Class: Introduction to Philosophy
Professor: Bruno Gulli
Student: Vlado Vukovic

Task: Paper #1
Title: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” -- by Socrates (Discuss.)



Socrates, who was a Greek philosopher, lived between the years of 470-399 BC. Socrates is credited as being a developer of philosophical thought that was concerned with character analysis and conduct of human life analysis. Socrates is famous for his injunction "know yourself;" and he is also remembered for his conviction on charges of impiety and death by drinking poisonous hemlock. Socrates is the name that is practically synonymous with the western civilization and in fact he is primarily viewed as the father of western civilization.


I will start the paper by analyzing the quotes written by Socrates, one of them being
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” After writing a given quote I shall move to analyze it and to finally write as far as what form of an impact I feel it has made on me.


“The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates


A quote by Socrates “The unexamined life is not worth living.” is a rather interesting quote and also complex to understand. To examine ones life to me means to be able to objectively analyze the past life experiences and also to be able to learn from them. With the above quote Socrates means that an individual that doesn’t have ability within him to self-examine oneself in essence was a wasted life, life without a meaning thus life that was nor really worth the life force that was contained within it.


I fully agree with Socratic assessment here for a life that was not examined, or self-analyzed, indeed was not worth living meaning it in essence had no purpose. One could even argue that such life was even devoid of its humanity for it was not able to learn from its own experiences and better itself.


"Beauty is a short-lived tyranny." -- Socrates


A quote by Socrates "Beauty is a short-lived tyranny." Is another interesting quote and also somewhat complex to understand (but primarily on the surface). Case can be made with comparing beauty with short lived tyranny for beauty, indeed being short lived, is tyranny (especially when women are examined) in a sense that an individual is preoccupied with their own appearance and what other people might think of that appearance that in essence he/she is self-imprisoned.


I will state that beauty, which is especially an acute subject during the days of youth, is in essence both – short lived and a tyranny. It is a tyranny in a sense that as I earlier stated it is all consuming and it even stops person from intellectually bettering him or her since beauty becomes primary (and often only) focus of their lives.


" Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty." – Socrates.


A quote by Socrates " Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty." Is another interesting and rather complex quotes (the most complex out of the ones I have presented here so far). To be content means to limit ones desires and thus to be satisfied with present situation, this indeed represents natural wealth. Luxury is on the other hand something UN-natural and man-made thus artificial and since greed (that is allied to luxury) is never to be fully satisfied that in essence represents poverty or a state of lacking something.


I fully agree with this quote. I would also add to my own analysis that luxury represents poverty also because people who live in luxury tend to be arrogant people and arrogance is another form of poverty since it might stop one from being open to new ideas and views. Arrogance is artificial since it only occurs with unnatural condition such as acquirement of monetary wealth. On the other hand being content is equal to being naturally wealthy for it also humbles a person and unable them to learn more about the world.


"If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it." - Socrates


A quote written by Socrates "If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it." Is not only another very interesting quote but it contains a very important (morality based) message within it. The message that it contains within it is that the wealth alone that one might own should not be sufficient enough for praise. According to the quote, praise in such situation is only earned through the action of such individual instead.


I fully agree with Socratic quote here since what it essentially does is that it elevates the human being above the artificial material wealth while at the same time it also humbles it and makes it understand that it is not the wealth that defines one but their actions instead.


"One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing." – Socrates


A quote written by Socrates "One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing." Is not only interesting while containing an important message within it but it essentially represents a revolutionary idea upon which the very philosophy is based. The idea is that it is best to assume that one knows nothing and therefore open everything to questioning and unable ourselves to receive knowledge while at the same time being able to keep an open mind (since understanding one knows nothing would make us less judgmental). Another manner to approach this is that people essentially do not possess the wisdom to fully understand the knowledge that might be given to them. This is a quote analysis with which I fully agree.


"Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change." –
Socrates


The above quote "Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change." Is very correct. The reason is that to only two kind of people that appear possibly immune to change can only be extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent. Primary reason is that both types do not follow others and they both tend to be stubborn by nature, each in their own way and for a different reason. I agree with this analysis.


"Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity." – Socrates


The above quote "Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity." Is another interesting and rather complex quote but once broken in three pieces, then it will show that each piece is accurate (second and third of course being connected to first part).

