¶10 In what has just been said, one thing is to be particularly retained from the point of view that occupies us: namely, that it is proper to seek in ‘classical’ antiquity some of the origins of the modern world; thus the latter is not entirely wrong when it claims the Greco-Latin civilisation as its model and pretends to be its continuator.1 It must be said, however, that it is only a remote and somewhat unfaithful continuation, for there were, despite everything, in that antiquity, many things in the intellectual and spiritual order of which one could not find the equivalent among moderns; they are, in any case, in the progressive obscuring of true knowledge, two rather different degrees.2 One might indeed conceive that the decadence of ancient civilisation had brought about, in a gradual manner and without a break in continuity, a state more or less similar to that which we see today; but, in fact, it did not happen thus, and, in the interval, there was for the West another critical epoch which was at the same time one of those epochs of rectification to which we alluded earlier.3
Summary
What should be retained is that some origins of the modern world are to be sought in ‘classical’ antiquity. The modern world is therefore not entirely wrong to claim it as its model and continuator, but this continuation is remote and unfaithful. Ancient antiquity contained many intellectual and spiritual things without equivalent among moderns. The decadence of ancient civilisation might have gradually led to a state similar to today’s, but that is not what happened. In the interval, there was for the West another critical epoch that was also an epoch of rectification.
General notes
- antiquité « classique » … origines du monde moderne — Rendered as 'classical antiquity … origins of the modern world'. Guénon admits here, against overly exclusive traditionalists, that there is indeed a filiation between classical antiquity (Greece and Rome) and modernity. It is not a total rupture, but a continuity in decadence. Modernity is right to claim Greece and Rome as its ancestors, but it is mistaken about the nature of what it has inherited from them: it has retained only the most external and degenerate elements (rationalism, individualism, humanism, secularisation), while rejecting what remained of authentic tradition (mysteries, esotericism, metaphysics). The reference to classical antiquity by moderns is therefore both legitimate (from a genealogical point of view) and deceptive (because it ignores what gave value to that antiquity). ↩︎
- continuation lointaine et infidèle … deux degrés dans l’obscuration — Rendered as 'remote and unfaithful continuation … two rather different degrees in obscuring'. Guénon qualifies the filiation: modernity is not the direct and faithful heir of classical antiquity. It is a 'remote' (chronologically) and 'unfaithful' (distorting) continuation. There is between them a difference of degree in the obscuring of traditional knowledge. Classical antiquity had already lost much in relation to the primordial tradition (and in relation to earlier civilisations, Mycenaean, Minoan, Egyptian, Oriental), but it still preserved important remnants (mysteries, initiations, Neoplatonist metaphysics). Modernity has pushed this obscuration much further, to the point of expressly denying any spiritual principle and any initiatory transmission. These are two stages, not two radically different natures. ↩︎
- époque critique de redressement … intervalle entre l’antiquité et la modernité — Rendered as 'critical epoch of rectification … interval between antiquity and modernity'. Guénon here alludes to the Christian Middle Ages. Far from being a period of 'darkness', as humanist and rationalist doxa claims, the Middle Ages were, for the West, an epoch of rectification, that is to say, of (partial) restoration of traditional principles. The Middle Ages (with its feudal order, unified Christendom, scholasticism inspired by Aristotle but also by the Church Fathers, its esotericism (alchemy, cathedrals, chivalry)) constituted a 'break in continuity' in the decline: it did not suppress decadence (which is cyclical), but it halted or partially compensated for it. Modernity, born of the Renaissance and the Reformation, broke with this medieval rectification to take up and amplify the descending slope. Thus, the West did not experience a linear decline; it had a phase of rectification (the Middle Ages) between ancient decadence and modern degradation. ↩︎