A Brief History of Thought, by Luc Ferry

A Brief History of Thought

by Luc Ferry

Preview 

Human beings are the only species aware of their mortality and therefore haunted by paralysing fears about the irreversibility of the past and the inevitability of death. The question of how to live this ephemeral life well, with a crippling awareness of mortality, is at the heart of philosophy. By relying on the natural human capacity to reason, philosophy replaces the other-worldly and transcendental salvation offered by Christianity and other monotheistic religions, thereby leading to a clear-sighted understanding of the world.  

About the Author 

Luc Ferry is a French philosopher and has been a professor of political science and political philosophy. He held office in the French government as the Minister of Education from the year 2002 to 2004.  He is a notable proponent of the ideals of secular humanism. 

What to expect? Learn about the role that philosophy plays in shaping and explaining human life 

Luc Ferry provides a comprehensive account of the evolution of philosophical systems of thought from Ancient Greek Stoicism to the advent of Christianity and subsequently the arrival of modernist and post-modernist thought. Each system is analysed in the context of the tripartite structure of philosophy: the theoretical dimension is concerned with reflecting upon the nature of the world as it is (ontology) and the instruments at human disposal to arrive at that understanding.  

The practical dimension or praxis is concerned with ethics, dealing with the question of human co-existence and conduct. The ultimate question of salvation or wisdom forms the third dimension which elucidates the meaning of the world. 

The book, published in 2010, is an attempt to restore to philosophy its significant role of guiding humanity towards a better life, characterized by a fulfilled present, independence, intelligence, and a triumph over the fear of mortality. 

In this quid, you will discover: 

• How philosophical thought, particularly the idea of a harmonious and orderly universe or the cosmos, evolved from ancient Greek philosophy to Christianity, and later on to Enlightenment humanism. 

• The post-modern thought of Nietzsche, his principles of amor fati, 'the will to power,' and 'the innocence of becoming.' 

• Why philosophy must reorient itself to move beyond Nietzschean deconstruction that has assumed catastrophic proportions in the relentless competition of the contemporary technological world. 

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The Greek Cosmos 

The birth of philosophy in the sixth century BC was facilitated by the partially democratic Greek city-state that encouraged rational thinking and autonomy of thought. The Greek theoria implied contemplation of divinity in the natural order of things: that which is most intrinsic and meaningful. 

 It is this essence that they termed cosmos: the order, harmony, and proportion of the rational structure of the universe, or the Logos. The study of natural sciences including physics, astronomy, and biology could reveal that the universe was well-made, and functioned as a harmonious whole, from the ordered movement of the planets, to the activity of the tiniest organisms.  

Philosophers like Cicero and Marcus Aurelius believed that this logically ordered cosmos could serve as a model for ideal human conduct conducive to happiness and a good life. When perceived in totality through philosophical speculation, it could offer a beautiful model of harmony to the human world that would transcend the ugliness of occasional natural catastrophes. This divine nature of the world is paradoxically immanent and transcendent; inherent within the earthly world and a superior exterior model for emulation. 

Ethics and Salvation 

Rather than a solely scientific observation, philosophical speculation concerns itself with the practical implications of the universe on human law, ethics, and politics. The Cynic school of philosophy established the notion of justice and morality, wherein an individual adjusts to his or her place and role within, and under the harmoniously ordered cosmos.  

The natural cosmic order rather than artificial social norms became the governing moral principle and arbitrator of justice, good and evil. Before the advent of philosophy, the Ancient approach to salvation or soteriology involved procreation, or performance of glorious and heroic deeds that would be recorded in history.  

Philosophical contemplation or theoria, on the other hand, provided sages with a renewed perspective on death as a transformation, rather than an annihilation; eternity and immortality of the cosmos could be accessed in a different state of being. Plato and Aristotle both upheld the view that following the divinity of human intellect, one could lead a happy and prosperous life, in union with the eternal cosmos, and therefore, escape human mortality. 

 For the Stoic philosophers, the love of wisdom (philo+sophia), could be translated into wisdom by relinquishing nostalgia for the past and hope for the future, by inhabiting the present moment with contentment, in harmony with the world as it is. This outlook would entail an attitude of non-attachment (though not indifference) with what is transient and mortal, and a serene acceptance of the present without guilt, anguish, or hope, which would enable a stoic acceptance of death when it comes. 

 

The Triumph of Christianity 

The salvation offered by the Stoic notion of death, was impersonal and anonymous. An assimilation into the cosmos relegated individual human consciousness to oblivion. The triumph of Christianity over Greek thought on the other hand, was owing to a competing, more appealing and indispensable account of salvation.  