First part states that there is nothing stable in human affairs which is accurate since human are primarily emotion driven as opposed to being logic driven and as emotions are not static but changing thus human affairs are also changing or unstable.

Second part talks about avoiding undue elation is prosperity thus being modest even in prosperity while third talks about being modest even in adversity and both parts, second and third, talk about avoiding extremes. I fully agree with this quote analysis.


"To find yourself, think for yourself." – Socrates


This is an extremely important quote since what it essentially tells us is that the only way for us to discover out true self is for us to rely primarily on ourselves and thus being capable of filtering out outside influences, which will only delude out true personality. Fully agree with this quote analysis.




"Wisdom begins in wonder." – Socrates


This quote is probably the most important quote of all since it defines human nature and very reason for our humanity. What Socrates states here (of course in my humble opinion) is that true wisdom is not self-contained within us (perhaps only elements of it) and that obtaining wisdom is primarily achievable through wonder. By wonder he of course means desire and ability to ask proper questions that would unable us to progress in out own wisdom. I fully agree with this quote analysis.


"I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again." – Socrates


In this quote "I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again." What we have here is representation of the power that our animalistic or emotional self has over us. Given that our emotional self is most of the time opposite of our rational self then it is safe to conclude that the reason Socrates doesn’t have answers to such questions is because our emotional state, being not rational, can not be explained using logic.


"A husband is what's left of the lover after the nerve has been extracted." – Socrates


The above quote "A husband is what's left of the lover after the nerve has been extracted." Is another interesting is somewhat complex quote but nevertheless true. What Socrates attempts to state here is that marriage is a process that essentially mellows down the man to a mare shadow of his former self. The reasons of this are various but primarily one would be that a married man diverts from his previous personality in order to compromise and thus avoid conflict and stress.
I fully agree with this quote analysis.

Class: Introduction to Philosophy
Professor: Bruno Gulli
Student: Vlado Vukovic

Task: Paper #3
Title: “We are condemned to be free." -- by Sartre (Discuss.)



Jean-Paul Sartre was born in Paris, France in June 21, 1905 and died on April 15, 1980. Jean-Paul Sartre was known was a French existentialist philosopher as well as dramatist, novelist and critic. He graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in the year of 1929 with a doctorate in philosophy. He represents a very important figure in more modern phylosophical though.


(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influential_Western_Philosophers )


I will start the paper by analyzing a very well known quote by Sartre. The quote at hand here is “We are condemned to be free." After writing a given quote I shall move to analyze it and to finally write as far as what form of an impact I feel it has made on me.


“We are condemned to be free." -- by Sartre


A quote by Sartre “We are condemned to be free." is a rather interesting quote and also complex to understand. To examine ones life to me means to be able to objectively analyze the past life experiences and also to be able to learn from them.

By examing ones life one of the important conclusions one might draw from ones life is that a very important element of it is centered on free will.


By free fill I mean is that a person is essentially condemned to make their decisions in regardless of what kind of the situations they might encounter themselves in. Although the situation might restrict their scope of decisions they might be able to make one essential element that is always present in our own free will.


This free will is the catalyst as far as what our final pattern of movements of behavior patterns might be since it will essentially be us who are making those final decisions.
To make the whole thing appear even more confusing (for at least some people) it can be stated that even a person that is enslaved or imprisoned is condemned to be free.


The reason for this unavoidable form of freedom is that, at the end of the day, it is that person that will make the decision of accepting or rejecting what they are told to do. Of course there may be a penalty involved afterwards in such cases but the final decision is nevertheless in the hands.


Sometimes people state such things as they have no option or choice in deciding certain matters when the reality is very different. The reason for that is that these people by making themselves believe they have no choice in a given matter have made a choice to believe that way.


Of course their other option would have been to oppose the situations that might be imposed on them. Therefore as Sartre would say they would transform from a ‘situation’ to a ‘project’.


‘Situation’ in this context would mean a chain of events where you have no control but merely a participation. ‘Project’ would be a situation is primarily guided and controlled by you if not even initiated by you.)

The choices which are for us to make are essentially being made by us. By taking a ‘no choice’ stand the given person is basically attempting to justify why a given situation exist and why it should exist. The reality is that such person is simply put too afraid to do anything to change it and as a result chooses to do nothing about.

In conclusion I will state that a given person simply put cannot choose not to make decision since even taking such course means the decision was already make by such person.