The Literature of the Meaning Crisis

Are you navigating the maze of life's profound questions, searching for a path that leads to wisdom?
"Literature of Meaning Crisis," an upcoming course by John Vervaeke, beckons you into the rich world of literature, unveiling the beauty that lights our quest for meaning. This journey goes beyond plot twists and cliffhangers. John Vervaeke will act as our literary guide, helping us unearth the deeper messages hidden within these narratives. He believes that philosophical arguments alone cannot resolve the meaning crisis; rather, it is the allure of beauty in literature that entices us to embrace wisdom. This beauty bridges the gap between the conceptual and non-conceptual aspects of philosophy, with literary devices such as metaphors, symbols, themes, and narrative structures serving as our guides.
Join us on an 8-week exploration of pivotal works by literary giants like Melville, Conrad, and Dostoevsky, figures who have given voice to the existential struggles of modern individuals and their encounters with the numinous. Each 2-hour session promises enriching lectures and thought-provoking discussions. The course features novels such as "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville, "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, and "The Death of Ivan Illych" by Leo Tolstoy, culminating in a week dedicated to poetry, including works like "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats.
The Literature of Meaning Crisis course will be held every Monday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT, starting April 29th and concluding July 1st, 2024, with no sessions on June 3rd or June 10th.
Embark on a transformative journey and join John Vervaeke on this exploration into the depths of human meaning. Space is limited-secure your spot today at awakentomeaning.com/courses-t....
Special Invitation: Don’t miss the opportunity to join John Vervaeke for a live Q&A session on KZbin about the “Literature of Meaning Crisis” course on April 11, 2024, from 1:30-3:00pm EDT. This is your chance to ask questions, gain insights, and connect directly before beginning this transformative exploration.
Connect with John:
Website: johnvervaeke.com/
KZbin: / @johnvervaeke
X: / vervaeke_john
The Vervaeke Foundation
vervaekefoundation.org/
Awaken to Meaning
awakentomeaning.com/

[@Mujergaga20008]

I love this and it's what I have been grasping at for so long but now that you said it I know that it's reliable. I love it when an idea starts to form and that same idea is reflected by others and it must mean something that we reach the same conclusion.

[@lalalalalala739]

Great idea. I would love to see the same with movies, music, etc. Art is the most dependable way to share philosophy with those who feel averse to it, or who don't know where to begin. "The more abstract an idea you wish to express, the more you must first entice the senses." - Nietzsche While there's nothing wrong with making money - especially when it's directed to the Vervake Foundation's important, ambitious, and expensive projects - I do think it might be helpful to charge for a different kind of course than this. Because art is so essential as a bridge to philosophia, doing these kinds of courses/series for free could 1) draw in a new and broader audience, and 2) help provide your current audience with resources that translate your ideas to a different level. I have immense gratitude for all of the free material you have offered, it has helped me more than you know. And I want to reiterate that I am not accusing you of anything bad, I think charging for courses is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. I'm only saying that perhaps different kinds of courses than this should be the ones you charge for. Art is such an effective gateway that I think it would be more aligned with your goals to offer art-related material to as wide an audience as possible. I hope none of this comes off as rude, thankless, or in bad faith. I have great respect for your work, and if I had ten million I'd give you nine. I'm sorry to put this in a youtube comment. I don't like this way of communicating, but I don't have another way. Thank you for all you do.

[@SandraHerreroCobo]

I never comment on youtube videos for precisely the same reason but feel compelled to in this case - I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've just said! To add a "constructive" proposal to your very respectful and well articulated criticism, maybe they could keep the high price for the live study version of the courses and lower the price of the self-study version? To give specific numbers (though I obviously don't know if this is makes financial sense for the Vervaeke Foundation): I would personally be able to afford the self-study versions of the courses if they were under 100$. I imagine I'm not the only person in this situation, and I wonder if keeping the high price tag for the live study sessions might be a useful way to "anchor" the value of the course whilst also offering a more democratically available (and therefore potentially "better-selling") self-study version. Also, unrelated question: Does anyone know whether John has touched on the work of Ellen Ullman? I haven't found any "direct" interviews but maybe he's mentioned her somewhere indirectly or a guest of his has talked about her at some point? I feel like what she says about tech "disintermediating" our collective means & habits of communication (re:death of journalism, politicians tweeting "directly to the people" etc) relates to our "collective relevance realization" --- i.e. the past 20 years of tech developments have radically transformed the mechanisms we use to guide our collective attention (and therefore the problems we end up applying or not applying our collective intelligence to) If anyone knows if/where they've talked about this I'd very much appreciate a link! :)

[@hamedmoradi5291]

This course is a much-needed one for an experiential encounter with the meaning crisis.