The divine principle (theion), or the Logos, came to be embodied in a single exceptional individual, Jesus Christ, rather than the entire orderly universe. The orao or the instrument of perceiving the theion changed from reason or individual intelligence and speculation, to faith or trust in the word of the Man-God: Christ.  

Christian humility came to be opposed to philosophical arrogance; philosophy and reason assumed a subservient discursive role of interpreting the Scriptures and the natural order, to reveal the beauty and intelligence of God's works. The Greeks had emphasized that human beings were fundamentally unequal, as nature endowed them unequally with qualities, thereby creating hierarchy and aristocracy.  

Christianity, on the other hand, established the democratic idea of human beings as equal in dignity and equally capable of free will. A new meritocratic order came into being, wherein morality was determined by inner conscience rather than externally imposed laws; what mattered was how humans willed to utilize their qualities, rather than the unequally bestowed qualities themselves. 

The promise of salvation held forth by Stoicism was that of an impersonal and anonymous dissolution into the cosmos. The Christian doctrine of salvation through love-of-God proved more appealing, as it promised a resurrection of the body and the soul–of distinct individuals, and a reunion with one's lost ones. The love of the divine in humans, rather than merely earthly love-as-attachment or the ethical imperatives of compassion, assumed the form of faith that would overcome mortality. 

Modern Humanism 

The scientific revolution in the sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe, initiated by the works of Copernicus, Newton, Descartes, and Galileo, led to an unprecedented intellectual, moral, and spiritual vacuum, as ancient systems of thought and religious authority were both contested and subjected to critical doubt. The universe was proved to be a chaotic tussle of hostile forces, rather than an orderly and harmonious model for emulation.  

Technological inventions, particularly in astronomy, revealed that the universe was not eternal and immutable, and therefore not perfectly ordered. The passive contemplation of the harmonious cosmos by the ancient philosophers, had to give way to the scientific approach of the modern philosopher.  

The aim was to explain the inherently chaotic and incoherent world through laws of causality, and therefore, to imbue it with the lost meaning, coherence, and divinity. With the collapse of inherited cosmological worldviews, the need to devise principles governing causality came to the fore, so that a new theoria and ethics may be formulated. Modern philosophy began by placing humankind at the center, instead of a cosmos or divinity. 

Jean Jacques Rousseau distinguishes human beings by their ability for self-improvement and perfectibility, unlike animals who remain bound by their natural instincts. This liberty manifests itself in the form of excess and extremes–of both radical evil, and absolute selflessness.  

Unlike animals that are bound by their essential traits, humans are free to overcome natural and historical constraints, and therefore, free to adopt good or evil. Immanuel Kant laid the foundations for modern morality. According to him, human 'goodwill' is the capacity to overcome natural inclination to egotism and selfishness, to pursue the selfless, common, and universal good. This meritocratic model of morality is conducive to a socially constructed coherent cosmos, which requires each human being to be treated with dignity as an end, rather than a means towards the overarching cosmos. 

Doubting all inherited models of beliefs, ideas, and frameworks with claims to an absolute, objective truth, Rene Descartes undertook the revolutionary endeavour of positing human subjectivity as the ultimate criterion for establishing truth and morality: "I think therefore I am." Self-awareness rather than faith became the instrument to access truth. Salvation, likewise, became an earthly affair undertook by new godless religions or ideologies, that gave meaning to human life and justified death for the noble causes of communism, nationalism, and scientific advancement. Paradoxically, the religious rhetoric that they sought to escape, was sustained by positing values that were superior to life itself. Humanism, science, rationality, freedom, and democracy, became the new illusions to be idolized in the absence of a cosmos, or God. 

 

 

Nietzsche and Postmodernism 

Friedrich Nietzsche initiated the postmodern deconstruction of modernist humanism and rationalism, and their transcendental idols that negated life by creating values superior to, and external to it. Beneath all such grand systems that claimed transcendence and objectivity, lay concealed human interests.  

A self-proclaimed 'genealogist,' Nietzsche considered that philosophy's primary aim was to uncover the human origins of such "sacred" systems. Theoria is thus replaced by genealogy, because value judgements on life cannot be made in any objective, disinterested, or universally valid manner, since our reality cannot be transcended.  

Thus, all judgements on existence are either illusory, or product of historical forces, or individual "vital energies"–always tainted with subjectivity. Moreover, absolute knowledge and truth are unattainable; for the real world is a chaos of conflicting forces that cannot be united. Thus, the modernist project of imbuing the world with coherence and meaning, is untenable. It sustains the ancient illusion of an ordered universe in an attempt to establish control over the chaotic forces of reality. 

