is only in our passing thoughts about our own thinking which are themselves passing thoughts. But awareness engulfs those thoughts and that consciousness and that awareness is itself self-awareness fundamentally. See Antonio Damasio: Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain: Antonio Damasio: 9780307474957: Amazon.com: Books. and

amazon.com

The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness: Antonio Damasio: 9780156010757: Amazon.com: Books

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