Joe Humphreys          Fri Nov 22 2013            The Irish Times

In a bid to push beyond “common sense”, The Irish Times explores important ideas of the past, present and future through conversations with different thinkers.

The new column starts today, on foot of World Philosophy Day, and continues each Friday.

TODAY’S IDEA

“The unexamined life is not worth living” How better to start this celebration of thought than with a classic: Socrates’s defiant statement at the trial that led to his execution. Recorded for posterity in Plato’s Apology, it has become a treasured saying of idlers, bookworms and moody introspectives down the ages. But surely something some guy said in Greece 2,500 years ago has little relevance today? Dr Catherine Kavanagh, president of the Irish Philosophical Society, begs to differ.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/unthinkable-was-socrates-right-about-the-unexamined-life-1.1602764

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