Ernest Becker (1924-1974) was an astute observer of society and human behavior during America's turbulent 1960s and 1970s. Trained in social anthropology and driven by a transcending curiosity about human motivations, Becker doggedly pursued his basic research question, "What makes people act the way they do?" Dissatisfied with what he saw as narrowly fragmented methods in the contemporary social sciences and impelled by a belief that humankind more than ever needed a disciplined, rational, and empirically based understanding of itself, Becker slowly created a powerful interdisciplinary vision of the human sciences, one in which each discipline is rooted in a basic truth concerning the human condition. That truth became an integral part of Becker's emerging social science. Almost inadvertently, he outlined a perspective on human motivations that is perhaps the most broadly interdisciplinary to date. His perspective traverses not only the biological, psychological, and social sciences but also the humanities and educational, political, and religious studies. Ernest Becker is best known for the books written in the last few years before his death from cancer, including the highly praised Pulitzer Prize-winning volumeThe Denial of Death(1974) andEscape from Evil(1975). These late works, however, were built on a distinguished body of earlier books, essays, and reviews. The power and strength of Becker's ideas are fully present in his early works, which underlie his later contributions and give direction for interpreting the development of his ideas. Although Ernest Becker's life and career were cut short, his major writings have remained continually in print and have captured the interest of subsequent generations of readers.The Ernest Becker Readermakes available for the first time in one volume much of Becker's early work and thus places his later work in proper context. It is a major contribution to the ongoing interest in Becker's ideas. Daniel Liechtyis associate professor of social work and a member of the graduate faculty at Illinois State University. "A wonderful collection of the works of Ernest Becker from early writings to more famous later selections. Essential reading for the twenty-first century leader!" - John Gardiner, Seattle University
Addresses the issue of mortality discussing how humans universally share a fear of death and examines the theories of leading thinkers on this subject including Freud, Rank, and Kierkegaard.
Dalam buku ini, Ernest Becker, di satu sisi, membahas motivasi dasar perilaku manusia, kebutuhan biologisnya untuk menyangkal mengakui kematiannya sendiri. Teror kematian, yang begitu dahsyat dan membuat manusia kewalahan membuat kita bersekongkol untuk menyembunyikannya, dengan menciptakan sistem kepahlawanan yang memungkinkan kita untuk percaya bahwa kita bisa melampaui kematian dengan berpartisipasi dalam sesuatu yang bernilai abadi. Di sisi lain, Becker juga mengungkap, sistem kepahlawanan itu selalu bersifat paradoksal—proyek heroik yang bertujuan untuk menghancurkan kejahatan justru malah membawa lebih banyak kejahatan ke dunia. Tidak berlebihan jika dikatakan bahwa Becker memberi kita cara baru untuk memahami bagaimana manusia menciptakan begitu banyak kejahatan—perang, pemusnahan etnis, dan genosida.
Shame & Guilt explores the differences between these two painful but inevitable experiences. Both guilt and shame involve feeling "bad"-feeling bad about one's actions (or omissions) in the case of guilt; feeling bad about one's self in shame. The deep meaning of the word bad is "unable to fit": unable to fit into some external context in the case of guilt, unable to fit into one's own being in the case of shame. Human experience offers two different ways of discovering that one does not "fit," of feeling "bad." Each has to do with the boundaries of the human condition. But there are two kinds of boundaries, and it is important to recognize their difference, the difference between rules and goals. For though the human condition is bounded, recognizing that reality can be either a choking, tightening experience or it can lead to the discovery of a new freedom. True, shame's negative side points up failure and falling short, but shame also entails something positive: insight into the reality of the human condition. The experience of shame lays bare the essential paradox that inheres in being human: to be human is to be caught in a contradictory tension between the pull to the unlimited, the more-than-human, and the drag of the merely limited, the less-than-human. Shame's healing is to be found in the discovery of how that paradox can be lived creatively in ways that find other human beings to be not the problem in shame, but its solution.
A Contribution to the Comparative Study of the Medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell by Ernest J. Becker. This book is a reproduction of the original book published in 1899 and may have some imperfections such as marks or hand-written notes.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.