I remember when Jordan Petersons lectures first came to my attention.
It was like someone using words to describe the thoughts I had been mulling over for years.
He quickly became the darling of several networks of my friends and the response was similar. For those of us who had experienced any type of deconstruction of Christian faith (and by “deconstruction” i refer to a spectrum of intellectual, emotional and meaning structure “reordering” or “re-analysis”)
The beauty of listening to Peterson is he sends you down rabbit holes of perpetually complicating mystery. I found myself reading Erich Nueman, Carl Jung, Freud, Piaget and even Karl Rogers. But instead of random information, their ideas had significance to me and relevance.
Jordan started his own podcast, and began interviewing scientists and specialists about more advanced topics.
The episode with John Vervaeke, a fellow professor at the university of Toronto was fascinating. It was Jordan encountering another intellectual who had engaged and wrestled with these deeper concepts of “what is meaning” and “what is the framework in which we look at the world”?
Sam Harris became instantly lost when Jordan tried to begin a rudimentary discussion and definition of these “frames of reference”.
Vervaeke made me want to cheer, he shot out of the gate, neck and neck with Peterson, and then started challenging and grappling with assertions and interpretations that stretched even Peterson’s umvelt.
Listen to that episode here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4nmiBDW3KYH1MrCaN7KSwn?si=5o1Q4yJHSp-LU8_ij4ZaBg&dl_branch=1
So that is how i discovered Vervaeke’s take on the “Meaning Crisis”
It turns out he has dozens of lectures tracing philosophy and worldviews back into the shadows of antiquity.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLND1JCRq8Vuh3f0P5qjrSdb5eC1ZfZwWJ
There will be further posts about specific lectures and concepts i found particularly salient, but i wanted to start with an introduction.
Enjoy the rabbit hole fellow seekers.
PA