The term “philosophy” means love of wisdom, and those who study philosophy attempt to gain knowledge through rationality and reason. 1 Socrates, the father of ancient philosophy, once stated that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” This is the most important part of life and you need to find purpose and value in life. If a person chooses to live their life unexamined, their life would be worthless and unhappy. They would also be unaware of the effects of their choices on themselves and the people around them. Plato, a student of Socrates, wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave” in his book “The Republic”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped in a dark cave where they can only glimpse the upper world through the shadows on the walls.2 Plato is describing what the typical human being is like. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has little basis in fact. He describes these people as prisoners, in his allegory, and they are only free when they gain knowledge of the world above the cave. A person living an unexamined life may seem content and believe they have the answers to what they need to know. Philosophical questions are irrelevant to them because they assume they have already answered them. For example, the child of a religious family may follow the theistic view and conclude that the meaning of life lies in following God's commandments and teachings, despite never using reason to achieve fulfillment. If a person does not have a true and rational belief about the meaning of life, he will never be completely satisfied. Without this, a person will have no goals to strive for and his life will be useless. This described me before taking up philosophy. I h...... half of the paper...... compared to the present. According to Socrates “life without research is not worth living”. The most important part of life is examining your choices and beliefs using rationality and determining whether they are valid. If a person chooses not to lead an unexamined life, he or she will find that his or her life has no value and would be unhappy. They would also lead an immoral life, as they would ignore the effects their choices have on themselves and those around them. Works Cited Boeree, George. “The Allegory of the Cave”. Shippensburg University. Retrieved June 18, 2011, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.htmlMautner, Thomas. “The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy”. ISBN 0-14-051250-0.Vuletic, Marco. “What is philosophy”. Vuletic: philosophy, science and scepticism. Retrieved June 17, 2011, from http://www.vuletic.com/hume/ph/philosophy.html#f1