I like to think of death as a door. I watch people go through but they never come back through and I never see them again once they have gone through. Do they cease to exist after they go through? Do they continue to exist after they go through? The only sensible answer I can come up with, in the absence of additional information, is simply: "I don't know." We say that death is a certainty but all we can really be certain of is that we are no longer here (wherever here is). Yet, many people would rather accept the nothingness of everyone they've ever loved and their own impending nothingness than accept the uncertainty of not knowing what happens when we die. This seems to be proof that we fear the unknown more than we fear death.
This. I’m afraid of not existing, but somebody who posted their NDE said their experience was “not veint able to think, or feel emotion, all that existed was the awareness I was dead and couldn’t exist anymore” and that sounds fucking terrifying. Existing without fluid thought or emotions, and being rendered to the most basic elements of awareness, sounds even worse
You are framing your relationship with death via "Pascal's wager". "Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, he stands to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (an eternity in Hell)." -wikipedia
This is in large part a consequence of the post Enlightenment proliferation of mechanical materialism philosophies. While many people criticize religious people for “Inventing a bunch of added features to reality that have no evidence of existence”…Materialism errs to the opposition extreme, by pretending that a lot of intuitively knowable aspects of reality aren’t actually real. How many of us fear death as being eternal oblivion MORE SO then we would had we not lived in societies that tout blind matter in motion philosophies as “The champion position of reason”? Humans are by default spiritually oriented. Much of society attempts to “Intellectually shame us out of that.” After awhile you don’t even recognize that society has been philosophically nudging you into the Materialism direction your entire life.
I have just finished reading the denial of death. I really enjoyed it and this video summarize it really well, but I have also been a fan of the Academy of ideas for nearly 5 years now I must say your videos have came along way, perhaps you as well are in the denial of death and are creating these videos to share knowledge that will outlast you for a millennia. Either way, thank you.
You actions dont have to be of cosmic significance. If you actions can help reduce pain, that's significant enough as pain is experienced in an individual level. You can imagine yourself lying on the side of the road, legs blown off, and would you say that someone's decision to help you or not is all the same, as it is cosmically insignificant?
He was right the most, no one is always right, let's do philosophy and not a personality cult :) But I'm glad too see this leviathan of thought getting the recognition he deserves. Everything after this guy is either a minor development of him or an outright irrational denial of him (Nietzsche, existentialism). "We don't like this guy so we'll either pretend he never existed or ad hominem the f out of him, this depressed misogynistic suicidal incel."
Epicurus was giving that advice because his readers worried about death. It wasn't a statement that they had already stopped worrying and thought it irrelevant to moral instruction.
This Speaks To My Soul, Whatever That Is. I realized I don’t click the “like” button with these videos even though I deeply LOVE and enjoy them. Maybe it’s because they revel apart of me I don’t want to realize...”Self Overcoming” “Jonah Complex” and so many more of these videos encapsulate my existential condition. Despite the anxiety every second of me watching creates, I know it is helping me to live and die a little better.
Interesting talk as usual. Here in Florida death is an industry, this state is a burial ground for many that retire here. I didn't plan to do so, but got stuck here while visiting family, and have been hit with major health issues that caused me to go bankrupt due to hospital bills. Now I am one of the many entertaining the concept of my eternal dirt nap. As an atheist my focus is on the here and and what I might do each day granted to me, to help anyone in need to the best of the abilities I have left. I had to abandon religion with its main focus on heaven and hell and not so much on life in the present. In my own observations over the past couple years while receiving tons of offers in the mail for cremation and burial deals due to my age, I see so much death and destruction around me due to savagery of other humans who set themselves up as our leaders ( handlers ) to send men and women off to kill other humans like a giant chess game for their own lust for power and greed. The medical community having the ability to cure cancer and yet because of nonsensical laws continue the suffering of the masses for filthy lucre!. I myself trying to stay off the cancer I am in remission with must ponder the grand question why won't those who can give so much to our short existence hold back the right of all the earths people to live out the time allotted here on this sod, knowing they too have the same fate sooner or later. So I look at death as a release from the chains of their imposed poverty, war, disease, famine, etc., into whatever the universe has in store me. If we live a good life towards mankind and nature then fear of death should only be in context, how we die and not that we die. After researching the Georgia guide stones and various other plans the world leaders have in store to control the worlds population, I now concern myself with.....What's for lunch ? , for I have no power over these psychopaths to change the course they have set for humanity. As far as Jesus goes for me, I my worst pain and suffering I prayed, pleaded, moaned in Ernest request for relief, but I guess he was to busy with other matters to be concerned with my trivial situation even though the promises made by his representatives aka pastors and preachers guaranteed he would heal me for he had the power but just didn't unleash it on my behalf and those also around me going through the same suffering I am. So unless Jesus breaks his silence and appears to me or the earth on mass scale, hell is here and not in the imaginary great beyond !, as the so called good book states, that was written by the Flavian Caesar at the time and later King James employing Shakespeare to rewrite to keep his subjects in line. As I stated, " it's not as much when, but how we die". Just my humble opinion.
