Why We Can’t Find Meaning and What to Do About It – Alex O’Connor and John Vervaeke
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– VIDEO NOTES
This conversation took place at the Dissident Dialogues festival in Brooklyn in May 2024.
– TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
2:50 Is there a meaning crisis?
11:56 Is philosophy the way to meaning?
18:50 The value of the non-propositional
25:05 Are we screwed?
– CONNECT
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——————————————
@wizAntonioD
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
what's up with the music
@petertatford8783
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Meaning and purpose arise naturally in complex goal oriented systems.
@petertatford8783
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Every free choice, to have meaning, has ultimately to be grounded in something that is not a choice, in some aspect of the way the world is, or at least how we think it is.
@Thinkagain21
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Lots of egological claptrap, cf. 2 Timothy 3:7. One cannot argue 'within reason' in a non-propositional fashion, thus leaving atheism with a non-rational basis. Frankl's Logotherapy may be of some help!
@UltMiddle
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Would love to hear a discussion about this with O’Connor and Sapolsky
@Farstors
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
6:18 You just blew my mind and I've got a ton to think through…
@thedarknightnicht
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
I am interested in the people in the comments that say subjective meaning i.e. deciding that you want to make your own meaning in the world is meaningless. What exactly do you mean?
@adamgolding
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
There are plenty of syllogisms in the bible. Syllogisms are normally not laid out explicitly in standard format — this is not unique to the Bible, Alex!
@theostapel
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
There being a link with the Real Being – and then as of love – the mergence – within the Real Being.
Is that not meaning – or better yet – the absolute experience ?
@maxxbenavente
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
I think the whole concept of meaning or purpose in life is just an invention that we humans have created as an extension of the survival mechanism. You see, we are wired to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Once our basic needs are met, we adapt to the situation and get bored, which doesn't feel good, it's rather painful. Therefore we begin to wonder if there's something else to do so that we can avoid this feeling (or any other that's painful). This is how we invented things that promise an immeasurable or everlasting pleasure, such as God, Heaven, Enlightenment, and so on. With these concepts now we are able to do and bear anything, because at the end of the day we believe that we'll be rewarded with such an immense pleasure. But actually there's nothing more than this: survival until death.
Personally, I think that we can manipulate the thought process enough so that we feel fine by just existing, after all, thoughts can shape our sense of pleasure and pain.
@battlepans1927
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
A question I just asked myself is “why does it matter if there is meaning?”
The end result of the search for a meaning is, in my eyes, just so we have another avenue for enrichment of our own lives through experience.
@pablobandeira3540
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
You living everyday with meaning….don't be that stupid lol
@andreasdelacoux1319
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
This interviewer is as smart as a bag of rocks
@deathveteranxd6650
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
I mean its still a little gamble getting up everyday. We are pretty fortunate in growing up in these times where having the viewpoint that waking up and going out isnt that much of a gamble any more.
@I_believed_in_justice
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
This guy is impressive in so many levels that makes me feel inadequate being myself.
@musicalbox5150
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
I always hear „Religion“
@soulinameatsack29
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
I can't imagine having the memory to retain information like him. I'm so jealous lol.
@BrickGriff
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
"Top-down ideologies won't work."
Fully agreed! This anarchist wishes your favorite bottom-up ideologies the best of luck.
@BrickGriff
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
We are not experiencing a downward trajectory of narrative, in general. We are experiencing a downward trajectory of hegemonic narrative!
That "Christians are no longer certainly, hands-down, without-a-doubt exclusively in possession of the One True Theology" is not a cause for concern, for the world. Unless you think the loss of Christianity would be some kind of special tragedy… Moreso than the loss of, say, Hinduism. That'd be wild.
Christianity will end when the last Christian dies. It isn't going to last forever. That is the endgame, the logical conclusion, of any religion.
@BrickGriff
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
The question of "whether we are screwed" is and has always been a matter of perspective (of whoever is asking the question) lol
@dianamontano223
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
we do have Heaven on Earth. Read The Last Supper by Scott Hahn.
