A Teacher
John Vervaeke
We are starving for meaning, and wisdom is the cultivated art of caring about the right things in the right way.
The transmission
John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist and professor of psychology, cognitive science and Buddhist psychology at the University of Toronto, where he has taught since 1994.
He is best known for his lecture series ‘Awakening from the Meaning Crisis,’ which diagnoses a modern collapse of meaning and traces its historical and cognitive roots. His research centres on ‘relevance realization,’ the process by which the mind selects what matters from overwhelming information, and on integrating 4E cognition with the study of wisdom and mystical experience.
What they gave
Relevance realization: Advanced this as a core account of intelligence, the process by which the mind selects what matters from overwhelming information.
- The meaning crisis: Through ‘Awakening from the Meaning Crisis,’ diagnosed a modern collapse of meaning and traced its historical and cognitive roots.
- Wisdom as cognitive science: Reframed meaning, wisdom, and mystical experience as legitimate objects of study, integrating 4E cognition with the cultivation of wisdom.
The line they stand in
Taught by / Influenced by: Plato and Neoplatonism; 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, enacted, extended); Buddhist psychology; the cognitive science of insight.
- Taught / Influenced: The contemplative science community; online sensemaking and ‘meaning crisis’ discourse.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Awakening from the Meaning Crisis2019
- Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis2017
- After Socrates2023