The Path to Purpose with William Damon

Today it’s an honor to have Dr. William Damon on the podcast. Dr. Damon is Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence and Professor of Education at Stanford University. Damon’s current research explores how young people develop purpose in their civic, work, family, and community relationships. He examines how people learn to approach their vocational and civic lives with a focus on purpose, imagination, and high standards of excellence. Damon also has written widely about how to educate for moral and ethical understanding. Dr. Damon’s most recent books include The Power of Ideals, Failing Liberty 101, and The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life.

In this wide-ranging discussion, we cover the following topics:

The definition of purpose
The role of values in purpose
The difference between purpose and meaning
Vicktor Frankl’s “will to meaning”
How purpose is a late developing capacity
The difference between purpose and resiliency
The paths to purpose among young people
Methods for developing purpose
Moral commitment among moral exemplars
Purpose among leaders
The importance of taking “ultimate responsibility” in life
How we are leaving young people unprepared in a civic society

About the guest

William Damon

Podcast Guest

William Damon is an American psychologist who is a retired professor at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is one of the world's leading scholars of human development. Damon has done pioneering research on the development of purpose in life and wrote the influential book The Path to Purpose.

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The Path to Purpose with William Damon

William Damon

11 years ofhuman possibility

11 years of
human possibility