Only the first 44 minutes of this episode are available on the paywalled podcast version (the black podcast logo). If you’d like to hear the full 1 hour 56 minutes of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast, you’ll need to SUBSCRIBE here. If you’re already subscribed and on the private RSS feed, the podcast logo should appear red.

Sam Harris speaks to Kieran Setiya about the relevance of philosophy to living a good life. They discuss the existence of objective moral truths, being happy vs living well, our response to grief, the difference between "telic" and "atelic" activities, the power of reframing, FOMO, bias toward the future, regret, the asymmetry between pain and pleasure, and other topics.

Kieran Setiya is a professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His new book, Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, comes out October 2022. He is the author of Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, and his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, The New York Times, Aeon, and The Yale Review.

Website: www.ksetiya.net

Twitter: @KieranSetiya

Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.

If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.

#295 - Philosophy and the Good Life

Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content