Article
Examined Lives
Philosophy
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2013
Publisher
Acumen Publishing Ltd
Disciplines
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.
Citation Information
Vallor, S. (2013). Examined lives. The Philosophers’ Magazine, (63), 91–98. http://doi.org/10.5840/tpm201363132