So Peterson, to the best that I can tell is looking to get out of the Darwinian box. This isn’t to say he doesn’t like or believe in Darwin but the problem with a thoroughgoing Darwinianism combined with a reductionistic materialism is that there is no true, orienting thing. All adaptation is in service of propagation of genetic material so the system just produces more able competitors but not truth. Both CS Lewis and Alvin Plantinga make this observation. So what to do?

Peterson look to the mechanisms for meaning for hope in this.

1:29:40 “that’s the only optimistic thought that I’ve ever been able to derive from psychology. That the sense of meaning is an orienting reflex and that would be wonderful if it was true because it would make it real…”