Jordan Peterson's Brand of Moderate Ethics and Moderate Ontology

 

 Jordan Peterson has studied Buddhism and Taoism, and his moderate ethics and ontology are laid out simply by him in a few lines from Page 43 of his book 12 RULES FOR LIFE AN ANTIDOTE TO CHAOS: "The Taoist juxtaposition of yin and yang, for example, doesn't simply portray chaos and order as the fundamental elements of Being--it also tells you how to act. The Way, the Taoist path of life, is represented by (or exists on) the border between the twin serpents. The Way is the path of proper Being. "

The good and holy human, then is not too masculine, or too feminine, not too taken either with yang or yin, order, or chaos. One leads the ethical life alone the path between these extremes in Being or existence. That s the moderate way. I like it.

Jordan continues lower down the page: "We eternally inhabit order, surrounded by chaos. We eternally occupy known territory, surrounded by the unknown. We experience meaningful engagement when we mediate appropriately between them. We are adapted, in the Deepest Darwinian sense, not to the world of objects, but to the meta-realities of order and chaos, yang and yin. Chaos and order make up the eternal, transcendent environment of the living.

To straddle that fundamental reality is to be balanced: to have one foot firmly planted in order and security, and the other in chaos, possibility, growth and adventure."

My response: When Jordan inventories the straddling of the line between order and chaos, he advises the alive, authentic agent to find meaning in living in both world as the same time. The moderate way ontologically is a kind synthesis of thesis and antithesis, not a new monism, but a union, moving and changing yet permanent, as order and chaos are how Being is divided between the worlds of spirit and matter. Both permanently exist, and both may be experienced and perceive in deluded ways or in alethic ways.

The dualism of matter and spirit are synthesized as order and chaos and it all rolls together and comes apart in bewildering ways.

 

Jordan continues: "When life suddenly reveals itself as intense, gripping and meaningful; when time passes and you're so engrossed in what you're doing you don't notice--it is there and then that you are located precisely on the border between order and chaos."