There’s a lot of truth to what he’s saying. His critique of post-modernism and radical ident-ity politics is spot on. And yet, I can’t help but feel that he’s missing some critical component in his thinking: maybe even THE critical component. Nevertheless, I listen to him with great interest on a regular basis– with the understanding that he is, perhaps, still developing his philosophy (or still rolling it out strategically). Because, at this stage, I hear an almost purely materialist logic at work in his thought– with very little acknowledgement of the transcendent aspect of humanity. In many of his lectures and talks he presents what appears to be a quasi-Darwinian view of life: a vision of life as a mere quest for material advancement.
And, of course, at a certain level, he’s absolutely right: Life is that. But, as many of us believe, that’s not the full picture. And, as yet, I haven’t heard Peterson venture too much farther than this quasi- Darwinian case.
Perhaps he is simply using the paradigm that most people will understand in order to make a ‘sensible’ and ‘grounded’ stand against post-modern lunacy. (And kudos to him for that!). But I hope he will extend his thinking (or the thinking he’s willing to share publicly) to include a fuller picture of personhood: one that is rooted in a transcendent source which has a much nobler purpose ‘in mind’ for humanity than our successful mating and material advancement within various earth-bound ‘dominance hierarchies’.
There’s a lot of truth to what he’s saying. His critique of post-modernism and radical ident-ity politics is spot on. And yet, I can’t help but feel that he’s missing some critical component in his thinking: maybe even THE critical component. Nevertheless, I listen to him with great interest on a regular basis– with the understanding that he is, perhaps, still developing his philosophy (or still rolling it out strategically). Because, at this stage, I hear an almost purely materialist logic at work in his thought– with very little acknowledgement of the transcendent aspect of humanity. In many of his lectures and talks he presents what appears to be a quasi-Darwinian view of life: a vision of life as a mere quest for material advancement.
And, of course, at a certain level, he’s absolutely right: Life is that. But, as many of us believe, that’s not the full picture. And, as yet, I haven’t heard Peterson venture too much farther than this quasi- Darwinian case.
Perhaps he is simply using the paradigm that most people will understand in order to make a ‘sensible’ and ‘grounded’ stand against post-modern lunacy. (And kudos to him for that!). But I hope he will extend his thinking (or the thinking he’s willing to share publicly) to include a fuller picture of personhood: one that is rooted in a transcendent source which has a much nobler purpose ‘in mind’ for humanity than our successful mating and material advancement within various earth-bound ‘dominance hierarchies’.