I love these questions because they do get to the ways in which we define ourselves. The more loosely we can hold it though the more flexible we can be with it applying on an identity when it's useful. There are studies that show someone who says I'm not a smoker and takes that identity is less likely to smoke again than somebody who say I'm not smoking right now. So there's a positive use of an identity there but we know there's a negative use of identity. We should be flexible about what we want to incorporate into our identity and think of it as a tool that's sometimes appropriate to use and sometimes not.
Scott Hershovitz is the Thomas G. and Mabel Long Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. He directs the University’s Law and Ethics Program and he co-edits Legal Theory. Scott writes about law and philosophy. His academic work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, The Yale Law Journal, and Ethics, among other places. In addition, he writes occasional essays about philosophy for the New York Times. Before joining the Michigan faculty, he served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court and an attorney-advisor on the appellate staff of the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice.
Eric and Scott discuss his new book, Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy withMy Kids
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Scott Hershovitz and I Discuss What We Can Learn By Thinking Like a Kid and …
- His book, Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids
- Defining philosophy as the art of thinking
- How kids are natural philosophers and ask interesting questions
- Learning to think critically about our own ideas
- Distinguishing between what we think we should do and what we want to do
- The story of the Ship of Theseus and how we can compare it to our own identity
- How identity can be used as a tool in how we see ourselves in the world in both a negative and positive way
- Relativism and how we each get our own truth
- Epistemic bubbles and echo chambers
- What we can learn when we talk to people who think differently than us
- How we can look at other people with both objective or participant attitudes, depending on the circumstances
- Tempering our perspectives when we learn about others’ circumstances
Scott Hershovitz Links
Scott’s Website
Twitter
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If you enjoyed this conversation with Scott Hershovitz check out these other episodes:
What We Know But Don’t Believe with Steve Hagen
Everyday Courage with Ryan Holiday
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