Ernest Becker Site » Newsletter Discussion

Martin Gardner, 1914-2010 on Free Will

Peter — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:37:00 +0000

From a 1997 interview at [link]
And when it comes to human behavior, while there are some uses of science in fields like economics and psychology, there is the problem of human free will that makes prediction extremely difficult. On this question of free will, as a member of a group called the mysterians I believe that we have no idea whether free will exists or how it works.

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Re: Eulogy by a poet for a poet

Peter — Sat, 15 May 2010 06:30:26 +0000

Emily Dickinson died this day in 1886:

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

–
~~~~~~~
H. TALAT HALMAN, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Religion
Central Michigan University
301 Anspach
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859

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Re: Eulogy by a poet for a poet

Peter — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:47:25 +0000

Jim,

It does echo Rank. Though Otto Rank might have an issue with "even beyond
personal happiness", which seems to be the neurotics view (with his
"absolutized" happiness) of the creative.

Tommy

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Re: Eulogy by a poet for a poet

Peter — Thu, 13 May 2010 18:26:44 +0000

The last stanza of my poem "The First Artist and Shaman" in "Dreams and
Beyond:Selected Poems" ;

Finally, inexorably
mortality is faced and conquered
as the first artist
draws of triumphs.
Deer and bison fall,
despair is vanquished,
bowing to sublimation.

and the Poem "Death"

DEATH
Death is that which hovers

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Re: Eulogy by a poet for a poet

Peter — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:56:02 +0000

"The trick is not to stop the sliding, but to find a graceful way of
staying slid."

Stewart Dutfield

First and last paragraphs of long essay about his friend. The next-to-last
sentence seems to echo Otto Rank.
–Jim
From The Times Literary Supplement
May 12, 2010
Peter Porter 1929-2010

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Eulogy by a poet for a poet

Peter — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:01:53 +0000

First and last paragraphs of long essay about his friend. The next-to-last sentence seems to echo Otto Rank.
–Jim
From The Times Literary Supplement
May 12, 2010
Peter Porter 1929-2010

Clive James on the poet who talked for posterity

If the eternal life in which Peter Porter did not believe had granted him permission to check out the action shortly after his demise, he would have been interested in his obituaries. Self-deprecation having been his characteristic mode both in art and in life, he was always reluctant to claim a victory even when weighed down by the arrival of yet another van-load of laurels. But he might have been pleased to see how, in both Britain and Australia, those deputed in the media to lament his passing nearly all hailed him not just as an Australian poet, but as a poet of the English language. A matter of contention had finally been settled, simply because he had spent so long being the man and artist that he was. His early poetry was so brilliant that the argument should have been over immediately, but sometimes the obvious answer can take a lifetime to become common wisdom.

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Becker reference

Peter — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:46:11 +0000

In a story on North Korea this week on "On the Media" the scholar
(B.Z. Meyer, prof. of International Studies at a South Korean
university) they interviewed reference Ernest Becker for his
understanding of why people largely remain extremely loyal to the NK
regime.

If you want to hear the segment, go to

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Re: Creative Heroism

Peter — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:33:56 +0000

Talat, thank you.
Vince D.

–
All characterological defenses, fetishes and addictions are life-limiting
attempts to fulfill personal strivings for creative heroism in service to
the denial of death anxiety.
V T Deabler, 2008.

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Creative Heroism

Peter — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:27:18 +0000

*
This is a great summary of much of Becker ! :

All characterological defenses, fetishes and addictions are life-limiting
attempts to fulfill personal strivings for creative heroism in service to
the denial of death anxiety.
Vince T Deabler, 2008. *

–
~~~~~~~
H. TALAT HALMAN, Ph.D.

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[Becker] Wittgenstein

Peter — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:44:33 +0000

Quote from Wittgenstein I just received:

"Death is not an event in life: we don’t live to experience death.

If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but
timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the
present.

Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no

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