"Ernest Becker (September 27, 1924 - March 6, 1974) was a Jewish-American cultural anthropologist and writer. He is noted for his 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book...." Wiki. Need i say more. The time and space that Becker was occupying was during the height of prejudice and this is a deflection of that same prejudice. Trying to find meaning in an existential crisis. Like my previous comment, we must learn to identify what motivates a writer to write critique of his environment. Becker is like the marginalised communities in INdia. Im from INdia [Indigenous to the 7 islands of Mobaim / Bombay www.bipa.in]. The ancient traditions of the Indigenous were to accept their place on this planet and the different dimensions that are associated with life and death. The MArginalised of India too face an existential crisis and have come out with such texts where they question human existence itself. Most opt for Atheism and other escapae'isms'. Becker is one of the marginalised being a jew obviously he dishes out his perspective. Becker never knew of Aliens and the Multiverse in his time. The Eastern Traditions [Shiv Puran etc] speak of various dimensions and inter stellar travel etc. The elevation of self through meditation, the reprogramming of DNA through meditation and awakening your resonant frequency. resonant frequency that helps matter change form... etc etc. Sadly Becker was a minority and faced many prejudices and this is his expression "The Denial of Death". All respect for his Expression. A lot of Fiction too got Pulitzers. SO do not take texts written by others as your cloak. Its his expression his garment. You experience life to the fullest and create your own garment and Express or dont express, just live to your fullest potential. Follow your heart. For those pretentious intellectuals who quote Becker have not lived themselves. A professor who reads a lot and has not travelled a lot, knows little of a lot. :) We are here to discover self and may you have a happy journey. :) K Sera Sera
I always wondered why since we are the only animals knowing we will die someday we are all civilized. However, all animals who probably have no concept of their impending deaths are mostly savage and wild unless domesticated. Humans knowing we will die should be expected to be wild and unruley since in the final analysis it doesn't matter what type of life you have lived. Unless of course, you believe in the afterlife. Many people are dead spiritually, can barely function, and have no fear of the physical death.
I don't have the fear described here, i have a back of the mind agitation not of death but of being incapacitated in my mental faculties. I have seen enough ppl deteriorate to know what i really don't want and being trapped in my head with no communication outside my body's world is the biggest anxiety
It is emotionally comforting to believe that... "O Son of the Supreme! I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?" ~ Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words, Baha'i Faith
Oh, the man of letters and rigorous learning speaks lol. Let me correct you. Consciousness, is an emergent phenomena. Consciousness, isn't my neurons, or my atoms, or on the most basic level, my energy content. What makes me, me; is the informational pattern(or a working,active system) contained in the matter, inside my skull, as soon as the system is destroyed the emergent phenomena is gone from the fabric of reality...Sure once I die, my flesh will feed the flora and fona, and I will be brought back to the earth from which I came and my energy content will be given back to the universe, but "I" will be completely gone from fabric of reality. The "I" was not my atoms, not my energy content, my "being" was the orchestra of organized matter boiling inside my skull, that was me. Once I die, I will be be gone from the universe.
Tempus Edax Rerum I would love to hear you produce one example of non-emergent phenomenon. There is nothing in existence that does not depend on other factors for its manifestation in reality. To single human consciousness out in this way, as a negation, is disingenuous unless you extend it to all phenomenon whatsoever including the universe itself. You won’t do that, however, because it would once again unify human consciousness and the universe at large at the same level of illusion/reality, thus disproving your point.
Haha! You think death is scary? Ah, but "'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished,". How comforting would be the certainty of death! It is uncertainty which men truly fear; for there lies the possibility of infinite hells.
@@anaconda470 Read Montaigne's essay about the death of his friend, Etienne de La Boetie, and how admirably Boetie faced death, with rare courage. It is possible, my friend. Was it Cicero who said, "Life is preparation for death"? Live so that when death finds you, he isn't weighed down with bundles of bad karma. "The only way I know is courage." - Shelby Steele
I've always taken a pragmatic view of death. Either we are conscious after death or not. In any event I won't know what to do with death until I'm dead.. That is, if there is life after death. How could I ever fear what I've not experienced?
Death is the greatest invention of life for in the face of death all trivialities fall away and only the essential remains: Am I dead ? Or Am I breathing ? Death is a great opportunity to be no I
"The boundless impotence of your contemporaries has robbed you of your life. He who, like you, was affronted in his whole soul no longer reposes in an individual joy; he who, like you, has felt the insipid nothing is exhilarated only in the highest spirit; he who experienced death as you did recovers only among the gods. Fortunate are all those who do not understand you. Whoever understands you must share your greatness and your despair." - Friedrich Hölderlin (Hyperion)
I couldn’t possibly disagree any stronger with “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.” Huh?? This statement that people often make, that so long as you’re remembered you live on, this is probably the worst equivocation that I hear people make. No, the deep rooted fears about death are most definitely about the fear of an eternally extinguished existence. And the idea that you will be remembered after you’re gone is totally trivial and completely distinct from a fear of not having existence anymore. These two senses of “Living on” are not even close to the same thing.
You can flee the anxiety of your death, by falling in to the collective being of your culture, by becoming a oneself, as in “that is what one does.”The They will teach you how to flee from the certainty of your death by considering its indefiniteness, you will treat it as actual event sometime time off, something I will deal with later. But it is an ever present possibility, not a future actuality, you could die at any moment, you should BE towards this possibility, choose the meaning of your own life, while you still can.
