¶13 What is called the Renaissance was in reality, as we have already said on other occasions, the death of many things; under the pretext of returning to Greco-Roman civilisation, only its most external aspects were taken, because only these could be clearly expressed in written texts; and this incomplete restitution could moreover only have a very artificial character, since it concerned forms that, for centuries, had ceased to live their true life.1 As for the traditional sciences of the Middle Ages, after having had a few last manifestations around that time, they disappeared as completely as those of distant civilisations that were once annihilated by some cataclysm; and, this time, nothing was to come and replace them.2 Henceforth, there remained only ‘profane’ philosophy and science, that is to say, the negation of true intellectuality, the limitation of knowledge to the lowest order, the empirical and analytical study of facts that are attached to no principle, the dispersion in an indefinite multitude of insignificant details, the accumulation of unfounded hypotheses, which incessantly destroy one another, and fragmentary views that can lead to nothing, except to those practical applications that constitute the only effective superiority of modern civilisation; a superiority little enviable moreover, and which, developing to the point of stifling every other concern, has given this civilisation the purely material character that makes it a veritable monstrosity.3
Summary
What is called the Renaissance was in reality the death of many things. Under the pretext of returning to Greco-Roman civilisation, only its most external aspects were taken, an incomplete and artificial restitution. The traditional sciences of the Middle Ages disappeared completely. Thereafter, only ‘profane’ philosophy and science remained: the negation of true intellectuality, the limitation of knowledge to the lowest order, empirical and analytical study without principle, dispersion in insignificant details, accumulation of unfounded hypotheses. The only superiority of modern civilisation is its practical applications, an unenviable superiority that, by stifling all other concerns, has given this civilisation a purely material character, making it a veritable monstrosity.
General notes
- Renaissance … mort de beaucoup de choses — Rendered as 'Renaissance … death of many things'. Guénon refuses the usual valorisation of the Renaissance as a 'rebirth' of art, science and critical spirit. For him, the Renaissance was the death of medieval traditional sciences (alchemy, astrology, natural magic, architectural symbolism, etc.) and of the social organisation founded on spiritual hierarchy. What was 'restored' of antiquity was only its profane and external aspect (literature, rhetoric, mimetic art), not its esoteric tradition (mysteries, Neoplatonism, authentic Hermeticism). The rupture is therefore sharper than a mere 'transition'. ↩︎
- sciences traditionnelles du moyen âge … disparition sans remplacement — Rendered as 'traditional sciences of the Middle Ages … disappearance without replacement'. Guénon refers to alchemy, astrology, Christian Kabbalah, the sacred geometry of cathedrals, the symbolisms of Gothic art. These sciences, which were not only techniques but paths of metaphysical knowledge (a 'sacred physics'), were swept away by nascent rationalism and by the discredit cast on anything not measurable or reproducible. Unlike earlier civilisations destroyed by cataclysms (which he evokes), this disappearance is not due to an external cause, but to an internal transformation of the Western mentality. And above all, nothing has come to replace these traditional sciences: modern science cannot fill their void, because it operates at an entirely different level (material, analytical, without spiritual finality). ↩︎
- philosophie et science « profanes » … supériorité matérielle monstrueuse — Rendered as 'profane philosophy and science … material superiority monstrous'. Guénon here summarises his critique of modernity. Profane science (empirical, mathematical, experimental) is not false in its domain, but it is limited to the material world and refuses any opening towards metaphysical knowledge. Profane philosophy (rationalist, critical, idealist or materialist) is only an opinion without certainty. Together, they constitute a 'negation of true intellectuality' (supra-rational knowledge). Their only advantage is technical, utilitarian: they allow practical applications (machines, medicine, transport, communications) that give modern civilisation its material superiority. But this superiority is 'little enviable' because it is accompanied by a loss of meaning, a pervasive materialism and a 'monstrosity': a civilisation that no longer has any spiritual finality, turned solely towards the satisfaction of material needs and technological power. It is an inversion of the normal order, where superior knowledge (metaphysics) directed practical applications. ↩︎