Having more than 300 hours’ worth of lectures online makes Peterson’s work a mountain so large that the climb seems impossible, save only for the fervent. Why listen to a man many have already labelled a charlatan, a self-help guru, or worse, an alt-right prophet? One reason is because most have not placed his popular teaching in the context of his own work. This is an introduction to Jordan B. Peterson's ideas for the average person.

Based on the article shared and recommended by Jordan B. Peterson himself, Why Tell the Truth: An Introduction to the Basic Ideas of Jordan B. Peterson outlines, explains, and connects the basic ideas of Jordan Peterson in seven chapters:

1.  THE PROBLEMS BEFORE US
2.  PETERSON AND THE REVIVAL OF PRAGMATISM
3.  OUR MAPS OF MEANING: MYTH, SCIENCE, AND HIERARCHY
4.  THINKING CLEARLY ABOUT RELIGION: A PRELUDE TO PETERSON’S IDEAS ABOUT GOD AND FAITH
5.  THE LIFE THAT JUSTIFIES SUFFERING
6.  CULTURAL CONTROVERSIES: POSTMODERNISM, MARXSIM, AND SPEECH LAWS
7.  FINAL REMARKS

This book significantly revises, updates, and expands the original essay and includes new references in light of recently released interviews, debates, and articles. The reader will be introduced to how Peterson understands science to be based on a motivational understanding of reality; the ideas of chaos and order; his ideas concerning postmodernism, Marxism, hierarchies, religion, and more!

From the Foreword:

"Peterson’s huge popular appeal can easily be chalked up to his charisma, a ‘black box’ or occult entity that names his draw without really explaining it. Here again, however, attention to his understand- ing of truth proves instructive. As Lovins demonstrates in this book, Peterson’s more pragmatic understanding of truth maintains a tight connection between thought with practice. It is from the embodied manifestation of the power of this connection in Peterson’s teaching that much of the forceful appeal of his position arises. People, accustomed to encountering ‘truth’ in anaemic and enervated forms, are startled to attention when they see someone declaring truth as something vital and powerful, as something that is profoundly integrated into and animating of the life of its bearer.

While a weak notion of truth may serve us in our partisan ideological and political squabbles, faced with the reality of suffering, it will prove insufficient to sustain us. It is not accidental that Peterson’s vision has been forged in large measure upon the brutal anvil of totalitarian political forces in the twentieth century. In facing the problem of suffering, Peterson is not merely addressing the concerns of contemporary social and political discourse that tend to revolve around the maintenance of the complacency of a shallow consumerist comfort, but is unearthing dark corners of the human soul and emphasizing the need for self-mastery if we are to become people of integrity, people who can survive and overcome the worst that life and society can throw at us. Not content with encouraging persons to be well-adjusted members of a materialistic modern society, Peterson desires to equip us to withstand the sort of radical personal and social evil witnessed in communist and fascist countries over the last hundred years of history.

It should come as no surprise that a great many people who have been seeking direction and strength to endure personal suffering have found rich spiritual sustenance in the teaching of Peterson. As an alternative to the dry morsels of bread afforded by mere ideology, words of genuine truth prove life-giving and empowering."

After studying philosophy at Anderson University, Tylor Lovins has been working on a theory of theological language that will express the meanings of religious statements to a secular world. He currently lives in Seattle, WA. You can contact him or follow his work at CultureAndValue.com.