Genius

Overthink

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

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 550 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 19 of Overthink, Ellie and David debate the idea of genius. They begin by explaining Kant and Schopenhauer's theories of genius before diving into feminist critiques of the very idea that geniuses exist. They talk about why women were traditionally excluded from being geniuses, how male professors are called "genius" on Ratemyprofessor more than their female counterparts, and how sociological conditions determine who is considered a genius. Also discussed: Ellie's childhood belief that she was, in fact, a genius, David's competitive standardized test-taking, whether genius is innate, if a scientist can count as genius, the Hollywood "it factor," and more!

Works Discussed:
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgment
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation
Tom Leddy, "Kant on How to be a Genius"
Linda Nochlin, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"
Cynthia Freeland, "Gender, Genius, and Guerilla Girls"
Fran Lebowitz, "Pretend It’s a City" (Netflix TV show)
Storage et al., "The Frequency of “Brilliant” and “Genius” in Teaching Evaluations Predicts the Representation of Women and African Americans across Fields"

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Ellie Anderson.
0:09.6	And I'm David Pena Guzman.
0:11.4	Welcome to Overthink.
0:13.0	The podcast, we're two friends who are also professors.
0:16.7	Put philosophy and dialogue with the everyday.
0:18.7	Because big ideas are within everyone's reach.
0:30.0	David, are you a genius?
0:33.6	As much as my mother might believe so, I really do not think so.
0:39.3	Why not?
0:40.0	Well, I don't know what it means to be a genius.
0:43.4	It just, to me, that term is so loaded that it refers to those who have crossed the highest level of human achievement.
0:53.4	And I most certainly haven't.
0:55.8	Do you consider yourself a genius?
0:58.2	Definitely.
0:59.0	No, no, no, no.
0:59.5	I'm just kidding.
1:00.5	You do, don't you?
1:01.7	You do.
1:02.6	No, I don't think so.
1:03.7	I mean, I will be honest and say that I definitely thought I was a genius when I was
1:07.9	growing up.
1:08.9	As close friends of mine will know, I actually wrote a
	...

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