Summary of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis by John Vervaeke, Chapter 4: Socrates and the Quest…

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1430

Abstract

his time: the natural philosophers and the Sophists.The natural philosophers were engaged in finding hidden truths about the natural world through ontological depth perception (primitive science). Although impressed by their pursuit of truth, Socrates was ultimately disappointed in them because their scientific undertakings usually resulted in mere knowledge without wisdom, and thus they had little power to transform. In other words, they represented truth without relevance.The Sophists, in contrast, were practitioners and teachers of the art of rhetoric, which was highly useful at the time since Athens was a democracy where skill in debate was the key to power. However, their methods usually exhibited a lack of commitment to the truth, persuading people by means of salience redirection — in other words, bullshitting. For this reason, Socrates was openly antagonistic to them, as they represented relevance without truth.Although it is not possible to lie to oneself, because belief is not voluntary, it is entirely possible to bullshit oneself by continuously redirecting one’s attention, such that the proposition becomes more salient and seems more relevant than the objective truth. Socrates aimed to make clear how much we bullshit ourselves all the time by pursuing things we find salient long before we fully understand why they matter. To this end, he would o

Options

ften question others by way of the Socratic method, often invoking aporia. In some cases, this would trigger an insight in the recipient that would help them see through their self-deception.Thus, if one were to explain why Socrates was indeed the wisest human, one could say that it’s because he knew that he knew nothing, or in other words, he knew how easily he could bullshit himself. On the other hand, he also knew Ta Erotika (“how to love well”), i.e. what to care about to make life meaningful, and often helped others to discover it.Unfortunately, he also made a lot of enemies and was put on trial for atheism. When he was threatened to be put to death if he did not stop practicing philosophy, he famously stated that the unexamined life is not worth living. Put another way, a meaningful life is one in which the pursuit of wisdom keeps our truth machinery and relevance machinery tightly coupled together so that we do not fall prey to self-deception.<a href="https://readmedium.com/summary-of-awakening-from-the-meaning-crisis-by-john-vervaeke-chapter-5-plato-and-the-cave-42949f3b4c7d">Next Chapter: Plato and the Cave</a><a href="https://readmedium.com/summary-of-awakening-from-the-meaning-crisis-by-john-vervaeke-chapter-3-continuous-cosmos-and-6dda8581bd5b">Previous Chapter: Continuous Cosmos and Modern World Grammar</a></article></body>

Summary of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis by John Vervaeke, Chapter 4: Socrates and the Quest for Wisdom

According to legend, the Delphic Oracle once pronounced Socrates the wisest human being alive, but Socrates himself found this hard to believe because he knew his own ignorance.

One of the necessary components of wisdom is self-knowledge, in the way that one might develop an owner’s manual for oneself. To Socrates, wisdom meant pursuing and discovering what is both true and existentially relevant, such that the two continuously inform each other, transforming and enabling the person to overcome self-deception. In this, he stood in contrast to two other groups of thinkers of his time: the natural philosophers and the Sophists.

The natural philosophers were engaged in finding hidden truths about the natural world through ontological depth perception (primitive science). Although impressed by their pursuit of truth, Socrates was ultimately disappointed in them because their scientific undertakings usually resulted in mere knowledge without wisdom, and thus they had little power to transform. In other words, they represented truth without relevance.

The Sophists, in contrast, were practitioners and teachers of the art of rhetoric, which was highly useful at the time since Athens was a democracy where skill in debate was the key to power. However, their methods usually exhibited a lack of commitment to the truth, persuading people by means of salience redirection — in other words, bullshitting. For this reason, Socrates was openly antagonistic to them, as they represented relevance without truth.

Although it is not possible to lie to oneself, because belief is not voluntary, it is entirely possible to bullshit oneself by continuously redirecting one’s attention, such that the proposition becomes more salient and seems more relevant than the objective truth. Socrates aimed to make clear how much we bullshit ourselves all the time by pursuing things we find salient long before we fully understand why they matter. To this end, he would often question others by way of the Socratic method, often invoking aporia. In some cases, this would trigger an insight in the recipient that would help them see through their self-deception.

Thus, if one were to explain why Socrates was indeed the wisest human, one could say that it’s because he knew that he knew nothing, or in other words, he knew how easily he could bullshit himself. On the other hand, he also knew Ta Erotika (“how to love well”), i.e. what to care about to make life meaningful, and often helped others to discover it.

Unfortunately, he also made a lot of enemies and was put on trial for atheism. When he was threatened to be put to death if he did not stop practicing philosophy, he famously stated that the unexamined life is not worth living. Put another way, a meaningful life is one in which the pursuit of wisdom keeps our truth machinery and relevance machinery tightly coupled together so that we do not fall prey to self-deception.