Name: Maps of Meaning
ISBN: 9780415922227

Maps of Meaning

Why have people from different cultures and eras formulated myths and stories with similar structures? What does this similarity tell us about the mind, morality, and structure of the world itself? From the author of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos comes a provocative hypothesis that explores the connection between what modern neuropsychology tells us about the brain and what rituals, myths, and religious stories have long narrated. A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind.

What Hacker News says

eudamoniacJan 2026

I agree in that the literal interpretation is not believable. There are other ways to "believe" it or have it resonate, like symbolically. Maps of Meaning is a great book that touches on this, "We Who Wrestle with God" too, more directly.

As an atheist myself, it took me a long to to realize that a lot of modern conflict between rationality and Christianity stems from the rationalists not understanding that the belief is often beyond the literal, especially when the Christian is of a more intellectual bent. A lot of times the believers don't even realize they only believe symbolically, or can't articulate it. I won't do the ideas justice, so I won't try to explain them.

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titheJun 2024

Here's a bunch that are on the bookshelf at the moment:

- Information Rules - Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian

- Normal Accidents - Charles Perrow

- Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture - Mario Salvadori

- Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief - Jordan Peterson

- The Power Broker - Robert Caro

- Political Order and Political Decay - Francis Fukuyama

- The Creators - Daniel Boorstin

- The Square and the Tower - Niall Ferguson

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_heimdallJan 2024

Peterson's book Maps of Meaning is actually a really interesting read and based on an incredible amount of research.

That book is as old as a stash of Y2K water though, and the Peterson I've heard interviewed or on his own podcast in recent years sounds like a very different person. He's gone through some shit so I do get it, but he doesn't seem able to analyze topics these days without being heavily influenced by his own ideas and opinions. I guess the same can be said for Sam Harris as well.

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EchoReflectionAug 2023

I am not really in IT either, although for a few years I worked for a software company (as customer support, not programming or engineering). I've only ever posted 2 things here, and they were things I was sharing, not my own writing:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230212152245/https://www.gigab...

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfkem5e5Iqg

(https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=EchoReflection)

In 2013 I was in a very serious motorcycle accident (coma for 1 month, 2 broken legs, broken hip, broken left arm, several broken ribs, collapsed lung, multiple skull fractures, inner ear bones damaged on both sides. My brain damage was such that my short-term memory was basically zero for a long time, as well as damaged nerves that control vision. The road to recovery was/is long, I still have what are referred to in the medical world as "sequelae", which just means "ongoing effects or symptoms", but, long-story-short, I really, really, really believe that we can all improve our lives and our brains if we A: want to, and B: try. I highly, highly recommend the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/atomic-habits-an-easy--proven-...

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Atomic-Habits-Audiobook/152477926...

And Jordan Peterson's books "Maps of Meaning" and "12 Rules for Life" were pretty life-changing.

Jordan Peterson has a LOT of really helpful content on YouTube (a lot of people don't like him bc I guess he's kind of "conservative", but I think it's more the case that he thinks postmodernism and "wokism" are detrimental to a healthy society.

https://www.youtube.com/@JordanBPeterson

Andrew Huberman has a lot of great, helpful videos as well. https://www.youtube.com/@hubermanlab

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequela

Good luck on your journey.

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0001yogibearJan 2023

Jordon b Peterson's Maps of Meaning. Gave me a new toolkit to perceive the world around me.

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erulabsNov 2022

As a companion to this, I grew up somewhat militantly Atheist (and consumed Dawkins like skittles), and had a very hard time accepting faith in a reasonably way until I read Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief by Jordan Peterson. I know he's unfortunately become quite the provocateur, but that first book is worth a read, and crystallized to me what it could mean to have a world view with a supernatural force.

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