¶7 In these conditions, industry is no longer merely an application of science — an application from which science should, in itself, be totally independent;1 it becomes, as it were, its raison d’être and justification, so that, here again, normal relations are found to be reversed. That to which the modern world has applied all its forces, even when it has claimed to do science in its own way, is in reality nothing other than the development of industry and of ‘machinism’;2 and, in wishing thus to dominate matter and bend it to their use, men have only succeeded in making themselves its slaves, as we said at the beginning:3 not only have they limited their intellectual ambitions — if it is still permissible to use this word in such a case — to inventing and constructing machines, but they have ended by truly becoming machines themselves.4 In effect, ‘specialisation’, so vaunted by certain sociologists under the name of ‘division of labour’,5 has imposed itself not only on scientists, but also on technicians and even on workers, and, for the latter, all intelligent work is thereby rendered impossible;6 very different from the artisans of former times, they are no more than the servants of machines, they become as it were one with them; they must ceaselessly repeat, in a wholly mechanical fashion, certain determined movements, always the same, and always accomplished in the same way, in order to avoid the least loss of time; so it is at least that the American methods require, which are regarded as representing the highest degree of ‘progress’.7 In effect, it is a question uniquely of producing as much as possible; one cares little for quality, it is quantity alone that matters; we return once again to the same observation that we have already made in other domains: modern civilisation is truly what one may call a quantitative civilisation, which is only another way of saying that it is a material civilisation.8
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Summary

Guénon argues that industry has become not merely an application of science but its very reason and justification, reversing normal relations. The modern world has devoted its forces to industrial and mechanical development, and in trying to dominate matter, men have only enslaved themselves to it. Specialisation, or the division of labour, has made intelligent work impossible for workers, who unlike the artisans of old have become mere servants of machines, mechanically repeating the same movements. The sole aim is to produce as much as possible, with quantity alone mattering and quality disregarded, which confirms that modern civilisation is a quantitative civilisation, that is, a material civilisation.

General notes

  1. l’industrie comme application de la science — renversement des rapports normaux — Rendered as ‘industry as an application of science — reversal of normal relations’. Guénon states the normal relationship that science ought to have with technique: pure science is an end in itself, disinterested; industry is only a secondary and contingent application. In the modern world, this relationship is reversed: industry becomes the raison d’être of science, which is cultivated only for its practical returns. ↩︎
  2. « machinisme » — Rendered as ‘machinism’. Guénon means by this term not only the use of machines, but the mechanical spirit that underlies them: the reduction of all human activity to repetitive, standardised and unintelligent movements. Machinism is the material expression of the tendency towards universal quantification. ↩︎
  3. dominer la matière — on devient esclave de la matière — Rendered as ‘dominate matter — one becomes a slave of matter’. Guénon recalls the fundamental paradox of modern civilisation: man believed that by developing technique he would become ‘master and possessor of nature’ (Descartes), but he has on the contrary enslaved his own life and thought to the exigencies of the machine and of production. Apparent domination turns into real servitude. ↩︎
  4. les hommes deviennent machines — Rendered as ‘men become machines’. Guénon states here the culmination of the mechanist process: the specialised worker, reduced to repetitive gestures, functions like an automaton; his thought is no longer solicited, his intelligence atrophies. Modern man conforms himself to the image of the machine he has created. ↩︎
  5. « spécialisation » et « division du travail » — Rendered as ‘specialisation and division of labour’. Guénon refers to the theories of Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, 1776) and his successors, who presented the division of labour as a major economic advance. For Guénon, this specialisation is a mutilation of the human being, who loses all overall view and all integral competence. ↩︎
  6. travail intelligent rendu impossible par la spécialisation — Rendered as ‘intelligent work rendered impossible by specialisation’. Guénon opposes traditional craft work (where the worker masters an entire trade, reflects and adapts his gestures) to modern specialised work (where the worker mechanically executes a single repetitive operation, without understanding the overall process). The latter is no longer ‘intelligent’ work in the noble sense. ↩︎
  7. méthodes américaines et « progrès » — Rendered as ‘American methods and “progress”’. Guénon alludes to Taylorism (scientific organisation of labour) and Fordism (assembly line), developed in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. These methods, which maximise productivity by reducing each gesture to its simplest mechanical expression, are presented as the apogee of ‘progress’. For Guénon, they are on the contrary the apogee of stupefaction. ↩︎
  8. civilisation quantitative = civilisation matérielle — Rendered as ‘quantitative civilisation = material civilisation’. Guénon summarises his thesis: quantification (the reduction of all value to measurement and number) is the very essence of modern materialism. A civilisation that recognises only quantity can only be a material civilisation, for quality — true value, hierarchy, excellence — belongs to the spiritual order. ↩︎