The term “philosophy” means the love of wisdom, and those who study philosophy attempt to gain knowledge through rationality and reason. 1 Socrates, the father of ancient philosophy, once said “the unexamined life is not worth living.” It is the most important part of life and it is necessary to find purpose and value in life. If a person chooses to live his life unexamined, his life will no longer have value and he will be unhappy. They would also be ignorant of the effects of their choices on themselves and the people around them. Plato, a student of Socrates, wrote an allegory in his book “The Republic” known as “Plato’s Cave.” In Plato's allegory, humans are trapped in a dark cave where they can only get a glimpse of the world above through the shadows on the wall.2 Plato describes what the typical human is like. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has very 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 who lives an unexamined life may seem content and believe they have the answers to what they need to know. Philosophical questions don't concern them because they assume they've already been answered. For example, the child of a religious family may follow the theistic point of view and conclude that the meaning of life is to follow God's commandments and teachings, even though he has never used reason to achieve to its own realization. If a person does not have a true and rational belief about the meaning of life, he or she will never be fully satisfied. Without it, a person will have no goals to strive for and his life will be pointless. This described me before taking philosophy. I am... in the middle of a paper...... only the present. According to Socrates “the unexamined life is not worth living”. The most important part of life is examining your choices and beliefs using rationality and determining if they are valid. If a person chooses not to live an unexamined life, he will find that his life has no value and he will be unhappy. They would also lead immoral lives because they would be unaware of 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, Mark. “What is philosophy”. Vuletic: philosophy, science and skepticism. Retrieved June 17, 2011 from http://www.vuletic.com/hume/ph/philosophy.html#f1