#52: Letting Go of Control Will Unlock Your True Humanity with John Cottingham

What if the relentless drive to know everything, control everything, and fix everything is actually making you less human? And what if the path to wisdom, meaning, and flourishing begins not with more answers — but with a deeper relationship with the unknown?

Frank sits down with philosopher John Cottingham — Professor Emeritus at the University of Reading and Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford — whose latest book The Humane Perspective (Oxford University Press) is a bold call for philosophy to reconnect with lived experience, emotion, and spiritual reality. John argues that our culture's obsession with left-brain detachment — from academia to AI to tech utopianism — is cutting us off from what makes us most human: vulnerability, transcendence, and the humility to acknowledge our limits.

Topics covered:

• Why philosophy's obsession with detached logic misses the point of being human
• The "epistemology of involvement" — and why being porous is more powerful than being critical
• AI, tech billionaires, and the dangerous fantasy of total control
• The longing for transcendence and why even a well-fed, comfortable life leaves us yearning
• What Augustine, Aquinas, Freud, and Jung all agree on about self-knowledge
• Why religion is a practice, not a theory — and what that means for non-believers

The Humane Perspective by John Cottingham — Oxford University Press

 johncottingham.co.uk

---

Mindform is an exclusive membership platform that gives you access to an ever-expanding toolkit for mental mastery and a community of passionate psychitects. Apply to join Mindform or get the free Psychitect's Toolkit at https://mindform.io/podcast