I learned of Becker from Brian Greene in his book Until the End of Time and through his recent World Science Festival conversation with Karen Armstrong. I ordered the book from my local library. I have completed the first two chapters and and am beginning the third. On page 26 the author writes, “…the Eastern sages also knew, man is a worm and food for worms.” Really? Man is a mammal. Man is a primate. Life is marvelous! Cells are marvelous! Evolution is marvelous! I prefer to remember the words of Carl Sagan. We are star stuff! We are a way for the universe to know itself. The Christian Bible, in an attempt to humble humans, has Jesus say, “Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust you shall return.” We don’t have to think negatively. We are star stuff. We will always be star stuff. SPONCH. Sulphur, Phosphorus, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Hydrogen. These are the most abundant elements in the Universe. We are composed of these very same elements. Becker talks about Western and Eastern religions. He knows little to nothing about indigenous mythology. Indigenous peoples respect the earth and see humans as equal to the rocks, rivers, plants and animals. They see all of creation as elders. Mythology, yes, but in these times, very helpful mythology.
So despite being a deep thinker, this guy didn't take this any further. The way I understand human behavior... we live in a state, not just of denial, but of rationalization. What does that mean? It means that we have biases as we try to understand ourselves in relation to the world and visa versa. As our circumstances change, our needs change. Our truths in a new situation take on a different meaning. We are in a state of flux, always. We feel vulnerable, so we speak in unreasonable terms. We talk about guarantees, forever, promises... things which if we were honest would be out of our control. You speak of time, being able to foresee consequences. How being able to estimate, measure, weigh, contrast, compare, calculate, theorize... we're so much more adaptable than other creatures on earth. You don't bring up the issue that human beings use fantasies to motivate themselves or how those imaginings can also lead to temptation. You don't mention vice and how people are slaves to their desires.
Academy of Ideas, can you (or anyone reading this) tell me the title of the painting shown at 1:00, and the name of the artist who painted it ?? I've been curious about it, since I first saw the image, during a slide presentation, in one of my classes during college. That was about 20 years ago, and I did get the information at the time, but quickly lost/ forgot it. I think of that painting often and I just really like it a lot. I would be very grateful to anyone with any information. Thanks for a great video.
@@MikeS-um1nm Self-Portrait with Death playing the fiddle, by Arnold Böcklin You know all you needed to do to find it was just search "Self-Portrait with Death" into Google lol.
@@robertjordan355 Thank you!!! I remember the artist's name now that you told me! You're right. I didn't think to try and Google it, with what might be an obvious title. I just hoped that some nice and helpful person, like you, might give me an answer, and YOU DID!! THANKS!!
Well significance/meaningfulness is always relative, in other words, a matter of perspective. To the the universe I am insignificant, but to my spouse, or to my cats, I am significant. Cosmic or not, significance/meaningfulness will always be a matter of perspective, never a matter of objective truth. So the statement “this is insignificant” is worthless on its own.
I once argued with one of my teachers about why people fear death. She said it was because it was innate to humans. But i never had that drive, i always knew it was going to happen and that's it. Both my parents think alike. So i was thinking that maybe it's not so innate but kind of a social feedback. Some might have thought about that and then it spread like a disease, some kind of cultural thing that everyone asked because they all saw the rest asking the same.
I wish I wasn't afraid of death. It is the greatest terror I have experienced. My imagination brings me to the very point of death, knowing I cannot stop myself from going over that waterfall into nothingness. It's not so much that what is after death scares me- most likely there is no experience- but the suffering and fear that precedes it and the fact that I will not be able to experience all of the good things of life, that I'll never be able to learn the secret of existence- like an unfinished story.
Dont be. Understand its his observation of his era and environment or surrounding which at that time must have been frustrating for him Becker. He himself must have been facing an existential crisis. Learn to question everything instead of making Becker your idol without investigation :)
A Buddhist understanding of this tries to correct man's attachment to his animality, namely, the false self or anatmam which begins in its mother's womb. Our true self or spirit, which animates all life, is the true self or atman. But it is not animated and rather recognizes itself clearing away completely ignorance or avidya.
is it really that big a deal to accept that we will die and live in awareness of that idea? it makes your head free of a lot of stupid shit i feel...and allows you to focus on being eternally significant :D
Death only concerns us with what we leave behind, we are usually unconcerned about what after death. A proof of that is how the main concern of all during their lives is how well can they get their children settled, a deed in the realm of living, what happens later is usually an after thought. Tbh the idea of death brings the best out of a human.
To me, What is more terrifying then death is living and knowing that I will never reunite with my loved ones and loved pets because, no matter how much religion lies and we lue to ourselves, there is no afterlife. Death itself is like being under anesthesia and never waking up, which is painless.
If you're getting older, you feel yourself dying as your powers and appearance decline. It's that slow dying that's the problem. Best solution to that is an anecdote from Pablo Casals who when asked by a interview why he still practiced so much at 84: "Because I still think I can get better." Live as much life as you can NOW. I don't agree with Becker's narcissistic take on us. It all seems to revolve on egotism. Get over your ego and enjoy vitality. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU'RE IMPORTANT.
Death becomes a promise . . . is backing a promise its need to concede? The whim of futility is odd when you look at all the ways people die . . . Death becomes a trident measure of worldly deeds! Death is a path to the ultimate knowledge . . . Knowledge being a way to make life stronger for yourself! Nothing changes this philosophy, you grow through your knowledge to ascertain your bodies decay . . . be it anything, and it is like life in that it does not respond, only dictate!