@c.s.s.5326
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
“Meaning is artificial
It always was
We made it in our heads
So that must mean that it
Never existed at all”
-Puzzles In Pavement
CS Sweet
@bernardwalsh9587
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Alex you are missing the point. Meaning and happiness are not on the same plane. Meaning and joy are on the same plane. The isolated man is understood by Aristotle. How? Human nature. Modern philosophy from Ockham on, got rid of universals which if understood make isolation an agony because we have a common human nature which means we are social by nature. Meaning then must be gotten from the eternal logos or Mind that created us, God. We may not find happiness but we can find joy in the faith and knowledge that we are made in the image and likeness of our creator and suffering has meaning for us even though we may be miserable. We have a reason/purpose for our existence.
@scientiadocumentarychannel
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
'Meaning' from form Proto-Indo-European *mey- (think). 'What do you mean?' = 'What do you think?'.
'Think' from PIE *teng- (Feel). 'What do you think?' = 'What do you feel?'
@TruthWielders
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Who is looking for meaning ?
The meaning of Lion is not the same as the meaning of Pidgeon, or Elephant, or Human. And the meaning of one individual is different then that of another !
Know yourself, look inside !
@Jay-xw9ll
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
It's funny how the religious want to blame secularism for the lack of meaning in the world, while simultaneously claiming they know the word of a god. If that was the case surely any lack of belief is down to them and their supreme beings lack of persuasion.
@michaeldocker1009
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
I keep hearing people tell Alex that atheism is 'going out of fashion'… What does that actually mean? Doesn't all the data indicate that religion is on the decline in more of the world than it isn't? Unless I'm really missing something its religion thats going out of fashion. The only place I hear otherwise is from the mouths of the faithful 😂
@troyacummings
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
When was this golden age of meaning? I don’t think it ever existed. Humans didn’t have great meaning and narrative at one point and have lost it now. We don’t need to make humanity great again.
We are making our meaning now. We always have been. We are maybe the only ones in the universe doing it.
We need to do it well, but we don’t need to return to a way of meaning that used to exist and is now lost.
@bananadragonfromjupiter
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Having the thing on its own DOES make me happy. What now, argument destroyed?
@franmiskovic7630
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Narrative is a simplification of things that usually takes victims if taken too seriously. It's good for most of the people as they have something to stream for. Basically "stupid people need their myths". The ones that become victims are either too smart to not take it too seriously or they have their own narrative.
@brojob5102
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
30:08 wait until Alex finds out about Clarence Thomas
@macafashion
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Help, Im lost.
@paulygon409
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
You should speak to Chris Langan
@sopad4629
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Our brain is made like that, to be addicted on something. So how do we fix this problem? Self-control, self-discipline and a higher wisdom.
@parascopicvision
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
This moderator, or interviewer, is quite annoying in his approach to both commentators.
@christopherwhittaker2620
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
“ Atheism is going out of fashion “
It’s never been a fashion. What a truly silly thing to stay.
And if by going out of fashion he means atheism is not growing, it’s simply not true. Far from it.
Let’s take America as an example.
In 1990 5% of the American population identified as atheist. In 2023 it has risen to 29%.
That is a dramatic increase in such a short period of time.
Yet again someone just pushing a narrative rather than being truthful.
The world is suffering from a kind of pandemic of post truth. And America seems to be the epicentre of it.
@Dawntreader666
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
ur pretending u cant find meaning ?
@ashcross
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
This didn't really get going.
@chrisdakilla3173
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
30:14 but the narrative becomes the god and the god dies once again. The cycle continues. The dilema of a fallen world.
@anon_genZ
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
To address Alex’s point about people wanting a “happiness with something you don’t have, believing you can achieve it, and constantly not achieving it,” Is what I believe happens when people seek the Good things in life the wrong way. They pursue the Good through instrumental goods, rather than inherent goods.
What I see people truly seeking is a relationship with the infinite—something that can sustain them in both the present and the future. Which means they receive the happiness they seek in life, and because they receive it through the infinite, or the Good itself, they can never exhaust its utility, being that they are temporal. This gives them a happiness that can be achieved and is continually being achieved in perpetuity.
@TheGolfCommunity1
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
You cant find meaning or purpose cos you dont believe in a creator, it's not rocket science
@ultraviolatlove7287
January 28, 2026 at 10:01 pm
Meaning brings life to life. Meaning brings peace and true fulfillment. It is important
Comments are closed.