Meaning has to be understood as a relationship rather than an absolute state. We feel meaning when we are connecting us to ourselves, to others, and to the world. His perspective is deeply influenced by Daoist & Buddhist philosophies. We face a meaning crisis when  feel anxious & alienated because we’re stuck in our head, lose the sense of our embodiment. When we feel weak connection with reality (the Dao).

Vervaeke's Definition of Meaning

Meaning in life is the degree to which people feel that connectiveness to themselves, to each other, and to the world that alleviates or ameliorates that anxiety, absurdity, and alienation, so that life is worth it to them…Do you have those kinds of connections enough that you don’t find life overwhelmingly absurd and futile, that you don’t feel yourself overwhelmingly alienated, that you’re not overwhelmingly beset by both psychological or existential anxiety?

The modern world has gone wrong with its construal of rationality as the logical manipulation of statements. Rationality is not the only form of knowing. "We’ve reduced our understanding of what knowing is to merely the propositional level, and we’ve left out the participatory. We’ve left out all the non-propositional aspects."The rituals, our sensations, intuitions, our insights, the physical activities and so are representing truth and play a key part in creating meaning. It's why Vervaeke thinks the Zen masters have a more complete epistemological framework than the best Western scientists.

Participatory Knowing

Vervaeke tries to explain meaning to Lex. 

John Vervaeke is a psychologist and cognitive scientist at University of Toronto. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:  - Mizzen+Main: https://mizzenandmain.com and use code LEX to get $35 off  - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off  - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings  - Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex to get 1 month of fish oil  - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off   EPISODE LINKS:  John's YouTube: https://youtube.com/johnvervaeke  John's Twitter: https://twitter.com/vervaeke_john  John's Facebook: https://facebook.com/VervaekeJohn  John's Website: https://johnvervaeke.com  Books mentioned:  Flow: https://amzn.to/3cQDby9  On Bullshit: https://amzn.to/3PZDvYW  The Denial of Death: https://amzn.to/3KsIctp   PODCAST INFO:  Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast  Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr  Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8  RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/  YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman  YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips   SUPPORT & CONNECT:  - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast  - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman  - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman  - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman  - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman  - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman  - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman   OUTLINE:  Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.  (00:00) - Introduction  (00:26) - Meaning  (20:41) - Consciousness  (29:41) - Relevance realization  (41:03) - Wisdom  (48:18) - Truth  (53:02) - Reality  (1:05:23) - Meaning crisis  (1:28:51) - Religion  (1:36:41) - Nontheism  (1:51:50) - Distributed cognition  (2:10:01) - Flow  (2:29:59) - Psychedelics  (2:38:27) - Marxism and Nazism  (2:50:32) - Evil  (2:54:43) - Powerful ideas  (3:01:34) - Advice for young people

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Conversations about science, technology, history, philosophy and the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power. Lex is an AI researcher at MIT and beyond.

JOHN VERVAEKE

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