Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

Science might be considered "description of the world with regard to those aspects that are consensually apprehensible" or "specification of the most effective mode of reaching an end (given a defined end)." Narrative-myth, most fundamentally-can be more accurately regarded as description of the world as it signijies (for action). The mythic universe is a place to act, not a place to perceive. Myth therefore describes things in terms of their unique or shared affective valence, their value, their motivational significance. If we can tell (or act out) a story about something, we can be said to have mapped that thing, at least in part. We tell stories about the unknown, and the knower, and the known, and can therefore be said, somewhat paradoxically, to have adapted to the unpredictable, to the filCt that we can adapt to the unpredictable, and to explored territory itself, where everything has been rendered secure.