John Vervaeke

Canadian cognitive scientist and psychologist at the University of Toronto who created the Awakening from the Meaning Crisis YouTube lecture series — arguing that the West is experiencing a meaning crisis rooted in the loss of participatory knowing, the dominant 4E cognitive science framework, and the relevance realization approach to understanding cognition.

Provides the most cognitively rigorous account of the Western meaning crisis — Awakening from the Meaning Crisis traces how the West lost its capacity for transformative wisdom practices (Platonic, Neoplatonic, Stoic, Christian) and argues that cognitive science, phenomenology, and contemplative practice can together provide a path back.