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Socrate – The unexamined life is not worth living (Phase 1)

Basic Overview

While the bulk of our class discussions are focused on understanding philosophy in its historical contexts, we would be remiss if we made the mistake of believing that philosophy is primarily an archaeological endeavor. Philosophy is not simply the study of profound ideas laid out by women and men in times gone by. Philosophy is active critical engagement; it is our attempt as human beings to come to grips with our world. The goal of this paper is to embrace this active nature of philosophy by engaging the philosophical texts we have read/discussed in the course as a foundation for our own critical responses.

Your task in this essay project is to critically engage the study of philosophy by answering a (seemingly) simple question: “Why is the unexamined life not worth living?” To this end, you will need to engage the various philosophers we have read during the course, and use that engagement as a jumping off point from which to explore your own ideas on the subject. Your task is not to simply summarize what has been said by others, but to use the ideas of others as jumping off points to develop your own ideas.

As philosophy is a new discipline for most of us, this essay will be composed in two phases.

Phase 1:

The first phase will be worth 40% of the grade for the essay project, and will be due alongside the midterm. During this phase of the project, you write a 3-5 page paper (in proper MLA or APA format) that treats on the topic outlined above.

Phase 2: 

The second phase will be worth 60% of the grade for the essay project, and will be due alongside the final exam. During this phase of the project, you will expand the essay you submitted for phase 1 into a 5-7 page essay (in proper MLA or APA format).

Submitting Your Essay

Both phases of your essay project will be submitted using the “Assignment” feature of our course Blackboard page. This tool provides both a way for me to collect and return your essays digitally. To facilitate this process, all essays must be submitted in .DOC or .DOCX format. Assignments submitted in any other format (e.g., .PDF, .WPS, .pages, etc.) will not be accepted.