147. Confidence
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Don’t shy away from this one! In episode 147 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss confidence. Modernity has created a crisis of confidence, leading to the demand that we all maximize our confidence. But what is confidence? Is it a personality trait or a relational concept? What causes under- and over-confidence? And is instilling confidence an equity issue? Your hosts think through Charles Pépin’s pillars of confidence, Don A. Moore’s formula for calibrating your confidence, and the gendered nature of confidence through bodily expressions. In the Substack bonus segment, Ellie tells an embarrassing story which reveals the situational nature of confidence, and they discuss the relationship between confidence and nature.
Works discussed:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”
Don A. Moore, Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely
Charles Pépin, Self-Confidence: A Philosophy
Iris Marion Young, “Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body”
Highlight: Self-Confidence from Others
Charles Pépin believes that confidence is a relational concept
Confidence is propped up by pillars—one the most important of which is other people
He rejects what David calls “the spider web theory of confidence,” or the idea that self-confidence is something that the individual builds entirely on their own
Anne Dufourmantelle’s quote “There is no such thing as a lack of self-confidence that doesn’t exist” is significant for Pépin relational confidence
If you lack self-confidence, it’s because you lack confidence that other people should’ve given to you
This idea has further complications for equality (who gets other people’s confidence, and thus self-confidence?) and internal pressure (when one receives confidence from others, but feels like they cannot live up to it)
Yet, still, it is not enough to rely on others’ confidence
We must also have confidence stemming from ourselves, which is another one of Pépin’s pillars
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