Sheldon Solomon: Death and Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #117

The Denial of Death

Ernest Becker

“ernest becker's book denial of death had a big impact on my thinking about human cognition consciousness and the deep ocean currents of our mind”— host

Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson

“the sherwood anderson guy he's a novelist that i like about uh he wrote a book called winesburg ohio”— guest

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

“i'm with uh a harare with the sapiens that we're kind of we seem to construct ideas on top of each other and that's a fundamentally a social process absolutely i think that's a fine book”— guest

The Plague

Albert Camus

“i will tell you the last line of the plague we learn in times of pestilence that there's more to admire in men than to despise and i love that”— guest

Clock Without Hands

Carson McCullers

“i i'm enamored with a novel by a woman named carson mccullers written in 1953 called clock without hands and i find it a brilliant literary depiction”— guest

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner

“i like faulkner absalom absalom is is a fine book”— guest

The Office (UK)

BBC

“i think the british version is actually more brilliant than the american one but both are pretty amazing”— host

Dreamthorp

Alexander Smith

“it was alexander smith in in a book called dreamthwarp i think it's written in the 1860s he just says right in the middle of an essay it is our knowledge that we have to die”— guest

Homo Aestheticus

Ellen Dissanayake

“another woman ellen dizzinayake wrote a book called homo aestheticus and following aristotle and his poetics she's like well we're not only rational animals”— guest

Escape from Evil

Ernest Becker

“he had one more after he died called escape from evil and evidently it was supposed to originally the denial of death was supposed to be this giant thousand page book”— guest

The Birth and Death of Meaning

Ernest Becker

“there's another book the birth and death of meaning uh which is framed um in from an evolutionary perspective”— guest

Maps of Meaning

Jordan Peterson

“jordan was working on his maps of meaning and we were publishing our work and i i think jordan at the time um was concerned about our vague claims”— guest

The Blank Slate

Steven Pinker

“jordan didn't mind me uh knocking liberal political philosophy on those grounds that would basically be like stephen pinker's blank slate”— guest

Second Treatise of Government

John Locke

“he starts in his second treatise on government 1690 or so he he just he says okay let's start with a state of nature”— guest

Moby-Dick

Herman Melville

“melville does the same thing in moby dick where he he thinks about will there ever come a time where we run out of whales”— guest

Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Karl Marx

“we need to start with marx's economic and philosophical manuscripts of 1844 before marx became more of a polemicist”— guest

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Thomas Piketty

“the thomas pickerty guy who writes about capital and just makes the point that return on investment will always be greater than wages”— guest

Collapse

Jared Diamond

“i'm with jared diamond you know in the book collapse where he points out studying um the collapse of major civilizations that it often happens right after things appear to never have been better”— guest

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

“hannah arendt in the 1950s said the same thing in her book about totalitarianism when she said that you know that economics has reached the point”— guest

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins

“i'm going here from richard dawkins uh the selfish gene you know to i love the early dawkins”— guest

Being and Time

Martin Heidegger

“a year or two ago i i started reading uh martin heidegger i'm reading being in time and what i now wonder is why um why becker who refers to heidegger”— guest

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“you got the the stoics and you got the epicureans and then you got the tibetan book of the dead and then you got like the medieval monks”— guest

Darwin's Cathedral

David Sloan Wilson

“it's david sloane wilson wrote a book called darwin's cathedral and he said religion has nothing to do with death it's a it evolved to make groups viable”— guest

In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong

Amin Maalouf

“amin malouf a lebanese guy who writes in french who in the 1990s i think wrote a book called in the name of identity violence and the need to belong”— guest

Escape from Freedom

Erich Fromm

“it's eric fromm uh in a book called escape from freedom he's like look you you're smart enough to know that the most direct way that we typically communicate”— guest

How the Mind Works

Steven Pinker

“stephen pinker i do agree with his claim and i think how the mind works that it is the key question for the psychological sciences”— guest

The Decline of the West

Oswald Spengler

“another lunatic oswald spangler who wrote a book called decline of the west and he says that the philosopher the german philosopher guerta”— guest

Ulysses

James Joyce

“it took me 40 years to read ulysses i could not get past the first five pages and it took me 40 years to read being in time it's a slog”— guest

Charter Schools and Their Enemies

Thomas Sowell

“there's a thomas soul uh wrote a book about uh recent book on um charter schools yeah i would like to talk to him”— host

Roomba

iRobot

“i have a bunch of roombas here i can show it to you after uh that i have roombas as a robot that has um vacuums the floor and i've had them um make different sounds”— host