Book Review: Twelve Rules for Life
This is a nice even-handed review. It has been hard to get a clear picture of what Peterson is about and I&#x27;ve had to sift through an awful lot of partisan spite-pieces on both sides to try to get to the bottom of what&#x27;s going on with him. The following paragraph jumped out at me here:<p><i>&quot;The politics in this book lean a bit right, but if you think of Peterson as a political commentator you’re missing the point. The science in this book leans a bit Malcolm Gladwell, but if you think of him as a scientist you’re missing the point. Philosopher, missing the point. Public intellectual, missing the point. Mythographer, missing the point. So what’s the point?&quot;</i><p>I think part of the problem with our initial impressions of Peterson is he (or comes across) tries to present himself as these things kind of like he misses the point of himself sometimes .. but maybe that&#x27;s just from having been taking such an embattled position so long.<p>The article goes on to describe Peterson as &quot;a prophet&quot;. As a student of psychology I don&#x27;t personally think his views are &quot;groundbreaking&quot; but he does take a set of very well worn ideas and attune them to modern times.<p>I read Bertrand Russell&#x27;s <i>&quot;Conquest of Happiness&quot;</i> [0] a number of years ago and to me it seems to tick a lot of the same boxes, but perhaps in a less timely fashion.<p>It&#x27;s easy to think Russell managed to get his views out without annoying anybody but he had his fair share of partisan controversy in his time as well. It&#x27;s only after the dust has settled that we view him as one of the most important western philosophers of the 20th Century.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;in.ernet.dli.2015.222834" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;in.ernet.dli.2015.222834</a>