[@normaorlando3538]

Prof John: I would love to take this course and be honored to be able to say I was a brief student of yours! But not now and wish you all the best. "I am madness maddened" Captain Ahab Every year up in New England whaling industry they have a Moby- Dick reading with a group of Melville lovers and Melville's great or great grandson reads the opening line: "Call me Ishmael!" P.S. I read a very interesting short book called:"Why read Moby- Dick?" Very informative, interesting and new take on the novel! Nathaniel Philbrick

[@colorfulbookmark]

This is why Dr.Vervaeke is great man ^^

[@ArekStryjski]

I undestend it is not directly connected but when 3rd & 4th part of Mentoring the Machines will be available? The Web page suggest the books should be available now but I could not find it on Amazon UK.

[@waitingforthemoon9492]

I would love to understand why John is charging $400 for self study of this course. This is an interesting example of those trying to resolve the meaning crisis being unable to untangle themselves from the capitalist greed that we find ourselves in.

[@JGMio]

I’m afraid I agree

[@GlockInc]

Yeah, it's too bad. I was very interested until I saw the price tag. Fortunately, there's still plenty of free content online to engage with.

[@steveschertzer5088]

To answer the question as to why John is charging for the self-study part of the course, John is a teacher and a sage. His time and effort is worth something.

[@mellonglass]

@@steveschertzer5088ah, well rescue makes excuses quicker and understanding is less available. Imagine if someone invented an open network communication that was paid for by participation, a university freely talking to another university, without risk of interference, but based on the science of communication and cryptography. Where conventional Elon Musk wisdom came along, was to invent capitalism again, within the freedom of speech, model. Then the pundits could realize extraction instead of ubiquitous education of a social class. Why was ‘social’ not taught in school, where school was likely the only introduction to longer term relationships? Corporate severance, divide and conquest and a meaningless crisis. Loneliness is a public confidence, removed of ‘birth and death’ meaning. (Gravity). Meaningless waste, has removed fish of the ocean, and robbed protein of the land, electricity of a life force, and water as a human right. Scarcity is a gamble we won’t notice these provisions from a natural world.

[@mellonglass]

@@steveschertzer5088someone who is paid to talk, is trapped within not talking until paid. Self silencing is a mental construct of ‘saving breath’ or in other words, dying to talk. The end result is a ‘primal scream’, for nobody has listened. Infotainment, where no practice happens because little actually meant anything. A guru is a self fulfilling prophecy, to walk without gravity.

[@Yu-HuaYen]

1:44 'Poe' not 'Pow'

[@joannapeters4738]

Does all this incorporate Christianity in any way? Just wondering+not yet watched the entirety) thank you x

[@peterrosqvist2480]

I wish I could afford the course, I would definitely join

[@user-gn9os5zd3c]

2nd

[@gabeholm857]

I can’t afford to spend $400 on this course, best I can do is $50. Take it or leave it 😂

[@royaebrahim2449]

❤❤

[@mellonglass]

By price, the filter of ‘have and have not’ exists, this filter is interesting, those with no time but work, have less time or need of study, those with more time of study have less need of paid work for likely they have found community, the construct of severance is from economic divides, the meaning of division has little time for conversation, converse ation, to form a ‘different opinion’ from the present opinion. For the love of money, bla bla bla. For the love of stages, we thought Shakespeare was serious, he was joking, the world is not a stage theory. And with lecture, it has no time of conversation, imagine having a conversation with 400 patrons, eh! That would be a total of 40+ days, so Dunbar is a thing where nobody knows another nobody because everybody is trying hard to be somebody. All the lonely people.

[@projectmalus]

There might be a 2 world thing happening with culture and people, where what is the strength of humanity changes from culture that streamlines perception differences to enable form diversity, to people that celebrate a similar form with different perceptions as strength. An example is the testing by various medical researchers for state or US army or whatever, to see the effects of things like diet. This moves away from a holistic view into reductionism, where the form of some organ they're focused on is expanded by details and statistics which removes the possibility for multiple effects on multiple organs from the same cause. Worse, it doesn't take into account that people have strengths and weaknesses, where the cause is significant in exposing their weak link by putting pressure on it. This is ignored in favor of trying the person invulnerable by replacing the part, and the significant attitude here is that this failing of an organ is a vulnerability, not a strength, where this warning is true and good, and beautiful in the understanding. The person perceives thru their organs and their vulnerabilities are strengths.

[@mellonglass]

@@projectmalus yes, this is something I would term as a ‘matriarchal value’ that looks at the body of differences, not the singular symptoms. In basic terms, a level of nurture, not privileges of divides.

[@simbabwe2907]

But are you not basically saying read the books and do the practiser I do and you will get experiences and insight which are anology to mine? In which way are you than not a savior or guru? You reject that term and want a so lotion without a telos. But you can not avoid it. Either you are a savior with a map or a savior without a map. The problem in the end is that even chasing in action is an action when you are a human being.

[@michealwalli7324]

Greedy