Escape from Evil vs. The Science of Can and Can't

A Bridge of Ideas

What connects your deep appreciation for Ernest Becker's existential exploration of 'Escape from Evil' with your engagement with Chiara Marletto's 'The Science of Can and Can't'? Both books, despite their vastly different domains of philosophy and science, seem to be grappling with the fundamental human project of imposing order and meaning onto a chaotic universe. Becker identifies the terror of mortality as a driving force behind our elaborate societal structures and denial mechanisms, while Marletto's constructivism offers a way to understand how we *make* possibilities and shape reality through our knowledge and actions, suggesting that our ability to 'can' is not just about what exists, but what we can construct into existence – a profound parallel to how we construct our defenses against the 'evil' of meaninglessness.