The 'reactive forces,' in Nietzschean terminology, can exist only through opposing, confronting, and repressing other forces. For instance, metaphysical systems of science and religion undertake their 'will to truth' by opposing physical reality in favour of the soul, the reason, and the intellect. Similarly, they reject life in preference for the 'other-worldly,' what Nietzsche terms 'nihilism.' The 'active forces' are exemplified in the artist who imposes values and perspectives without discussion or refutation of existing works.  

Aesthetic conflicts occur and remain unresolved; radically opposing works can coexist without annihilating each other. Socrates who functioned by opposing the Sophists in the pursuit of a greater Truth, was reactive, while the words of the active Sophists were significant in their aesthetic and emotional effect, rather than truth-value. Life is strengthened through an intense dialectical experience, when clashing forces are sought to be mastered rather than simplified or reduced. They must be reconciled in a harmony, hierarchy, and cooperation, that yield maximum intensity and elegance and form the basis for a good life of 'the grand style.'  

Nietzsche does not uphold anarchy over order, emotions over reason, or the body over the soul. It is coexistence and reconciliation that he claims would be conducive to a serene and ordered life of strengthened ideas. The 'will to truth' is replaced by a 'will to power', aimed at achieving an intensity of experience, and freedom from internal strife, fear, remorse, and regret. 

Nietzsche refutes the traditional notion of salvation that promotes nihilism by negating life and holding out the promise of a spiritual afterlife. According to his doctrine of eternal recurrence, eternity persists even in the absence of God, as salvation becomes earthly. Therefore, a good life is the one based on the Ancient Greek principle of 'amor fati': love for the present as it is, without regrets or hopes, as if each moment were an eternity. Thus, serenity and salvation are attainable by only those who practice 'the grand style', and live life under the doctrine of eternal recurrence. The 'innocence of becoming' is to pursue a life beyond praise, blame, guilt, or hopes, the responsibility for which can be attributed to no external agency. However, these principles become contentious because 'amor fati' remains a practically unrealizable ideal. To love reality as it is, would make one complicit in evil; moreover, the destruction of all ideals threatens to breed cynicism. 

The way beyond Nietzsche 

Nietzschean deconstruction of all grand designs has reached a catastrophic perfection in the contemporary world of global capitalism, where change and competition are relentlessly pursued in a directionless manner, as humans become dispossessed of all control over the overwhelming historical forces of 'progress.'  

Seventeenth and eighteenth-century rationalists had sought dominance over nature for the sake of understanding the world and exploiting it to attain the liberating purposes of liberty and happiness. On the other hand, 'the world of technology,' as envisioned by Martin Heidegger, is concerned merely with means without any ends or purposes, with domination over nature for its sake. The single-minded 'will to power' has assumed monstrous proportions beyond human control, giving rise to a disenchanted world devoid of meaning and ideals. 

The materialist thesis contradicts itself and cannot be consistently sustained; the ideal of amor fati, stumbles under situations of duress, and value judgements cannot be dispensed with. One is bound to hope and desire, to criticism of the present; the determinism of history and nature cannot be pragmatically accepted.  

The way beyond Nietzsche is by adopting Edmund Husserl's notion of transcendence within immanence, which suggests the finiteness of human consciousness and the elusive nature of omniscience, and absolute knowledge. The closure is always deferred as each visible aspect of knowledge presumes something invisible. Moreover, values such as love and beauty, are transcendental and universal, yet not abstract, for they find manifestation in concrete individual experiences and are thus, immanent. Therefore, contemporary humanism has the potential to retain control over historical forces without resorting to metaphysical ideas. 

Final Summary 

Modern theoria must adopt a self-reflective and self-critical spirit towards the excesses of science, genealogy, and deconstruction to regain an understanding of the present, and a direction for the future. Transcendence rooted within humanity can further offer a new ethical framework; struggle and sacrifice for our freedom and the lives of loved ones can undercut the materialist rejection of everything sacred. The Kantian notion of the 'enlarged thought' can offer prospects for salvation; dogmatic egocentrism can be overcome through critical reflection on oneself by adopting the worldview of another.  

Stand out Sections 

·    The chapter entitled 'What is Philosophy?' discusses the role and significance of the discipline in human life, beyond its inaccessible, scholarly and professionalized versions. 

·    The chapter entitled 'After Deconstruction: Contemporary Philosophy' discusses the renewed role that philosophy must assume to escape the chaotic world engendered by directionless scientific progress.