Paul Roeckell

November 16, 2022

Notes

The Search
Jordan Peterson “The Source of Knowledge”

Political Theory of Everything

 Empirical claim that you derive all knowledge from sense date
o Good on the surface but falls apart in complexity when you dig under the base
assumption that obviously we take our ideas from that which we perceive
o 2 Problems with empirical approach
 We are drowned with data there are too many facts, and we need to
CHOOSE what we look at
 Complexity of the stimulus of the world
 How do you draw a through line between an infinite number of facts to
an infinite number for futures
 Complexity of multiple futures
 You must prioritize your perceptions
o Example: We have evolved to see our eyes in such a way that we can track
where they look to sense where they are prioritizing their perceptions
 We as humans are really interested in prioritizing the application of our
senses, it appears in our stories
o Most of our perceptions of implicit, meaning they exist in our subconscious or
are a priory functions of nature.
 If we prioritize our perceptions into a hierarchy, it must be a unified hierarchy
o If we do not do this, our perceptions become impossible to form into our society.
We lose the ability to be social.
 Personal consequence of this, if hierarchy is lost, is hopelessness and
anxiety
 There is too much to look at, too much to do.
 What’s essential to the Hierarchy also what’s at the highest point?
o You can find these points in the Biblical Narrative that seems to place all these as
a spirit of God in which to pursue.
 The deepest parts of a priori perception are religious.

What does Sin Mean

 Your true identity is in line with the pinicale of human perception. So all sin is anything
that takes you aware from that pinnicle
o To prioritize sin as a function of you is to betray your very nature
 That is the hell within you – Jordan
 The ambiguity of if God is “in you: or “among you”
 o You can sin “against yourself” you are also simultaneously sinning against the
community that is God and existence itself

Liberalism Falls Short

 The base idea miscategorized the nature of human
o When you are born you are born into “nature” it is a system of thought and
ideation that shapes you
 Modern Socitey sees the inner sence os self as the core of you in
opposition to the nature that you are born into. The more authentic you
are the more oppresstion you blow up
 This is self destructive and against who we are as people
 Contract between those who are now and those who are yet to be born is inate in our
structures
o There is a finite set of societal heiarchies and we must pick one and establish it
over time so that we can continue in objectively authentic being
o You cannot change axioms without a structure that includes society (multiple
people)
 If you start the process over every generation you cannot progress at all
 In order for rules based order to continue there must be a punishment on some side.
Not only one side can uphold the rules.
o If the rules are violated enough the rules “the game” does not exist
 One side whats to take down the rules and then keep the other side up to
the rules. This doesn’t work

The Relationship of Government to “The Game”

 Thought Example: Banning sex education is schools
o It gets muddy in the example. Where do you draw the line of what it is?
 Weary to solve the problem of the relationship by people using rules
against each other as a way of fixing it. You give power to the “ref”.
 The end concept is, you have to have a ref for the game. Should it be the government?
If it should, of what axiomatic structure should it prioritize to do so.
o We can this the Constitution
 Culture wants a destruction of this value structure. But what structure
should replace it?

Gay Relationships
 The Ideal is Heterosexual Marriage
o We all fall short of the ideal
o How can Gay and Straight be of an equal value
 In what way do you mean equal?
 Gay couples have inherent problems with their reflect to the ideal
o To ignore them is to distract the societal heiarchy that is either good or bad, but
we must establish what the hierarchy is .
  Tolerating and celebrating
o Worship: That which you celebrate and emulate
 Can you tolerate without celebrating or emulating?
 No.

Value of Human Life

 Does Life itself have inherent value, or instrumental value?
o It seems this question pervades political thought. One’s idea on this trickle down
to their main view on societal structure
 Example: Euthanasia is often conflated with climate change
o Is the ideal of preserve life possible in a instrumental world view.
 It seems impossible to orient the hierarchy towards anything other than divine which
establishes that life is intrinsic
o In the idea of the divine, you must be willing to lay down your life for the ideal of
life itself. If life is instrumental that becomes an impossible notion.
 Everything must be sacrificed to the highest ideal. The highest ideal
seems to be life, or also the preservation of it in the meta sense.