Death in The Garden #30 Sheldon Solomon - Denial of Death in the Anthropocene
Jan 14, 2022
Sheldon Solomon, experimental social psychologist and co-author of The Worm at the Core, examines how mortality awareness shapes culture. He critiques the myth of inevitable progress and links death denial to ecological harm. Conversations touch on pandemic effects, re-enchantment with nature, new rituals, humility, and practical ways to shift values toward sustainability and awe.
01:52:13
Cultural Worldviews Combat Death Anxiety
- Humans invented cultural worldviews to manage the terror of being finite animals.
- Those worldviews give meaning and allow people to function despite awareness of death.
Death Reminders Increase Nature Exploitation
- Reminders of death make people reject the idea that humans are animals and increase discomfort with bodies and nature.
- That denial fuels greater exploitation of the environment for comfort and security.
Progress As A Death-Denying Delusion
- The myth of inevitable progress is a secularized death-denying belief tied to prosperity narratives.
- Clinging to that myth prevents honest reassessment of ecological limits and policies.
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Intro
00:00 • 2min
Sheldon Solomon and Terror Management Theory
02:02 • 8min
Becker's Denial of Death Framework
09:51 • 1min
Humans' Ambivalent Relationship with Nature
11:05 • 5min
Growth, Progress Myths, and Ecological Limits
16:31 • 5min
Pandemic as a Death Reminder
21:40 • 6min
How Change Happens and Individual Action
27:23 • 3min
Slowing Down, Reflection, and Reimagining Values
30:42 • 2min
Progress as Secularized Religious Myth
32:30 • 5min
Meritocracy, Self-Esteem, and Cultural Costs
37:21 • 11min
Self-Esteem's Role in Death Denial
48:14 • 4min
Humility, Gratitude and Alternatives to Narcissism
52:02 • 3min
Worldviews, Rituals, and Re-enchantment
55:11 • 4min
Reconnecting With Nature to Shift Values
58:50 • 7min
Moral Complexity of Eating and Life's Tradeoffs
01:05:33 • 6min
Technology, Control, and the 'Standing Reserve'
01:11:12 • 4min
Cultures with Healthier Death Relationships
01:15:38 • 3min
Awe Versus Dread and Psychological Payoff
01:18:33 • 8min
Accepting Cultural Death as Creative Opportunity
01:26:06 • 5min
Practical Practices: Gratitude, Humility, and Re-enchantment
01:30:40 • 4min
Did Rituals Drive the Dawn of Agriculture?
01:34:41 • 5min
Holding Complexity Around Food and Ethics
01:39:11 • 3min
Personal Choices for One's Body After Death
01:41:45 • 5min
Outro
01:46:35 • 6min
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Cry for Myth
rollo may
#5982
• Mentioned in 7 episodes
The worm at the core
Sheldon Solomon
The Worm at the Core, co-authored by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski, delves into the profound impact of death anxiety on human actions.
Drawing from extensive research, it reveals how the fear of mortality shapes our pursuit of self-esteem and cultural values, and offers insights into leading more meaningful lives.
The book builds upon terror management theory, which posits that humans cope with death awareness by seeking significance and stability through cultural and personal beliefs.
#1171
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The Gay Science
Friedrich Nietzsche
#40246
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
Erich Fromm
#126
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The selfish gene
Lalla Ward Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
In 'The Selfish Gene', Richard Dawkins presents a gene-centred view of evolution, arguing that genes are the primary units of selection and that they behave selfishly to ensure their own replication.
The book explains concepts such as kin selection, inclusive fitness, and the evolutionarily stable strategy, highlighting how these mechanisms can lead to altruistic behaviors in organisms.
Dawkins emphasizes that the 'selfishness' of genes is a metaphorical concept, describing their evolutionary consequences rather than any intentional behavior.
The book has been influential in shaping modern evolutionary thought and remains relevant today.
