Ep. 21 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Martin Luther and Descartes

Summary

In Episode 21 of 'Awakening from the Meaning Crisis', John Vervaeke delves into the complex ideas of Martin Luther and René Descartes, highlighting their pivotal roles in shaping the modern Western mindset. Vervaeke explores how Luther’s radical religious reforms and Descartes’ mathematical approach to certainty contributed to the cultural shift during the time. The episode dissects how these thinkers addressed the existential anxieties of their age and laid down the intellectual groundwork for contemporary issues in meaning and understanding, with theological and philosophical ideas that continue to influence the way we perceive reality and selfhood today.

Highlights

• Luther redefined faith as acceptance of God's grace, dismissing the participatory role of humans in salvation. 🌟
• The Protestant Reformation initiated by Luther weakened the authority of the Catholic Church, changing the course of Western religious and cultural history. 📜
• Luther inadvertently set the stage for cultural narcissism by emphasizing the individual's spiritual journey detached from tradition. 🙃
• Descartes' Cartesian graphing allowed for the translation of reality into mathematical equations, enhancing scientific exploration. 📈
• The quest for certainty in the Enlightenment era led to a reductionist view of the mind as a computing machine, foreshadowing the development of AI. 🤖

Key Takeaways

• Martin Luther's ideas contributed to the formation of cultural narcissism by promoting self-loathing and a reliance on unearned positive regard. 🤯
• The Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution are interconnected pivotal events that influenced the Western approach to meaning. 🔄
• Luther's push for the priesthood of all believers led to democratization within the church but also fragmentation within Protestantism. 🏛️
• Descartes' introduction of Cartesian graphing and analytic geometry revolutionized the way we engage with reality through mathematical abstraction. 📊
• The pursuit of certainty through science and religion has contributed to existential anxiety, highlighting the ongoing struggle between faith and reason. 😰

Overview

John Vervaeke takes us on a journey to explore the ideas of Martin Luther and René Descartes, showing how their innovations and critiques have left a lasting imprint on the modern mind. In unpacking Luther's struggle with self-loathing and the perceived arbitrariness of divine grace, we see the groundwork laid for a cultural narrative of self-obsession and insecurity, a legacy that persists in various forms today.

Vervaeke expertly connects the Protestant Reformation with the Scientific Revolution, highlighting the dual forces that shaped an era of tremendous change and meaning-making. Luther’s rejection of traditional authority not only paved the way for religious democratization but also initiated a fragmentation that mirrored the uncertainties of the scientific age.

Descartes emerges as a pivotal figure in developing a new lens on reality, using mathematical abstraction to seek certainty amid existential dread. His innovations in graphing and geometry provided tools that transformed scientific inquiry, yet also intertwined with a cultural tendency to reduce the mind's complexity to mechanical processes, prefiguring contemporary discussions around artificial intelligence.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Recap of Scientific Revolution The chapter titled 'Introduction and Recap of Scientific Revolution' begins with a brief welcome and sets the stage by revisiting the transformative period of the Scientific Revolution. The central theme focuses on the significant work of Copernicus, who played a pivotal role in redefining the understanding of reality through scientific means. This marks an essential shift from previous conceptualizations of the world, emphasizing the importance of scientific inquiry and description in shaping modern thought.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Questioning Sensory Experience and Nature of Matter This chapter explores the questioning of sensory experiences, considering them as potentially illusory in nature. It reflects on Galileo's contribution to this field, particularly his development of mathematics as the language of reality. This chapter delves into Galileo's adoption of a new experimental method, influenced by the belief that human cognition is often deceptive and biased. Through this method, Galileo was able to make groundbreaking discoveries such as inertial motion.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Disconnected Mind and God's Role - Introduction of Martin Luther The chapter titled 'Disconnected Mind and God's Role - Introduction of Martin Luther' delves into the philosophical transformation of understanding matter. It talks about how matter was redefined as something that exists independently and resists human will, leading to a view of the universe as purposeless and meaningless. In this context, human beings are portrayed as isolated entities of meaning and purpose amidst a vast, indifferent cosmos. This shift significantly influences people's self-understanding and perception of meaning. The chapter also sets the stage for the introduction of Martin Luther, though specific details about his role are not provided in the given text.
• 02:30 - 04:00: Martin Luther's Background and Inner Conflict This chapter explores Martin Luther's background and the inner conflicts he faced. It delves into the philosophical ideas that shape one's perception of existence, particularly focusing on the Aristotelian concept that the structure of personal experience and reality are aligned. However, this notion is challenged, leaving individuals feeling isolated within their minds and cut off from the world and God. The chapter highlights Luther's struggle with these existential concerns and his quest for spiritual and intellectual clarity.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Luther's Self-Loathing and Concept of Self-Destructive Behavior The chapter discusses an individual who embodies the turmoil and anxiety of his era, with a particular focus on Martin Luther. It highlights Luther as a significant historical figure, who not only engages intellectually with the issues of his time but also acts upon them, representing a powerful example of self-destructive behavior rooted in self-loathing. His influence is marked as particularly profound within the German context, and his actions and thoughts are portrayed as embodying the chaotic spirit of the times.
