Socrates made the above statement highlighting the necessity of a deeper understanding of life and our actions that can help us live a more fulfilling life. Without a continuous assessment of our life and its purpose, its potential and abundance cannot be truly realised.
• At the individual level, self-reflection is the force of human progress. For example: Ratnakar Daku had a change of heart upon self-examination and became Sage Valmiki.
• As a society, self-reflection by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar amongst others crusaded for abolition of sati and widow remarriage.
• In history when USSR re-examined its society and politics, it realised its own hubris and the disintegration of 1991 followed.
• When the economic depression of 1930 hit the world, self-examination of society resulted in Keynesian economics and welfare state policies.
• Examination of environmental processes led to Rachel Carson writing the Silent Spring about the evils of DDT pesticide leading to birth of environmental movement in the west
Therefore, the force of history is led by constant and consistent examination of life. We can continue to self-examine and course correct through social audits, democratic decentralisation, freedom of speech and
expression. Only this can make life worth living and help attain what Plato and Aristotle called Eudaimonia, or ultimate happiness.
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