Jennifer Burns: belief

Transcript context

…That’s funny. That’s funny. So I do think it’s really hard to have an original thought. We are social creatures. We encounter the same situations again and again. And so it’s really hard. You’re born into these traditions of thinking and being and knowing. And most people are never going to question them, and most people are never going to become aware of them. So again, that’s some of the work of what I do as an intellectual historian. It’s like, “Let’s become aware. Let’s realize that you’re carrying a map that’s orienting you to the world in a certain way.” And so I think you have to work really, really hard to have an original idea. And even then, it’s not a completely original idea. It’s a reworking and a reassembling of ideas others have had. So I definitely think it’s possible to create autonomy in the realm of ideas and to be an autonomous consumer of ideas. But I think, on balance, most people are not. And that’s fine. They want to have experiences. They want to do other things with their life. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for this journey through ideas today, and thank you so much for your incredible work. It was really fun and fascinating to talk with you today. Thank you,…

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