• 05:00 - 06:30: Faith and Salvation in Luther's Doctrine The chapter explores Martin Luther's theological foundations, particularly focusing on how his ideas on faith and salvation were shaped by his influences. Luther was heavily influenced by Rheinland mystics and Augustine, especially in concepts of self-negation and human depravity, which are central to his doctrine.
• 06:30 - 08:30: Arbitrariness of God's Grace and Cultural Narcissism The chapter discusses philosophical and theological concepts related to divine grace and human cultural tendencies.
• 08:30 - 10:30: Luther's Protest Against the Catholic Church and Tradition In this chapter, Luther's internal conflict is discussed, highlighting how his self-negation, influenced by Augustine and Paul, has escalated into self-loathing. Luther perceives the self as being turned inward in an immoral, self-obsessed manner.
• 10:30 - 12:00: Individual Conscience and Withdrawal of Meaning The chapter explores the concept of the 'self' as being inherently self-destructive. It discusses how an individual's intense focus on self can lead to a disconnection from God and reality, thus unfolding a process that negates itself. The paradox of self-obsession being simultaneously a process of withdrawal and negation is underscored, highlighting the implications on personal existential meaning.
• 12:00 - 14:30: Closure of Monasteries and Knowledge vs. Wisdom Martin Luther viewed the fundamental human condition as one of pride and rebellion against God, which leads to an inherent self-centeredness characterized by self-aggrandizement and self-destruction.
• 14:30 - 17:00: Protestant Reformation and Secularization The chapter discusses patterns of self-destructive behavior, using the example of individuals repeatedly dating the same type of unsuitable partners. It illustrates the importance of self-reflection and conscious choice in breaking these patterns, suggesting a shift towards more suitable relationship choices.
• 17:00 - 18:00: Democracy within the Church and Cultural Impact The chapter discusses the repetitive nature of destructive relationship patterns, emphasizing that individuals often find themselves caught in similar situations despite their conscious efforts to change. It highlights the influence of psychological theories by Freud and Jung, noting their connection to the legacy of Luther.
• 18:00 - 20:30: Protestant Work Ethic and Economic Impact The chapter discusses the Protestant work ethic and its economic impact, highlighting the recurring patterns of self-destructive behavior despite conscious efforts to change. It references Martin Luther critically, acknowledging the deep truths in his insights about unconscious processes being affected by parasitic patterns.
• 20:30 - 22:30: Bible Translation and Fragmentation of Protestantism The chapter discusses the challenges of spiritual practices that can become overwhelming, focusing on Martin Luther's perspective. Luther believes that personal efforts cannot lead to salvation. He draws from Augustine's idea that mystical ascent needs the love of God through Christ, and he intensifies this belief.
• 22:30 - 25:30: Narcissism and Religious Fragmentation This chapter explores the theme of narcissism in the context of religious beliefs, particularly focusing on an individual's journey through personal misery to arrive at a significant theological conclusion. This conclusion challenges the traditional stance of the Catholic Church by proposing that salvation is achieved solely through faith. The concept of faith is portrayed as an unequivocal acceptance of God's will, leading to potential conflicts with established religious doctrines.
• 25:30 - 27:30: Absence of God and Rise of Shakespeare The chapter discusses the shifting perception of faith in one's life and its impact on knowledge, particularly participatory knowledge, as part of a larger discourse on religious and philosophical thought.
• 27:30 - 30:00: Meaning Crisis: Cut off from the World and Institutions The chapter discusses the disconnection individuals feel from their cultural history and spiritual beliefs. The Israelite notion of participating in cultural history and divine creativity is highlighted as something that's been lost. This loss results in a distorted sense of self, where participatory types of knowing are replaced with mere acceptance of propositions.
• 30:00 - 31:00: Descartes' Response to the Meaning Crisis In this chapter, the discussion focuses on the ideas of Descartes in response to the meaning crisis. It explores the concept of acceptance that cannot solely rely on evidence or argument, as such reliance would involve the mind in its own salvation. Instead, the chapter delves into the need for radical, pure acceptance, and how this idea relates to the self-negation of the Rheinland mystics, which is further developed in Luther's ideas. The chapter raises questions about the implications of such a perspective on one's personal journey and understanding of meaning.
• 31:00 - 36:00: Descartes' Cartesian Graphing and Mathematical Representation The chapter explores the concept of Cartesian graphing and its connection to mathematical representation, as introduced by Descartes. It delves into how Cartesian principles apply to the affirmation of beliefs, particularly focusing on religious creeds, like Christianity, where the acceptance of such beliefs might be seen as something given or determined externally. It emphasizes the idea of acceptance being beyond personal control, suggesting a potential arbitrariness in divine intervention or salvation, where human action is limited and dependent on external forces.
