Wednesday, March 23, 2022

The Warning: Jordan Peterson

 It appears that the fanatic lies more than anyone else because he believes the lies that he tells, and convinced of the absolute certitude of his point of view. Peterson alludes to this on Pages 218 and 219 of his book, 12 RULES FOR LIFE, AN ANTIDOTE TO CHAOS: "To say it again: it is the greatest temptation of the rational faculty to glorify its own capacity and its own production and to claim that in the face of its theories nothing transcendent or outside its domain need exist. That means that all important facts have been discovered. This means that nothing important remains unknown. But most importantly, it means denial of the necessity for courageous individual confrontation with Being. What is going to save you? The totalitarian says, in essence, 'You must rely in faith in what you already know. ' But that is not what saves. What saves is the willingness to learn from what you do not know. That is faith in the possibility of human transformation. That is faith is the sacrifice of the current self for the self that could be. The totalitarian denies the necessity for the individual to take ultimate responsibility for Being."

My response: It may be that certain truth could be known but, those, that would gain in, still would be epistemically humble because that is how one keeps one mind clear about reality out there and inside. The true believer does not have all the facts does not hold certain truth, although he claims to possess just that, and earnestly believes his mendacious assertion.

We must remain open to new possibilities or our knowledge cannot grow. Jordan urges that the individual is responsible for how Being unfolds, and that is achieved by religious faith, ethical behavior, truth-questing and keeping a really open mind.

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