Importance of training the mind for a fulfilling life through meditation and mindfulness practices.
Redefining identity and striving for excellence beyond professional success.
Promoting ethical values and compassion over intellectual abilities for personal and societal development.
Deep dives
Arthur Brooks' Background and Insights on Building a Good Life
Arthur Brooks, a social scientist focusing on human happiness, discusses the elements of building a successful and purposeful life in the later years. He delves into topics like the role of character-building in achieving deep purpose. Brooks touches on the impact of social comparison, the taboos surrounding intelligence discussions, and ethical hierarchies. He also shares his perspectives on love, intelligences, and the limits of identity.
Facing Decline and Rediscovery in Personal Pursuits
Brooks narrates his personal experience of facing unexpected decline in his musical career as a French horn player and how this led to a shift in his identity. He explores the notion of striving for excellence and the ensuing challenges of maintaining skills over time. Through his transition from a musician to an academic, Brooks reflects on the impact of skill decline and the importance of redefining identity beyond professional success.
Intelligence, Moral Worth, and Human Dignity
Brooks and Harris engage in a thought-provoking dialogue on the complex interplay between intelligence, moral worth, and human dignity. They discuss the societal implications of valuing intellectual abilities over other essential qualities like compassion and wisdom. Brooks emphasizes the significance of fostering ethical values and benevolence, suggesting that these attributes should be prioritized over cognitive abilities in personal and societal development. The conversation extends to the value of deep connections and shared humanity in enhancing human dignity and well-being.
Learning to Detach Love from Attachment
The podcast delves into the concept of detaching love from attachment, drawing insights from the Dalai Lama's teachings. It emphasizes the importance of differentiating between love and attachment, highlighting that attaching happiness to external sources leads to disappointment. By observing the Dalai Lama's approach of universal love and non-attachment, the speaker reflects on the challenge of embodying such standards in personal life. This distinction between love and attachment serves as a moral lesson, urging individuals to strive for a balanced perspective that values love without depending on attachment.
Transitioning from Fluid to Crystallized Intelligence
Another key focus of the podcast centers on the transition from fluid to crystallized intelligence with age. It discusses how fluid intelligence, emphasizing problem-solving abilities, peaks in the late thirties and declines over time, leading to feelings of discontent and burnout. On the contrary, crystallized intelligence, based on accumulated knowledge and wisdom, continues to increase in the forties, fifties, and beyond, offering insights into successful career trajectories. The episode underscores the importance of recognizing and leveraging the shift from fluid to crystallized intelligence to navigate professional growth effectively.
Sam Harris speaks with Arthur C. Brooks about what it takes to build a good life. They discuss the power of social comparison, the intelligence taboo, political dignity and ethical hierarchy, the Dalai Lama, the nature of love, fluid and crystallized intelligences, the strange case of Linus Pauling, the limits of identity, atheism and religious faith, fear of death, psychedelics, existentialism, St. Thomas Aquinas, and other topics.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.
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