• 36:00 - 39:00: Propositional Certainty and Cartesian Method This chapter explores the concept of propositional certainty within the framework of Cartesian method, discussing the philosophical debate on human agency and divine determinism. The focus is on the interaction between human actions and divine will, emphasizing that human actions do not affect God's behavior. The text references the historical debate between Martin Luther and Erasmus on the concept of 'synergy' - the idea that humans and God collaborate in a participatory manner. This debate highlights differing views on the role of human agency in relation to divine actions.
• 39:00 - 53:00: Failure of Cartesian Certainty and Hobbes' Proposal of AI The chapter discusses the philosophical concepts of salvation and divine will, focusing on Luther's perspective. It highlights Luther's rejection of the idea that salvation is a joint effort between God and humans, emphasizing instead that God's act of saving individuals is entirely arbitrary. This means God's decisions are driven by will rather than reason, and individuals must accept this randomness. The context suggests a critique or exploration of Cartesian Certainty and Hobbes' views on artificial intelligence, potentially comparing these philosophical ideas with Luther's theology.

Ep. 21 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Martin Luther and Descartes Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] you [Music] welcome back to awakening from the meaning crisis last time we took a look at the advent of the Scientific Revolution and we looked at the work of Copernicus and how the important advent of a scientific description of reality had with it the consequence that most of
• 00:30 - 01:00 our experience our sensory experience was questionable as illusory in nature galileo also developed that idea of the math as the language of reality and use that with the new experimental method a method also born out of the idea that most of our cognition is deceptive and biasing in nature and he used that to discover inertial motion and that and
• 01:00 - 01:30 change the notion of matter into something that exists and resists our will but that had the effect of killing the universe and making it purposeless in nature and thus we become odd islands of meaning and purpose in a vast ocean of meaningless purposeless material motion so all of that of course is gonna have an impact on people's self understanding their their the meaning
• 01:30 - 02:00 that they're using to make sense of their existence and look what's happening here that Aristotelian idea that the structure of your experience and the structure of reality conform has been radically undermine and now you are trapped within your own mind behind veils of illusion disconnected from the world and God has become progressively
• 02:00 - 02:30 more and more a matter of will there's an individual that takes all of this up and he does more than just think about this or speak about it or write about it he's one of those really Titanic individuals who exemplifies the chaos and the anxiety of his time this is Martin Luther he's definitely deeply influenced he's German he's
• 02:30 - 03:00 deeply influenced by the Rheinland mystics he's influenced by that growing tradition of the self as radically self negating inner conflict being at the core of spirituality he's an Augustinian monk he's deeply influenced by Augustine's ideas of self depravity and our inability to achieve mystical union with God unaided and through Augustine Luther of course is
• 03:00 - 03:30 deeply immersed in and impressed with Paul's ideas about our inner conflict and now that parallels a conflict within God between God's love towards us and God's justice driven anger and wrath towards us and Martin Luther is very terrified of that wrath he's very terrified of it and he has taken that notion through Tyler of mystical self
• 03:30 - 04:00 negation and it has become radicalized because of the influence of Augustine and Paul and his own inner conflict so that the self negation in Luther's psyche has become self-loathing he experiences the self as radically folded into itself obsessed with itself in a completely immoral self-centered fashion
• 04:00 - 04:30 so the self is this radical self feeding self negating because as the self is unfolded and obsessed with itself it is simultaneously being cut off from God and cut off from reality so it is very much a self-destructive process and I really want you to hear that self destructive process that he sees as the
• 04:30 - 05:00 essence of the self so this is Luther's interpretation of the biblical notion of pride and rebellion against God that we are intrinsically self-obsessed in this self-aggrandizing self-destructive fashion so try to try to think of moments in your life that will give some substance to what Luther is saying you
• 05:00 - 05:30 have discovered a pattern of behavior self-destructive for example perhaps you keep dating the same kind of person and you keep going back to this and it keeps turning out to be wrong for you and perhaps also wrong for the other person so you step back and you've talked to friends and you reflect it and you make a deliberate conscious effort oh no no I'm not going to date this purse this kind of person anymore I'm not going to date that type of person I'm gonna date this type of person and that will change
• 05:30 - 06:00 things I'll break this pattern and you go in and you find somebody they seem to be totally different and you start dating them and then lo and behold against your will even though it seems to be something that you willfully brought about you find yourself caught in the same destructive pattern again and of course Freud and Jung and the whole psychodynamic tradition very much part of the legacy of Luther by the way
• 06:00 - 06:30 are gonna make much of that fact that we keep repeating even in our conscience efforts to change our behavior we keep repeating these self-destructive patterns so although I'm critical of Luther there's a deep truth here in Luther right there is the touching of the group the way in which our unconscious processes or unconscious cognition can be beset with these we've talked about these parasitic processes
• 06:30 - 07:00 that have a life of their own and can consume us so Luther is convinced that he cannot do anything to save himself he takes Augustine's notion right that the Neoplatonic mystical ascent is insufficient on its own and has to be supplemented with you know the love of God through Christ he takes that and he radicalizes it in a
