Self-reflection and the search for purpose | John Vervaeke, Frank Furedi and Isabel Millar
94John Vervaeke, Frank Furedi, and Isabel Millar discuss whether self-reflection is essential to finding meaning in one's life.
Can we find our purpose by looking outward, rather than inward?
Watch the full debate at https://iai.tv/video/in-search-of-oneself?utm_source=YouTube
Self-reflection is the most important leadership tool' claimed the World Economic Forum. And the contemporary focus on self-help makes clear that attempts to 'know thyself' are very much the fashion. Yet critics argue self-reflection carries with it serious risks. A 2018 Harvard study concluded that there is no link between introspection and insight, in some cases the opposite is true. While the biggest worldwide survey into stress identified that self-reflection was one of the greatest factors leading to anxiety, depression, and in some cases suicide.
Should we see self-knowledge as an aim not only misguided, but actively dangerous? Is self-knowledge in fact impossible for as Nietzsche argued we have to use the self to uncover the self? Or is self-reflection a vital and rewarding activity that uncovers meaning and improves our ability to act well in the world?
#philosophy #psychology #meaning
This debate explores how our contemporary culture is influenced, shaped and potentially misinformed by our most recent self-help culture. The speakers are are Frank Furedi, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, John Vervaeke, an award-winning professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, and Isabel Millar, an associate resercher at Newcastle University.
00:00 Introduction
00:54 John Vervaeke
05:08 Frank Furedi
09:03 Isabel Millar
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