The Gray Area with Sean Illing

The case for failure

Mar 16, 2023

Costica Bradatan, a Professor of Philosophy and author of "In Praise of Failure," discusses societal views on success and the importance of embracing failure. He highlights historical figures like Gandhi to showcase how failure can teach humility and foster personal growth. The conversation dives into confronting our limitations and the profound lessons we can learn from past failures. Bradatan argues that acknowledging mortality and life's absurdities can lead to a more meaningful existence, reframing our relationship with failure as a source of resilience.

48:30

Episode guests

Costica Bradatan

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Episode notes

Intro

3min

Embracing Failure: A Path to Understanding Life

9min

Embracing Failure Through Historical Lessons

2min

The Complex Nature of Gandhi's Failures

2min

Embracing Humility Through Failure

20min

Embracing Mortality for Meaningful Living

4min

Embracing Absurdity and Failure

6min

Is our society's fixation with success hindering our ability to find humility? Sean Illing speaks with Costica Bradatan about his new book In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility, which explores failure through the lives of historical figures like Gandhi and the philosopher Simone Weil. They discuss the benefits of engaging with our limits and what we can learn from those who've embraced failure.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area

Guest: Costica Bradatan, Professor at Texas Tech University and Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at University of Queensland in Australia, Religion/Philosophy editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and author of In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility.

References:

In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility by Costica Bradatan (Harvard University Press, 2023)
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, translated by Justin O'Brien (Vintage Books, 1991)
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufman (1872)
The Trouble with Being Born by E.M. Cioran, translated by Richard Howard (Arcade Publishing, 1973)

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This episode was made by:

Engineer: Patrick Boyd
Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall

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