The Shrink and The Sage – Page 28

Should we fake it till we make it?

March 4, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

Like many, I suffer from a mild form of imposter syndrome: the persistent or recurring feeling that one day I will be exposed as an incompetent fraud. I say “suffer” but actually I think some kind of fear of fakery is entirely healthy and appropriate. More often than not, people are where they are by a combination of talent and hard work, aided by a dash of luck and chutzpah. How can we be sure that in our own cases, what ought to be the dashes are not in fact the principal ingredients? …

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Should I be grateful?

February 26, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

Behind the great twin evils of consumerism and individualism – most commonly vilified by individualistic, middle-class consumers – lies a bigger, deeper menace: the culture of entitlement. People have always wanted more, but never have they expected so much.

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Are we all doing our best?

February 6, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

An Olympiad of the least plausible claims ever made by philosophers would be a very busy competition indeed. One of the favourites for a podium place, however, would have to be Plato’s argument that no one knowingly chooses to do wrong. To do wrong is to err, and no one errs willingly. We are all only doing our best.

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Can we have too much self-esteem?

February 6, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

What I think many religions have got right is that we are, in a sense, terminally inadequate. Even the best fall short, which is why there is a whole industry devoted to knocking so-called saints off their pedestals. And it is important that we recognise this: it is impossible to do better if you are under the illusion you’re already the best.

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Is silence golden?

January 26, 2013 Julian Baggini The Shrink and The Sage

Is Wittgenstein’s famous aphorism, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”, a profound truth? Or is it a banal truism, along the lines of “That which you cannot move, you must leave where it is”? It may sound platitudinous, but if you think about what exactly lies beyond the limits of language, matters soon become much more opaque.

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