Why So Many People Feel Lost
Philosophy Why So Many People Feel Lost Rebecca Goldstein discusses the search for meaning, the roots of modern discontent, and how people build purpose in a secular age. The Mattering Instinct investigates what happens when inherited authorities—church, state, family, tribe—lose their power to dictate meaning and individuals must fend for themselves, typically employing strategies she calls transcendence, competition, social belonging, and heroic striving. She invokes Friedrich Hayek's "knowledge problem" to illuminate the dispersed and dynamic qualities of how we all create "mattering projects"—lives worth living—in a world that offers us more and more choice across virtually all areas of activity.
- ▪Philosophy Why So Many People Feel Lost Rebecca Goldstein discusses the search for meaning, the roots of modern discontent, and how people build purpose in a secular age.
- ▪The Mattering Instinct investigates what happens when inherited authorities—church, state, family, tribe—lose their power to dictate meaning and individuals must fend for themselves, typically employing strategies she calls transcendence, c
- ▪She invokes Friedrich Hayek's "knowledge problem" to illuminate the dispersed and dynamic qualities of how we all create "mattering projects"—lives worth living—in a world that offers us more and more choice across virtually all areas of ac
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Philosophy Why So Many People Feel Lost Rebecca Goldstein discusses the search for meaning, the roots of modern discontent, and how people build purpose in a secular age. Nick Gillespie | 6.10.2026 11:00 AM Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google Media Contact & Reprint Requests https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/d2h6a3ly6ooodw.cloudfront.net/reasontv_audio_8384391.mp3 1x 1.1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 3x :15 :15 Download Why So Many People Feel Lost Human beings are "creatures of matter who long to matter," says novelist and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, whose new book is The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us.
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