Episode 102: Josh Knobe discusses the true self
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What is the “true self” and why do people talk about it in everyday life?
Hey, Matt Techman here from Elucidations. Before we get going, I just thought I'd put in a quick plug for Pippa. We've been doing our hosting with them since two thousand sixteen. It's been a fantastic experience. So if you have a podcast You might check 'em out. They have great analytics, the service is free, and they make it easy to migrate. So if you're curious, visit their website at PIPPA dot IO. All right, thanks.
Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I'm Matt Tykman and with me today is Josh Nob. Professor of Cognitive Science and Philosophy at Yale University. And he's here to discuss the true self. Josh Nob, welcome.
Hi, Matt.
So what does this expression true self mean exactly at intuitive level? Like is there an example of like when that would come up in an everyday situation?
Well, people use the concept of a true self in philosophy, but it's not at all a concept that we only see in philosophical talk. It's also one that we just see ordinarily in the way people talk about their lives. So it's the notion that we were getting out when you say something like, Who is this person really deep down? Who are they at the core? Who are they in their real hearts? I think you see it very often, for example, in romantic relationships. That a lot of times you'll see someone who is, say, for example, involved with some person that you might think seems to be acting kind of like a jerk, you feel really bad about him, but then the person who is involved in this romantic relationship might say to you, Ah yeah, but deep down he's actually a good guy.
And it's that notion that we're trying to get at. This notion of what someone really is deep down.
So you've done some research on how people make use of this concept of the true self. Maybe what you just described was an example of that. in everyday reasoning. So maybe if I wanna justify somebody's action or I wanna explain you know, why they were doing something, what they were trying to accomplish, I might make use of this notion of true self. So what were some of the things that you found when you did this research?
Well, to a large degree, we are interested in the question, which part of the self do people see as the true self? And a lot of the work we were doing was against the background of sort of two obvious views you might have about it. So one view that you see a lot of the times throughout the whole history of philosophy is the idea that the true self can in some way be identified with reason. So you might think, for example, suppose that you're addicted to heroin, you're trying to quit. There's some part of you that's kind of that has this craving for another shot of heroin. But then you think, no, I'm against that. I really don't want to. That's the wrong thing to do. Then you might think to some degree, the more you can act on what your reason is really telling you, the more you can choose not to take the other hit of heroin, the more then you're expressing your true self.
The more you give in to this craving, then the less you're expressing your true self. So there's this kind of view that a lot of people have. Somehow maybe your reasoning, what you really think on reflection, that's your true self. But there's also another view you might have that's almost exactly the opposite of that. You might think, you know What your true self really is, is this part of you that's sort of the more emotional part, the more visceral part, the more immediate or intuitive part. Maybe it's in those moments, for example, when you're completely drunk or overcome with emotion, maybe it's then most of all that your true self comes out. And to the extent that we're thinking carefully, reflecting, reasoning about things, then maybe we're only clouding over the true self.
So the r the question we're trying to get at is how do people ordinarily understand the true self? Which part of the self do people ordinarily think is the part of you that really is the true self?
So we saw an example in which the drug addict maybe has a strong I guess we want to call it like an emotional need to take some heroin, but that person's
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the “true self” and why do people talk about it in everyday life?
0:00–4:48
2
How do we intuitively identify a person’s true self in relationships and moral judgments?
4:48–8:37
3
What experimental methods did Knobe use to study people’s assumptions about the true self?
8:37–11:11
4
Do people view the rational or the emotional part of a person as the true self?
11:11–33:05
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Elucidations
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