The Meaning Crisis: Wisdom, Purpose, and the Search for Coherence with John Vervaeke
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2025
⏱️ 97 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
(Conversation recorded on November 25th, 2024)
The crises that our world is facing seem to be constantly growing, leading to enormous and devastating systemic effects across the globe. Yet, the ripples of the human predicament are also reaching our personal lives in unexpected ways – through chronic loneliness, loss of coherence to reality, and a widespread feeling of insignificance.
How do we begin to navigate the crisis of meaning that seems to accompany modernity, exacerbated by feeling out of control in the broader world we live in?
In today's conversation, Nate is joined by professor of psychology and cognitive scientist John Vervaeke to discuss the state of 'the meaning crisis', including the social and cultural contexts that have fostered such pervasive loss of connection and purpose. Vervaeke also unpacks the key practices that he and others have found most effective in regaining wisdom and direction while living in the modern era.
What can cognitive science tell us about the role of spirituality and religion in living a life that is rich in relationships and clarity? How do flow states, rituals, and lifelong learning contribute to strengthening mental health and fostering adaptability? And perhaps most importantly, how might reconnecting with a sense of humility, wisdom, and shared humanity help guide us toward a more meaningful, collective existence?
About John Vervaeke:
John Vervaeke, Ph.D. is an award-winning professor at the University of Toronto in the departments of psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology. He currently teaches courses in the Psychology department on thinking and reasoning, cognitive development, and higher cognitive processes.
John is also the director of the Cognitive Science program where he teaches additional courses on Cognitive Science and consciousness, wherein he emphasizes 4E (embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended) models of cognition and consciousness.
Additionally, John is the director of the Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Laboratory. He is also the co-author of the book Zombies in Western Culture: A 21st Century Crisis, which integrates Psychology and Cognitive Science to address the meaning crisis in Western society.
He is the author and presenter of the YouTube series Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.
Watch this video episode on YouTube
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | we have needs that are met not by having something, but by becoming someone. These are |
| 0:05.4 | developmental needs that are met by cultivating virtue and meaning and connectedness. But look what |
| 0:12.0 | the forces we're talking about do. They tell you, well, you don't need to be mature. You need to |
| 0:16.6 | have a car. You don't need to be in love. You need to have lots of sex. You don't need to undergo |
| 0:22.2 | transformation. You need to have all of these propositions and this ideology. We get modal |
| 0:27.1 | confusion, and that also powers the meaning crisis. We are trying more and more to get the |
| 0:33.1 | being needs met within the having mode. So it's like eating junk food. We're not starving calorically, |
| 0:39.1 | but we're starving nutritionally. We're not getting the needs met. You're listening to |
| 0:47.0 | the great simplification. I'm Nate Hagen's. On this show, we describe how energy, the economy, |
| 0:53.4 | the environment and human behavior all fit together and what it might mean for our future. |
| 0:58.9 | By sharing insights from global thinkers, we hope to inform and inspire more humans to play emergent roles in the coming great simplification. |
| 1:13.4 | Happy New Year. Today I am joined by cognitive scientists and philosopher John |
| 1:19.7 | Verveke for a wide-ranging discussion on how his work on the meaning crisis is relevant |
| 1:26.0 | to my work, our work, on the Great Simplification. |
| 1:31.0 | I've heard of John before. |
| 1:32.9 | I've watched many of his videos. |
| 1:34.5 | This conversation is the very first time we ever spoke. |
| 1:37.7 | And it's my favorite sort of conversation because it's one of those where as the minutes |
| 1:43.0 | progress, I forget that the camera is rolling. |
| 1:46.9 | I was genuinely curious and learned a lot from this conversation. |
| 1:51.6 | It starts out a bit academic with fancy words, but this is a really great podcast that we're |
| 2:00.5 | going to kick off 2025 with. |
... |
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