In his "Jordan Peterson vs. 20 Atheists" Jubilee episode, Dr. Peterson was confronted with a classic challenge to Kantian ethics. His response was...odd.
I stopped watching the video as soon as Peterson said to one of the people: “Thanks for the talk. It was very brave of you doing this.” — something along those lines anyway. That’s all it takes to understand what he thinks of himself.
For lack of revealing my moral and intellectual shortcomings, Peterson is just a fucking asshole who demonstrates what is so wrong in our Western pseudo-moralistic, materialistic, individualist "culture."
The funny thing is, even if Peterson really does hold the Geach view (which I really doubt he does - the actual situation in that debate very much reads as, "Peterson gives an obviously ridiculous definition of 'believe,' and then keeps saying whatever he has to say to avoid admitting his definition was wrong while also avoiding committing to a monstrous moral conclusion, which leads to him backing himself into a corner when his interlocutor presses him"), this wouldn't actually work as a response to the hypothetical for the purposes of the debate. Peterson isn't just being pressed on his moral views but on his definition of the word "believe." But it's straightforwardly the case that people who lied to protect Jews in their attic or escaped slaves in the Underground Railroad still believed that they were harboring Jews or slaves in their homes, and yet they did not want to defend this belief at all (since they didn't want anyone else to believe it), let alone die to defend it. It's completely irrelevant to Peterson's definition whether these people had to commit some other sin beforehand to get there. His definition did not include a clause that says, "If you've never sinned, 'believe' means this, but otherwise it means something else." (And even if it did have such a clause, it *still* wouldn't work because definitions must apply in all circumstances, not just all circumstances in which God prevents moral exemplars from having to lie).
Peterson did the Jubilee debate late in life, and the lying comments are indicative of his cranky mood and declining intellectual capacities.
I stopped watching the video as soon as Peterson said to one of the people: “Thanks for the talk. It was very brave of you doing this.” — something along those lines anyway. That’s all it takes to understand what he thinks of himself.
For lack of revealing my moral and intellectual shortcomings, Peterson is just a fucking asshole who demonstrates what is so wrong in our Western pseudo-moralistic, materialistic, individualist "culture."
Turkish vultures
The funny thing is, even if Peterson really does hold the Geach view (which I really doubt he does - the actual situation in that debate very much reads as, "Peterson gives an obviously ridiculous definition of 'believe,' and then keeps saying whatever he has to say to avoid admitting his definition was wrong while also avoiding committing to a monstrous moral conclusion, which leads to him backing himself into a corner when his interlocutor presses him"), this wouldn't actually work as a response to the hypothetical for the purposes of the debate. Peterson isn't just being pressed on his moral views but on his definition of the word "believe." But it's straightforwardly the case that people who lied to protect Jews in their attic or escaped slaves in the Underground Railroad still believed that they were harboring Jews or slaves in their homes, and yet they did not want to defend this belief at all (since they didn't want anyone else to believe it), let alone die to defend it. It's completely irrelevant to Peterson's definition whether these people had to commit some other sin beforehand to get there. His definition did not include a clause that says, "If you've never sinned, 'believe' means this, but otherwise it means something else." (And even if it did have such a clause, it *still* wouldn't work because definitions must apply in all circumstances, not just all circumstances in which God prevents moral exemplars from having to lie).