Philosophy Courses

The relation between the cognitive science of mindfulness, meaning, mystical experience and the philosophy of Vedanta

April 18th-May 2nd, Saturdays, 1pm-3pm; $85

This course explores recent work within cognitive science on phenomena that are relevant to Vedanta philosophy focusing on the cognitive scientific work of John Vervaeke.   Each week will be a one and half hour lecture followed by Q&A.

Week 1.   Introduction and Mindfulness

What is cognitive science and how could it be relevant to Vedanta.  What does cognitive science have to teach us about attention, mindfulness, meditation and contemplation.

Week 2. Meaning

What is meaning in life and what patterns undermine it and what patterns afford it?  How do self-deception and self-transcendence impact meaning?

Week 3. Mystical experience. What is mystical experience and how does it relate to meaning and mindfulness?  How does it relate to psychedelic and flow experiences?

Teacher: John Vervaeke is an Associate Professor, in the teaching stream. He has been teaching at the University of Toronto since 1994. He
currently teaches courses in the Psychology department on thinking and reasoning with an emphasis on insight problem solving,
cognitive development with an emphasis on the dynamical nature of development, and higher cognitive processes with an emphasis on
intelligence, rationality, mindfulness, the nature and function of the self, and the Psychology of wisdom. He was the former director of the
Cognitive Science program where he currently teaches courses on the introduction to Cognitive Science, and the Cognitive Science of
consciousness wherein he emphasizes 4E (embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended) models of cognition and consciousness . In
addition, he taught a course in the Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health program on Buddhism and Cognitive Science for fifteen years.
He is the director of the Consciousness and the Wisdom Studies Laboratory. He has won and been nominated for several teaching
awards including the 2001 Students’ Administrative Council and Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students Teaching Award
for the Humanities, and the 2012 Ranjini Ghosh Excellence in Teaching Award. He has published articles on relevance realization, general intelligence, mindfulness, flow, metaphor, and wisdom. He is first author of the book Zombies in Western Culture: A 21 st Century
crisis which integrates Psychology and Cognitive Science to address the meaning crisis in Western society. He is first author of the book,
Awakening from the Meaning Crisis, and the Youtube series After Socrates.