But let's think. Most animals fear death in a inconsciente way. If you run to a bird, it will fly away. All this is logic. But... It's proved that mouse, cats, elephants and dogs dream. And dreams feel allways real, what means cats and dogs can dream about death. What means that dogs and cats also have the concept of dying, just in a different layer of us.
Leaving attachments behind may be the purpose. Last attachment to give up is to give your body you lived with for so long.. We don't know anything for sure but it's scary..
Name another animal that is as aware of their approaching death as the human animal is? Animals are largely aware of threats that may bring death as oppose to a future that will bring death. So unless these animals have time consciousness they aren't really aware of death as we are.
Mionysus I never said as aware. It's a very difficult thing to prove, but given the reaction of certain intelligent and social animals to the deaths of loved ones, and certain other behaviors such as burying the dead and refusing to eat out of depression, I don't see any reason to believe they don't. Can you prove there's no other animal on Earth with death awareness? Your claim is far more tedious than mine - all it takes is one other animal to prove me right and you wrong.
Okay, certain animals mourn loss or the disappearance of members in their group, but not necessarily 'death'....they have no understanding of 'death,' as death is itself an abstraction that can only be known via other abstractions, the point is that we don't project our abstractions and fears onto animals.
Mionysus Sorry I know it's an old comment stream, but I think of wild animals as having a much better understanding of death than we do. Think of predators like wolves. They regularly kill a live animal, witness it stop moving, consume its insides still warm and utterly destroy it. They witness their own kind dying regularly. They live surrounded by the smell of death. Cats and elephants have been known to take themselves away from their societies to die in a secluded place. Obviously we can't know either way, but I think it's us who lack understanding of death.
butcherax they understand that death exists but not death as deeply as we see it. Other animals can’t visualize or conceptualize death like we can and don’t have an existential crisis. We can write poems and make movies and have discussions about death. Other animals can’t. In short, other animals don’t have this impending doom of death, they can only see other dead carcasses and eat from them.
We in india 😂 never took death seriously ...... Just the death of body but u r not that, ur not also the mind , ur not also the ego, u r, can call it Consciousness itself if u have to about urself READ MANDUKYA UPANISHAD WRITTEN BY ENGLITENED SAGES IN INDIA FOR 2-3THOUSAND OLD BOOKS AND PHILOSOPHY OF (upanishad) can buy of ANY INDIAN SWAMI /WRITER /GURU. , Know bout urself logically
You can never get rid of a rational fear. Fear of heights prevent us of being in dangerous, fear of snakes makes you avoid potencially dangerous snakes. We only can get rid of irracional fears like social fear
'The inevitable nothingness that awaits us.' Are you sure about this nothingness? Fully sure? Is it even possible to be sure what death has to offer beyond it? Faith?
We can't really overstate how deeply indebted we are to you for providing this very important material to us....thank you . Suleiman from Kenya
Thank you, and I agree he deserves more recognition. And yes, Ontario.
I like to think of death as a door. I watch people go through but they never come back through and I never see them again once they have gone through. Do they cease to exist after they go through? Do they continue to exist after they go through? The only sensible answer I can come up with, in the absence of additional information, is simply: "I don't know." We say that death is a certainty but all we can really be certain of is that we are no longer here (wherever here is). Yet, many people would rather accept the nothingness of everyone they've ever loved and their own impending nothingness than accept the uncertainty of not knowing what happens when we die. This seems to be proof that we fear the unknown more than we fear death.
This. I’m afraid of not existing, but somebody who posted their NDE said their experience was “not veint able to think, or feel emotion, all that existed was the awareness I was dead and couldn’t exist anymore” and that sounds fucking terrifying. Existing without fluid thought or emotions, and being rendered to the most basic elements of awareness, sounds even worse
It is just like before you were born: no big deal.
You are framing your relationship with death via "Pascal's wager". "Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, he stands to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (an eternity in Hell)." -wikipedia
@@tartgreenapple I never mentioned God.
This is in large part a consequence of the post Enlightenment proliferation of mechanical materialism philosophies. While many people criticize religious people for “Inventing a bunch of added features to reality that have no evidence of existence”…Materialism errs to the opposition extreme, by pretending that a lot of intuitively knowable aspects of reality aren’t actually real.
How many of us fear death as being eternal oblivion MORE SO then we would had we not lived in societies that tout blind matter in motion philosophies as “The champion position of reason”? Humans are by default spiritually oriented. Much of society attempts to “Intellectually shame us out of that.” After awhile you don’t even recognize that society has been philosophically nudging you into the Materialism direction your entire life.
This is some depressing shit. I love it.
I have just finished reading the denial of death. I really enjoyed it and this video summarize it really well, but I have also been a fan of the Academy of ideas for nearly 5 years now I must say your videos have came along way, perhaps you as well are in the denial of death and are creating these videos to share knowledge that will outlast you for a millennia. Either way, thank you.
We are all practicing death denial, it's to a very great extent compulsive.
😊True
You actions dont have to be of cosmic significance. If you actions can help reduce pain, that's significant enough as pain is experienced in an individual level. You can imagine yourself lying on the side of the road, legs blown off, and would you say that someone's decision to help you or not is all the same, as it is cosmically insignificant?
