The Relationship Between Meaning and Work

Plato said that craft, or techne, “answers to a genuine human need and solves it.” Does our abstract, postindustrial work fulfill this criteria? Dr. Jeffrey Hanson, Anglican priest and senior philosopher at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, has dealt with these questions in his most recent book, Philosophies of Work in the Platonic Tradition: A History of Labor in Human Flourishing. 

In this episode, Jeffrey and Grant weigh the Platonic and postmodern ideas of work, asking: How do we find meaning in “meaningless” work? What is the proper place of work among the other values in our life? And, is work directed toward changing reality, or changing ourselves?