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The Living PhilosophyAuthor: The Living Philosophy
The Living Philosophy is all about the exploration of philosophy's big ideas and big characters from the Ancients to the Postmoderns with a side of Psychology and seasoned with a dash of Integral. Language: en-us Genres: Philosophy, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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#7Jon Mills: The Psychology Behind Our Self-Destructive Civilisation
Episode 7
Tuesday, 2 December, 2025
Get Jon's book "End of the World: Civilization and Its Fate": https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/end-of-the-world-9781538189016/_______________ Dr Jon Mills is a philosopher-psychoanalyst and Honorary Professor at the University of Essex, whose work bridges Hegelian philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, and contemporary existential threats facing civilisation. With over 35 books to his name—including five Gradiva Award winners—Jon has spent decades developing what he calls “dialectical psychoanalysis,” a rigorous philosophical framework for understanding the unconscious mind. His latest work, which we’re discussing in this episode, confronts an uncomfortable question: does humanity possess a collective death drive that propels us towards self-destruction?_______________ You can find Jon’s work at:Website: https://www.philosophypsychoanalysis.comPublications: https://www.philosophypsychoanalysis.com/academics-psychoanalysis-philosophy_______________In this conversation, I sit down with Jon to explore the darkest questions about our species’ future. We examine whether humanity harbours a death wish, diving into the multiple existential crises threatening civilisation—climate change, nuclear weapons, AI risks, geopolitical conflict, and overpopulation/demographic collapse. Jon brings his formidable philosophical toolkit to bear on these challenges, drawing from Hegel, Freud, and his own dialectical framework to understand how good and evil operate simultaneously in human affairs. We debate techno-optimism versus existential pessimism, explore the psychology behind apocalyptic thinking, and we talk about my previous episode on secular eschatology and we discuss what that reveals about our relationship with mortality. We’re left with the question of whether our species can transcend its self-destructive patterns or whether we’re inexorably drawn towards catastrophe._______________⏳Timestamps00:00 James’s Intro01:21 Claude AI’s intro to Jon02:16 Jon’s prolific output02:59 Does humanity have a death wish?04:13 The collective forces at play05:57 Collective and the collective unconscious09:03 What we mean by humanity - metaphor or reality?11:03 The crises facing humanity today12:25 What Jon wanted to achieve with the book15:45 Universal pessimism?19:41 James on demographic collapse23:29 Poverty decline globally25:21 Optimism on climate26:09 China and the Thucydides Trap27:45 James on AI concerns28:16 Negative trends in prejudice and freedom31:03 The psychology of the Thucydides Trap34:35 Good and evil are operative at once36:43 James’s secular eschatology thesis41:45 Why are most apocalypse predictions Western?43:26 Apocalypse as death-cope44:39 Apocalypse as unmet need gone rotten?45:35 Jon’s relationship with death48:18 Jon’s guest recommendation: Michael Montgomery
