Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

Consciousness (affiliated tightly with orienting, for the purposes of the present argument) therefore appears as a phenomenon critically involved in and vital to the evaluation of novelty-appears vital to placement of the unpredictable into a defined and determinate context as a consequence of behavioral modification undertaken in the territory of the unknown, This means that consciousness plays a centrally important role in the generation of the predictable and comprehended world from the domain of the unexpected, Such response, placement and generation remains forever mediated by the twin forces ofhope/curiosity and anxiety-forces produced, noncoincidentally, by the same structures that govern "reflexive" orientation and exploratory motor output,