Have you ever wondered what's the meaning of...meaning? What it means to “mean” something, how humans developed the concept of meaning and assigned one to everything they deemed important? If so, this book is for you. Written by Jordan Peterson, a well-known psychologist and philosopher, Maps of Meaning (1999) aims to explain how our brains developed into being able to make meaning out of the natural and abstract world surrounding us. We have created systems that embody these meanings, give them value, and transfer them throughout generations via both myth and science. The synergy between the two is crucial for us to understand how we developed our ability to make meaning, and to categorize good versus evil.

Insights from Part One

1. Most people believe we live in a purely objective world, governed by science and matter, but this is not the truth. The world we live in is both objective and spiritual.
2. We often overlook the spiritual aspect, or fail to acknowledge it completely, because it is impossible to talk about spiritualism in a scientific context. The fact that spiritual reality cannot be quantifiable leads many to believe that it’s simply not there.
3. Words are not merely a descriptive label that we put onto things, but rather can be seen as tools that help us achieve a certain goal. These goals can be practical and material, or more general and conceptual.