Awakening From the Meaning Crisis
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A new year for Philosophy Unplugged
Our kick-off session will draw from the first 2 episodes of John Vervaeke’s ‘Awakening from the Meaning Crisis’ lecture series - Ep. 1 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Introduction, and Ep. 2 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Flow, Metaphor, and the Axial Revolution . You can access these on YouTube (https://shorturl.at/NX5S2), or on most podcast platforms.
I am looking forward to launching another season of Philosophy Unplugged. This year we will again pivot the design of our meetups. Let me explain.
Our meetup exists to enable people to discuss interesting topics that are inherently complex. Ideally we learn something new, better understand and challenge our thinking, and connect with people with different perspectives. More practical, the better. Academic references are helpful but not our focus.
Hopefully this sounds reasonable, notwithstanding the challenges. People are distracted, pressed for time, read less, more remote from one another. Nevertheless we likely consume more ‘content’ than ever through social media. Rather than resist, this year we will go with this flow.
John Vervaeke is a long-time professor of Cognitive Science/Philosophy at the Univ. of Toronto, who, late in his career. has decided to evolve into a version of public thinker. Of course this mean going digital, and in 2019 he produced a 50 part series of lectures called ‘Awakening from the Meaning Crisis’. Episodes are 60 minutes and build on history, cognitive science, philosophical figures and their concepts, and Vervaeke’s thinking on navigating the landscapes of personal and societal meaning. You can readily access these on YT (https://shorturl.at/7mVQr), as well as on any podcast platform.
In comparison to names like Chomsky, Zizek, Harari, Pinker, Verkaeke is a B-lister in terms of notoriety. Nevertheless, by promoting his ideas he has attracted a range of responses and critiques. Vervaeke’s content is a bit of gift for our purposes, given the breadth and scope of ideas and questions that are examined, and keeping in mind that our purpose will not be to agree or disagree with him on anything.
Happy to hear any initial thoughts on this plan and suggestions.
All the best.
Hope to see you Oct 3rd at the U of G UC, meeting by the Starbucks.