Envy

Overthink

Ellie Anderson, Ph.D. and David Peña-Guzmán, Ph.D.

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 549 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why are you so obsessed with me!? In episode 111 of Overthink, Ellie and David untangle envy, jealousy, and admiration, in everything from Sigmund Freud to Regina George. They think through the role of envy in social media and status regulation alongside Sara Protasi's The Philosophy of Envy, and investigate the philosophical lineage of this maligned emotion. Does the barrage of others’ achievements on social media lead to ill-will or competitive self-improvement? Why do we seek to deny our own envies? And how might Freud's questionable theory of 'penis envy' betray the politics of how we assign and deflect desire?

Check out the episode's extended cut here!

Works Discussed
Aristotle, Rhetoric
Basil of Caesarea, On Envy
Christine de Pizan, City of Ladies
Justin D'arms, Envy in the Philosophical Tradition
Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, “Analysis Terminable and Interminable”
Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which is Not One
Plato, Philebus
Plutarch, Moralia, “Of Envy and Hatred”
Sara Protasi, The Philosophy of Envy
Max Scheler, Ressentiment
Genesis 4, Exodus 20

Snow White (1937)
Mean Girls (2004)

Overthink epiosdes
60. Influencers
82. Regret
98. Reputation

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey listeners, I am so excited to share that we have a brand new way for you to support
0:05.1	Overthink. We've partnered with Pomona College, where I teach, to allow you to submit
0:09.4	one-time donations to support our show. These donations are fully tax deductible, and funds from them
0:15.1	go directly to student assistants working for Overthink. You can learn more at our website,
0:19.3	overthinkpodcast.com.
0:24.7	Also, you probably know about our Patreon already, but that's a great place to support us in an ongoing fashion to receive access to bonus segments, our Discord community, and
0:29.5	monthly Zooms with David and yours truly.
0:41.7	Hello, and welcome to Overtink.
0:46.7	The podcast where your favorite philosophy professors try and help you feel better about yourselves by showing you that your problems today have been, in some form or another, the topic of philosophical debates for centuries.
0:54.1	I am at David Pena-Gusman. And I am Ellie Anderson. form or another, the topic of philosophical debates for centuries.
0:56.3	I am at David Pena-Gusman.
0:58.3	And I am Ellie Anderson.
1:03.2	David, who's your favorite envy character?
1:05.4	Like, weird phrase, but you know what I mean, right?
1:12.4	Like, who's that, who's like a favorite character of yours from literature, movies, etc., exemplifying envy.
1:18.9	From Disney, it would have to be the queen in Snow White, who is envious of the youthful beauty of her stepdaughter. Although, fun fact, in the original tale, Snow White is the queen's biological
1:25.1	daughter, which makes her envy all that much more unsettling.
1:29.0	What? Oh my God, I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, that is fascinating. Come to think of it,
1:35.9	there's a lot of older women characters in Disney movies who are figures of envy, right? Like,
1:40.9	you have not only the Queen from Snow White, but you have Ursula, you have
1:44.4	Maleficent in the Sleeping Beauty, and all of these ones that are initially coming to mind for me,
1:49.9	they're all envious of beauty, because of course, that's all that women care about.
	...

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