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

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Podcast

Description

Sheldon Solomon is a social psychologist, a philosopher, co-developer of Terror Management Theory, co-author of The Worm at the Core.

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    Episode links:
    Sheldon’s Website: https://www.skidmore.edu/psychology/faculty/solomon.php
    The Worm at the Core (book): https://amzn.to/31hQAXH
    Denial of Death (book): https://amzn.to/329Zxl4

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    Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

    OUTLINE:
    00:00 - Introduction
    05:34 - Role of death in life
    22:57 - Jordan Peterson
    53:02 - Humans are both selfish and cooperative
    56:57 - Civilization collapse
    1:10:07 - Meditating on your mortality
    1:16:10 - Kierkegaard and Heidegger
    1:33:25 - Elon Musk
    1:36:56 - Thinking deeply about death
    1:45:53 - Religion
    1:56:59 - Consciousness
    2:03:39 - Why is Ernest Becker not better known
    2:07:09 - AI and mortality
    2:21:07 - Academia should welcome renegade thinkers
    2:36:33 - Book recommendations
    2:43:23 - Advice for young people
    2:48:17 - Meaning of life

Transcript