Know Thyself

The inscription at the door

"Know thyself." Inscribed at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, according to ancient writers such as Plato and Pausanias.

Of all the instructions humanity has ever given itself, this is the most persistent. It appears at the threshold of the Oracle: not inside, not hidden in a sacred chamber, but at the entrance. Before you ask your question, before you seek guidance, before you enter: know who is asking.

Ancient writers tell us that the saying was dedicated to Apollo by the Seven Sages, early Greek thinkers remembered for their short, practical wisdom. Nobody can say exactly when it was first set there, but by the fifth century BC it was a familiar saying at Delphi.

The Oracle of Delphi was consulted on everything: war, succession, foundation of cities, personal destiny. People made the journey from across the Greek world. The instruction at the door was not a pleasantry. It was the prerequisite. Self-knowledge was not one virtue among others; it was the condition for all wisdom.

The examined life

Socrates made this the center of his entire life's work. In Plato's Apology, he explains that he goes about Athens examining himself and others because the unexamined life is not worth living. He describes it as a mission he could not give up, even when it put his own life at risk.

This is not a poetic flourish. He means it literally: a life lived without self-examination is not, in the fullest sense, a life at all. It is a series of events, an accumulation of years, but not a directed human existence.

The examined life is the one lived on purpose. Everything else is drift.

Where PurposeBased begins

This is the foundation on which PurposeBased stands. The questionnaire, the synthesis, the coach and the path are all meant to begin with the same inscription, know thyself. And like the Oracle, the app asks you some questions before it offers any answer.

The Know-thyself reading follows that order. It is not meant to hand you a verdict on who you should be. It asks first, listens to what you say, and then shows you what it heard. If you are searching for meaning, there is some relief in that. You were never expected to arrive with the answer. You were only asked to begin by looking.