53 Why Platonism and Stoicism Are Going Viral w/ John Vervaeke
Aug 21, 2023
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Cognitive scientist John Vervaeke discusses the resurgence of Platonism and Stoicism in modern times. The podcast explores the growing trend of ancient wisdom practices and compares cognitive behavioral therapy with other psychotherapies. The contrasting views of Plato and Stoics on human mind and consciousness are examined, as well as the differences between Neoplatonism and original Platonism. The interconnection of rationality and emotion is emphasized, and the transformative power of the love of beauty is explored.
Stoicism provides a practical philosophy for individuals to cultivate wisdom and find inner peace.
Stoicism's scalability and universality make it a valuable tool for navigating the challenges of a changing world.
Platonism's emphasis on reason, beauty, and interconnectedness offers an alternative framework for ethics and transformation.
Deep dives
The Rise of Stoicism
Stoicism gained prominence during the Hellenistic period, which was marked by the breakdown of city-states and a sense of anxiety and insecurity. Stoicism offered a way to address this meaning crisis, providing practices and a coherent way of life for individuals to cultivate wisdom and find inner peace. Its focus on reason, ethical virtues, and a cosmopolitan orientation made it appealing to the aristocracy and the military, which fostered its influence and allowed it to potentially contribute to the stability of the Roman Empire.
The Strengths and Weaknesses of Stoicism
Stoicism's strengths lie in its scalability and universality, as it provides a practical philosophy for people at all levels of society to navigate the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Its emphasis on reason, self-discipline, and embracing the cosmic order helps individuals find meaning, transcend adversity, and maintain inner harmony. However, Stoicism's exclusive focus on rationality and its relegation of animals to being instruments for human use can be seen as weaknesses, as it fails to fully recognize the moral worth and equality of all living beings.
The Rise of Platonism
Platonism experienced a significant resurgence due to the inherent appeal of beauty and its ethical ideal, which permeates all aspects of truth, virtue, and goodness. Platonism thrived by emphasizing reason and the pursuit of knowledge, particularly through mathematics, which grants access to universal truths. Additionally, Platonism's inclusive view of the soul community, considering all beings as interconnected and sharing a cosmic origin, was more sympathetic toward animals and offered a broader perspective on moral responsibility and the search for transcendence.
The Limitations of Consciousness and the Role of Unconscious Processing
Consciousness is limited in its ability to access and understand the workings of the mind. Most of our intelligence and sophisticated behavior are driven by non-conscious processing. While consciousness is important, it plays a smaller role in our overall cognitive abilities. The stoic notion that reason can completely self-direct itself is problematic. Human cognition is better understood as a dynamic interplay between various processes, like opponent processing and self-organization, rather than a hierarchical model with a boss. Autonomy is achieved through the complex interrelations within the brain and body, rather than by a central governing entity.
Platonism, Stoicism, and the Quest for Truth, Meaning, and Beauty
Platonism and Stoicism, though seemingly opposing philosophies, share roots in the Socratic project. Both philosophies emphasize reason as a measure of ethics and acknowledge the importance of a higher standard or an inexhaustible fountain of intelligibility. The prevailing contemporary view, however, tends to focus on subjective emotions and feelings as the basis of morality, neglecting the role of reason. Platonism, with its appreciation for truth, goodness, and beauty, offers an alternative framework that is more aligned with our cognitive nature and can bring about transformation and conformity to what is real. Love, understood as transformative conformity to the dynamic interplay of the true, the good, and the beautiful, holds the potential to lead us towards a more authentic and harmonious existence.
As our world becomes increasingly hi-tech, more and more people have been turning to ancient wisdom traditions in search of meaning. There are two schools of ancient philosophy in particular that have seen a meteoric revival in recent years: Platonism and Stoicism. Cognitive scientist John Vervaeke joins us to explore why this is happening.
