01 / recommendation
Likes John Stuart Mill and the Meaning of Life.
“I like very much your book about John Stuart Mill, your latest book, called John Stuart Mill and the Meaning of Life.”
- Speaker
- Tyler Cowen
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler / episode intelligence
Elijah Millgram on the Philosophical Life
Speakers in the public record
Claim mix
evaluation 5recommendation 3commitment 3uncertainty 1belief 1preference 1
Evidence policy
Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.
Claim ledger
The useful parts, with receipts.
14 published records
02 / recommendation
Mentions personal use of The Open Society. Mentions personal use of The Logic of Scientific Discovery.
“Yes, I’ve never — when I was 18 or whatever it was, I read The Open Society and I read The Logic of Scientific Discovery and each one, there’s a cool idea.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
03 / uncertainty
His last book was horrifically awful. I don’t know if I want to blame it on the institution .
“His last book was horrifically awful. I don’t know if I want to blame it on the institution .”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
04 / belief
You won’t be surprised to hear that if there’s a domain in which I think I have a special experience, meaning experience that most people don’t have, it’s in philosophy.
“You won’t be surprised to hear that if there’s a domain in which I think I have a special experience, meaning experience that most people don’t have, it’s in philosophy.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
05 / evaluation
He was a culmination of a lot of trends; he gave rise to a lot of new ideas that came to fruition in the 20th century. But when I read Nietzsche today, he doesn’t actually seem to me like a great philosopher; he seems to me like a once-important philosopher, that so much of his work is very context specific.
“He was a culmination of a lot of trends; he gave rise to a lot of new ideas that came to fruition in the 20th century. But when I read Nietzsche today, he doesn’t actually seem to me like a great philosopher; he seems to me like a once-important philosopher, that so much of his work is very context specific.”
- Speaker
- Tyler Cowen
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
06 / preference
” I mean, I can read way faster than I can hear, and if I zone out for a moment when I’m reading, I can just go back, but if I zone out while they’re giving the talk, I can’t raise my hand and say, “Can you just repeat the last five minutes?
“” I mean, I can read way faster than I can hear, and if I zone out for a moment when I’m reading, I can just go back, but if I zone out while they’re giving the talk, I can’t raise my hand and say, “Can you just repeat the last five minutes?”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
07 / commitment
I feel that I can’t have opinions unless I’ve worked for them and I can back them up, and that means that unless I’ve done my homework, unless I have an argument for the opinion, I don’t have it — so I don’t.
“I feel that I can’t have opinions unless I’ve worked for them and I can back them up, and that means that unless I’ve done my homework, unless I have an argument for the opinion, I don’t have it — so I don’t.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
08 / commitment
I’ve never been able to take a stand on that, mostly because there’s this moment in Robert Nozick’s discussion of the Newcomb paradox.
“I’ve never been able to take a stand on that, mostly because there’s this moment in Robert Nozick’s discussion of the Newcomb paradox.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
09 / evaluation
This is really, really basic, but I think people don’t pay attention to their own experience.
“This is really, really basic, but I think people don’t pay attention to their own experience.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
10 / evaluation
There’s a lot of that, but I think the other thing that is being overrated is what you think you already know about what’s important and what matters.
“There’s a lot of that, but I think the other thing that is being overrated is what you think you already know about what’s important and what matters.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
11 / commitment
And her argument has changed and the view has changed, but not to agree with me. But she has an objection to my view and my argument, and I take the point.
“And her argument has changed and the view has changed, but not to agree with me. But she has an objection to my view and my argument, and I take the point.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
12 / evaluation
If we think of Bentham’s writings, the Panopticon and Auto-Icon proposal to always be reputationally evaluating the achievements of dead people, I don’t favor those as policy proposals, but they seem quite profound and have been highly influential and prophetic.
“If we think of Bentham’s writings, the Panopticon and Auto-Icon proposal to always be reputationally evaluating the achievements of dead people, I don’t favor those as policy proposals, but they seem quite profound and have been highly influential and prophetic.”
- Speaker
- Tyler Cowen
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
13 / recommendation
I think we can learn from him because, in a lot of ways, we haven’t caught up to what he was doing.
“I think we can learn from him because, in a lot of ways, we haven’t caught up to what he was doing.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
14 / evaluation
The way a lot of philosophers make up their minds about things is they consider some question and then they find an argument, and if the argument seems like it gets them a conclusion, that’s enough for them: they stop, because they can’t think of any more arguments.
“The way a lot of philosophers make up their minds about things is they consider some question and then they find an argument, and if the argument seems like it gets them a conclusion, that’s enough for them: they stop, because they can’t think of any more arguments.”
- Speaker
- Elijah Millgram
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler