Book contents
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Who Is the Devil and What Is He Due?
- Part I The Advocatus Diaboli: Reflections on Free Thought and Free Speech
- Part II Homo Religiosus: Reflections on God and Religion
- Part III Deferred Dreams: Reflections on Politics and Society
- Part IV Scientia Humanitatis: Reflections on Scientific Humanism
- Part V Transcendent Thinkers: Reflections on Controversial Intellectuals
- Chapter 23 Transcendent Man
- Chapter 24 The Real Hitch
- Chapter 25 The Skeptic’s Chaplain
- Chapter 26 Have Archetype – Will Travel
- Chapter 27 Romancing the Past
- Notes
- Index
Chapter 26 - Have Archetype – Will Travel
The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon
from Part V - Transcendent Thinkers: Reflections on Controversial Intellectuals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2020
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Who Is the Devil and What Is He Due?
- Part I The Advocatus Diaboli: Reflections on Free Thought and Free Speech
- Part II Homo Religiosus: Reflections on God and Religion
- Part III Deferred Dreams: Reflections on Politics and Society
- Part IV Scientia Humanitatis: Reflections on Scientific Humanism
- Part V Transcendent Thinkers: Reflections on Controversial Intellectuals
- Chapter 23 Transcendent Man
- Chapter 24 The Real Hitch
- Chapter 25 The Skeptic’s Chaplain
- Chapter 26 Have Archetype – Will Travel
- Chapter 27 Romancing the Past
- Notes
- Index
Summary
This essay was triggered by the sudden rise in popularity of Jordan Peterson in 2017. As his platform grew, I received frequent queries on when we were going to “debunk” Peterson, “put him in his place,” “refute his ideas,” and so forth. There were a few voices of support but most people seemed to prejudge Peterson based on a handful of snippets from his writings, and especially video clips taken out of context. Peterson seems to engender passionate emotions (both for and against) his ideas presented in YouTube videos, podcasts, books, and his multi-city lecture tour routinely selling out large theaters. Given all this media attention, I felt it was time to examine with a skeptical eye Jordan Peterson’s ideas and, especially, the phenomenon surrounding him, so this was my introduction to a special issue of Skeptic we published in 2018 on the man.
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- Information
- Giving the Devil his DueReflections of a Scientific Humanist, pp. 297 - 310Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020