• 07:00 - 07:30 very powerful way because of his own personal wretchedness he comes to the conclusion that there is nothing he can do and that leads into a startling interpretation of Paul an interpretation that is going to put him at odds with the Catholic Church and this is the interpretation that we are saved by faith alone where faith becomes nothing more than a complete acceptance of God's
• 07:30 - 08:00 saving grace so let's unpack this very carefully because it's become so immersed in our way of thinking and being the idea here is that faith has is right it notice what's happened all that sense of part participatory knowing the sense that we're participating in a
• 08:00 - 08:30 process remember the Israelite notion that we're participating in our cultural history were participating in the creativity of God all of that is now gone it's gone and your sense of what it's like to be you your sense of self is completely twisted and illusory so all the prospective of knowing all the participatory knowing is being eradicated it's being reduced down to the acceptance of a proposition and an
• 08:30 - 09:00 acceptance that is cannot in any way be based on evidence or argument because that would be your mind participating in your salvation it has to be a radical pure acceptance so that the self negation of the Rheinland mystics has come to fruition in Luther's ideas here now what does that mean that means that you have to what you
• 09:00 - 09:30 radically radically have to accept is there's absolutely nothing you can do and even your affirmation of the proposition of the Creed of Christianity is something that has to be given to you now what does that mean from God's side of this equation it means that God's act of saving you is completely arbitrary there is not B since there is nothing
• 09:30 - 10:00 you do there's no thought word or deed that you perform that in any way earns or has any causal effect upon God's behavior and you and I'm not over representing this look at the debate between Lutheran Erasmus Erasmus tried to propose what he called synergy that the human being and God were working together in a participatory fashion for
• 10:00 - 10:30 salvation with God of course having the bulk of the work and Luther rejects that utterly God saving of an individual is completely arbitrary so God has become right remember what we talked about an ahkam right that God's will supersedes his reason God's reason is now not involved at all it is just an arbitrary act of will that saves us and we have to radically accept
• 10:30 - 11:00 that arbitrariness now think about what that means and there's a weird there's an irony here there's an irony here and it's it's almost a self-referential irony because Luther is trying and I I think he's he's very sincere but he's trying to rescue us from right the fact that we are obsessed with ourselves in
• 11:00 - 11:30 an idolatrous fashion and that we that that obsession is one a source of deep suffering from for for us we know that that self-obsession cuts us off separates us but the irony is in his endeavors to deal with that look at what Luther is teaching what he's what is he what is he putting into our cultural grammar that we are
• 11:30 - 12:00 inherently worthless and that our inner life is one of self-loathing and the only solution to that is arbitrary or betray unearned regard this is the cultural training for narcissism narcissism is to be trapped to be
• 12:00 - 12:30 self-obsessed within self-loathing and that what you want to alleviate is unearned positive regard not for any reason not for anything you've done completely amoral unearned positive regard that's narcissism so the one of the deep ironies of Luther's revolution is that
• 12:30 - 13:00 and I think this says something about what's going on at the time what are the deep ironies is he actually lays the grammar for cultural narcissism we are all being trained to experience ourselves as wretched self-obsessed and that the only solution is unearned positive regard and so we can see we can
• 13:00 - 13:30 see the spirit of Luther in our obsession with Instagram and our obsession with snapchat we constantly want unearned positive regard now there are other consequences of this radical change of course immediate consequences Luther comes into conflict he protests against the Roman Catholic
• 13:30 - 14:00 Church that's what Protestant comes from because the Catholic Church has a different doctrine of salvation right that it's one in which the human being has still has a participatory role and because of that the church also thinks that its cultural history think of how this is still an Israelite notion the
• 14:00 - 14:30 church still thinks that it's tradition matters for human salvation that participating in that tradition the tradition the cultural history of the church is also something is that is needed now I'm not advocating for Catholicism here over Protestantism I'm trying to get you to understand what the two sides were standing for so Luther is attacking all of that he's attacking the
• 14:30 - 15:00 authority of the church he's attacking the authority of tradition so history and tradition an institution don't matter why because Luther is a child of his time he is trapped inside his own mind he advocates that all that really matters in matters of faith are with individual conscience and please
• 15:00 - 15:30 remember what this word means it means knowing yourself science kansai ins conscience knowing yourself the one thing you know is yourself and so Luther refuses to recant he refuses to change his interpretation to be in line with the church and he valorizes individual conscience as the final authority over a person's
• 15:30 - 16:00 spiritual life this lays the foundation so do you see what's happened here this withdrawal of meaning into the individual mind isolated individual mind is now being appropriated as well that must mean that the mind the individual conscience is the final sole authority of what matters it's a radical idea many other cultures find this a bizarre idea that we possess in the West and so of course there's a
• 16:00 - 16:30 lot of discussion nowadays about individual responsibility individual authority we have as Adorno talked about it we have a cult of authenticity that being true to yourself and this is Lutheran being true to yourself is the ultimate authority by which you should judge and evaluate your life now notice what has happened the connection to
