We all hatched on this planet and our main life’s task becomes to deny that we’re eggs
Ernest Becker
Abstract
Ernest Becker’s work addresses the implications that arise from being aware of our own mortality. Like Sartre, Becker recognises that human beings have the potential to transcend and look beyond their immediate situation, but his work also confronts the darker aspects of human existence that arise from our self-awareness. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of Becker’s work and to show the potential of Becker’s theory of evil to inform a number of contemporary debates in the social sciences. Although Becker’s work directly examines why human beings can act so inhumanly towards one another, his theory is not altogether pessimistic. The paper concludes by arguing that Becker’s theory intended to create new possibilities for living in more creative and humane world.
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I would like to thank both Ronnie Lippens and Lauren Brooks for their comments on this paper.
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Hardie-Bick, J. Transcendence, Symbolic Immortality and Evil. Hum Stud 35, 415–428 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-012-9214-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-012-9214-4