I agree, you are sharp :)
Faust: "I see no difference from the Elephant to the flee"
I bring these ideas up in my daily conversation, perhaps at the supermarket, but this only leads to silence.
This youtube channel is amazing. thank you
Schopenhauer is always right !
I always say that … the man was not delusional and hes always right
Absolutely.
He was right the most, no one is always right, let's do philosophy and not a personality cult :)
But I'm glad too see this leviathan of thought getting the recognition he deserves.
Everything after this guy is either a minor development of him or an outright irrational denial of him (Nietzsche, existentialism).
"We don't like this guy so we'll either pretend he never existed or ad hominem the f out of him, this depressed misogynistic suicidal incel."
Epicurus was giving that advice because his readers worried about death. It wasn't a statement that they had already stopped worrying and thought it irrelevant to moral instruction.
In other words no one leaves this planet alive. We all start dying the moment we take our first breath...that's life!
Life is the slowest death of all.
This Speaks To My Soul, Whatever That Is. I realized I don’t click the “like” button with these videos even though I deeply LOVE and enjoy them. Maybe it’s because they revel apart of me I don’t want to realize...”Self Overcoming” “Jonah Complex” and so many more of these videos encapsulate my existential condition. Despite the anxiety every second of me watching creates, I know it is helping me to live and die a little better.
Interesting talk as usual. Here in Florida death is an industry, this state is a burial ground for many that retire here. I didn't plan to do so, but got stuck here while visiting family, and have been hit with major health issues that caused me to go bankrupt due to hospital bills. Now I am one of the many entertaining the concept of my eternal dirt nap. As an atheist my focus is on the here and and what I might do each day granted to me, to help anyone in need to the best of the abilities I have left. I had to abandon religion with its main focus on heaven and hell and not so much on life in the present. In my own observations over the past couple years while receiving tons of offers in the mail for cremation and burial deals due to my age, I see so much death and destruction around me due to savagery of other humans who set themselves up as our leaders ( handlers ) to send men and women off to kill other humans like a giant chess game for their own lust for power and greed. The medical community having the ability to cure cancer and yet because of nonsensical laws continue the suffering of the masses for filthy lucre!. I myself trying to stay off the cancer I am in remission with must ponder the grand question why won't those who can give so much to our short existence hold back the right of all the earths people to live out the time allotted here on this sod, knowing they too have the same fate sooner or later. So I look at death as a release from the chains of their imposed poverty, war, disease, famine, etc., into whatever the universe has in store me. If we live a good life towards mankind and nature then fear of death should only be in context, how we die and not that we die. After researching the Georgia guide stones and various other plans the world leaders have in store to control the worlds population, I now concern myself with.....What's for lunch ? , for I have no power over these psychopaths to change the course they have set for humanity. As far as Jesus goes for me, I my worst pain and suffering I prayed, pleaded, moaned in Ernest request for relief, but I guess he was to busy with other matters to be concerned with my trivial situation even though the promises made by his representatives aka pastors and preachers guaranteed he would heal me for he had the power but just didn't unleash it on my behalf and those also around me going through the same suffering I am. So unless Jesus breaks his silence and appears to me or the earth on mass scale, hell is here and not in the imaginary great beyond !, as the so called good book states, that was written by the Flavian Caesar at the time and later King James employing Shakespeare to rewrite to keep his subjects in line. As I stated, " it's not as much when, but how we die". Just my humble opinion.
wow what a read very touching and brutally honest
Atheism does not imply eternal oblivion after death.
Such a great summary
What I fear is not death itself but the slow painful decline of mind and body. This affects not only the dying but all those around him/her!!
"Ernest Becker (September 27, 1924 - March 6, 1974) was a Jewish-American cultural anthropologist and writer. He is noted for his 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book...." Wiki.
Need i say more. The time and space that Becker was occupying was during the height of prejudice and this is a deflection of that same prejudice. Trying to find meaning in an existential crisis. Like my previous comment, we must learn to identify what motivates a writer to write critique of his environment. Becker is like the marginalised communities in INdia. Im from INdia [Indigenous to the 7 islands of Mobaim / Bombay www.bipa.in]. The ancient traditions of the Indigenous were to accept their place on this planet and the different dimensions that are associated with life and death.
The MArginalised of India too face an existential crisis and have come out with such texts where they question human existence itself. Most opt for Atheism and other escapae'isms'.
Becker is one of the marginalised being a jew obviously he dishes out his perspective. Becker never knew of Aliens and the Multiverse in his time. The Eastern Traditions [Shiv Puran etc] speak of various dimensions and inter stellar travel etc. The elevation of self through meditation, the reprogramming of DNA through meditation and awakening your resonant frequency. resonant frequency that helps matter change form... etc etc. Sadly Becker was a minority and faced many prejudices and this is his expression "The Denial of Death". All respect for his Expression. A lot of Fiction too got Pulitzers. SO do not take texts written by others as your cloak. Its his expression his garment. You experience life to the fullest and create your own garment and Express or dont express, just live to your fullest potential. Follow your heart.
For those pretentious intellectuals who quote Becker have not lived themselves. A professor who reads a lot and has not travelled a lot, knows little of a lot. :) We are here to discover self and may you have a happy journey. :) K Sera Sera
I wholeheartedly appreciate this work of yours.
