Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Thank God for Incognito Mode

Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde really gets the juices flowing. Rich tells on himself big time, we find out we're all faking our authentic selves, and Benny is forced to bite some weird philosophical bullets. The Ring of Gyges: Are all men secretly depraved? How much bad stuff would you actually do if you had total anonymity? Rich says a lot; Benny is suspiciously optimistic. A typology of evil: Teasing out the banality of evil vs sociopathic indifference vs pure sadism. Where does Hyde fit? How does someone develop a taste for cruelty? On the opponent process model, why serial killers escalate, and our porn viewing habits. Virtue ethics vs utilitarian brain: Rich is losing faith in galaxy-brained consequentialist reasoning. Can you corrupt yourself by consuming bad things even if no one is harmed? On the Westworld problem, violent video games, and other gnarly thought experiments. Incongruous f*ggots: do we feel like a unified self or a coalition of competing entities? Why does Cam hide his books when his uncle comes to visit? On code-switching and the different masks we wear. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Listener mail: Nicole and Stefan (00:06:48) synopsis and the big twist (00:16:25) The perfect crime (00:21:53) Hyde's sordid pleasures (00:24:16) the Ring of Gyges: are people good when no one's watching? (00:29:43) A typology of evil (00:38:49) Developing a taste for sin (00:51:14) utilitarian brain vs virtue ethics (01:05:34) Is there anything beneath the mask   WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at [email protected] to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question.   NEXT ON THE READING LIST: American Pastoral — Philip Roth