Elijah Millgram on the Philosophical Life
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2021
⏱️ 68 minutes
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Summary
What can studying the lives of philosophers tell us about how to organize and interpret our own lives? Elijah Millgram is a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah whose research focuses on the theory of rationality. His latest book, John Stuart Mill and The Meaning of Life, analyzes the relationship between the ideas of the famous theorist and their impacts on Mill's life. His forthcoming book examines the life and work of Frederich Nietzsche through a similar lens, combining philosophical analysis and biography.
Elijah joined Tyler to discuss Newcomb's paradox, the reason he doesn't have an opinion about everything, the philosophy of Dave Barry, style and simulation theory, why philosophers aren't often consulted about current events, his best stories from TA-ing for Robert Nozick, the sociological correlates of knowing formal logic, the question of whether people are more interested in truth or being interesting, philosophical cycles, what makes Nietzsche important today, the role that meaning can play in a person's personality and life, Mill on Bentham, the idea of true philosophy as dialogue, the extent to which modern philosophers are truly philosophical, why he views aesthetics as critical to philosophy, and more.
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Recorded May 11th, 2021
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:08.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. |
| 0:12.5 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:15.2 | And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit |
| 0:20.4 | ConversationsWithT Tyler.com. |
| 0:25.9 | Hello everyone, and welcome back to Conversations with Tyler. |
| 0:29.3 | Today I'm chatting with Elijah Milgram, who is one of the best philosophers and a professor |
| 0:34.1 | at the University of Utah. |
| 0:35.8 | Elijah, welcome. |
| 0:36.8 | Hi, thanks for having me. |
| 0:39.3 | We're going to get to your work on John Stewart Mill and Nietzsche and your current project |
| 0:43.0 | on the lives of philosophers, but I'd like to start with a few just very basic questions |
| 0:47.4 | about philosophy. |
| 0:48.8 | What do you think is the most underrated tool in the rationality toolbox for practical |
| 0:53.5 | reasoning? |
| 0:54.8 | This is really, really basic, but I think people don't pay attention to their own experience. |
| 1:03.6 | They pay attention to experience when they are trying to figure out what's going on |
| 1:08.6 | factually, but when they're trying to figure out what to do, they discount experience |
| 1:14.7 | as an input. |
| 1:16.4 | So this is true among the professional philosophers, and I think it's true of just anybody. |
| 1:22.2 | The tacit ideology, I guess, is that people are supposed to know what they want already, |
| 1:28.8 | right? |
... |
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