Excellent vid about a writer who sadly is not better known . Plus , it's been a long time since I've heard a Canadian accent . Ontario ?
I always wondered why since we are the only animals knowing we will die someday we are all civilized. However, all animals who probably have no concept of their impending deaths are mostly savage and wild unless domesticated. Humans knowing we will die should be expected to be wild and unruley since in the final analysis it doesn't matter what type of life you have lived. Unless of course, you believe in the afterlife. Many people are dead spiritually, can barely function, and have no fear of the physical death.
Civilised.....where is this? You mean to say there is no place or no persons uncivilised?
I don't have the fear described here, i have a back of the mind agitation not of death but of being incapacitated in my mental faculties. I have seen enough ppl deteriorate to know what i really don't want and being trapped in my head with no communication outside my body's world is the biggest anxiety
To be in this world and to lose a loved one to death is traumatic. To exit this world oneself is to awaken from a dream.
seriously impressed with this channel. vital and interesting material. Love ernest Becker too.
It is emotionally comforting to believe that... "O Son of the Supreme! I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?" ~ Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words, Baha'i Faith
The Universe is One thing, we cannot be separate from it. It's something I feel these Philosophers fail to recognize.
Oh, the man of letters and rigorous learning speaks lol.
Let me correct you.
Consciousness, is an emergent phenomena. Consciousness, isn't my neurons, or my atoms, or on the most basic level, my energy content. What makes me, me; is the informational pattern(or a working,active system) contained in the matter, inside my skull, as soon as the system is destroyed the emergent phenomena is gone from the fabric of reality...Sure once I die, my flesh will feed the flora and fona, and I will be brought back to the earth from which I came and my energy content will be given back to the universe, but "I" will be completely gone from fabric of reality. The "I" was not my atoms, not my energy content, my "being" was the orchestra of organized matter boiling inside my skull, that was me. Once I die, I will be be gone from the universe.
Yet this illusion of separation must also be by design? What does that suggest about this universe?
Tempus Edax Rerum I would love to hear you produce one example of non-emergent phenomenon. There is nothing in existence that does not depend on other factors for its manifestation in reality. To single human consciousness out in this way, as a negation, is disingenuous unless you extend it to all phenomenon whatsoever including the universe itself. You won’t do that, however, because it would once again unify human consciousness and the universe at large at the same level of illusion/reality, thus disproving your point.
The stoics taught flowing with nature, or the universe, as a central tenet
you are doing a great job!
keep it up!
Thanks academy!
I am so afraid of death. I want to continue. I’m deeply disturbed by it.
Same but religion eases this fear imo
@@ibrahimismail7881 ya many times i wish i believed but i can’t.
Great as always. Will make another suggestion to a future video, such as I did three years ago: Confucius
Haha! You think death is scary? Ah, but "'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished,". How comforting would be the certainty of death! It is uncertainty which men truly fear; for there lies the possibility of infinite hells.
Valus the sense of stability and knowingness
Valus Life served as a copable vantage point, a neutral parallax
It's not really scary until you come close to it. When the idea becomes reality. Then you start to sweat like a trembling rat.
@@anaconda470 Read Montaigne's essay about the death of his friend, Etienne de La Boetie, and how admirably Boetie faced death, with rare courage. It is possible, my friend. Was it Cicero who said, "Life is preparation for death"? Live so that when death finds you, he isn't weighed down with bundles of bad karma.
"The only way I know is courage."
- Shelby Steele
I look forward to the next
Assuming i don't die in the meantime :D
Was that life ?
I want to say to death.
Well then!
He lives!
The narrator speaks with such ungodly speed, and sounds so anxious, as if Mr. Death is on his heels !
I've always taken a pragmatic view of death. Either we are conscious after death or not. In any event I won't know what to do with death until I'm dead..
That is, if there is life after death. How could I ever fear what I've not experienced?
Death is the greatest invention of life for in the face of death all trivialities fall away and only the essential remains:
Am I dead ?
Or
Am I breathing ?
Death is a great opportunity to be no I
So glad i found this channel!! My new fav thing to watch
"The boundless impotence of your contemporaries has robbed you of your life. He who, like you, was affronted in his whole soul no longer reposes in an individual joy; he who, like you, has felt the insipid nothing is exhilarated only in the highest spirit; he who experienced death as you did recovers only among the gods. Fortunate are all those who do not understand you. Whoever understands you must share your greatness and your despair."
- Friedrich Hölderlin (Hyperion)
Yes there is you can donate via Paypal through the 'About' page on our RUclips channel.
Thanks for your support!!
Thank you for your inspiration to him who is like god.
I couldn’t possibly disagree any stronger with “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.” Huh?? This statement that people often make, that so long as you’re remembered you live on, this is probably the worst equivocation that I hear people make. No, the deep rooted fears about death are most definitely about the fear of an eternally extinguished existence. And the idea that you will be remembered after you’re gone is totally trivial and completely distinct from a fear of not having existence anymore. These two senses of “Living on” are not even close to the same thing.
Thank you
Can it be said that Ernest Becker is an existentialist or could stand in that area of thought?
I am a paid member and love to read, rather than to listen to videos at work :) Why there is no transcript on the website for this one? :(
Many thanks. Please see the "Ernest Becker Foundation"
I watched a couple videos from Becker's foundation and I don't think he would approve.
