Levels of Intelligibility: Neoplatonism and 4E Cognitive Science 

To anyone reading this, I've done John's course on Awakening from the meaning crisis, and I cannot reccomend it enough. No matter who you are, you will benefit from the course. I encourage you to enrich your life ❤️

John, I've been following you for the past two years and I can safely say that you, along with Iain McGilchrist, are the most important thinker of this day and age. No matter how much I listen to you, every single discussion or lecture proves to be informative, novel and thought-provoking. You are truly one of the most insightful human beings I've ever come across. Thank you very much for your work, it's really mind-blowing ❤❤

I had the IMMENSE pleasure of attending this lecture in person. What a thrill it is to see it here as part of a collaboration with some of my favorite channels!! Thank you John for your incredible heart and dedication to the good. May your words find fertile soil all over the world.

My first year college philosophy professor said if I believed in spirits or spiritual realities that indicated mental illness and he'd recommend being put in a mental institute. The other philosophy professors at college agreed with him so I stopped going to class, just took the tests, and started going to the gym instead. It was heartbreaking. So...nice to know there's folks like you out there...great video!!! Happy New Year.

Thank you John for this exquisite lecture. You not only talk but show and exemplify the way. It's a delight and a pleasure to be working alongside you. Your student and friend, Zevi

From The One, The Many. From The Many, to The One. It reminds me of breathing. Cyclical, closed, perpetual. This is a profoundly enlightening lecture. Simultaneously satisfying my desire for deep thoughts/revelations while increasing my appetite for reaching even greater depths of awareness in Self and of Others. Thank you and to all who helped make this content available for us all. Such a blessed time we live in, despite how chaotic it may be.

It was great collaborating with you, John! Ad maiora semper. 🙂

Brilliant and revelatory. Vervaeke is one of the great minds of our time but equally important, one of the great hearts. Thank you, Professor for walking the talk and having your life be for the possibility of humanity cultivating Wisdom.

John, you outrageous f***ing Magus! A thousand rattles and shamanic chants in your honor. Thank you for keeping the roads to the Sacred Fire open. Philosophy. Art. Science. The Sacred Triumvirate.

This has been such an incredible collaboration amongst wonderful free-thinkers. Y'all are doing Plato's (and Plotinus') work.

That was the most profound lecture I've ever experienced. Thanks, John. My hope for humanity is that more of us will start to question the current collective psychological paradigm and gravitate to holy and generative perspectives and metaperspectives like these and feel a call to 'participate' in a more meaningful way

Possibly the most important video I've watched this year, which is saying something because it is now December 31st. I'm going to have to go back and take notes!

Wow I was already excited for this but 3 hours?? You spoil us, John!

Absolutely loving how all of this has been unfolding over the past few years and very excited to see all participants coming together to expound upon and expand unto both a re-understanding of dialogos and how to effectively re-implement this into practice.

Can’t describe how happy I am that you collaborated with this group. For those of us who are not new to these ideas it’s so great to have this perspective presented. Thanks!

Recently my twenty year old son expressed an interest in philosophy. I am very happy to have been able to direct him to this lecture.

Brilliant - both in the sense of ingenious and en-light-ening. I'm really glad you did this.

For me, this was a wonderful refresher and sprucing up of some major themes of your work, as I don't have the greatest memory. I also really appreciated the questions. Feeling the Beauty!

This is SOOO good. I decided to watch in 3 separate sittings. There's too much here for me to take in all at one time. I'm so grateful that you made this video to share your knowledge and insight with others like me. Thank you, John.

Beautiful lecture! Densely packed and informative. Put together a lot of things for me. I finally realized the distinction between Kantian view and the neo-platonic view.

Masterful and beautiful presentation. Thank you John 🙏

This might be a blasphemy but it seems like this was a summary of the awakening from the meaning crysis series. I find it absolutely astonishing how you managed to introduce and talk about so many monstrous (complex) concepts and still kept it coherent while also introducing the concepts in an easy to digest way. This was a hell of a ride. Thank you for this and thank you for everything John ♥️ I found it (and you) strikingly beautiful ♥️

The concept of ascent and return is so fascinating to me right now. I feel like it explains the feeling of two steps forward and one step back when trying to work through trauma recovery.

This was such a great clear summary of neoplatonism, so much clearer than the AFTMC piece, although I am sure it helped to have the background provided there. Thank you John 🙏

Just gets better after every viewing. A genuine Sacred lecture. Thank you John🙏

This is the funniest and most rhetorical I’ve ever seen John and I love it.

Yes, a big thank you to John and to Ranston for making this a public lecture. I have been watching his 50 Video's .(I'm on 6 or 7) . it only took me 3 to 4 years to get bored with Dr. Petersons.."wink". I didn't know about John till Lex Freedman .. Another Toronto professor? . I thought to myself at first. ..Well makes sense to find both of such at Ranston now. Good Luck

Wow. An epic 3 hour journey. The Q&A is not to be missed. Your transmission of the memory system was profound. I was transported into participatory self knowledge: The knot in my stomach felt seen and unwound.

John Neo Vervaeke. This was simply fantastic and crystal clear. Beautiful, really.

