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Sources of Significance: Worldly Rejuvenation and Neo-Stoic Heroism
Sources of Significance confronts consumer capitalism and religious fundamentalism as symptoms of death denial and degenerated cultural heroisms. Advancing and synthesizing the ideas of Ernest Becker, Kenneth Burke, Hans Jonas, Erving Goffman, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Epictetus, this multidisciplinary work offers a sustained response and corrective. It outlines heroisms worth wanting and reveals the forms of gratitude, courage, and purpose that emerge as people come to terms with the meaning of mortality.
Corey Anton opens a contemporary dialogue spanning theism, atheism, agnosticism, and spiritualist humanism by re-examining basic topics such as language, self-esteem, ambiguity, guilt, ritual, sacrifice, and transcendence. Acknowledging the growing need for theologies that are compatible with modern science, Anton shows how today’s consumerist lifestyles distort and trivialize the need for self-worth, and he argues that each person faces the genuinely heroic tasks of contributing to the world’s beauty, harmony, and resources; of forgiving the cosmos for self-conscious finitude; and of gratefully accepting the ambiguity of life’s gifts.
Corey Anton opens a contemporary dialogue spanning theism, atheism, agnosticism, and spiritualist humanism by re-examining basic topics such as language, self-esteem, ambiguity, guilt, ritual, sacrifice, and transcendence. Acknowledging the growing need for theologies that are compatible with modern science, Anton shows how today’s consumerist lifestyles distort and trivialize the need for self-worth, and he argues that each person faces the genuinely heroic tasks of contributing to the world’s beauty, harmony, and resources; of forgiving the cosmos for self-conscious finitude; and of gratefully accepting the ambiguity of life’s gifts.
186 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 25, 2012
Anton really gets at some important issues for modern living.
"The neo-Stoic heroism...[is] the humble act of always accepting everything that comes to pass yet nevertheless continuing to seek justice and to perform one's social and cosmic duties to the best of one's abilities...anyone who has tried to stay vigilant in accepting what happens while striving to the best of one's ability knows how absolutely demanding and genuinely heroic it is."
The entire book provokes a lot of good thinking and challenges the popular culture's sensibilities. Even counter-cultural responses to the modern dominant culture will find their foundations grounded in the same values. I cannot recommend this book enough, nor am I truly equipped to do it the justice it deserves. Just read it.
"The neo-Stoic heroism...[is] the humble act of always accepting everything that comes to pass yet nevertheless continuing to seek justice and to perform one's social and cosmic duties to the best of one's abilities...anyone who has tried to stay vigilant in accepting what happens while striving to the best of one's ability knows how absolutely demanding and genuinely heroic it is."
The entire book provokes a lot of good thinking and challenges the popular culture's sensibilities. Even counter-cultural responses to the modern dominant culture will find their foundations grounded in the same values. I cannot recommend this book enough, nor am I truly equipped to do it the justice it deserves. Just read it.
March 26, 2023
Cracking book. While this isn't an quick & easy read (as you might/should expect), Anton does a wonderful job of illuminating some difficult ideas in a relatable and powerful way. This book is a self-proclaimed attempt to showcase a more "optimistic" version/completion of Ernest Becker's theorising (think, "Denial of Death", "Escape from Evil" etc.) which fully reckons with what Becker calls the "natural guilt" we all have.
I was hesitant over the posit that we all have a kind of "natural guilt" initially, though Anton does a good job of outlining what this meant to entail as the narrative is drawn out.
Central to the book is the posit that, because of their very nature, humans feel what is termed a form of "guilt" - but which we might call a kind of underlying discomfort/uncertainty - that emerges out of two almost paradoxical recognitions:
(1) having covered over our mysterious dependence upon the larger whole (the universe), while at the same time
(2) recognising that we have often not used the curious autonomy given to them in order to give back to world in return (for the gift of life/autonomy), and need to feel "significant" /heroic in our actions in this direction.
To be able to respond to this dilemma, for Anton, involves both recognising one's dependence, and giving gratitude for that, while also taking ownership of one's freedom, and directing that towards activities that deliver a true sense of meaning for individuals, through participating in what he terms a kind of "worldly rejuvenation".
I can only begin to say here how the above is fleshed out. There is so much great material and such a rich variety of perspectives that go into unpacking these. From the ancient Stoics, to Goffman's dramatology, Alan Watt's theology, Hans Jonas' biology, Kenneth Burke's literary theorising, and Anton Saint Exupery's literature, it's eclectic and impressive in how it's stiches these ideas together. You could easily spend several hours in each chapter, working out how they can bring new and fascinating perspectives to your day-to-day (the content on "ritual encounters" was super interesting to me and really brought a great lens to how I was interacting with others when reading this...)
A great point for me was also the early focus on emphasising the "more than biological" nature of humanity - that we are "transcendent" of our bodies in the sense that we are literally, in part, living symbol systems - handling symbols which we both identify with and then work to preserve, yielding a kind of "living on" beyond the body - really fascinating work. Once you start thinking about individual identities as LITERALLY more than biological, so much more of human behaviour makes sense, which Anton does nicely in the following chapters to unfurl a kind of "mundane heroism" that builds upon ancient stoic responses to the problems of life, and how they can be played out in a contemporary consumer capitalist world.
"Mundane" really doesn't feel the right world though, because this is a genuinely empowering book that well exemplifies how philosophy can reveal horizons of meaning, joy and genuine existential heroism hiding in the everyday. Highly recommended.
I was hesitant over the posit that we all have a kind of "natural guilt" initially, though Anton does a good job of outlining what this meant to entail as the narrative is drawn out.
Central to the book is the posit that, because of their very nature, humans feel what is termed a form of "guilt" - but which we might call a kind of underlying discomfort/uncertainty - that emerges out of two almost paradoxical recognitions:
(1) having covered over our mysterious dependence upon the larger whole (the universe), while at the same time
(2) recognising that we have often not used the curious autonomy given to them in order to give back to world in return (for the gift of life/autonomy), and need to feel "significant" /heroic in our actions in this direction.
To be able to respond to this dilemma, for Anton, involves both recognising one's dependence, and giving gratitude for that, while also taking ownership of one's freedom, and directing that towards activities that deliver a true sense of meaning for individuals, through participating in what he terms a kind of "worldly rejuvenation".
I can only begin to say here how the above is fleshed out. There is so much great material and such a rich variety of perspectives that go into unpacking these. From the ancient Stoics, to Goffman's dramatology, Alan Watt's theology, Hans Jonas' biology, Kenneth Burke's literary theorising, and Anton Saint Exupery's literature, it's eclectic and impressive in how it's stiches these ideas together. You could easily spend several hours in each chapter, working out how they can bring new and fascinating perspectives to your day-to-day (the content on "ritual encounters" was super interesting to me and really brought a great lens to how I was interacting with others when reading this...)
A great point for me was also the early focus on emphasising the "more than biological" nature of humanity - that we are "transcendent" of our bodies in the sense that we are literally, in part, living symbol systems - handling symbols which we both identify with and then work to preserve, yielding a kind of "living on" beyond the body - really fascinating work. Once you start thinking about individual identities as LITERALLY more than biological, so much more of human behaviour makes sense, which Anton does nicely in the following chapters to unfurl a kind of "mundane heroism" that builds upon ancient stoic responses to the problems of life, and how they can be played out in a contemporary consumer capitalist world.
"Mundane" really doesn't feel the right world though, because this is a genuinely empowering book that well exemplifies how philosophy can reveal horizons of meaning, joy and genuine existential heroism hiding in the everyday. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews