The Flow State: A Deep Connection with Reality's Beauty

John Vervaeke explores the intricate relationship between beauty and stoicism. Vervaeke delves into the philosophical underpinnings of stoicism, focusing on its emphasis on beauty as a pathway to understanding reality and virtue. He articulates how stoicism aligns beauty with wisdom, offering insights into cognitive science, virtue ethics, and the transformative power of beauty in perceiving the world.

Resources:

Dr. John Vervaeke: Website | YouTube | Patreon | X | Facebook

The Vervaeke Foundation

Books, Articles, and Publications

Saving Beauty - Byung-Chul Han

The Agony of Eros - Byung-Chul Han

Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis - John Vervaeke, Christopher Mastropietro, Filip Miscevic

On Bullshit - Harry G. Frankfurt

The Catholicity of Reason - D. C. Schindler

Bearing Witness to Epiphany: Persons, Things, and the Nature of Erotic Life - John Russon

The Experience of Meaning - Jan Zwicky 

On Beauty and Being Just - Elaine Scarry

Plausible Reasoning: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Plausibilistic Inference - Nicolas Rescher (Out of print)

Practical Induction - Elijah Millgram 

Inference to the Best Explanation - Peter Lipton

On defining wisdom. The International Journal of Aging & Human Development McKee, P., & Barber, C. (1999).

Wisdom science in a polarized world: Knowns and unknowns. Psychological Inquiry, Grossmann, I., Weststrate, N. M., Ardelt, M., Brienza, J. P., Dong, M., Ferrari, M., Fournier, M. A., Hu, C. S., Nusbaum, H. C. & Vervaeke, J. (2020). 

Time Codes:

00:00:00 — John Vervaeke introduces the theme of his talk: Why beauty is deeply implicit in stoicism, especially in its commitment to rationality and virtue to stoic principles

00:02:22 — Vervaeke discusses the cycle of self-deception and its reinforcement by societal bullshit

00:10:33 — Explanation of how our culture attempts to control appearances to make them easily accessible and superficial

00:17:06 — Discussion on the normative aspect of realizations and their implications for action and responsibility

00:23:44 — Exploration of the concept of 'musicality of intelligibility' and its relation to our perception of reality

00:35:45 — Discussion on the intersection of stoicism and cognitive science

00:39:22 — Examination of virtue as a form of wisdom and its beautiful appearance in various contexts

00:47:49 — Insights into the concept of joy and its distinction from pleasure, emphasizing a deeper connection to reality

00:49:08 — Question: Inquiry about whether the exclamation "wow" in response to elegance signifies awe and how this relates to beauty, plausibility, and recognition

00:51:27 —  Question: Exploring whether stoicism's concept of dwelling on beauty is an intellectual or embodied relationship

00:52:27 — Inquiry: Recognizing the difference between triviality and plausibility

00:53:47 — Question: How to respond appropriately to someone spouting nonsense

00:58:29 — Question: What is the relationship between beauty and confirmation bias

01:00:47 — Question: Has the "smoothing" of reality led to societal disdain or denial of complex narratives, and can individual yearnings overcome this superficially created simplicity

01:02:57 — Question: What to do in cases in which authentic natural salient beauty is misleading

01:07:33 — Inquiry: Suggest ways to self-reflect and determine if one is being truthful or just spouting nonsense

01:10:02 — Inquiry: Requesting further insights on whether stoicism, often linked with beauty and perceived romantically, is a philosophy following Aristotle's path, a religion, something in-between, or if Stoics were deceiving themselves about their own practice