Maps of Meaning Quotes

“Lo desconocido es el enemigo eterno del Homo Sapiens y su mayor amigo, que desafía constantemente la facilidad individual para la adaptación y la representación, que empuja constantemente a hombres y mujeres mayores profundidades y hacia cimas más altas.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El cambio que altera lo actualmente predecible y ordenado también implica potencial para avanzar hacia un futuro más prometedor. Lo inesperado es, en sí mismo, información, una información necesaria para la expansión constante de la competencia adaptativa. Esa información viene envuelta en peligro y promesa.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“...todo momento de amenaza es también, simultáneamente, un momento de oportunidad.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El temor es la reacción innata a todo lo que no se ha vuelto predecible, como consecuencia de una conducta exitosa, creativa, exploratoria asumida en su presencia, en algún momento del pasado.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El miedo es la postura a priori, la respuesta natural a todo para lo que no se ha designado e incorporado una estructura de adaptación conductual.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Por definición, nuestros patrones habituales de acción solo bastan para cosas y situaciones de determinada significación: solo sabemos como actuar en presencia de lo que nos es familiar. La aparición de lo inesperado nos saca de la complacencia inconsciente, axiomática, y nos obliga (dolorosamente) a pensar.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“What is known and what is unknown is always relative because what is unexpected depends entirely upon what we expect (desire)-- on what we had previously planned and presumed. The unexpected constantly occurs because it is impossible, in the absence of omniscience, to formulate an entirely accurate model of what actually is happening or of what should happen.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“...At the same time, something odd was happening to my ability to converse. I had always enjoyed engaging in arguments, regardless of topic. I regarded them as a sort of game (not that this is in any way unique). Suddenly, however, I couldn't talk—more accurately, I couldn't stand listening to myself talk . I started to hear a “voice” inside my head, commenting on my opinions. Every time I said something, it said something— something critical. The voice employed a standard refrain, delivered in a somewhat bored and matter-of-fact tone:

You don't believe that.
That isn't true.
You don't believe that.
That isn't true.

The “voice” applied such comments to almost every phrase I spoke.

I couldn't understand what to make of this. I knew the source of the commentary was part of me, but this knowledge only increased my confusion. Which part, precisely, was me— the talking part or the criticizing part ? If it was the talking part, then what was the criticizing part? If it was the criticizing part—well, then: how could virtually everything I said be untrue? In my ignorance and confusion, I decided to experiment. I tried only to say things that my internal reviewer would pass unchallenged. This meant that I really had to listen to what I was saying, that I spoke much less often, and that I would frequently stop, midway through a sentence, feel embarrassed, and reformulate my thoughts. I soon noticed that I felt much less agitated and more confident when I only said things that the “voice” did not object to. This came as a definite relief. My experiment had been a success; I was the criticizing part. Nonetheless, it took me a long time to reconcile myself to the idea that almost all my thoughts weren't real, weren't true—or, at least, weren't mine.

