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Transcript for Fred Neuhouser Interview on Rousseau | Self-Esteem Requires External Validation

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Johnathan Bi: Fitting for Rousseau, I begin with a confession. As an undergraduate studying with Frederick Neuhouser, I'd only read his seminal work, "Rousseau's Theodicy" so carefully because I was guilty of all the absurd foibles it cataloged. I was obsessed with status and prestige and winning the approval of the very peers that I sought to one up. From Neuhouser, I learned that Rousseau identified a singular psychological source at the origin of all this phenomenon, amour-propre, the desire for recognition. With the clarity of hindsight, it's clear that amour-propre led me to rack up achievements I didn't need, to pursue careers I didn't want all in order to impress people I didn't particularly like. And as soon as I learned about all the havoc that amour-propre was wreaking on my life, I did perhaps what any hasty young man would've done, I tried to renounce it completely. I switched from Computer Science to Philosophy. I deleted all of my social media. I moved to Nepal to practic

Fitting for Rousseau, I begin with a confession. As an undergraduate studying with Frederick Neuhouser, I'd only read his seminal work, Rousseau’s Theodicy so carefully because I was guilty of all the absurd foibles it cataloged. I was obsessed with status and prestige and winning the approval of the very peers that I sought to one up. From Neuhouser, I learned that Rousseau identified a singular psychological source at the origin of all this phenomenon, amour-propre, the desire for recognition. With the clarity of hindsight, it's clear that amour-propre led me to rack up achievements I…

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