• 16:30 - 17:00 reality being true to reality has been superseded by being true to yourself and it that is also emerging with a cultural grammar that is training us in narcissism now because of this Luther Luther was a monk and yet he comes to the conclusion
• 17:00 - 17:30 that the monasteries should be shut down why would he why would he come to that conclusion well right the West for a long time had these paired institutions he had a knowledge institution that has already emerged and is being developed right you know in the Middle Ages and this of course is the University we're supposed to get a universal education
• 17:30 - 18:00 come to understand right as much of reality the universe as you can and that was paired to a place where right you have to go through transformation in order to acquire wisdom and this is the monastery and so this is the idea here right that here you're seeking that self transcendence this is this is right this
• 18:00 - 18:30 is the legacy of the axial revolution this of course is a response to the emergence of first Aristotelian science and then the new science of people like bacon right Copernicus Galileo and the two are supposed to represent an important synthesis of how human beings are to make sense of themselves and to find a meaningful life but this
• 18:30 - 19:00 institution places a huge premium on self transcendence as we've seen and for Luther this is the grand illusion the idea that human beings are capable of self transcendence is something he thinks is the greatest lie that our self tells us he sees that as
• 19:00 - 19:30 the greatest instance of the sin of pride see as if you lose the perspectival participatory sense of faith if faith just becomes assertion born out of radical acceptance then the idea of this being even possible to you disappears and so what happens is that
• 19:30 - 20:00 these institutions are being shut down now that means the university now needs something else in order to take this knowledge and give it existential transformative relevance to individual lives the university has to be attached to something else that transforms people's lives gives structure and purpose to their existence and of course
• 20:00 - 20:30 we know what that's going to be that's going to be the state and knowledge is not going to be linked so much to wisdom it's going to be linked to politics and of course that is going to be supported by the new science people like bacon famously arguing that knowledge is power the forerunner of the work of Michel Foucault and others so we get the loss
• 20:30 - 21:00 of all the psycho technologies of wisdom of cultural communities that are committed to providing guidance and support to people who want to cultivate wisdom of a historical tradition that can relay to us this the patterns of success and failures and give us practice that we can use to test out and try for transformation all of that is being lost
• 21:00 - 21:30 so you know where to go for information you know where to go for knowledge but now today you do not know where to go for wisdom we have Sapienza obsolescence of our knowledge and we have knowledge being inextricably bound to the machinery of the state and to politics such that it
• 21:30 - 22:00 is becoming increasingly difficult right now for us as a culture to distinguish politics from knowledge from the willful assertion of things that we must simply accept because of an arbitrary will wielding power so
• 22:00 - 22:30 the Protestant Reformation is Titanic it is really inappropriate if you're trying to understand the advent of the meaning Christ is to only look at the Scientific Revolution you must look at the Scientific Revolution and the Protestant Reformation together they are conjoined now there are other important aspects of
• 22:30 - 23:00 the Protestant Reformation that come to the fore because of his attack on tradition and institution Luther advocates what he calls the priesthood of all believers there is nothing in between there is no mediator between you and God there is no church there's no priest right there's nothing
• 23:00 - 23:30 here there is just a direct personal relationship again this idea of your own personal spirituality has its root here now because of this Luther argues that for the priesthood of all believers everybody has an equal spiritual authority because of course learning
• 23:30 - 24:00 processes of growth and self transformation those are no longer important criteria all that matters is the degree to which God has saved someone now we've talked about some of the negative consequences of that but a positive consequence for that is that Luther argues for a complete form of democracy within the church everything should be decided democratically because there should not be any significant Authority or hierarchical structure
• 24:00 - 24:30 because Luther is rejecting all of that this of course is why the Catholic Church is so like resisting to him like why they are so inimical to him they just want this idea eradicated because it Minh the very structure and existence of the institution of the Catholic Church now Luther doesn't propose political democracy he only proposes democracy within the
• 24:30 - 25:00 church but nevertheless that is going to give people in their day-to-day lives experience with democratic processes democratic decision-making in fact in the areas that they consider most important about their lives they're going to be acting democratically now Luther thinks that there shouldn't be democracy in the world outside of the church and when the peasants revolt in Germany because they're being influenced
• 25:00 - 25:30 by this idea of the importance of the individual individual conscience and authority Luther does not side with the peasants he sides with the princes he sides with established authority he has a two worlds doctrine there's a doctrine within the church and that's a world that is remember how God is divided right that's the world of God's love and that's where we act democratically but outside the church we don't know who's saved and who's not saved we'll come
• 25:30 - 26:00 back to that point and because of that that's the world under God's wrath then that's a world that has to be kept in check by political authority wielding the sword of power again that's a that's a dark aspect of Luther it also brings with it the beginning of an idea of the separation of church and
