Episode · Modern Wisdom · 2020-11-02
Chris Williamson & Sheldon Solomon: books mentioned on Modern Wisdom #240
Does The Fear Of Death Drive Everything We Do? - Sheldon Solomon - #240
Sheldon Solomon is a social psychologist at Skidmore College and an author. Humans are a unique animal in that we are aware of our own mortality.
Sheldon Solomon recommended Birth and Death of Meaning by Ernest Becker, and discussed The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker, Destroying the World to Save It by Robert Jay Lifton, escape from evil by ernest becker, Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw and others, Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, The True Believer by Eric Hoffer, Second Treatise of Government by John Locke, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, Consciousness Regained by Nicholas Humphrey, Becoming Human by Michael Tomasello, and The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning philosophical and psychological study that argues human behavior is fundamentally driven by an unconscious terror of mortality and the subsequent cultural mechanisms created to deny it.
Discussed“cultural anthropologist ernest becker who in the 1970s uh won a pulitzer prize for a book called the denial of death”
Where to get it
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Destroying the World to Save It
Why people recommend it: Destroying the World to Save It by Robert Jay Lifton is a psychological study that examines apocalyptic religious movements, cults, and the extreme ideologies that drive individuals or groups to seek mass destruction.
Discussed“robert j lifton a psycho historian who i'm fond of in a book called destroying the world to save it he's like wow we may be the first form of life to be responsible for our own extinction”
Where to get it
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escape from evil
Escape from Evil by Ernest Becker is a profound philosophical and anthropological work that examines how human cultures, economic systems, and historical atrocities are driven by a universal terror of death and a quest for immortality.
Discussed“so that's point number one i point number two in a book called escape from evil which is after the denial of death uh becker says here's the other problem”
Where to get it
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Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House is a famous play by George Bernard Shaw that uses dramatic elements to explore the collapse of civilized pretenses under the pressure of mortal anxiety.
Discussed“and a heartbreak house one of my favorite plays he says uh when the angel of death sounds his trumpet the pretenses of civilization are blown from men's heads into the mud”
Where to get it
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Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt is a foundational historical and political analysis examining the origins, mechanisms, and societal conditions that give rise to authoritarian regimes and totalitarian control.
Discussed“because it is well known a woman i like hannah arendt in a book called the origin of totalitarianism uh after written in the 1950s she just points out that um you know it's pretty much the same playbook”
Where to get it
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The Origins of Totalitarianism
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt is a foundational political science text that examines the historical roots, psychosocial conditions, and structural mechanisms that allowed Nazism and Stalinism to rise in the twentieth century.
Discussed“hannah arendt in a book called the origin of totalitarianism after written in the 1950s she just points out that um you know it's pretty much the same playbook”
Where to get it
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The True Believer
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer is a classic work of social psychology that examines the nature of mass movements, fanaticism, and the underlying motivations that drive individuals to embrace extreme collective beliefs.
Discussed“Another guy i like a lot eric hoffer wrote a book called the true believer and what all these kind of leaders do”
Where to get it
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Second Treatise of Government
Second Treatise of Government by John Locke is a foundational work of classical political philosophy published in 1689 that articulates natural rights theory, arguing that legitimate government authority derives from the consent of the governed and that individuals possess inherent rights to life, liberty, and property.
Discussed“in fact uh who's it john locke in his second treatise on government that was at 1690 he said look anything that really matters anything that is real there's an upper limit to how much you can want”
Where to get it
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The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes is a provocative 1976 psychological study proposing that ancient humans were not consciously self-aware but instead operated with a bicameral mind that heard divine auditory hallucinations.
Discussed“uh julian james the origin of consciousness and the breakdown of the bicameral mind and so to answer your question and that's one of my favorite books”
Where to get it
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The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is a foundational work of popular science that presents a gene-centric view of evolution, arguing that natural selection operates primarily at the level of genes rather than individuals or species.
Discussed“and even folks uh like um oh selfish gene richard dawkins he writes in the 1970s that he finds it inconceivable that consciousness uh has no functional value”
Where to get it
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Consciousness Regained
Consciousness Regained by Nicholas Humphrey is a thought-provoking exploration of the origins of human consciousness, proposing that subjective experience evolved primarily to help individuals navigate complex social environments.
Discussed“nicholas humphrey who's a british guy he wrote a book called consciousness regained i think in the 1980s and um i favor his view which is that consciousness may have evolved”
Where to get it
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Becoming Human
Discussed“there's a book by a famous guy he's a primatologist michael tomasello at the max planck institute in germany it's called becoming human”
Where to get it
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The Power Elite
The Power Elite by C.
Discussed“a guy named c wright mills in a book called the power elite written in the 1950s he made the same point”
Where to get it
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Birth and Death of Meaning
Birth and Death of Meaning by Ernest Becker is an exploration of human psychology and culture framed primarily through an evolutionary and psychoanalytic lens.
Recommended“i would say uh that ernest becker's the denial of death or another book called the birth and death of meaning are where we got our ideas from”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“we wrote a book called the worm at the core on the role of death in life and it was our desire uh to uh present these ideas in a conversational manner”