Episode · EconTalk · 2020-09-28
Books mentioned on Agnes Callard on Aspiration
Where do our deepest personal values come from? Can we choose those values?
Russ Roberts discussed The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner and Aspiration by Agnes Callard. Agnes Callard discussed The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury is a modernist novel by William Faulkner that employs stream-of-consciousness techniques to chronicle the decline of the Compson family.
Discussed“so an example i've used occasionally here is uh faulkner hated faulkner thought he was silly you know tried to read the sound of the fury read the first couple pages”
Where to get it
-
Aspiration
Aspiration by Agnes Callard is a philosophical work examining how individuals strive to acquire values and transform their desires through deliberate self-creation.
Discussed“though people sometimes use the word aspiration for those phenomena the reason i love what this book's about”
Where to get it
-
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith is a seminal 1759 work of moral philosophy that examines the psychological foundations of human judgment, empathy, and social order.
Discussed“i think it's towards the end of theory of moral sentiments”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (8) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“our topic for today is her book aspiration the agency of becoming agnes”
“so um you know one thing i point out in my book is that the english word aspiration is a pretty good word for the thing i'm trying to talk about”
“and i actually think this is something i i feel is missing from the book”
“and one of the one of the sort of projects of my book is to say don't assimilate these two things”
“so that's one of the puzzles that i try to address in the book and what i say is that”
“as i say in the book i thought it was a more decisive problem than i now think it is”
“so um maybe first i'll just give a little background which is that this whole book aspirations started out as a book about weakness of will or not a book”
“agnes cal her book is aspiration”