#17188
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The future of humanity
Michio Kaku
In 'The Future of Humanity', Michio Kaku delves into the possibilities of human civilization expanding beyond Earth, discussing topics such as terraforming Mars, interstellar travel, and the potential for immortality.
He explores how advancements in technology like robotics, nanotechnology, and biotechnology could make these once-fictional concepts a reality.
Kaku's vision includes a future where humans might transcend their physical bodies and achieve a form of immortality.
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Being and time
Martin Heidegger
In 'Being and Time', Heidegger delves into the fundamental question of what it means to 'be'.
The book is divided into two main divisions: the first analyzes the existentials of Dasein, or 'being-in-the-world', while the second grounds these existentials in temporality.
Heidegger introduces key concepts such as 'Dasein', 'Being-with', and the three temporal ecstases (having-been, present, and to-come), emphasizing that Dasein's existence is essentially futural and characterized by its possibilities and projects.
The work challenges traditional philosophical notions of subject and object, instead positing that Dasein is inseparable from its world and historical context.
#37560
The Slavery of Death
Richard Beck
#331
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The Denial of Death
Ernest Becker
In 'The Denial of Death', Ernest Becker discusses the psychological and philosophical implications of how people and cultures react to the concept of death.
He argues that human civilization is a defense mechanism against the knowledge of our mortality, and that this denial is a necessary component of functioning in the world.
Becker's work challenges traditional Freudian thought by positing that the primary repression is not sexuality, but rather the awareness of death.
He also explores how this fear of death leads to the creation of 'hero systems' and symbols that help individuals transcend their mortality, and how this can result in violence and conflict when different immortality projects clash.
#2878
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Escape from Freedom
Erich Fromm
In 'Escape from Freedom', Erich Fromm examines the human relationship with freedom, distinguishing between 'freedom from' (negative freedom) and 'freedom to' (positive freedom).
The book discusses how the rise of democracy and the destruction of feudal societies led to a new kind of freedom that many individuals found overwhelming.
Fromm argues that this sense of freedom can lead to feelings of alienation, anxiety, and a desire to escape these feelings through mechanisms such as authoritarianism, destructiveness, and automatic conformity.
He also analyzes the psychosocial conditions that facilitated the rise of Nazism and other totalitarian regimes.
The book is divided into sections that explore the historical transition from medieval to modern society, the psychological factors at play in contemporary society, and the dissection of authoritarian societies with a vision of potential alternatives.
#1534
• Mentioned in 25 episodes
The Tyranny of Merit
What's Become of the Common Good?
Michael Sandel
In 'The Tyranny of Merit', Michael J. Sandel argues that the current system of meritocracy has led to significant social and political issues.
He contends that meritocracy stratifies society into winners and losers, based largely on economic status and educational credentials, resulting in hubris among the successful and resentment and humiliation among those who are not.
Sandel suggests that this system ignores the role of luck and external factors in success and instead attributes success solely to individual talent and hard work.
He advocates for a new way of thinking about success, one that is more attentive to the role of luck, more conducive to an ethic of humility and solidarity, and more affirming of the dignity of all work.
The book also explores the impact of credentialism and the need to restore dignity to work that does not require a college degree, promoting a politics of the common good.
#629
• Mentioned in 47 episodes
The decline of the West
Oswald Spengler
This week on "Death in The Garden," Jake and Maren share their interview with experimental psychologist, professor, and author, Sheldon Solomon. This episode was recorded in May of 2021, but was always a seminal piece for our project: we talk about how death denying delusions are running rampant in modern culture, how the blind belief in the inevitability of progress is taking us down a dark road, and how the acceptance and awareness of our mortality can help us turn our attention to the vistas of awe and enchantment necessary to create the more beautiful world we all want to live in.
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Be sure to check out Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death and Sheldon's book, The Worm at The Core.
Editing: Parker Burningham
Outro music: "Parting of the Sensory" by Modest Mouse
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