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Awakening from the Meaning Crisis
We are in the midst of a mental health crisis. There are increases in anxiety disorders, depression, despair, and suicide rates are going up in North America, parts of Europe, and other parts of the world.
This mental health crisis is itself due to, and engaged with, crises in the environment and the political system. Those in turn are enmeshed within a deeper cultural historical crisis that I call “The Meaning Crisis”.
It’s more and more pervasive throughout our lives and there’s a sense of drowning in an ocean of bullshit. People are feeling disconnected from themselves, from each other, from the world, and from a viable and foreseeable future. Why is this the case? And what can we do about it?
Let’s discuss this; let’s work on it together; let’s rationally reflect on it. Getting out of this problem is going to be tremendously difficult. It’s going to require significant transformations in our cognition, our culture, and our communities. In order to move forward in such a difficult manner, we have to reach more deeply into our past to salvage the resources we can for such a challenge.
I’ll be talking about a lot of people who have spoken in ways that will provide us the resources we need. We’ll talk about ancient figures like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, and we’ll also talk about modern pivotal figures. People like Carl Jung, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.
This mental health crisis is itself due to, and engaged with, crises in the environment and the political system. Those in turn are enmeshed within a deeper cultural historical crisis that I call “The Meaning Crisis”.
It’s more and more pervasive throughout our lives and there’s a sense of drowning in an ocean of bullshit. People are feeling disconnected from themselves, from each other, from the world, and from a viable and foreseeable future. Why is this the case? And what can we do about it?
Let’s discuss this; let’s work on it together; let’s rationally reflect on it. Getting out of this problem is going to be tremendously difficult. It’s going to require significant transformations in our cognition, our culture, and our communities. In order to move forward in such a difficult manner, we have to reach more deeply into our past to salvage the resources we can for such a challenge.
I’ll be talking about a lot of people who have spoken in ways that will provide us the resources we need. We’ll talk about ancient figures like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, and we’ll also talk about modern pivotal figures. People like Carl Jung, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.
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Published January 22, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 8, 2021
This was so good that I considered lowering the ratings of all other books by one star so that this could sit atop the pile.
I lost track of the exact meanings of several of the techical terms during the second half, when I re-listen I plan to take notes to prevent the same happening again.
I lost track of the exact meanings of several of the techical terms during the second half, when I re-listen I plan to take notes to prevent the same happening again.
December 21, 2022
Not a book, but a lecture series on YouTube.
It's one of my favourites of all time. By the wonderful (assistant) professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto, John Vervaeke.
YouTube playlist (video):
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN...
Podcast Spotify list (audio):
https://open.spotify.com/show/43gIWKV...
It's about culture, religion, philosophy, cognitive science, meaning, etc.
Highly recommended. This is a series I didn't know I had been looking for my whole life, and it has converged rather well with my own (secular) spiritual path of Eudaimonia.
It's one of my favourites of all time. By the wonderful (assistant) professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto, John Vervaeke.
YouTube playlist (video):
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN...
Podcast Spotify list (audio):
https://open.spotify.com/show/43gIWKV...
It's about culture, religion, philosophy, cognitive science, meaning, etc.
Highly recommended. This is a series I didn't know I had been looking for my whole life, and it has converged rather well with my own (secular) spiritual path of Eudaimonia.
January 29, 2021
A fascinating journey through ideas about meaning, rationality, wisdom. John Veraeke takes on through great thinkers and scientists, but also provides his own invaluable insight into this important and still ongoing discussion. He has deep knowledge of cognitive science and a creative take on many philosophers. I would recommend this lecture series to anyone interested in meaning, rationality, wisdom, sensemaking.
August 19, 2021
Not a book but after 50 hours of video structured like a college course I have to document the accomplishment somewhere. This is a tour through the history of philosophy combined with cognitive science all focusing on the meaning crisis we find in today’s society.
Loved the lectures as far as they went but I wanted more practices geared toward finding meaning, wisdom and relevance instead of just hinting at what one might do.
Loved the lectures as far as they went but I wanted more practices geared toward finding meaning, wisdom and relevance instead of just hinting at what one might do.
