Ep. 25 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - The Clash

In this episode of "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis," Dr. John Vervaeke delves into the historical and philosophical roots of the meaning crisis, particularly focusing on the influence of Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. He explores the rise of secularized ideologies like Marxism and nationalism as attempts to fill the void left by the erosion of traditional religious frameworks, ultimately leading to the disasters of the 20th century, such as the World Wars. Vervaeke argues that these pseudo-religious ideologies, while attempting to address the meaning crisis, have paradoxically exacerbated it, leaving us in a dilemma where we seem to need a religion that cannot be a religion at all. He proposes shifting the focus from historical analysis to cognitive science to understand the machinery of meaning-making and develop new psychotechnologies for self-transcendence, and introduces cognitive science as a discipline and its potential to address the fragmentation of mind and identity.