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

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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

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 imageGage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BYSA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons).jpg

B.F. Skinner imageSilly rabbit, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons,

Nelson Mandela image© copyright John Mathew Smith 2001,

Second Jordan Peterson imageGage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BYSA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons,