“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates, in Plato “Dialogues, Apology”

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Socrates spoke these words to the jury in the court of Athens in the year 399 BCE (before the common era) after he had been found guilty of heresy and sedition. Heresy, a crime that threatened the established religion, and sedition, that threatened the state.

After his accusers presented their argument for the death penalty he had the opportunity to argue for an alternate punishment. Things like a fine, a fine with imprisonment, exile, or some other punishment.

His first suggestion was that the government give him a reward for his selfless contributions to Athenian society. He acknowledged that this suggestion probably freaked some of them out but he assured them that he was serious. He believed that the actions his accusers called criminal, were actually actions of the highest value to the health of the state. He admitted the jury would not be able to comprehend that argument so he went on to consider the appropriateness of imprisonment.

Absurd! He knew he would not be able to endure being locked up with no one to talk to except the prison guards.

Finally he considers the suggestion of exile. He argues to the jury and his accusers that if they think he could just go away to some neighboring state and never be heard of again then they have missed his whole point. No matter where he went, he would end up getting involved in the same types of challenging discussions that got him into trouble in the first place. He would end up being chased from place to place.

If they thought he could just keep his mouth shut and stay out of trouble, that would be impossible. First because to keep his silence would be a disobedience to a direct command from God. Of course he knew they could not believe he was serious about this God thing so he puts it a different way, he explained to them that he felt it was his responsibility, “… to let no day pass without discussing goodness and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining both myself and others,” he felt that this activity, “is really the very best thing that a man (or women) can do, and that life without this sort of examination is not worth living …”(1)

He chose death rather than silence. He chose death because he considered participation in that type of conversation whose goal it is to find the truth, to search for wisdom, essential for the nurturing and growth of the soul as well as for the health and welfare of the state. The love and pursuit of wisdom was both religious and patriotic. He believed his death would be a witness to this belief. It was out of piety and patriotism that he accepted to be a martyr in defense of the right and the responsibility of the citizen to participate in independent critical thinking.

So it was that he came to be sentenced to death by lethal ingestion, to swallow a lethal dose of hemlock. (2) …

from http://www.granpawayne.com/courses/EXAMLIFE.HTM