SHAME ON YOU if you clicked this link hoping for conflict! Internet clickbait is a real problem.
Obviously, the wisdom-oriented cognitive scientist John Vervaeke & the neuro-anthropologist (my old job) Iain McGilchrist are going to largely agree. This video is actually more like having stereoscopic vision than witnessing a battle. If you don't have a lot of time, check out their mutual overviews of how they understand the "meaning crisis" (5:46 to 15:12) and then their deep concurrence around the need for sangha, community and shared sensemaking (1:59:10).
However, I do get that you -- at least some of you -- might want a little more aggression in your Emerge feed.
Bonnitta Roy is always claiming that we're all a little bit too prosocial. And listening to these wise gentlemen frame the meaning crisis (ie. exaggerated over-reliance on left brain propositional knowledge at the expense of a more participatory, relational and neurologically balanced mode of wise consciousness, people are not attuning to those things which they would want to have exist even beyond their own deaths).
I can't help but think of that hilariously aggressive post-postmodern theorist F. Nietzsche. That mystical alpine philosopher ventures into places that Vervaeke and McGilchrist do not explore here. What if the highest ideals and values are
devaluing themselves? What if we are being too thoughtful? What if we aren't warlike enough to play our role in cultivating a new civilization? Are we not taking enough risk? Are we not being vital enough?
That's worth a moment of pondering.
And Kudos to scientifically-informed Toronto podcaster Curt Jaimungal for putting these two in a virtual room together around these topics. Curt's arranging a number of high-grade multi-conversations with provocative thinkers lately.
*This interview pairs nicely with Vervaeke's recent appearance on Lex Fridman. Check out
this snippet concerning focus and flow states. enough
