unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

547. Exploring Midlife and Living Well Through Philosophy feat. Kieran Setiya


Listen Later

What is the intrinsic link between philosophical inquiry and personal development? How can academic thought and theory be applied well to practical living in the real world?

Kieran Setiya is a professor of philosophy at MIT and also the author of a number of books, including Knowing Right From Wrong, Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, and Midlife: A Philosophical Guide.

Greg and Kieran discuss how philosophy and self-help have diverged over time and the potential for their reintegration. Kieran explores the practical use of philosophical reflection in everyday life, the evolving view of philosophy from his early academic years to now, the impact of Aristotle's concept of the ideal life on contemporary thought, and the nature of midlife crises including his own. They also touch on topics like the value of choice, future bias, the role of suffering, and the integration of philosophy in early education. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Why Aristotle’s ideal life isn’t always the answer

06:58: What am I going to do here and now, in the conditions I'm in—which are always, to some degree, imperfect—right now, maybe particularly challenging for many of us? And it's just not obvious at all. In fact, I think it's not true that the best way to answer the question, "What should I do in my problematic circumstances?" is, well, look at what an ideal life would be and just sort of aim towards that. And that just—it's both impractical and often very bad advice. It's like if someone said, "Well, you don't have any yeast; try to make some bread." You could think, "Well, what's the thing that's going to be most like a regular loaf of bread?" Or you might think, "Yeah, that's not the right thing to aim for here." There's some more dramatic pivot in how I'm going to try to make a kind of bread-like thing. And I think that's a good—a better—analogy for the situation we're in when we try to think about what to do here and now, when ideals like Aristotle's are not really viable.

On regret, choice, and the value of missed opportunities

21:21: Regret is a function of something that's not at all regrettable. Mainly the diversity of value.

Detached wanting and the good enough life

38:10: Stoics have this idea that virtue is the key thing for eudaimonia, and nothing else really matters for eudaimonia. But there are all these—what they call—preferred indifferents. So all the other stuff you might want, it's reasonable to want it, but you should want it in a kind of detached, "that would be a bonus" kind of way. And I think, while I'm not a Stoic and I don't think they draw that line in the right way, I think they're right that there is some kind of line here that has to do with sort of moderation and greed. In effect, thinking at a certain point: "If your life is good enough, you look at all the other things you could have," and the right attitude to have to them is something like, "Well, it’d be great if I had that. Sure." But the idea of being angry that I don't, or feeling like "this is unacceptable that I don't" is just not a virtuous — for want of a better word—it's not a reasonable, justifiable response.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

  • Aristotle
  • Eudaimonia
  • Telicity
  • Arthur Schopenhauer
  • Utilitarianism
  • Plato
  • John Stuart Mill
  • Reasons and Persons
  • Iris Murdoch

Guest Profile:

  • KSetiya.net
  • Faculty Profile at MIT
  • Profile on Wikipedia
  • Profile on PhilPeople.org

His Work:

  • Amazon Author Page
  • Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
  • Midlife: A Philosophical Guide
  • Practical Knowledge: Selected Essays
  • Knowing Right From Wrong
  • Internal Reasons: Contemporary Readings
  • Reasons without Rationalism
  • Substack Newsletter
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

unSILOed with Greg LaBlancBy Greg La Blanc

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

59 ratings


More shows like unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

View all
EconTalk by Russ Roberts

EconTalk

4,217 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,027 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

518 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,387 Listeners

Decoder with Nilay Patel by The Verge

Decoder with Nilay Patel

3,141 Listeners

Odd Lots by Bloomberg

Odd Lots

1,772 Listeners

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

2,313 Listeners

Azeem Azhar's Exponential View by Azeem Azhar

Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

613 Listeners

Hidden Forces by Demetri Kofinas

Hidden Forces

1,437 Listeners

Capitalisn't by University of Chicago Podcast Network

Capitalisn't

525 Listeners

Google DeepMind: The Podcast by Hannah Fry

Google DeepMind: The Podcast

199 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

390 Listeners

Big Technology Podcast by Alex Kantrowitz

Big Technology Podcast

422 Listeners

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg by Spencer Greenberg

Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

128 Listeners

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

145 Listeners