Silk Road Seminar - Jonathan Pageau

Oct 23, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Jonathan Pageau, a noted Canadian artist and icon carver, delves into the profound links between art, symbolism, and contemporary meaning. He highlights how modern disconnections between truth, goodness, and beauty lead to nihilism. Through intriguing concepts like the interpenetration of the transcendentals and the role of beauty as relational, Jonathan emphasizes the importance of restoring a communal sense of purpose. He also offers practical examples that relate these philosophical ideas to everyday experiences.

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INSIGHT

Collapse Of Modern Dichotomies

John Vervaeke collapses modern dichotomies to reunite truth, goodness, and beauty as interpenetrating transcendentals.
He argues relevance-realization is primordial and collapses the fact/value split, enabling an ontological grounding for goodness.

INSIGHT

Beauty, Truth, And Goodness As Dynamics

Vervaeke frames beauty as emergence of intelligibility and truth as selective constraints that rule possibilities in or out.
He positions goodness as the self-organizing loop that binds emergence (beauty) and emanation (truth).

INSIGHT

Enabling Vs Selective Constraints

Using complexity theory, Vervaeke distinguishes enabling constraints (enable possibility) from selective constraints (rule possibilities).
He maps enabling constraints to beauty/intelligibility and selective constraints to truth.

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Thank you for joining us for our monthly Silk Road Seminar!

Today's guest is @JonathanPageau Jonathan Pageau is a Canadian artist, writer, and public thinker exploring the patterns that unite art, symbolism, and meaning. As an icon carver and lecturer on symbolic thinking, Jonathan has become a prominent voice in the growing movement to recover traditional ways of seeing the world. His work brings together theology, myth, and modern culture to help audiences rediscover the sacred patterns underlying reality.

He is the host of The Symbolic World, a popular podcast and YouTube channel where he examines culture, art, and current events through the lens of symbolism and story. Jonathan's insights have made him a sought-after speaker at universities, conferences, and major podcasts, including appearances on Jordan Peterson's podcast and The Portal with Eric Weinstein.

Beyond his media work, Jonathan is a skilled icon carver in the Orthodox Christian tradition, producing liturgical and commissioned pieces that embody the very principles he teaches. He is also the editor of The Orthodox Arts Journal and co-founder of Symbolic World Press, which publishes works on theology, philosophy, and art that bridge ancient wisdom and contemporary experience.

Silk Road Seminars are a live event where John weaves together threads from his various theoretical conversations along with a distinguished guest. These hour-long conversations are live on Youtube followed by an exclusive Q&A, where you can ask questions directly to John and his guest. To be entered onto the guest list for these Q&As, you can sign up at the Gamma Tier (and above) on The Lectern at https://lectern.teachable.com/p/lectern-lounge Currently enrolled university students at all levels up to doctoral studies get free access to the Q&A. To gain access to Silk Road seminars, please email your proof of student identity to ethan@vervaekefoundation.org to be added to the guest list and watch previous seminars as well!

If you would like to donate purely out of goodwill to support John's work, please consider joining our Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/johnvervaeke.

The Vervaeke Foundation is committed to advancing the scientific pursuit of wisdom and creating a significant impact on the world. https://vervaekefoundation.org/

If you would like to learn and engage regularly in practices that are informed, developed and endorsed by John and his work, visit Awaken to Meaning's calendar to explore practices that enhance your virtues and foster deeper connections with reality and relationships. https://awakentomeaning.com/join-practice/

John Vervaeke:

https://johnvervaeke.com/

https://twitter.com/DrJohnVervaeke

https://www.youtube.com/@johnvervaeke

https://www.patreon.com/johnvervaeke