"death is the friend of being".
Very AWESOME upload Mr Crabtree
Lovin the extreme zooms
You can flee the anxiety of your death, by falling in to the collective being of your culture, by becoming a oneself, as in “that is what one does.”The They will teach you how to flee from the certainty of your death by considering its indefiniteness, you will treat it as actual event sometime time off, something I will deal with later. But it is an ever present possibility, not a future actuality, you could die at any moment, you should BE towards this possibility, choose the meaning of your own life, while you still can.
Does anyone know what the thumbnail painting is called? I love it.
Amazing job!
I'm with Epicurus on this one.
If that makes you feel better about your impending death, then by all means, be with Epicurus.
I beg your pardon! I don't "deficate."
I learned of Becker from Brian Greene in his book Until the End of Time and through his recent World Science Festival conversation with Karen Armstrong. I ordered the book from my local library. I have completed the first two chapters and and am beginning the third. On page 26 the author writes, “…the Eastern sages also knew, man is a worm and food for worms.” Really? Man is a mammal. Man is a primate. Life is marvelous! Cells are marvelous! Evolution is marvelous! I prefer to remember the words of Carl Sagan. We are star stuff! We are a way for the universe to know itself. The Christian Bible, in an attempt to humble humans, has Jesus say, “Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust you shall return.” We don’t have to think negatively. We are star stuff. We will always be star stuff. SPONCH. Sulphur, Phosphorus, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Hydrogen. These are the most abundant elements in the Universe. We are composed of these very same elements. Becker talks about Western and Eastern religions. He knows little to nothing about indigenous mythology. Indigenous peoples respect the earth and see humans as equal to the rocks, rivers, plants and animals. They see all of creation as elders. Mythology, yes, but in these times, very helpful mythology.
So despite being a deep thinker, this guy didn't take this any further.
The way I understand human behavior... we live in a state, not just of denial, but of rationalization.
What does that mean? It means that we have biases as we try to understand ourselves in relation to the world and visa versa.
As our circumstances change, our needs change. Our truths in a new situation take on a different meaning. We are in a state of flux, always.
We feel vulnerable, so we speak in unreasonable terms.
We talk about guarantees, forever, promises... things which if we were honest would be out of our control.
You speak of time, being able to foresee consequences. How being able to estimate, measure, weigh, contrast, compare, calculate, theorize... we're so much more adaptable than other creatures on earth. You don't bring up the issue that human beings use fantasies to motivate themselves or how those imaginings can also lead to temptation.
You don't mention vice and how people are slaves to their desires.
Academy of Ideas, can you (or anyone reading this) tell me the title of the painting shown at 1:00, and the name of the artist who painted it ?? I've been curious about it, since I first saw the image, during a slide presentation, in one of my classes during college. That was about 20 years ago, and I did get the information at the time, but quickly lost/ forgot it. I think of that painting often and I just really like it a lot. I would be very grateful to anyone with any information. Thanks for a great video.
Did you find it.?
@@JustHindiFootball Not yet.
@@MikeS-um1nm Self-Portrait with Death playing the fiddle, by Arnold Böcklin
You know all you needed to do to find it was just search "Self-Portrait with Death" into Google lol.
@@robertjordan355 Thank you!!! I remember the artist's name now that you told me! You're right. I didn't think to try and Google it, with what might be an obvious title. I just hoped that some nice and helpful person, like you, might give me an answer, and YOU DID!! THANKS!!
@@MikeS-um1nm no worries my dude
Well significance/meaningfulness is always relative, in other words, a matter of perspective. To the the universe I am insignificant, but to my spouse, or to my cats, I am significant. Cosmic or not, significance/meaningfulness will always be a matter of perspective, never a matter of objective truth. So the statement “this is insignificant” is worthless on its own.
I once argued with one of my teachers about why people fear death. She said it was because it was innate to humans. But i never had that drive, i always knew it was going to happen and that's it. Both my parents think alike. So i was thinking that maybe it's not so innate but kind of a social feedback. Some might have thought about that and then it spread like a disease, some kind of cultural thing that everyone asked because they all saw the rest asking the same.
I wish I wasn't afraid of death. It is the greatest terror I have experienced. My imagination brings me to the very point of death, knowing I cannot stop myself from going over that waterfall into nothingness. It's not so much that what is after death scares me- most likely there is no experience- but the suffering and fear that precedes it and the fact that I will not be able to experience all of the good things of life, that I'll never be able to learn the secret of existence- like an unfinished story.
Death might be an end but it could just as easily be a beginning. Do we fear the end or do we fear the unknown?
@@JohnDavidDunlap
Or maybe we fear what will become of the world without us. (what will happen to our kids, etc)
@@laharl2k Isn't that a form of "the unknown"?
Grazieeeee
this is soooooooo depressing
Only if you, as described, are in denial.
