Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life

Content Warning: This summary also discusses some of the author’s controversial views, notably on gender roles, and will describe those positions without endorsing or condemning them. 

Since the publication of 12 Rules For Life in 2018, Jordan Peterson has become a celebrity. In addition to his own direct presence in print, television, and the internet, his work has generated significant commentary and debate. A year before the publication of 12 Rules For Life, Peterson made a name for himself by opposing a piece of Canadian legislation (later passed) which would protect transgender people against official and workplace discrimination. Peterson warned that this legislation would lead someone to be punished, either professionally or legally, for not using a person’s chosen pronouns. The response to Peterson’s argument did not fall predictably along lines of political partisanship. Instead, Peterson’s comments added fuel to the already raging public debate around transgender identity, itself a subset of a larger debate about inclusionary language and free expression. Within this debate, many self-described liberals have framed the rights of transgender people—in particular, the right to have their identities respected and recognized—as antithetical to free speech. In some circles, Peterson’s position on the issue, which later extended into denial of the very possibility of a person being transgender (viewing it as performance of another gender, not a reality), as a full-throated defense of “humanism” against efforts to remake the human person into something unrecognizable.