Zena Hitz on Lost in Thought

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2020

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Philosopher and author Zena Hitz of St. John's College talks about her book, Lost in Thought, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Hitz defends learning for its own sake--learning that has nothing to do with passing an exam or preparing for a career. For Hitz, learning is a refuge and an essential part of what makes us human.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:12.6	I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover
0:17.3	Institution.
0:18.7	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,
0:25.9	and find links to other information related to today's conversation.
0:29.9	Our email address is mailadicontalk.org.
0:33.6	We'd love to hear from you.
0:35.0	Today is September 10, 2020, and my guest is philosopher and author Zina Hitz of St. John's
0:44.5	College.
0:45.5	She is the author of Lost in Thought, the hidden pleasures of an intellectual life.
0:49.7	Zina, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:52.1	Thanks so much, Russ.
0:53.6	I'm great to be here.
0:54.8	You say real learning is hidden learning.
0:57.5	What does that mean?
1:00.1	Real learning is hidden in a couple of senses.
1:04.1	One of the main ways it's hidden is it's an inner life.
1:08.9	It's something one does in a primary way, not exclusively, but primarily with oneself.
1:17.1	It's also hidden in that I want to try to, in my book, separate the good of learning from
1:28.3	its institutional accretions.
1:32.7	So learning is, for many of us, a mode of achievement, a mode of social advancement, a
1:39.8	mode of arcane status markings, moving our way up and down.
	...

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