We've all been sold the ideal of meritocracy. The American dream, our education system, and our politics are all based on it. But what if meritocracy is actually impossible--and based on a misunderstanding of how society works? In episode 151 of Overthink, Ellie and David put meritocracy in the spotlight. They think through the inherent inequality of meritocracy, its tendency to skew toward conservatism, and what Trump’s attacks on DEI reveal about how society favors merit. How does meritocracy create vertical social distance between those in power and the working class? And is meritocracy even a worthwhile ideal? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts get into the role that merit plays in Christian theology and the promise of heaven.

Works Discussed:

Christopher Hayes, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy

Judith Lichtenberg and David Luban, “The Merits of Merit”

Michael Young, The Rise of the Meritocracy

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Why are Aztecs often considered pessimists from a philosophical perspective? In episode 150 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with philosopher Sebastian Purcell about his book The Outward Path: The Wisdom of the Aztecs. They discuss how the Aztecs urge us to take an “outside-in” approach to the self, how their understanding of happiness differs from much of Western philosophy, and how their view of the mind as inherently chaotic shapes their moral outlook. Why did the Aztecs think happiness was not an important goal? How can the Aztec notion of ‘right speech’ help us gain control over the internal chaos of the mind? And why did the Aztecs reject the possibility of redemption? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts dive deeper into the pessimism of the Aztecs and the claustrophobia of the Spanish conquest.

Works Discussed:

Sebastian Purcell, The Outward Path: The Wisdom of the Aztecs

Jacques Soustelle, Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest

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Hang loose! In episode 149 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about all things surfing. They explore the long history of wave-riding across the globe, from Peru to West Africa, and consider how surfing helps us to reimagine social issues and what surfing reveals about the connection between flow and freedom. Is surfing the pinnacle of human life? How has the sportification of surfing directly contravened surfing’s anti-capitalist ethos? Why is the average surfer an image of white masculinity? And how is this image tied to indigenous erasure? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts discuss the similarities between surfing and skating, surfing as an art, and the existential risk of surfing.

Works Discussed

Daniel Brennan, Surfing and the Philosophy of Sport

Kevin Dawson, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora

William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

Aaron James, Surfing with Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry Into a Life of Meaning

Peter Kreeft, I Surf, Therefore I Am: A Philosophy of Surfing

Aileen Moreton Robinson, “Bodies That Matter: Performing White Possession on the Beach”

Peter J. Westwick and Peter Neushul, The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing

Wade in the Water: A Journey Into Black Surfing and Aquatic Culture (2023)

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How can we explain the rise of loneliness in our world? In episode 148 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss the difference between loneliness and solitude, how loneliness could help explain the rise of fascism in the US, and the public health implications of loneliness. What is the male loneliness epidemic, and does it truly exist? Does the state have a moral obligation to address the loneliness of its citizens? And do we have a fundamental human right to connection? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts get into the etymology of loneliness and discuss the type of companionship that animals offer humans.

Works Discussed:

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Kimberley Brownlee, Being Sure of Each Other: An Essay on Social Rights and Freedoms

Bouke de Vries and Sarah A. Rezaieh. “Political Philosophy and Loneliness”

Bouke de Vries, “State Responsibilities to Protect us from Loneliness During Lockdown”

Samantha Rose Hill, "Where loneliness can lead"

Zohar Lederman, “Loneliness as Lack of Solidarity: The Case of Palestinians Standing Alone”

Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being

David M. Peña-Guzmán and Rebekah Spera, Professional Philosophy and Its Myths

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

 Jill Stauffer, Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard

Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Loneliness

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Don’t shy away from this one! In episode 147 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss confidence. Modernity has created a crisis of confidence, leading to the demand that we all maximize our confidence. But what is confidence? Is it a personality trait or a relational concept? What causes under- and over-confidence? And is instilling confidence an equity issue? Your hosts think through Charles Pépin’s pillars of confidence, Don A. Moore's formula for calibrating your confidence, and the gendered nature of confidence through bodily expressions. In the Substack bonus segment, Ellie tells an embarrassing story which reveals the situational nature of confidence, and they discuss the relationship between confidence and nature.

Works discussed:

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”

Don A. Moore, Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely

Charles Pépin, Self-Confidence: A Philosophy

Iris Marion Young, “Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body”

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Can we ever be truly alone? In episode 146 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk with philosopher Dan Zahavi about his book, Being We: Phenomenological Contributions to Social Ontology. They discuss how the increase in communication through screens has shifted what it means to be together, the decline of social bonds in political life, and what phenomenological understandings of empathy tell us about being together. How do dyadic relationships such as romantic love and friendship shape our identities? Does there need to be a conception of the self that precedes sociality? What are the different types of "we"? In the Substack bonus segment, Ellie and David get into some juicy stories about their own experiences of togetherness in the beautiful city of Madrid.

Works discussed:

Alison Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life

Ivan Leudar and Philip Thomas, Voices of Reason, Voices of Insanity

Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

Gerda Walther, Toward an Ontology of Social Communities

Dan Zahavi, Being We: Phenomenological Contributions to Social Ontology

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Chat GPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and Grok. In episode 145 of Overthink, David and Ellie talk about AI chatbots. Are relationships between humans and AI valuable? Or should we shame people for using LLMs? And what are we doing when we use these technologies: expanding or outsourcing our cognition? They explore the dangers of using chatbots as romantic partners and therapists, considering how the how the principle of ‘Yes, And…’ at the core of LLMs can lead to delusion and even what’s now called “AI psychosis.” They discuss the fatigue surrounding the predominance of AI in our everyday lives and the negative environmental effects of it. In the bonus, your hosts dive deeper into the history of AI, its benefits and drawbacks, and the relationship between AI and embodiment.

Works Discussed:

Andrea Klonschinski and Michael Kühler, “Romantic Love Between Humans and AIs: A Feminist Ethical Critique”

Gavin Mueller, Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job

Matteo Pasquinelli, The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence

Michael Wooldridge, A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going

N+1 Editors, “Large Language Muddle”

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Why does falling for someone so often feel like a painful obsession? In episode 144 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss the unspoken difficulties of limerence, or the state of falling in love. What is the difference between love and limerence, and why do we confuse them so frequently? How does social media fuel limerent reactions? And is limerence inherently selfish? They discuss how limerence can be formative to our personal identities, whether a limerent object has ethical obligations to those who obsess over them, and how modern dating norms might direct us all towards limerence rather than love. In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts get into the relationship between self-worth and limerence and whether it’s possible to have reciprocal limerence.

Works Discussed:

Tom Bellamy, Smitten: Romantic obsession, the neuroscience of limerence, and how to make love last

Stendhal, On Love

Dorothy Tennov, Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019)

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