The Gray Area with Sean Illing takes a philosophy-minded look at culture, technology, politics, and the world of ideas. Each week, we invite a guest to explore a question or topic that matters. From the the state of democracy, to the struggle with depression and anxiety, to the nature of identity in the digital age, each episode looks for nuance and honesty in the most important conversations of our time. New episodes drop every Monday.
https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast
Is the journey to self-discovery pointless?
There are many ways people are trying to know themselves these days – from taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test to analyzing their astrological birth charts to identifying their attachment styles. But are any of these methods helpful? Allie Volpe, a senior reporter at Vox, discusses this with Mitch Green, a philosophy professor at the University of Connecticut and author of the book Know Thyself: The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge. Together they explore why there’s an increased interest in self-knowledge, the merits of self-discovery, and the best way to truly know ourselves.
Host: Allie Volpe (@allieevolpe), Senior Reporter, Vox
Guest: Mitch Green, Philosophy professor at the University of Connecticut
References:
- “A personality test can’t tell you who you are” by Allie Volpe (Vox, Jun. 2023)
- Know Thyself: The Value and Limits of Self-Knowledge by Mitchell S. Green (2017, Routledge)
- “Why the Meyers-Briggs test is totally meaningless” by Joseph Stromberg and Estelle Caswell (Vox, Oct. 2015)
- Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious by Timothy D. Wilson (Harvard University Press, 2004)
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This episode was made by:
- Engineer: Patrick Boyd
- Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall
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