Jordan Peterson on Consciousness and the soul
Peterson treats consciousness as fundamentally mysterious and argues that materialist accounts fail to capture its full significance.
Peterson approaches consciousness not as a neuroscientist but as a psychologist steeped in phenomenology and Jungian thought. He argues that the subjective experience of consciousness — meaning, purpose, suffering, joy — is as real and as fundamental as anything described by physics. To reduce it to neural firings is, in his view, to commit a category error.
He does not defend the traditional Christian concept of an immaterial soul in straightforward terms. Instead, he argues that the 'soul' is a symbolic representation of the deepest aspects of human consciousness — the capacity for moral choice, the experience of meaning, and the awareness of mortality. Whether this constitutes a literal metaphysical claim or a pragmatic psychological one, Peterson deliberately leaves unclear.
Peterson's position frustrates materialists because he refuses to accept that consciousness is 'merely' physical, and it frustrates traditional theists because he will not commit to substance dualism or personal immortality. He occupies a deliberately ambiguous middle ground, arguing that the mystery of consciousness should humble both sides.
“The idea that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of matter is no more self-evident than the idea that matter is an epiphenomenon of consciousness.”