Is ignorance truly bliss?

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are you ever happier not knowing something? As Aristotle famously claimed, “All human beings want to know.” But denial and avoidance are also human impulses. Sometimes they’re even more powerful than our curiosity. In this episode Sean speaks with professor Mark Lilla about when we’re better off searching for knowledge and when we’re better off living in the dark. Lilla’s new book is called Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know. Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Mark Lilla, professor of humanities at Columbia University and author of Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:23.1	Who hasn't heard the phrase ignorance as bliss a thousand times?
1:30.5	Like all cliches, it sticks because it's rooted in truth.
1:34.8	But it's worth asking why ignorance can be so satisfying.
1:39.2	If you read the history of philosophy, you don't find all that much interest in the delights of ignorance. Instead,
1:46.7	you hear a lot about the pursuit of truth, which is assumed to be a universal human impulse,
	...

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