John Vervaeke, award-winning professor, discusses the meaning crisis and its impact on humanity. Topics include the relationship between wisdom and belonging, the role of narrative in society, video game addiction, decline of religious belief, and finding meaning in death and intrinsic value.
The meaning crisis is caused by a scarcity of wisdom in our culture and manifests as a loneliness epidemic, political ideologies with pseudo-religious elements, and mental health and addiction crises.
Wisdom involves non-propositional aspects of making sense of the environment, such as perspective-taking, identity transformation, and participatory modification, and the loss of traditional narratives hampers its cultivation.
While science and mathematics can help understand the world, they cannot fully address the non-propositional aspects of human experience, like ethics and meaning; cognitive science and complexity theory offer potential insights.
The decline of religious belief contributes to the meaning crisis, not just due to the content of beliefs, but also the practices religions offer for cultivating wisdom, belonging, and connection.
Deep dives
The meaning crisis and the loss of wisdom practices
The meaning crisis is the result of the loss of wisdom practices and ecologies of practices that help navigate self-deception while fostering adaptability. The decline of traditional institutions and the rise of the "spiritual but not religious" demographic indicate a hunger for wisdom and connection. Practices that enhance cognition's fit with the world and cultivate flourishing have typically been called wisdom. The meaning crisis arises from a scarcity of wisdom in our culture, leading to a wisdom famine. Symptoms include a loneliness epidemic, the rise of political ideologies with pseudo-religious elements, mental health and addiction crises. Belonging and connection are crucial for meaning and a lack thereof contributes to the crisis.
The relationship between wisdom and belonging
Wisdom and belonging are connected in the context of meaning crisis. Wisdom involves non-propositional aspects of making sense of the environment, such as perspective-taking, identity transformation, and participatory modification. Belonging to a community and cultivating skills and sensibilities play a role in this. The loss of traditional narratives, particularly the decline of narrative in modern society, can hamper the cultivation of wisdom and meaning. Wisdom is not solely derived from propositional content, but rather from the non-propositional aspects of identity and connection.
Scientific inquiry and the non-propositional aspects of human experience
Science and mathematics, while valuable for understanding the world, cannot fully address the non-propositional aspects of human experience, such as ethics and meaning. However, advancements in cognitive science, complexity theory, and other related disciplines offer the opportunity to explain, understand, and improve human cognition, intelligence, and meaning in life. While quantitative measurements of subjective experience are challenging, study findings suggest that meaningful beliefs and practices do not necessarily depend on specific religious content, but rather the cultivation of wisdom through robust practices.
The role of religion in the meaning crisis
The decline of religious belief and the loss of traditional religious frameworks play a role in the meaning crisis. However, it is not solely due to the content of religious beliefs, but rather the practices and ecologies of practices that religions offer for cultivating wisdom, belonging, and connection. It is not the belief in an afterlife or immortality per se, but rather the capacity of religious practices to alleviate existential anxiety and provide a sense of meaning that contributes to their effectiveness in addressing the meaning crisis. Exploring secular alternatives that capture the functionality of religious practices may offer insights into addressing the crisis as well.
Religious Language and the Afterlife
The podcast discusses the use of religious language to describe the afterlife. It emphasizes that religious language is metaphorical and not meant to provide a literal description of the afterlife. The speaker argues that the desire for immortality is concrete and specific, not metaphorical or symbolic. However, they acknowledge that describing the afterlife using concrete language is challenging due to its inherent nature and the limitations of human understanding. Metaphorical language is used to give some sense of what the afterlife might be like, even though it does not provide a literal description.
Eternity versus Immortality
The podcast explores the distinction between eternity and immortality. Eternity refers to a connection with something beyond time and space, while immortality implies an endless continuation of existence. The speaker suggests that the desire for eternity, being connected to something more real and not bound by time and space, is more desirable than immortality. They argue that experiences of eternity, not bound by propositional content, can be achieved through transformative experiences such as mystical experiences or mindfulness practices.
Fear of Death and Finding Meaning
The podcast addresses the fear of death and the search for meaning. The speaker highlights that fear of death is often rooted in the process of dying rather than non-existence itself. They suggest that the fear of death can be alleviated by separating the concept of dying from death and finding ways to empower oneself to not experience the dying process negatively. They also mention that transformative experiences, including mystical experiences and mindfulness practices, can help mitigate the fear of death and bring about a sense of meaning.
John Vervaeke is an award-winning professor of psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology at the University of Toronto. He is the creator of a fifty-hour series on YouTube called "Awakening From the Meaning Crisis".
Dr. Vervaeke joins me to discuss why people are struggling to find meaning, how we might solve this problem, and whether death poses a series problem for believing in meaning.
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