Platonic pondering

"Would you rather live with what you now have, or would you rather die on the spot if you weren't permitted to acquire anything greater?"

Socrates asks Alcibiades this question in one of Plato's famous dialogues, the Alcibiades. I am currently taking a class on Plato and his dialogues, and this question has stuck with me more than any other passage we've read so far this semester.

I have had a hard time answering the question for myself, so I decided to ask other people to see how they answered.  

I camped out in the library in between classes and surveyed anyone who would listen to me. I asked 20 Duquesne students: "Would you rather live out the rest of your life never achieving anything more than what you have right now — for example, never get smarter, stronger or achieve any new goals — or would you rather die on the spot?"

The results were fascinating.

Out of 20 people I asked, 15 said that they would rather live out a stagnant life. Only five said that they would rather die than be unable to ever progress.

"This obviously isn't the peak of where I want to be at, but I'd rather keep living," said Sarah Adams, a sophomore nursing major. "I have a pretty good life right now."

Adams's answer raised another question: What is Plato's question really asking? So I asked my interviewees what they thought the question was about.

Sixty percent of those who said they would choose to live out a stagnant life thought that the question was asking them to evaluate their own lives and decide whether or not they were happy.

But those who said they would choose death thought that the question was not about life evaluation; rather, they thought that the question was asking about the importance of ambition, goals or achievement to the individual.

So what did Plato mean? If you continue reading in the dialogue, Socrates says, "Would you rather live with what you now have, or would you rather die on the spot if you weren't permitted to acquire anything greater? I think you'd choose to die. What then is your real ambition in life?"

Based on his own answer, it would seem that Socrates was asking if we as human beings are willing to live without striving for greatness.

Rachel Gronvall, a junior nursing major, defended her decision to live a life without further progress, saying, "It's not like I'm losing anything. I'm just not able to gain."

On the opposing side of the philosophical debate, junior philosophy major Anthony Morley said, "Those two things [the choices] are the same. That's what dying is," he said of living without growth.

A few people who chose life actually agreed with Morley's idea that the two options cancel one another out.

"You're kind of stuck either way," said Keith Quinn, a junior sound recording major.

So if the two options are so similar, what made people lean one way or the other? One-third of those who chose stagnant life did so primarily because they feared death.

"What I have now is pretty good," said Jessica Rosenblatt, a junior psychology major.  "It'd suck, but it's better to be alive."

For those that chose death, however, the choice was based mostly on the fact that they could accomplish nothing more in their lives.

Joe Thomas, a fifth-year pharmacy student said, "A life with no goals would suck. What's life without aspiration?"

"I feel like I'd be miserable. If I can't better myself, I feel like I'd be a slouch or a nobody," said Doug Richie, a junior advertising major, who chose death.

Richie's idea got me thinking: This scenario is not a totally outlandish one. There are people who are living a stagnant life right now, by choice. There exists that kind of person who goes to their jobs day in and day out, not making any kind of impact on those around them or even on themselves.

Of course, Plato isn't writing about the climbing corporate ladder or referencing anything materialistic. He argues that we need to consistently, perpetually better our souls.

I would choose death. Rather than be satisfied with living out the rest of my life with the same moral fibers I have right now, I know I ought to be ambitiously striving for a greater and better virtue.