BIOL 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Childlessness, Terror Management Theory, Theodosius Dobzhansky
21 Nov 2016
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Lecture 24: get fed, stay alive get laid. Human needs: separated by (gene transmission) The curse of consciousness: we have a sense of time and a sense of self, it allows us to foresee our own death. Acutely aware the our lives are impermanent: natural selection gave us this, but was not finished. It also made us troubled by our awareness. We have a sense of purpose through cultural worldviews to solve their existential dilemma. When people have different perspectives they threaten. Biological evolution gave us: our death-denying*****: time and self-awareness. Reasons: survival instinct, fear of the unknown. Did the emotional cost of eventual mortality anxiety also impose a fitness cost: evolution of distractions buffer anxiety. Accomplishment: structures the way live our lives, difference in sexes. Women are fulfilled through children as a legacy. Only 2% of the most successful people over the past. Men are not fulfilled and therefore pursue fortune and fame and religion for legacy: childlessness.
