12 Rules for Life (Hardcover, 2018)

12 Rules for Life – Jordan B. Peterson

This hardcover edition presents 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, the international bestseller by Canadian clinical psychologist and former University of Toronto professor Jordan B. Peterson. Building on ideas from his lectures, which reached a large audience online, the book offers twelve principles intended to help readers bring order to their lives and find meaning amid suffering.

Peterson frames life as a balance between order, the known and predictable, and chaos, the unknown and unpredictable. He argues that people flourish by voluntarily taking on responsibility, confronting difficulties rather than avoiding them, and aiming at what is meaningful rather than what is merely convenient. Each of the twelve chapters develops one rule, offering advice on posture and confidence, self-care, choosing friends, measuring progress against one’s own past, raising children, taking responsibility before blaming society, honesty, listening, precise speech, allowing healthy risk and appreciating small moments of beauty.

To support his arguments, Peterson weaves together insights from evolutionary biology, such as the behavior of lobsters and status hierarchies, psychology, his clinical practice, personal and family stories, philosophy, literature and religious texts, particularly stories from the Bible. The chapters are long and discursive, moving between practical advice and reflection on myth and meaning.

The book has been praised by many readers for encouraging personal responsibility and purpose, while Peterson and some of his broader views have attracted considerable criticism and controversy.

12 Rules for Life is a thought-provoking, much-discussed read, best approached with a range of perspectives in mind. This edition is a hardcover.