• 26:00 - 26:30 state radical new idea now Luther of course is proposing it because he's proposing it that within the church under God's love people should be treated one way and outside of the church which is under God's wrath there should be a different way in which people are treated and politically operate and they then the state should not interfere with the church so that we get the beginnings of separation of church and state which we take for granted but this is going to further
• 26:30 - 27:00 drive the secularization of the culture it's going to further drive the secularization of the culture because more and more people are experiencing the sacred as something private separate secluded unto itself for a separate from the state in politics and of course also science and the University
• 27:00 - 27:30 now that not knowing who's saved of course also brings with it terrific problems this was made into a classic argument which has come under some criticism but I think the core insight is still a value by Max Weber the problem with Luther's model right is you there's nothing you can do to know that
• 27:30 - 28:00 you're saved because there is nothing you can do to bring you have no causal role which means there's no causal evidence there's no evidence how do you know if you're saved because God chooses people arbitrarily so this provokes terrific anxiety right there's tremendous anxiety about whether or not you're safe yeah you have your own in 2c and Luther gives you there's this
• 28:00 - 28:30 dramatic tension and Luther he gives you this this this double boy double bind right he tells you that what you ultimately have to rely on is your individual conscience but he tells you that that inner world is one of overwhelming self-deception and so what do you do with this anxiety well you can't do anything officially but what
• 28:30 - 29:00 you can do is you can work hard to make your life good because if you're succeeding in the world especially socioeconomic success that surely is a sign that God has chosen you that God loves you so what I'm going to do is I'm going to develop what becomes you know called the Protestant work ethic because my right my only way of knowing is this
• 29:00 - 29:30 unofficial way this relatively unconscious way of knowing that I'm saved is if I'm succeeding well so I'm gonna work hard to succeed and I'm not going to use my wealth in any way to promote myself right I'm not going to do any what would later be called conspicuous consumption because that would be a sign of pride so I work hard and in order to avoid pride I'm gonna plum I'm gonna push that the the money the wealth I acquire back into my
• 29:30 - 30:00 business I'm gonna get the Protestant work ethic and the IND and this is gonna align so well with the emerging corporations we talked about the immersion the emerging ascendancy of the commercial class and we get the advent of capitalism as vapors book famously puts it the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism and you see and and this worry this worry is
• 30:00 - 30:30 a real worry and look this is the like what she watch happen and and this and and what's amazing is how Luther was surprised by this right for a man who has in many ways brilliant he translate the Bible into German into German by the way he makes the Bible readable for everybody because of the priesthood of all believers and he's a brilliant translator many people consider him as one of the foundational figures of
• 30:30 - 31:00 modern German but what he doesn't he honestly he honestly thought that everybody would read the Bible the same way he did so he thought we've gotten rid of the Pope but there would be right there would be some a unifying thing that would hold Christianity together which is the idea of the Bible so the Bible becomes very holy and many people have said that what Protestants have is a paper Pope the Bible takes the role for them that the Pope does for the
• 31:00 - 31:30 Catholic world and of course we are facing struggles right now in our culture because we don't quite know what to do with this terrible and awesome book in the Bible what shocked Luther and shouldn't shock us is that Protestantism quickly fragments because when you give people no authority other
• 31:30 - 32:00 than their own individual conscience when you separate them from any claims upon them of tradition any claims upon them of history or institution and he claims upon them of knowledge the idea that they will all agree is actually a ridiculous idea and so what happens and continues to happen to this very day is
• 32:00 - 32:30 the huge and ongoing and accelerating fragmentation of Protestantism into denomination after denomination after denomination and you get what has been called in in other quarters but can be applied here the narcissism of small difference right there's you have to find that piece of evidence that shows that you are unique that shows that of
• 32:30 - 33:00 all out of all of the damned masses God has elected you your uniqueness your specialness your unearned unique specialness has to be guaranteed and if the more I'm like these other people the more that comes into question so not only am i driven by my own radicalized subjectivity in my interpretation I'm also hungry for a spark of specialness
• 33:00 - 33:30 for me that will show that I am saved and so the narcissism and the fragmentation of Protestantism walk march in lockstep together mutually accelerating so notice what's happened take a look like right you're getting God is withdrawing God's withdrawing by the
• 33:30 - 34:00 time of Luther God has become very much this arbitrary will in a world that is nothing but a battle of wills think about how not that long after Luther you have Shakespeare Luther is the great writer of German Shakespeare's the great
• 34:00 - 34:30 writer of English and notice how somebody who is plumbing the depths of the human psyche Shakespeare in a way that of course has struck most of us as perennial II profound how absent God is from that world of Shakespeare there's supernaturals there there are the witches in Macbeth there are ghosts in Hamlet but God is not ever present and
• 34:30 - 35:00 the supernatural is absurd and arbitrary and largely an agent of chaos and a destiny that thwarts people in their endeavors it's telling how much God has withdrawn into being an arbitrary absurd
• 35:00 - 35:30 supernatural agency that largely thwarts and undermines human activities so the Protestant Reformation is fundamental to our grammar of how we understand ourselves and the problem is even though we are many of us are children of the secularization that is accelerated by
