¶11 We shall restrict ourselves to these few examples; it would however be easy to give still others, taken from somewhat different orders, and showing everywhere the same degenerescence.1 One could thus show that psychology as understood today, that is to say the study of mental phenomena as such, is a natural product of Anglo‑Saxon empiricism and the spirit of the 18th century, and that the point of view to which it corresponds was so negligible for the ancients that, if it occasionally happened that they envisaged it incidentally, they would in any case never have thought of making a special science of it; everything that might be of any value in this was, for them, transformed and assimilated into superior points of view.2 In a quite different domain, one could also show that modern mathematics represents, as it were, only the rind of Pythagorean mathematics, its purely ‘exoteric’ side; the ancient idea of numbers has even become absolutely unintelligible to moderns, because, there also, the superior part of the science, that which gave it, with the traditional character, a properly intellectual value, has totally disappeared; and this case is quite comparable to that of astrology.3 But we cannot review all the sciences one after another, which would be rather tedious; we think we have said enough to make understood the nature of the change to which modern sciences owe their origin, and which is the very contrary of a ‘progress’, which is a veritable regression of intelligence; and we shall now return to general considerations on the respective role of ‘traditional sciences’ and modern sciences, on the profound difference that exists between the true destination of the one and the other.4
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Summary

Guénon restricts himself to a few examples but notes that many others could be given, all showing the same degenerescence. He suggests that modern psychology, as a product of Anglo-Saxon empiricism and the 18th-century spirit, was negligible for the ancients, who would have transformed whatever value it had into superior points of view. He also observes that modern mathematics represents only the ‘exoteric’ rind of Pythagorean mathematics, the ancient idea of numbers having become unintelligible to moderns because the superior part of the science has disappeared, a case comparable to astrology. Guénon concludes that he has said enough to show that the change giving rise to modern sciences is the opposite of progress and is a true regression of intelligence, and he announces that he will now return to general considerations on the respective roles of traditional and modern sciences.

General notes

  1. dégénérescence — Rendered as ‘degenerescence’. Guénon generalises the diagnosis: the same process of fall and loss of meaning affects all modern disciplines. Every traditional science (astrology, alchemy, ancient psychology, Pythagorean mathematics) has seen its superior part (metaphysical, symbolic, contemplative) disappear, while its inferior part (empirical, material) survived and proliferated under the name of a modern ‘science’. Degenerescence is not an accident limited to two or three cases, but a general law of Occidental intellectual history since the Renaissance. ↩︎
  2. psychologie moderne — Rendered as ‘modern psychology’. Guénon distinguishes modern scientific psychology (Wundt, James, Freud, behaviourism) from the traditional science of the soul (for example Aristotle, De Anima). Modern psychology studies ‘mental phenomena’ as objects, without relating them to a metaphysics of the soul or a spiritual perspective. For the ancients, this purely ‘psychological’ level was judged too low and of no interest in itself; it was integrated (as an inferior moment) into a higher science of the intellect and the soul. To cause it to exist as an autonomous discipline is therefore a sign of regression. ↩︎
  3. mathématique pythagoricienne — Rendered as ‘Pythagorean mathematics’. Guénon refers to the Pythagorean school (6th-4th century BCE), for whom numbers were not simple quantities but ontological and symbolic realities, participating in the order of the world. ‘Exoteric mathematics’ is the technical and calculative aspect, accessible to all; ‘esoteric mathematics’ is the doctrine of numbers as principles (monad, dyad, tetractys, etc.). Modern mathematics, retaining only the quantitative rind, has lost the superior intelligibility of numbers. This is ‘comparable to astrology’: the same process of reduction of a complete science to its material residue. ↩︎
  4. régression de l’intelligence — Rendered as ‘regression of intelligence’. Guénon opposes the modern vocabulary of ‘progress’ (linear, cumulative) to that of ‘regression’ (fall, loss). The history of the sciences, read according to traditional criteria, is not an ascent but a descent. ‘Regression of intelligence’ means that the human intellect, in the sense of the pure intellect capable of grasping principles, has atrophied; it has been replaced by discursive reason, which is an inferior instrument. It is not only science that regresses, but the very faculty of knowing. ‘Destination’: Guénon will now expound the proper end of traditional sciences (speculative knowledge, integration into metaphysics) as opposed to that of modern sciences (practical application, material domination). ↩︎