Did you expect to live forever? Stop being so greedy
Dont be. Understand its his observation of his era and environment or surrounding which at that time must have been frustrating for him Becker. He himself must have been facing an existential crisis. Learn to question everything instead of making Becker your idol without investigation :)
@@jackb616 greedy? Lol
His book pretty much ruined me dont read it
A Buddhist understanding of this tries to correct man's attachment to his animality, namely, the false self or anatmam which begins in its mother's womb. Our true self or spirit, which animates all life, is the true self or atman. But it is not animated and rather recognizes itself clearing away completely ignorance or avidya.
life is suffering
nice!
is it really that big a deal to accept that we will die and live in awareness of that idea? it makes your head free of a lot of stupid shit i feel...and allows you to focus on being eternally significant :D
Death only concerns us with what we leave behind, we are usually unconcerned about what after death. A proof of that is how the main concern of all during their lives is how well can they get their children settled, a deed in the realm of living, what happens later is usually an after thought. Tbh the idea of death brings the best out of a human.
To me, What is more terrifying then death is living and knowing that I will never reunite with my loved ones and loved pets because, no matter how much religion lies and we lue to ourselves, there is no afterlife. Death itself is like being under anesthesia and never waking up, which is painless.
Is religion necessary to acknowledge that we don't know what (if anything) awaits us beyond the grave?
if your really are scared, try dmt broo
If you're getting older, you feel yourself dying as your powers and appearance decline. It's that slow dying that's the problem. Best solution to that is an anecdote from Pablo Casals who when asked by a interview why he still practiced so much at 84: "Because I still think I can get better." Live as much life as you can NOW. I don't agree with Becker's narcissistic take on us. It all seems to revolve on egotism. Get over your ego and enjoy vitality. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU'RE IMPORTANT.
Death becomes a promise . . . is backing a promise its need to concede? The whim of futility is odd when you look at all the ways people die . . . Death becomes a trident measure of worldly deeds! Death is a path to the ultimate knowledge . . . Knowledge being a way to make life stronger for yourself! Nothing changes this philosophy, you grow through your knowledge to ascertain your bodies decay . . . be it anything, and it is like life in that it does not respond, only dictate!
But let's think. Most animals fear death in a inconsciente way. If you run to a bird, it will fly away. All this is logic. But... It's proved that mouse, cats, elephants and dogs dream.
And dreams feel allways real, what means cats and dogs can dream about death. What means that dogs and cats also have the concept of dying, just in a different layer of us.
I am going to be depressed permanently.
Why?
No fear 🏄♀️
Sounds like he ripped a lot of Zapffe’s ideas
Yes, but Zapffe ripped Tolstoy which himself, if not ripped, was at least blown away by Schopenhauer :)
Worm food
I believe death is why we are here. Maybe death makes you give up all your illusions and that’s the meaning of life.
Leaving attachments behind may be the purpose.
Last attachment to give up is to give your body you lived with for so long..
We don't know anything for sure but it's scary..
The claim that humans are the only ones aware of their death is inaccurate.
Name another animal that is as aware of their approaching death as the human animal is? Animals are largely aware of threats that may bring death as oppose to a future that will bring death. So unless these animals have time consciousness they aren't really aware of death as we are.
Mionysus I never said as aware. It's a very difficult thing to prove, but given the reaction of certain intelligent and social animals to the deaths of loved ones, and certain other behaviors such as burying the dead and refusing to eat out of depression, I don't see any reason to believe they don't. Can you prove there's no other animal on Earth with death awareness? Your claim is far more tedious than mine - all it takes is one other animal to prove me right and you wrong.
Okay, certain animals mourn loss or the disappearance of members in their group, but not necessarily 'death'....they have no understanding of 'death,' as death is itself an abstraction that can only be known via other abstractions, the point is that we don't project our abstractions and fears onto animals.
Mionysus Sorry I know it's an old comment stream, but I think of wild animals as having a much better understanding of death than we do. Think of predators like wolves. They regularly kill a live animal, witness it stop moving, consume its insides still warm and utterly destroy it. They witness their own kind dying regularly. They live surrounded by the smell of death. Cats and elephants have been known to take themselves away from their societies to die in a secluded place. Obviously we can't know either way, but I think it's us who lack understanding of death.
butcherax they understand that death exists but not death as deeply as we see it. Other animals can’t visualize or conceptualize death like we can and don’t have an existential crisis. We can write poems and make movies and have discussions about death. Other animals can’t. In short, other animals don’t have this impending doom of death, they can only see other dead carcasses and eat from them.
We in india 😂 never took death seriously ...... Just the death of body but u r not that, ur not also the mind , ur not also the ego, u r, can call it Consciousness itself if u have to about urself READ MANDUKYA UPANISHAD WRITTEN BY ENGLITENED SAGES IN INDIA FOR 2-3THOUSAND OLD BOOKS AND PHILOSOPHY OF (upanishad) can buy of ANY INDIAN SWAMI /WRITER /GURU. , Know bout urself logically
Remember, philosophy only asks questions and does not provide answers
Tryjng to read The denial of death but it seems like a bunch of psychoanalytic gobbledygook 😄 maybe I'm just too dumb
Lose the fear, the Universe opens up to you.
You can never get rid of a rational fear. Fear of heights prevent us of being in dangerous, fear of snakes makes you avoid potencially dangerous snakes.
We only can get rid of irracional fears like social fear
Nothing new.
'The inevitable nothingness that awaits us.' Are you sure about this nothingness? Fully sure? Is it even possible to be sure what death has to offer beyond it? Faith?
Life is suffering and death is freedom from suffering it makes life worth all the suffering. What would you like death to be.
His voice tho. Ugh
Is this read by a man, a woman, a pre-adolescent? Wtf.