जॉर्डन पीटरसन Jordan B. Peterson
Ideas
Take responsibility, starting small
His central advice is to shoulder responsibility for your own life before trying to fix the world. Start with what is in front of you and build competence outward. Rule 2 of 12 Rules for Life puts it plainly. Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.
Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.
12 Rules for Life, Rule 2 (2018)
Big Think, 22 Feb 2019 · Wikipedia, 12 Rules for Life
Order and chaos
Human life, in his telling, is lived on the border between order and chaos. Too much chaos and we drown. Too much order and we stagnate. 12 Rules for Life was subtitled An Antidote to Chaos and Beyond Order was written about the opposite danger.
unchecked order can petrify us into submission
On Beyond Order, Penguin Random House announcement
Penguin Random House announcement, Beyond Order · The Canadian Encyclopedia
Meaning over expedience
He argues that a good life rests on personal ethics and accepted responsibility rather than on chasing happiness. Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient. Measure progress against your own past, not against other people.
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
12 Rules for Life, Rule 4 (2018)
The Canadian Encyclopedia · Wikipedia, 12 Rules for Life
Tell the truth, or at least don’t lie
Truthful and precise speech sits at the centre of his ethics. Rules 8 and 10 of 12 Rules for Life ask readers to tell the truth and to be precise in their speech. He argues that censorship trains people to say things they know to be untrue.
When you have something to say, silence is a lie.
His official website
jordanbpeterson.com, About · Wikipedia, 12 Rules for Life · Wikipedia
Free speech and compelled speech
His objection to Bill C-16 was framed as a stand against being compelled to use particular words. He holds that universities must be able to discuss contentious subjects and that free speech is how a society balances order and chaos.
I’m not willing to suspend my tongue as a consequence of government decree.
To CBC News, August 2023
The Canadian Encyclopedia · The Varsity, 21 Nov 2016 · CBC News, Aug 2023
Hierarchies of competence
He argues that many hierarchies rest on competence rather than oppression, and that the left should defend equal opportunity while rejecting the pursuit of equal outcomes.
Write your way to a plan
With Daniel Higgins and Robert Pihl he built the Self Authoring Suite, guided writing exercises on your past, your faults and virtues and your future. He says writing out a vision of the life you want quells anxiety and doubt. His site says it has helped over 200,000 people.
The Canadian Encyclopedia · jordanbpeterson.com, About · Big Think, 2018
The stories under our beliefs
From Maps of Meaning to the Biblical Series and We Who Wrestle with God, he reads myth and scripture psychologically. Old stories, he argues, encode hard-won knowledge about how to act in the world.
The Canadian Encyclopedia · Jordan B Peterson channel
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