• 35:30 - 36:00 the president Reformation we still carry that grammar around in our head we have to work hard we have to work very hard and if we don't work hard there's something where it's gonna be revealed how worthless we are and that we hunger for that unearned positive regard we need to find that mark of our uniqueness
• 36:00 - 36:30 that shows that we are chosen from the Damned and that we will not disappear into nothingness and meaninglessness but instead we will be adored or simply who we are now all of these factors the Scientific Revolution the Advent night of the beginnings of capitalism
• 36:30 - 37:00 especially corporate capitalism and the Protestant Reformation are all mutually reinforcing each other they're giving people tremendous anxiety so the Scientific Revolution is basically cutting you off from the world and the Protestant Reformation is basically orphan a--from the mother church and tradition and history you look you look you have to bear at all your individual
• 37:00 - 37:30 you alone by yourself you have to bear it all while simultaneously being told you don't have the resources or the capacity within you to do it you're a nothing that has to bear it all you cut out from the world you cut off from reality behind illusion there's a restless battle of wills you're cut off from instant wisdom institutions with
• 37:30 - 38:00 sappy uncial obsolescence so this is a time of a lot of existential dread you see the very thoughtful response of people like Pascale who's now experiencing the cosmos not as a cosmos remember what cosmos means a beautiful order that we can participate in and
• 38:00 - 38:30 that will afford our self transcendence no Pascal who's a mathematical genius he gets the new math he looks out at the cosmos and he says those infinite spaces terrify me the cosmos is now cold and terrifying its vastness is inhuman and crippling of the human spirit there's an individual who arises same time and
• 38:30 - 39:00 wants to address this anxiety and we will talk about the comparison between Pascal and this person this person is Rene Descartes Descartes wants to take this grammar of the Scientific Revolution about math as the marker of
• 39:00 - 39:30 reality and he wants to use it to come up with on his own like a good Protestant although he's Catholic but on his own from his own individual conscience he wants to come up on his own forget the history forget the tradition this is Descartes going to use the new math to come up with a saloon to this emerging meaning crisis now Descartes so genius and what he does is
• 39:30 - 40:00 he invents a new psycho technology one of those powerful psycho technologies a psycho technology that has been so internalized into our culture and our cognition that it is almost transparent to us we do not realize it is the lens by which we see and understand the world take I'd like to sleep in it's probably led to his death because when he was had
• 40:00 - 40:30 to go to Sweden he they didn't let him sleep in and he got it had to go Anna cold air and that's probably what led to his death so he'd like to sleep in so one day he's laying in bed and it was the fashion at the time the architectural fashion further to be tiling on before and tiling on the walls there's a fly for flying around the room now for most of us that's where we spent that's it that's all we got fly in a room the Descartes notes that he noted
• 40:30 - 41:00 that if he counts the number of tiles along right these three axes he can come up with three numbers that will plot wherever the fly is in the room Descartes invents Cartesian graphing the system we use today the XYZ system he takes the new algebra the new way in which write the new way in which Galileo
• 41:00 - 41:30 had been using math and he pushes it even further he invents graphing and what what psycho technology because that's what it is this is a standardized strategy learn from your society a socialized standardized strategy for information processing what psycho technology more means science to you
• 41:30 - 42:00 than a graph when I'm going to make a graph I'm doing science when I can think graphically I'm thinking scientifically this is one of the most powerful and pervasive psycho technologies and he invents it and this brings with it a powerful idea because he invents analytic geometry any geometrical shape can be converted into
• 42:00 - 42:30 an algebraic equation equations capture reality because remember what Galileo has done math doesn't have to look like it doesn't have to share the same Gestalt as what it's representing that has now been taken to its fulfillment in descartes the equations are not in any
• 42:30 - 43:00 way like what they represent but nevertheless following up on Copernicus and Galileo they are what cut through illusion in into reality now this is a radical idea because of graphing and analytic geometry we get this idea that we can grasp the world with equations so you think that this captures something
• 43:00 - 43:30 deep about the world e equals MC squared and you should because when you really understand this you can take a paper clip worth of matter and you can smash a city to the ground men and women like gods that's intoxicating the power that it puts at our fingertips it seems to
• 43:30 - 44:00 provide overwhelming evidence that this way of thinking puts us deeply in touch with the fiber and fabric of reality we are in fundamentally in contact but it's not a contact of experience it's not the aristotelian conformity it's not participatory it is purely propositional it is purely abstract it is purely
• 44:00 - 44:30 symbolic now that's gonna bring with it a radical idea Descartes thinks well you know what this is how I can understand the meaning crisis all this anxiety he didn't of course call it the meeting
• 44:30 - 45:00 crisis so that's anachronistic on my part but I'm putting words into his mouth so that we can talk to him across space and time there's all this anxiety there's all this sense of disconnection so Descartes understands the meaning crisis as a lack of a search for certainty
• 45:00 - 45:30 conformity in the aristotelian the Neoplatonic sense right participatory perspectival conformity has been replaced by propositional certainty and of course the thing about math for Descartes is it gives you certainty that's why math cuts through all the illusions that's why it allows us access
• 45:30 - 46:00 to such power so Descartes thinks the answer to the crisis is to change transform our minds not in any kind of spiritual transformation but to transform our minds into machines of certainty Minds that will only work
