Myth, Meaning, and Antifragile Individualism

This book is a critical exposition and evaluation of the ideas of Jordan Peterson, who has become very well-known in the last few years; his lectures and dialogues on YouTube attract tens of thousands of viewers. In this respect, one of his dialogues with Iain McGilchrist is likely to be of special interest to readers. I was not that familiar with Peterson's ideas, and this book does a very good job in terms of a critical introduction. Themes explored include knowledge, ignorance and the unknown, meaning, the roots of morality in personality types and early social interactions, the transformative power of speech and individual action, the role of ideals, and the nature of hierarchies. It is interesting to note Peterson's position of acting as if God exists. For him, it is not so much the metaphysics of religion that is important but the moral and ethical ideals in a realm of both order and chaos. He notes that we still largely inhabit a world of traditional values at psychological and social levels, though I personally believe that the metaphysics of scientific materialism is not unrelated to our current mental health crisis.

For him, myths are descriptions of our biological predicament in narrative terms, also informed by archetypes. His emphasis is on individual autonomy and responsibility, and hence on free speech, which has landed him in a few controversies with respect to university platforms – hence the incorporation of 'anti-fragile' in the title. This involves reconciling the ethics of autonomy, community and divinity. Peterson suggests that the great myths and religious stories of the past are fundamentally moral in their intent rather than descriptive, seeing human life as an unfolding drama. The resolution of disagreements remains central and critical. The author is surely right in highlighting the importance of viable theories of values, consciousness, meaning, aesthetic experience and ritual, all of which entail the reconciliation of individual and collective interests, self and other, the part and the whole. My own contribution lies in the formulation of an ethic of interconnectedness that can be understood at a number of different levels and corresponds to insights in physics, biology, psychology, ecology, systems theory and mystical experience. Although I come from a distinctive metaphysical view based on the depths of human experience, the structure of this ethic in terms of symbiosis, synergy and the golden rule can be understood at any level.