Metaphysics of Mattering | John Vervaeke on Life’s Deep Connections

In this presentation delivered at the "Metaphysics and the Matter with Things: Thinking with Iain McGilchrist" conference—a collaborative event by the Center for Process Studies (CPS) and the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in March 2024—John Vervaeke explores the concept of "mattering" and its critical role in understanding the meaning of life. He contrasts "meaning in life" with the broader "meaning of life," emphasizing the importance of connectedness and belonging over mere purpose. Vervaeke draws on research to introduce "religio," a deep sense of connectedness that underpins our existence, and critiques materialism for overlooking the relational aspects of human life. Through cognitive science, biology, and philosophy, Vervaeke demonstrates how our intelligence and problem-solving abilities are deeply intertwined with our capacity to find what truly matters.

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0:00 Introduction to the Metaphysics of Mattering
1:05 Meaning in Life: Purpose, Coherence, Significance, and Mattering
6:40 Connectedness and Religio
10:10 Relevance Realization and General Intelligence
12:45 The Problem of Relevance Realization
21:20 Formalization and Ill-Defined Problems
27:10 Relationality and the Sacred

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Ideas, People, and Works Mentioned in this Episode

Matthew Segall
Richard Tarnas
Kelly-Ann Allen
Evan Thompson
Read Montague
Michael Levin
Aristotle
Zak Stein
Nietzsche
Iain McGilchrist
Christopher Cherniak
Jerry Fodor
J.L. Schellenberg
Relevance Realization
Religio
Conformity theory
Duhem–Quine thesis,
Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters
John Searle, The Rediscovery of the Mind
Catherine Pickstock, Aspects of Truth: A New Religious Metaphysics
Harold Brown, Rationality
James Filler, Heidegger, Neoplatonism, and the History of Being: Relation as Ontological Ground
J. Jaeger, A. Riedl, A. Djedovic, J. Vervaeke, and D. Walsh, Naturalizing relevance realization: why agency and cognition are fundamentally not computational
Frank Martela and Michael F. Steger, Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance

Follow John Vervaeke

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Thank you for watching!

[_THErunnngMAN_]

Vervaeke’s captivating in a completely authentic, non hyperbolic way across the board with his online presence. You end up feeling like one of his students. He hasn’t allowed himself to be warped by the constraints of the online domain in any way, unlike many of his peers, and don’t think he ever will. He’s the role model for how people of his ability should be doing things online. Bravo, sir.

[anthonybrett]

I would say Vervaeke is one of the greatest philosophers of our time. He is taking philosophy back to its roots, the search for wisdom.

[Wonderlust]

Bravo John!! I know your arguments well and was moved by your passionate delivery in this talk ❤

[jmesy]

holy god… that ending tho — “that’s the sacred”

will admit, slightly over my head, but want to translate this someday, somehow. literally meditating yday on the relational & connected aspect of life, the essentialness of it… thanks John, amazing work 🌟

[marcc]

The more I listen to Dr Vervaeke, the more I see an interconnected thread between his lectures and the comedic process that Jerry Seinfeld describes which is philosophic in its own right.

I’ve heard Dr. V make similar comments and jokes about kindness before on other clips, but each time he does so, his delivery and comedic timing becomes much more refined, poignant, and meaningful.

The process which Mr Seinfeld describes is taking newly written material, trying it out on a few different crowds, seeing which parts work and which do not, and ultimately arriving at a polished, refined, and perfectly timed joke that has a much more profound impact than when the idea first arrived into consciousness.

What remains is the best version of the joke or the idea - its pure essence with maximum efficacy. A true gift for the audience to appreciate, reflect upon, and integrate into their being.

Thank you for the work that you do Dr. V and I look forward to learning and growing with you.

[matthewgosztony]

This is a phenomenal lecture. I've taken notes like every minute

[SofaWrld]

Such an endearing sense of humor sprinkled throughout ^.^

[Hyumanity]

Wow, incredible! The flow was real. Thank you, John!! 🙏❤

It's like I can almost _taste_ actuality (shifting from reality because it's apparently rooted in res, which means thing)...

[colorfulbookmark]

I respect and honor for Dr.Vervaeke and his fellows, they are honest and great contributor for community, not only doing academic things but can appreciate people's truth.

[gettingtogiveproject]

Thank you John for everything you have done with Voices with Vervaeke. You have had a deeply positive impact in many people’s lives 🙏

[SofaWrld]

I realize it's not the focus of the talk, but I'm a bit confused bc ai isn't just algorithms we write or data we feed it

Deep learning ai involves reward functions we write for ai to create their own models to adapt and learn within their environments where the ai can gather their own data through sensors for example

Love that you put up talks like this btw, it's such a joy to watch and listen to, thank you :3

[nathanhassallpoetry]

Awesome. Glad to have rediscovered you again, John.

[Xaloxulu]

Wonderful, awesome and concise! Thanks.

[paulbloof]

Johnny V is having more fun these days. So good.

[jcoales]

I would love to hear John's take on Carlo Rovelli's relational interpretation of quantum mechanics

[nobodyneil]

I just love the term combinatorial explosion. Though I think a more precise description would be combinatorial implosion.

[soulatlasuniverse]

I just got so much inspiration out of that! Damn!

[KindGulagDehl]

We need to create a system and structure for collective ideation, reasoning, and truth determination that allows humanity to map out and determine what as many individuals as possible believe is true, important, and what to do about it. Then keep an immutable record of it in a standardized format that is described in both nuance and simple language everyone can understand. It must grow and update slowly over time, operating at less than human output to ensure normal humans(as opposed to augmented humans and ai) stay in the loop as much as possible when it comes to the ideas that are most important.

[onefugue]

It's been a while since I've read any of it, but a lot of these ideas feel very consonant with Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way

[KalebPeters]

john, you could do an incredible stand-up comedy set one day 😆💕