Week 1 Discussion — Is the Examined Life Worth the Risk? — Traditional alternative (no AI)

Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.

Hook

Socrates was put on trial in Athens in 399 BCE for the way he questioned people, and in Plato's Apology he tells the jury that "the unexamined life is not worth living" (Plato, Apology, trans. Benjamin Jowett). This week you learned what philosophy is, the six branches, and the Socratic method, and those tools raise questions with no single right answer.

Your discussion question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.

Option A: Is a life spent questioning worth the risk? Take a position on whether the examined life is worth what it can cost (friendships strained, a job made harder, beliefs unsettled), give at least one reason drawn from this week's ideas (philosophy as examination by argument rather than by authority alone, the trial of Socrates, Q1 read as Jowett's English), use one illustrative example, and state the strongest case for the other side as fairly as its best defender would.

Option B: Should you use the Socratic method on the definitions people use in everyday life, such as a friend's definition of fairness or a workplace's definition of a good employee? Take a position on when testing a definition with a counterexample helps and when it does more harm than good, give at least one reason drawn from this week's ideas, use one illustrative example, and state the strongest case for the other side as fairly as its best defender would.

There is no single right answer here. Thoughtful people have defended both sides of each option, and the course takes no side on either one. Pick the option you care about, and make your case.

Expectations

Activity format: one initial post followed by two substantive peer replies. Plan on about 45 minutes across the two deadlines; your instructor sets both due dates in Canvas.

Your initial post — by the first due date (early in the module week):

• Say which option you chose.
• For Option A, say whether a life spent questioning is worth what it can cost; for Option B, say when testing an everyday definition with a counterexample helps and when it does harm. Use one illustrative example either way.
• Give at least one reason, and state the strongest case for the other side as its best defender would.
• Use at least two of this week's terms (philosophy, the Socratic method, counterexample, translation) correctly. If you quote Q1, quote it word for word and credit it to Plato's Apology in Benjamin Jowett's translation.
• End with one plain sentence that states your reading.
• Length: roughly 150–250 words if written. You may instead record your post as audio or video (about two minutes) and attach a transcript; both forms are scored by the same rubric.
• Write from your own reasoning, in your own words. If you draw on your own life, leave out names and identifying details.

Your replies — by the second due date (the end of the module week):

• Reply substantively to at least two classmates.
• A substantive reply does more than agree: offer a counterexample to a definition the classmate relies on, state a stronger version of the side the poster argued against, or point out where Q1 is credited to the wrong person. "Nice point!" on its own does not count.

What a strong post looks like:

I chose Option B and argue that testing an everyday definition helps when both people want a shared answer, and harms when it is used to win. At a team meeting, asking whether "a good employee never questions a decision" fits someone who flags a safety problem sharpens the team's idea of a good employee. The other side is strong: a counterexample aimed at a friend in a hard moment can feel like an attack on the person, not the idea. I concede that timing matters, but I still hold my view, because the Socratic method works on ideas, not on people. In one plain sentence: testing a definition helps when it serves a shared question rather than a contest.

Notice how it takes a position, uses this week's terms, states the other side at full strength, and ends in one plain sentence. That is the bar.

Participation rubric

This discussion is worth 10 points. The three criteria below look at your initial post and your peer replies.

Post early if you can — the best threads happen when people have time to reply before the second due date.

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