• 46:00 - 46:30 mathematically and logically in terms of equations the way to get certainty is to turn myself into a machine that represents the world through abstract symbolic propositions and then manipulate those propositions in a purely logical mathematical function so what Descartes is proposing is that the
• 46:30 - 47:00 way to address the anxiety of the age is for each one of us to adopt a method that will turn us into computers that's what a computer is peter is originally a word applied to people by the way in the 1930s or 40s you could have a job as a computer that
• 47:00 - 47:30 was your job you would be given the task of taking equations and prop and processing them in a logical mathematical fashion so reasoning is being reduced to computation we'll talk about what that might mean in a minute the idea is if we can make our minds
• 47:30 - 48:00 into purely computational machines then we will achieve certainty certainty in our beliefs right will give us what Descartes thinks we need in order to alleviate the anxiety that we're suffering and of course we we do that right we we are still business so we on one hand we have the cultural grammar of Luther and the narcissism and the
• 48:00 - 48:30 radical self-doubt and on the other hand we have the Cartesian grammar we seek certainty we don't we won't believe anything until it's certain and of course we vacillate between I must accept it without any evidence or reason Luther I could only accept it if it's absolutely certain then beyond question Descartes and both of these of course are pathological the first is pathological because if you completely
• 48:30 - 49:00 remove people's agency in how they come to their beliefs then you radically undermine any meaning in life they might possess the other one the pursuit of certainty and there are individuals who seem to speak as if mathematical science will still give us certainty that's an illusion part of what we discover after Descartes and they Kurt was also surprised and that people ended up disagreeing with him is that science
• 49:00 - 49:30 doesn't and can't provide certainty these two equations I put up on the board this is from Einstein this is from Newton what Einstein showed is things that Newton thought were certain absolute space and time these kinds of formula actually don't possess the certainty that Newton thought they did we'll talk a little bit later about why
• 49:30 - 50:00 we can't except in very limited context there are deep deep reasons why we can't pursue certainty and therefore we can't seek certainty as of the solution to the loss of connection connection to ourself connection to the world connection to other minds now why does Descartes it's like this again this radical irony it's very similar to Luther why does de
• 50:00 - 50:30 cartes attempt to address this burgeoning loss of connections why does it actually result in exactly the opposite an increased sense of disconnectedness well part of it of course is the failure of the project of certainty so you can understand the a the 18th and the 19th and especially right the 20th centuries as scientific
• 50:30 - 51:00 historical histo and philosophical undermining of the idea that we can achieve certainty of course one of the great principles of modern physics is the uncertainty principle but let's go back so Descartes right proposes that we should do this but there's an individual at his time there's a contemporary of
• 51:00 - 51:30 Descartes who makes it explicit and radical and then challenges Descartes with with that radical derivation Hobbes says well you know all of this what this means is that cognition is computation Hobbs says that he uses an older word he says ratiocination what we would now say is cognition by ratiocination I mean call computation cognition is computation now there's a lot of people
• 51:30 - 52:00 who were going to disagree right with this model of computation there's a lot of discussion right now Brian Cantwell Smith a colleague of mine at the University of Toronto does a lot of important work on the metaphysics of computation I am NOT trying to state that this is the absolute truth about computation that of course would be ironic given what I just said about certainty all I am arguing is historically this has been the
• 52:00 - 52:30 interpretation of what computation was for people like Descartes and Hobbes that's all we need for this argument but Hobbes says cognition is computation and then here's the radical idea he proposes he takes a new idea current at the time remember the idea that matter is a substance remember the old Aristotelian idea is matter is pure potential but with Galileo matter is a reality right in the sense of a substance it resists
• 52:30 - 53:00 and it's good that it resists because I need something that resists my will in order to help me with my biases so matter is inert it's resistance it's really there I push on it notice that again all that's left of Conformity is resistance of will Hobbes says well matter is real and what if I built a
• 53:00 - 53:30 material machine that did computation if cognition is just computation and I can build a machine that does computation and some of the first automatic machines are being built at this time calculating machines if I can make a material a
• 53:30 - 54:00 machine that does computation I will have made cognition I will have made ant mind right there at the heart of the Scientific Revolution Hobbes is proposing artificial intelligence notice how artificial intelligence Oh artificial intelligence is a child of
• 54:00 - 54:30 the advent of the meaning crisis and the Scientific Revolution it's not a modern idea artificial intelligence goes back to this time and see what is Hobbs doing with this so you know think you know I said Galileo kills the universe and Copernicus right kills the reality of our Sense experience but Hobbs is doing
• 54:30 - 55:00 something way more personal because up till now like you've been isolated inside your own mind but at least still there I still have something special unique something spiritual Hobbs kills the soul so soul because if artificial intelligence is right if I can build a machine purely material machine that is capable of computation then I will have
• 55:00 - 55:30 made a mind and I didn't have to involve any soul stuff any spirit stuff in making it and that's radical we'll take a look at how Descartes responds to that and how deep that response is woven into our culture and the meaning crisis and how we move between AI and Descartes even today thank you very much for your
• 55:30 - 56:00 time and attention [Music] you you