All the things I “believed” were things I thought sounded good, admirable, respectable, courageous. They weren't my things, however—I had stolen them. Most of them I had taken from books. Having “understood” them, abstractly, I presumed I had a right to them—presumed that I could adopt them, as if they were mine: presumed that they were me . My head was stuffed full of the ideas of others; stuffed full of arguments I could not logically refute. I did not know then that an irrefutable argument is not necessarily true, nor that the right to identify with certain ideas had to be earned.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“But the delights of his previous life were ashes in his mouth and he ventured forth a third time”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“The known, our current story, protects us from the unknown, from chaos—which is to
say, provides our experience with determinate and predictable structure. Chaos has a
nature all of its own. That nature is experienced as affective valence, at first exposure, not
as objective property. If something unknown or unpredictable occurs, while we are
carrying out our motivated plans, we are first surprised. That surprise—which is a
combination of apprehension and curiosity—comprises our instinctive emotional
response to the occurrence of something we did not desire. The appearance of something
unexpected is proof that we do not know how to act—by definition, as it is the production
of what we want that we use as evidence for the integrity of our knowledge. If we are
somewhere we don’t know how to act, we are (probably) in trouble—we might learn
something new, but we are still in trouble.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“The "world" of the Sumerians was not objective reality, as we presently construe it. It was simultaneously more and less—more, in that this "primitive" world contained phenomena that we do not consider part of "reality," such as affect and meaning; less, in that the Sumerians could not describe (or conceive of) many of those things that processes of science have revealed to us. Myth is not primitive proto-science. It is a qualitatively different phenomenon.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Un acontecimiento significativo existe en la frontera entre el orden y el caos.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El sentido de nuestras limitaciones no es el sufrimiento; es la existencia misma. Se nos ha otorgado la capacidad soportar voluntariamente el peso terrible de nuestra mortalidad. Le damos la espalda a esa capacidad y nos degradamos a nosotros mismos porque tenemos miedo de la responsabilidad.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Resulta cada vez más necesario que nos corrijamos a nosotros mismos, no a otros, y que aprendamos explícitamente lo que ello significa.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“A medida que nuestro poder tecnológico se expande, el peligro que planteamos aumenta, y las consecuencias de nuestra estupidez voluntaria se multiplican.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Nuestras insignificantes debilidades se acumulan y multiplican, y se convierten en grandes males de Estado.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Así pues, la anomalía es -alimento- espiritual en el sentido más literal: lo desconocido es la materia prima a partir de la cual se fabrica la personalidad en el curso de la actividad exploratoria.
El acto de rechazar la anomalía transforma la personalidad en algo hambriento, en algo senil y en algo cada vez más temeroso del cambio, pues cada fracaso a la hora de enfrentarse a la verdad erosiona la capacidad de enfrentarse a la verdad en el futuro.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El reconocimiento del yo desnudo, expuesto de manera indigna a los estragos del tiempo y el mundo, insoportable y altamente motivador, condena al hombre y a la mujer a llevar una carga y a sufrir por la vida y la muerte.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Es la tendencia expansiva, exploratoria del hombre, su curiosidad innata, la que constituye a la vez una gracia salvadora y un error mortal.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Es la aprehensión clara del peligro mortal y la posibilidad infinita que acecha por todas partes la que ha potenciado la consciencia humana mucho más allá de su pariente más cercano, en un proceso que se ha prolongado durante eras. Somos capaces de ver lo desconocido en todo, como consecuencia de nuestros sistemas cognitivos elaborados: peor aún (mejor): somos capaces de ver el peligro mortal en todo lo desconocido. Ellos nos hace sin duda angustiados, pero también (si no salimos corriendo) despiertos.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El futuro trae consigo lo desconocido; por tanto, la inflexibilidad y la falta de voluntad para cambiar traen la certeza de la extinción.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“La seguridad de la sociedad predecible proporciona un antídoto al miedo, pero una sociedad demasiado rígida garantiza que tarde o temprano se producirá su propia destrucción.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“La actitud tiránica mantiene a la sociedad en una predictibilidad homogénea y rígida, pero la condena a un derrumbamiento final.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Una información suficientemente novedosa transmitida verbalmente podría alterar el paradigma semántico, episódico y procedimental simultáneamente, aunque la totalidad de esos efectos podría no manifestarse durante años -y, no infrecuentemente, durante generaciones.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“La transformación de circunstancias -ambientales- como consecuencia de causas puramente naturales constituye la causa más inmediatamente evidente del deterioro de la estabilidad cultural. Una sequía prolongada, inundaciones, terremotos, plagas, -los sucesos más horribles y arbitrarios de la naturaleza- son capaces de convertir en impotentes, de un plumazo, a las sociedades mejor adaptadas.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Cuando la estructura de una institución se ha vuelto corrupta -sobre todo de acuerdo a sus propios principios- criticarla es un acto de amistad.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Nuestros duramente conseguidos métodos adaptativos luchan por dominar, a menudo de forma violenta, en un individuo dado, entre individuos dentro de sociedades, y entre sociedades. Por tanto, se suscita el problema de la organización.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El ejemplo arquetípico o último del salvador es el redentor del mundo, el Mesías: héroe creador y redentor del mundo, revolucionario social y gran reconciliador.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“Los seres humanos son curiosos sobre la estructura y la función de todo, y no iba a ser menos en el caso de ellos mismos; nuestra capacidad para contar historias refleja nuestra capacidad para describirnos a nosotros mismos.”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

“El orden -el territorio explorado- se construye a partir de caos y existe, simultáneamente, en oposición a ese caos (más exactamente al caos *nuevo*; a lo desconocido, ahora definido en oposición al territorio explorado). Todo lo que no es orden -es decir, no predecible, no usable- es, por defecto (por definición), caos. El extranjero, -cuyos comportamientos no pueden predecirse, que no es habitante del *cosmos*, cuya existencia y dominio no han sido sacralizados- es equivalente al caos (y no solo igual al casos metafóricamente).”
― Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief