John Vervaeke points out we don’t really seem to have a place we can go if we want wisdom.  Where is the market for this? (Haha)  Universities much of my life are said to be the places people go to for… a career.  It seems like we have more trust of Eastern than Western religions/philosophies. 

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Akin to empty calorie foods, much of the information we receive seems to be loudly salient but unimportant, fleeting and empty.  They hit sensory buttons but don’t feed us.  How does this information inform – form, us?  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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I misspoke and asked if we’re awash in ultrarelevant but meant “ultrasalient” loud assortments.  People seem to jump now to conspiracy to explain things where there are not clear causes.  I favor tentative, open and careful explanations instead of things with satisfying feeling of emotional relevance.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Drawing a parallel Vervaeke points out between roughly the time of Plato and our own, there were many teachers and conmen.  A spiritual and political tumult.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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In ancient Greece, Sophists used rationality to argue to win, while natural philosophers used it to understand the world.  Plato, on the other hand, used rationality for profound personal transformation. 

Do you see modern-day Sophists and BS proliferation?

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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John Vervaeke in “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” argues that our time in some way parallels Socrates’, where natural philosophers began to give natural rather than divine explanations for environmental phenomena.  People eventually believed less in gods, but as the development of rhetoric helped people reason publicly through problems in democracies, sophists used this powerful psychological technology to pursue ends unrelated to truth.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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John Vervaeke has an idea that in our time most truth and most relevance are unconnected.  For instance, we have vast knowledge of the phenomena of outer space and microscopic life, but those things do not touch most of our lives.  On the other hand, we are inundated with things that catch our attention – in ads, on social media, videos – and yet these have little truth to them.  

The popularity of Stoicism and Eastern philosophy seem to be a sign that people feel a need for truth that feels relevant.  We talk about a parallel of our time of tumult and searching with that of Socrates, where material explanations for natural phenomena, Sophistic use of rhetoric for utility, and philosophic search for transcendence coexisted and competed.

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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Structurally, notice that the King does not help the group but the Devil does, in his way, and then the old women do, completely.  I also speculate on the “rock-shaped” home, that it’s heavenly in some way.  Is this story about luck, risk-taking, and faith?  

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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LL thinks the Devil here is somewhat like a trickster figure, in that he is not pure malice.  In this story, he gives them choices but also a way out of their contract.  I thought of him here as being contained by other forces: besides the contract, he is connected to his grandmother.  He’s a fair devil, in a way, although not without his tricks.  The virtue and spirit, the faith, of the lead soldier is his strength. 

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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A Funny Devil in the Grimm’s “The Devil and His Grandmother” (Clip)

We both particularly like this story, which humanizes the devil by having a grandmother involved.  It’s like a grandmother’s protecting the neighbors from her teenage son’s antics.  “How many souls did you harvest today?” “Not such a good day today, but I’m looking forward to condemning these three new guys to eternal damnation! Not all is lost!” 

(Sorry about the bad sound on my end.  It’s been corrected in future episodes.)

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For the full episode:

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.