Why Jordan Peterson is Wrong About Ideology

Jordan Peterson is famously critical of ideology. He has a particular distain for Marxism, Stalinism, Nazism, Postmodernism, Feminism, in fact, any ism. Instead, he argues, that the individual is sovereign, ideology should be renounced, and that, quote, ‘If we each live properly, we will collectively flourish.’ Rule VI of Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life is Abandon Ideology . Drawing on the Russian novelist Dostoevsky, Peterson interprets ideology as ‘rigid, comprehensive, utopian’ and predicated on a few ‘apparently self-evident axioms’. An ism theorist, he argues, ‘generates a small number of explanatory principles of forces’ that can supposedly ‘explain everything: all the past, all the present, and all the future.’ An ideologue, he continues, ‘grants these small number of forces primary causal power, while ignoring others of equal or greater importance.’ The result of this is that ‘an ideologue can consider him or herself in possession of the complete truth.’ I take a look at what philosophers say ideology is, what Jordan Peterson’s ideology – a type of Juedo-Christian Mythic Conservatism – look at its limits, and finally, ask why we need ideology. #jordanpeterson #peterson #ideology #politics #philosophy Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Or send me a one-off tip of any amount and help me make more videos: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JJ76W4CZ2A8J2 Buy on Amazon through this link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/2ykJe6L Follow me on: Facebook: http://fb.me/thethenandnow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethenandnow/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lewlewwaller Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/then-now-philosophy-history-politics/id1499254204 https://open.spotify.com/show/1Khac2ih0UYUtuIJEWL47z Sources Selected writings from Reason and Responsibility, Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy, Joel Fienberg and Russ Shafer-Landau From ‘Social Dimensions of Moral Responsibility’ ed. by. Katrina Hutchinson, Catriona MacKenzie, Marina Orshana: ‘Power, Social Inequities, and the Conversational Theory of Moral Responsibility’ by Michael McKenna ‘Moral Responsibility and the Social Dynamics of Power and Oppression’ by Catriona Mackenzie ‘The Social Constitution of Agency and Responsibility: Oppression, Politics, and Moral Ecology’ by Manuel R . Vargas https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-responsibility/ Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order Michael Katz, The Undeserving poor: America’s enduring Confrontation with Poverty John Gerring, Ideology: A Definitional Analysis, Political Research Quarterly Credits: Jordan Peterson image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jordan_Peterson_(46411926312).jpg B.F. Skinner image: Silly rabbit, CC BY 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/B.F._Skinner_at_Harvard_circa_1950.jpg Nelson Mandela image: © copyright John Mathew Smith 2001, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Nelson_Mandela_1994.jpg Second Jordan Peterson image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Jordan_Peterson_%2832590076658%29.jpg