Wonderful talk and absolutely beautiful Q&A!!!

Not watched this yet but I know it’s going to be amazing, so thanks in advance John 🙏

Despite having seen the meaning crisis series, it's nice to see such a great summary after a while, to keep my internal John Vervaeke and his way of viewing the world alive.

38:06 “For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to destroy us. Every angel is terrible.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies

John, this is wonderful. I'm feeling the dialogos between this video, my schema and my journal. Such a cool rich flow you got me in. You have 'one' me over! All this and I'm only 1/3 through.

What a titanic lecture that will only become more so with the passing of time. Utter respect for this man and his work.

So So SO excited to see you working in the overlap of 4E Cog Sci and Esotericism!!! I feel like its really fertile ground for amazing scholarly collaborations like this!

What a magnificent start on 2023💓

What an amazing group - John knocked it out of the park as always!

Please, John, leave the title at "Neo-platanism". We all love it. The ancients knew how to amuse themselves. Wisdom also knows how to have fun at the expense of intellect.

John thank you again for your lecture and your closing was absolutely the best to end on .

Ive only recently started to break my own chains. I was watching jordan petersons exodus that happened to have Jonathan pageau and stephen blackwood in its cast. That lead me to pageaus youtube where i saw a discussion with john vervaeke. That then lead me to here with vervaeke and blackwood. Im very blessed to be exposed to this and fate seems to be guiding me along the way. Im going to be watching the awakening series next. I wish i could somehow return the blessing to these men. Thank you so much. Its terrible to be stuck watching shadows and not know it but for me it was worse to know that ive been watching shadows and didnt know how to break the chains. John has come to loosen them for me.

I had a breakdown in my first semester of college and managed to get onto this process of positive feedback clarity you discuss. Turned me from the most empty & grey cynic into a passionate & driven altruist. I hope to work with you one day and supplement the high minded portions of your work with a low minded cultural practical translation for the masses. What you’re dealing with could align us all 🤍

There are truths that are only disclosed after profound transformation. I would add one thing: the first of these disclosed truths must be: humility. I believe that my beliefs and many or all of the infinite implications may be wrong. I remember crossing this membrane and trying to hang onto both perspectives so that I could build a bridge between worlds or epistemes (in the Foucault sense). The greater degrees are not available until you acknowledge the fundamental errors in the previous phase of "you." Also, an important caveat: you will forget for a time. Then, you will remember but differently. This causes dissonance and alienation which carries a not insignificant risk.

Tarot took me down this rabbit hole and I’ve grown in more ways than I ever imagined possible 🙏❤️

John is an intellectual shaman. A great communicator and spokesperson for our shared need to come back into community with each other in a profound way. We've forgotten fellowship. Thank you for deeply reminding us. I hope you continue in your path and wish you the best. Thanks again for everything you're doing 🙏🏼

Perception is a controlled illusion/hallucination. True enough to be useful or valuable. Truth, in context, is combinatorially explosive. The mind creates the meaning it is able to process.

Happy Holidays John 💝 Much love to you and the family.

That answer was so long it gave him a 5 o’clock shadow hahaha i only jest! Much love JV ❤️ appreciate your time.

Brilliant!

JV told JP....."oh what a speech at Ephesus, hold my beer..."

Very deep insights along a beautiful throughline, presented didactically. True selflessness. I wish there were more John Vervaekes.

(Misspelling in thumnbail "Neoplatanism") Look forward to watching this. :)

This idea of psychontological "levels" which are more or less "in conformity with reality" is lovely. Neoplatonism was fully imported into Sufi cosmology. God in Sufism is referred to as "the Real" , what is, and ultimately demands surrender of all illusion, resistance (in contrast to Responsivity/ fittedness/ adab) and self-delusion. Deepening contact with this phenomenological unfolding is the telos. No more grasping for identity. Descent, ascent... Is there a non-vertical metaphor for dropping fully into this spatiotemporal moment? Fully "inhabiting" the eternal now? Abiding? Moving in and out of ontological "presence"? "The depths of the world" ❤ In Sufism the human being is the threshold between the manifest and the unmanifest. And the threshold is in the heart. The job of the intellect ('aql) is both instrumental and a ray of awareness to witness the turning of the heart (qalb, from same triconsonantal root as "turn"). To orient towards the Real, to turn towards truth, goodness. Accounting. Monitoring. Witnessing the heart's intention. The Real is every atom presented to the self, inviting ongoing re-alignment, response, fittedness. 3R, in other words. But not just logos. Pathos. Ethos. The soul moves through wonderfully described levels from being enslaved, to at war with itself, to at ease, through many more, towards ultimate self-knowledge, which is ego-annihilation.

As someone who studied physics I like finding convergence between what John (via Evan Thompson) is saying and what other physicists have said. This comment relates to evolution and cognition participating in the same principles. Richard Feynman: "The things that make the wind make the waves, and the motion of water is like the motion of air is like the motion of sand. The fact that things have common features, turns out more and more universal."

Dynamical Systems. Exactly. Coupled mapping to multiplicities as the input for the Topology of organization

I am having a bit of an existential crisis being that I work in social media marketing and truly and deeply value your work

1:59:07 wow here it is! I think this is The piece needed when discussing the meaning crisis with JBP, VanderKlay and Pageau. Meaning isn’t just about purpose but ‘fittedness’ also

Remarkable how this is readily available almost for free. Thank you. Huge fan.

Bravo

Even though much of this got over the top of my head, I think I will try try to understand this man's work, it's fascinating.

Great to hear this lecture... Liked to hear about the hermeneutics of suspicion and how 'negativity' (in its broadest sense, including scepticism, scholasticism, even art ) is parasitic on the positive

Yum! What a delicious way to break a week-long screen fast. Thanks so much John! ❤️🙏🏽💋

The emanation of a thing from something else: When does a thing gain identity if it is an emanation? When does a process gain expression if it is emerging from a collective principle of organization? There is a fractal quality to transcendence. The macro world emanating out of the micro world.

Hey John updated his profile picture!!

Emanating feedback systems. My God, what a revelation. Thank you for this upload🙏

Thanks John!

I’ve just watched every other video in the collaboration and my first thought was “it seems daoist/buddist/eastern one worldism was the first thing to travel the silk road” and there it is the introduction of this video. That tickled me thank you.

Everything I heard was relatable and explained clearly and productively. Learning so much and so greatful.

Thank you! Wonderful as always!

This was excellent! Thank you for your time as always!

Your lecture was amazing. Thank you very much John.

Thank you John. Superb lecture. Keep up the spectacular work.

John, this is so profound.

This is great. I have learned so much from John and Jordan. Thank you Canada.

New subscriber - Dr Angela Puca sent me 🙌

We must enable and support those who would walk the path.

great collaboration! looking forward to watching all of this

It was a perfect lecture in academic professional sense as everyone seems to point but it was also perfect in it roundedness, well paced,well spoken,right words,right humor never felt like sitting through a challenging 3hour lecture,gesturing,examples,rightly broken in the 3 parts everything correct, someone please timestamp and quote this lecture, lines like,"philosophy is not siting in a cafe and sounding french" lmao

really happy to have found your channel, thanks!

"Neoplatonism is the philosophical grammar of the spirituality of the West." What a fundamentally true statement! 👍🔆🙏

I am blown away by your work it is vitally important. This really helps me out personally to understand some of the things I do and think in a new way that allows me to make better choices and self-cultivate with more awareness. I love Plato and Neoplatonism and this is an interesting approach that I think is important. Much appreciated.

The topic of freewill (and also consciousness, and precognition) - within a discussion on wisdom - and failure of material sciences to define it, always makes me think of the spirit. With the idea of the spirit, I can then agree with the conclusions of material science in regards to the lack of proof for freewill because this points to one's spirit. The machinery or power to use free will then lies in the spirit. This removes the necessity for a narrowing/reductive material explanation which runs counter to John's idea of necessity for the unlimited. For me this indicates primary fitting between the material body and spirit, time and eternity that is constantly taking place. I think this way because of the directness of the language/grammer found in this passage on the separation of material science and spirit: 1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. I guess one could refer to as yet another type of knowing, "Spiritual Knowing"

5th time through this lecture and I always learn something new

Thank you 🙏

Im about halfway through the Awakening from the Meaning Crisis videos and I find him one of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever encountered. But I’m wondering, why hasn’t he written more books? I would love to read them and I’m sure many others are wondering the same thing. Also I mean this in the most respectful way because he is more brilliant than any professor I’ve had, but how is he only an assistant professor!? Anyone else have any insights? To be honest, he is probably providing much more value to the world by being assistant professor, and creating content on RU-vid, versus being a full-time professor

Landscape is the cognitive framework we evolved in; it forms the foundation of meaning, "vertical" AND "horizontal".

Thank you ❤ this is was amazing

This is what the internet was made for.

John is the LeBron of modern philosophy.

Best part is "neo-Platotonic grammar" re-invigorated in this 4E reading and rescued from a contemporary pomo reductive (and contemptuous tbh) attribution of a necessary essentialism/ metaphysics. Its a wonderful phenomenological cog sci zenification of Plato. 🥳

Pierre Hadot! Henry Corbin! Wow! (it is a shame that Jean Trouillard and René Schaerer are not widely translated, but at least Algis Uždavinys is.) In an ideal world this would be along the most widely watched youtube channels, this is one that will be carried to our future.

Platonism/Neo Platonism makes more sense to me than most things in life.

I adore this. Thankyou John.

This is- I’m not sure if I can fully listen today but I will finish watching because 🥺🥺this hits the heart so much. Really excited to dig into more of your content

Such a wonderful and important presentation

"Humming with chocolateness." 33:19 I hear you bro. I hear you

Very interesting discussion..

A treat

I have some contentions with a few hypotheses, but mostly Socratic curiosities for further clarification. One example: two diametrically opposed phenomena providing balance and harmony (para/sympathetic, etc) neglects the “oneness” of the balanced facets propetuating into a third opposing position acting as a counter to the balance of the harmony of the first two…thus “snowballing” into infinity.

wise