Socrates

Not utilizing your ability to communicate effectively on a more fundamental level is similar to ordering a tasty dish without some of the required ingredients. In other words be extraordinary at all things that you do think outside the normal. ask questions. have a different opinion about things. don't accept things for what they are. Philosophy is suppose to help us unmasked ourselves from the inside out. it can also help improve critical thinking skills, but it can help provide us with knowledge of logic that can greatly help improve critical thinking. Socrates is very adamant about his thoughts and feelings about the importance of philosophy. its not a matter of whether he is right to be a pessimistic about life without philosophy or not. but, more so he feels very strong about his believes and that's what he lived by. I for one agrees with him in many ways more than one.

"Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows."