The Impartial Observer

6min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The Gerardian impartial spectator, as I understood you before, is a part of this culture that you and I inhabit. Adam Smith might want the approval of that group that he's immersed himself in. He's going to be drawn to them like a moth to a light bulb and he's going to give in. It's always perverse from Gerard's perspective because it's essentially a desire to be God,. This is why it's satanic, we're designing power, we're creating reality.

When the 20-year-old overachiever Johnathan Bi's first startup crashed and burned, he headed to a Zen retreat in the Catskills to "debug himself." He discovered René Girard and his mimetic theory--the idea that imitation is a key and often unconscious driver of human behavior. Listen as entrepreneur and philosopher Bi shares with EconTalk host Russ Roberts what he learned from Girard and Girard's insights into how we meet our primal need for money, fame, and power. The conversation includes the contrasts between economics and Girard's perspective.