2017-08-26
25 分钟For more information and full transcripts of the podcast, check out philosophisethis.org.
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Be well and I hope you love the show today.
So whenever you're navigating the waters of a set of ideas that you disagree with,
which seems inevitable for all of us given the next couple months of the show,
one thing that's really important to consider is to put yourself in the shoes of the people that you disagree with and try to consider where they're coming from with all this.
One thing I like to do is I like to imagine myself as that other person.
I like to imagine I woke up that morning and I was them.
I sat down with my family at breakfast.
I held all the same strong convictions that they do about whatever subject I'm thinking about.
And then I like to imagine, say I was this person,
how would I see my actual self and the views that I have about things?
In other words, where do they think I'm coming from with my views being someone who disagrees with them?
See, the reason I do this exercise is because I know what Nietzsche said is true.
I realize how strong an incentive I have as a person to attach myself to some group or some cause that's bigger than myself,
glean a sense of identity from the process,
feel all the good feelings that come along with fighting against some evil out there in the world.
But a necessary part of that whole process is identifying some evil that you're fighting against.
And what that often looks like in practice is finding some evil group of people that you're fighting against.
But here's an important question to ask.