Posts: 23918
Threads: 300
Joined: June 25, 2011
Reputation:
151
Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:12 pm
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2018 at 9:15 pm by Whateverist.)
First of all I realize this isn't philosophy in the academic sense but we don't have a psychology section and I suppose this book fits in the lay sense of "philosophy of life". Jordan B. Peterson practices and teaches psychotherapy and has been called the greatest Canadian intellectual since Marshal McLuhan. (I don't have an opinion about that claim.)
So I finally got my turn to look this book over which came out this year (2018) after waiting through 8 people ahead of me with a hold on it at my local library. This is not the sort of book I'm usually attracted to read. And I don't intend to read it straight through or very thoroughly. I actually thought I'd be ripping into it for being cheesy. But I don't hate it.
Apparently it started as a response to a question online at Quora and originally included many more than 12 'rules'. They really amount to something more like "12 points of advice for leading a satisfying life" and there is a chapter devoted to each one in the book. Mostly I agree with him.
Some require more elaboration to see what he has in mind, but here are the twelve 'rules' if you're interested:
wiki Wrote:
- Stand up straight with your shoulders back
- Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping
- Make friends with people who want the best for you
- Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today
- Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
- Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
- Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)
- Tell the truth – or, at least, don't lie
- Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't
- Be precise in your speech
- Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
- Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street
I'm not real gungho about this but if anyone else has looked it over or read about them and wish to discuss it, I can currently. I've been reading a good bit in his chapter 8 on truth telling which I have to agree with.
Posts: 274
Threads: 57
Joined: November 6, 2017
Reputation:
3
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:29 pm
I'm surprised Peterson was audacious enough to think he had condensed the essentials of all human life into 12 "rules". Normally, you shouldn't judge a book by its title alone, but in this case I make an exception.
Posts: 12132
Threads: 125
Joined: January 11, 2010
Reputation:
45
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:35 pm
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2018 at 9:37 pm by Rev. Rye.)
They seem interesting in theory, but, then again, it would appear that Peterson falls afoul of #8 quite a bit, (notably, his infamous opposition to Bill C-16 being based on fundamentally wrong interpretations of the law), and #10 (so much vagueness). I'm willing to suspect that, in his new life as darling of the alt-right, he's flouted #9 quite a bit. I don't know enough about his personal life to review his stances on rules #1-7, 11-12.
Also, I don't think someone who sounds (and to a lesser extent looks) so much like Saul Goodman should be lecturing people about moral rectitude:
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
Posts: 9147
Threads: 83
Joined: May 22, 2013
Reputation:
46
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:38 pm
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2018 at 9:51 pm by bennyboy.)
These are the first and most recent interviews he did with Joe Rogan. They are quite interesting to listen to. Everything he does with JRE gets about 3 million views, which is about 10x more than most of Rogan's other guests.
Posts: 32942
Threads: 1412
Joined: March 15, 2013
Reputation:
152
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:41 pm
Most of those are just common sense that I already knew and by which I already abide. The one about the cat, however, I've yet to encounter a stray that isn't skittish and doesn't run at the sight of people.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Posts: 9147
Threads: 83
Joined: May 22, 2013
Reputation:
46
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:42 pm
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2018 at 9:46 pm by bennyboy.)
(August 9, 2018 at 9:35 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: They seem interesting in theory, but, then again, it would appear that Peterson falls afoul of #8 quite a bit, (notably, his infamous opposition to Bill C-16 being based on fundamentally wrong interpretations of the law), and #10 (so much vagueness). I'm willing to suspect that, in his new life as darling of the alt-right, he's flouted #9 quite a bit. I don't know enough about his personal life to review his stances on rules #1-7, 11-12.
Also, I don't think someone who sounds (and to a lesser extent looks) so much like Saul Goodman should be lecturing people about moral rectitude:
The alt-right might like him, because he argues very effectively against PC bullshit. However, I wouldn't categorize him as alt-right or even as someone who feels any connection to the alt-right. In the last video I posted above, you can very clearly see how unbiased he is, at least in the position he chooses to take.
He speaks clearly against racism-- he says racists should be put in a box and put off to the side.
The he says the same thing about those who expect equality of outcome.
(August 9, 2018 at 9:41 pm)Kit Wrote: Most of those are just common sense that I already knew and by which I already abide. The one about the cat, however, I've yet to encounter a stray that isn't skittish and doesn't run at the sight of people.
I think the point of the last two is that you don't really need 12 rules.
Posts: 3709
Threads: 18
Joined: September 29, 2015
Reputation:
10
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:47 pm
I heard about this recently on the revisionist history podcast.
Being a huge hockey fan, I really liked Gladwells one rule... Always pull the goalie. This is one of my favorite episodes for a number of other reasons.
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/2...s-for-life
It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. - Alexander Vilenkin
If I am shown my error, I will be the first to throw my books into the fire. - Martin Luther
Posts: 35273
Threads: 204
Joined: August 13, 2012
Reputation:
146
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:52 pm
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2018 at 9:53 pm by The Valkyrie.)
Beccs laws...
1. All it takes is for one idiot to do something stupid and all the other idiots will follow.
2. If you can’t reason with them, bribe/blackmail them.
3. What Beccs giveth, Beccs can taketh away.
4. Everyone is flammable.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
Posts: 12132
Threads: 125
Joined: January 11, 2010
Reputation:
45
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 9:54 pm
(August 9, 2018 at 9:42 pm)bennyboy Wrote: (August 9, 2018 at 9:35 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: They seem interesting in theory, but, then again, it would appear that Peterson falls afoul of #8 quite a bit, (notably, his infamous opposition to Bill C-16 being based on fundamentally wrong interpretations of the law), and #10 (so much vagueness). I'm willing to suspect that, in his new life as darling of the alt-right, he's flouted #9 quite a bit. I don't know enough about his personal life to review his stances on rules #1-7, 11-12.
Also, I don't think someone who sounds (and to a lesser extent looks) so much like Saul Goodman should be lecturing people about moral rectitude:
The alt-right might like him, because he argues very effectively against PC bullshit. However, I wouldn't categorize him as alt-right or even as someone who feels any connection to the alt-right.
I didn't necessarily say he was alt-right. I said he was one of their darlings. It's a shockingly wide net, and they have really low standards for who they accept as one of them.
He himself does not particularly like the alt-right, and I do agree with him on this point that the alt-right and the PC-left are fundamentally the same:
But he really hedges his bets about explaining why, exactly, they're bad, and his alt-right fans love him for it.
Really, if you want to look into critiques of PC culture, Kyle Kulinski does a damn good job of doing it and NOBODY mistakes him for a right-winger:
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
Posts: 10328
Threads: 31
Joined: April 3, 2015
Reputation:
64
RE: Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?
August 9, 2018 at 10:00 pm
I wish we did have a psychology... well Mind... section here... I know there's Life Sciences etc but it's not the same; it would just be nice to bring together psychology, philosophy of mind/consciousness, meditation etc, and whatever this is ...self-help/philosophy... into its own subforum.
|