Anagoge Podcast
Zen Neoplatonism and the Nature of Reality with John Vervaeke
John Vervaeke returns to the podcast 5 years later to argue that the modern war between science and religion was always a mistake. A cognitive scientist at the University of Toronto, he makes the case that his own field needs religious studies: the first generation of the cognitive science of religion tried to explain religion away, smuggling in an unexamined naturalism and treating believers as defective. Vervaeke reframes religion not as a set of beliefs about a supernatural object but as a comprehensive orientation to meaning that the sciences themselves quietly presuppose. The conversation ranges across relevance realization, the mystery of meaning as a Heisenberg-like complementarity of truth and relevance, his identity as a "Zen Neoplatonist," and the "semiotic symbiosis" by which traditions merge and correct one another. He closes on how someone in his position guards against becoming a guru, and on what, exactly, he means by God. Subscribe to the newsletter: https://substack.com/@tiagovf TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 1:28 Cognitive science as intellectual pilgrimage 14:38 Why cognitive science needs religious studies 27:30 Science, truth and relevance 36:50 Neoplatonism and the return to the sacred 51:18 Where Zen meets Neoplatonism 1:02:00 How religions and gods emerge 1:08:47 Criticism, reading and living between worlds 1:20:09 Religion beyond belief 1:35:12 The dangers of becoming a guru 1:47:28 Poetry and life mistakes 1:50:17 Underrated thinkers, self-deception and God READ Key insights and the full transcript here: https://tiagovf.com/posts/podcast-zen-neoplatonism-and-the-nature-of-reality-with-john-vervaeke FOLLOW https://www.instagram.com/tiagobooks/ MUSIC CREDIT Intro song by Lief Sjostrom, titled Peril, from the album 'Impossible Parade' Website: https://liefsjostrom.com/ Album: https://liefsjostrom.bandcamp.com/album/impossible-parade
