What Measures Whether You Matter Or Not w/ Philosopher Rebecca Goldstein

About this episode

The episode explores the philosophical concept of mattering with guest Rebecca Goldstein, discussing its implications and how it shapes our lives.

Do I, intrinsically matter? Do you? Based on...what? There is almost a saturation of information and ideas on what purpose is and having purpose in your life. But if you dig down, I find purpose to primarily be a pursuit to...matter. Do we matter just because we exist? Many religions say so, but I generally find the religious scrambling to prove they matter in the same ways everyone else is. So does that testify that we have to do something to matter? This is the episode. I sat down with renowned philosopher and intellectual, Rebecca Goldstein. Rebecca is an award-winning philosopher and writer. She is the author of ten books of acclaimed fiction and non-fiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University and has taught at Yale, Columbia, NYU, Dartmouth, and Harvard. In 2015, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama. In many ways however, from all of Rebecca's philosophical pursuits, the concept of mattering is her culmination of wisdom. Her new book is called, The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us. In this conversation we dive straight into how we perceive mattering, what we generally do to…

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Miller

Guest: Rebecca Goldstein

Topics covered

• philosophy
• purpose
• mattering
• psychology
• cultural conflicts

Keywords

• mattering
• purpose
• philosophy
• psychological types
• cultural conflicts

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Princeton University, Yale, Columbia, NYU, Dartmouth, Harvard, National Humanities Medal

Books & works: The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us

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