Socrates refers to himself as a gadfly in the sense that he is there to push the Athenians to find greater wisdom. He tries to push or what you would call “sting” them into action or in a sense criticize their way of thinking so that they can think deeper into what they feel is true and question it. Socrates is there to show that there is more to an examined life than an unexamined life. Meaning, if we don’t find greater knowledge the world and ourselves we will began to act without a reason behind it. In the book Classics of Western Philosophy he stated, “Without philosophy humans are no better off then animals. The good life is one in which we make both ourselves and those around us happier and better off, and the only way to pursue that
