Overview
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In this chapter, René Guénon argues that the concept of ‘individualism’ is central to understanding the modern deviation from traditional civilisation. He begins by distinguishing between the ‘individual’ as a simple analytical fact of existence and ‘individualism’ as a doctrine. The latter is an explicit denial of any principle superior to the individual human being, and it is this doctrine, he says, that lies at the root of the modern world’s most characteristic errors.
He traces the rise of individualism to various historical factors, including the Protestant Reformation, which he characterises as a rebellion against spiritual authority in the name of private judgement. This was followed by the so-called ‘Enlightenment’ philosophy of the 18th century, which systematically attacked every form of traditional hierarchy. The political expression of individualism is democracy, which replaces the notion of legitimate authority with the numerical fiction of the ‘general will’. In the economic sphere, individualism manifests as the unbridled pursuit of material gain, disconnected from any moral or spiritual end.
A fundamental confusion, he observes, is the modern habit of equating ‘individuality’ with ‘personality’. Traditional doctrines, by contrast, recognise that the true human person is not the empirical ego but a principle that transcends individuality. The modern error has been to close the individual off from any connection to the higher states of being, reducing him to a mere social unit or a bundle of psychological reactions. This ‘closed’ individual then declares himself self-sufficient, which is the essence of the Promethean attitude.
Guénon next addresses the pseudo-religious consequences of this doctrine. By denying anything beyond the individual, modern thought is forced to either reject religion outright or to reinterpret it in purely human terms. The latter attempt produces ‘apologetics’ of a particularly weak kind, because it accepts the very ground of its opponents’ arguments. To discuss sacred things as if they were mere hypotheses to be debated in a profane manner is to implicitly deny their transcendent character. A genuine traditional doctrine does not need to ‘defend’ itself before the tribunal of individual reason; it simply affirms itself as truth.
He further criticises the modern cult of ‘action’ divorced from principle. Activity pursued for its own sake, without any contemplative foundation, becomes a frenetic and meaningless agitation. This is the exact inverse of the traditional hierarchy, where action is always subordinate to knowledge and is guided by it. The modern world has inverted this order: action is glorified, while knowledge is reduced to mere ‘theory’, which is then despised as impractical.
The author also examines the social consequences of individualism. Society, in the modern view, is no longer an organic whole but a collection of discrete units bound together only by external contracts. Traditional societies, in contrast, were built upon a shared spiritual principle that permeated all aspects of life. The destruction of this principle has led to the fragmentation of knowledge, the isolation of the individual, and the loss of any sense of a common end beyond material comfort.
Finally, Guénon returns to the theme of hierarchy. True hierarchy is not a matter of arbitrary power but reflects the natural order of things, from the lowest to the highest. It requires that the lower recognise the higher, and that the higher guide the lower without descending from its own level. In the modern world, this recognition has disappeared. The profane presumes to judge the sacred, ignorance sets limits to wisdom, and the individual makes himself the measure of all things. This is the reign of the ‘blind leading the blind’, a condition that can only end in a collective catastrophe.