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

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