October 15, 2022
Words can't describe how incredible my journey through this philosophical series was. I have learned much from John Vervaecke, and I'm looking forward to repeating all the lectures once again, so I can catch more ideas and insights, that have certainly slipped through my mental grasp (I've counted at least 4 examples, in this paragraph, of the pervasive use of spatio-temporal symbolism in language).
August 15, 2021
Superb. Watch the whole series, you won't regret a second of it. It's a gold mine of knowloedge and wisdom.
July 2, 2022
A great series of lectures to move through. So many great philosophers and their phiilosophies are introduced leading one through the overarching message that we are beings in need of pursuing and ultimately realizing meaning in our world. We must awaken from our collective meaning crisis which are debilitating our modern societies. There are ways to reach for and begin to once again grasp the inexhaustible font of meaning through the three p's of real knowing- the perspectival, particapotory, and the proceedural. If one only merely acknowledges the combinatorial explosiveness of data, but still takes refuge in their citadal of prositional cognition and debates their "truth" from their position on "the right answers to the test questions", then they are in denial of the inexhaustible truth which resides in being and is only realized through atunement with the particular. More, always more can be said and done, but this is a good place to start.
April 15, 2023
Life changing lecture series. John Vervaeke combines Eastern and Western philosophy with modern cognitive science, psychology, linguistics and anthropology to reach profound insights into the human condition, meaning in life and how we should aspire to live our lives. I've watched many of the lectures multiple times in order to fully learn all of the wisdom they contain. John's work has changed my approach to life and shaped how I understand the world. Highly recommend anyone who wishes to explore the human mind, culture and the history of thought to watch this series.
November 26, 2023
Like many people here, I started to lose track during the second part of the series due to the amount of technical terms. I intend to go back to the series in the future and watch it carefully so I can absorb all the information from the second half better. My experience in watching the 'After Socrates' series was a mixture between very profound insights through the practices and a sense of being lost in the philosophical discussions haha. Even so, the simple fact of me wanting to go back to the series and watch it again speaks volumes about how impactful it was in my life. 10/10.
February 17, 2024
What a treasure trove of engaging lectures. Even though we live in the era of information flooding, such substantial and context related information available for free is just amazing. Also to see a lecturer so highly engaged in bringing and making his point is what I miss most in the academic world.
December 31, 2022
An exceptional overview of the history of philosophy, wisdom, rationality, and meaning. Ultimately, the answers to the questions of a modern existence are not simple, but they are profound.
February 24, 2023
Essential reading
August 12, 2023
tnx 4 the help!
April 8, 2024
Lecture series
November 10, 2024
Mind blowing.
April 6, 2022
I hate him for being so God damn good in his explanations but even more in his conclusions.
From the very beginning of the series I was trying not to like his discourse because of talking “to much” of spirituality to my taste. But I had to gave him that he ends up being concise and coherent.
I truly don’t love his way of performing in his modulation of the voice, and on several occasions, I find his passion at yelling at the audience quite distracting, even though I’ve always admired passion.
Also, you really must love the dense material to put the hard work necessary into attending the hole series, due to its profundity and complexity.
I admire him profoundly even though I have lots of criticisms of his theories, nevertheless their very tightly put together. So much so that he will be comented on a series of books on education that I'm writing, Espacio Tiempo, complemented by these theories, authors and ideas.
Magnificent job
Have to give it to Richard Kemp in his review, this sits at top of the pile and is worth re-reading (transcripts are available)
From the very beginning of the series I was trying not to like his discourse because of talking “to much” of spirituality to my taste. But I had to gave him that he ends up being concise and coherent.
I truly don’t love his way of performing in his modulation of the voice, and on several occasions, I find his passion at yelling at the audience quite distracting, even though I’ve always admired passion.
Also, you really must love the dense material to put the hard work necessary into attending the hole series, due to its profundity and complexity.
I admire him profoundly even though I have lots of criticisms of his theories, nevertheless their very tightly put together. So much so that he will be comented on a series of books on education that I'm writing, Espacio Tiempo, complemented by these theories, authors and ideas.
Magnificent job
Have to give it to Richard Kemp in his review, this sits at top of the pile and is worth re-reading (transcripts are available)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews