Dajana Kujaca

Professor Hill
5/12/13
Ignorance is Bliss?
Imagine having the perfect life: beautiful family, great job, and a devoted significant
other. Life may seem great, but your significant other is having an affair. Everyone in your
family seems to know, except you. Would you want to be searching for the truth or live in
blissful ignorance? It may be easier to live an ignorant life but that does not change the situation
that the truth is withheld. One situation is just manipulation to live a life that is ultimately a lie.
In Socratess speech, Apology, and his dialogue, Crito, Socrates concept of living an ignorant
and happy life also included living a nave life. Because of that nave life, one may not suffer
psychological hardship and pain but one does not have the ability to think analytically or freewillingly.
Socrates claimed that one should not live a life in ignorance and happiness because living
that kind of secluded life, one does not have the capacity to think critically and independently on
ones own. The people of Athens lived an ignorant but happy life under the rule of the
government. They did not question the ideas and values of the higher power like Socrates did.
Socrates got in trouble for trying to push the Athenians to think in new ways and not live a life of
unawareness. An example includes when he would go throughout the town, talking, and
questioning the morals and ideas of death. This behavior upset the authoritative power in Greece.
Since he was trying to make the people of Athens think outside of what they already know, he
was put on trial. In Apology by Plato, Socrates tried to help give the Athenians a general
understanding of what the options of after life and death could possibly be. As a result, he hoped

to push them out of their comfort zone with his thoughts, No one knows whether death may not
be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of
all evils..(Plato 33, 29b). In Apology, Socrates clarified that one should not assume they know
the answer to death from what they have been told by the higher power in Greece. A man
needed to recognize that they did not know what death was until they died and experienced it
firsthand. Mans fear of the answer makes them not want to question what they already been
taught, and this was why people live in ignorance and bliss. They do not want to know
something that scared them, and would rather not know, then know the real answer. Death was
an example of Socratess boundaries of trying to figure out the truth of the unexamined life.
If Socrates lived his life in ignorance and bliss, he would not be questioning the authority
of the government. As a result of Socrates curiosity, he was put on trial because he was accused
of corrupting the youth, questioning religion, and going against the ideas of the influential
powers in Greece. His trial illustrated a push past ignorance because he was able to think
critically and independently on his own to try to find answers to questions most people thought
there were only one set of answers. As he was addressed the jury during his trial, he disagreed
with the Athenians way of dealing with fear, I shall never fear or avoid things of which I do not
know, whether they may not be good rather things that I know to be bad (Plato 33, 29c).
Socrates was not afraid of knowing things regardless of the situation. The idea he conveyed to
the youth of Athens was being able to think differently than those around them. He would rather
look for the truth than be blinded by the perception of a lie, regardless of the consequences.

Consequently, not living in a life of ignorance and bliss caused Socrates the ultimate pain
and hardship: death. In Socratess case, he was fighting for the youth to gain an opinion of their
own and was willing to face trial in hopes of making a difference for the future. Days before his
death sentence, Socratess friend Crito came to visit. With Critos help, Socrates could escape
the prison and go to an island where no one would be able to find him. In Crito by Plato,
Socratess response to this idea was, If we have no better arguments to bring up at this moment,
be sure that I shall not agree with you(Plato 48, 46c). Socrates rejected Critos plea for him to
escape because to Socrates escaping meant his efforts would be unnoticed. He would end up
living in a world of ignorance where his ideas would be subdued. Socrates came to terms with
his lengthy and ethical life and was ready to venture into a new philosophy of life, death. He was
not afraid of death and rather accepted the psychological hardship and pain he had to face
because he lived in a different world than the rest of Athens and he did all he could to change
that.
Would the truth of finding out your husband cheating on you be worth it? One may lose
the relationship, but the outcome of being ignorant is far worse. The love between the significant
others would be a lie because part of the emotions are devoted somewhere else. In reality, the
blissful life is only a cover-up and making that decision on ones own is taken away. Not living
an ignorant and blissful life, Socrates pushed through the barrier in search for objective truth. He
took a stand by not giving into the authoritative power and ideas in Athens. In addition, he
fought for his beliefs that allowed Socrates to think critically and independently on his own.
Also, in the search for knowledge, he endured a trial of hardship, fighting for his life, but
suffered the ultimate mental hardship and pain: death. In the eyes of Socrates, knowing and
questioning the truth is far more rewarding then living a blinded life.