¶7 But that is not all: a merely ‘psychological’ explanation of the idea of the ‘end of the world’ and of its present-day manifestations, however just it may be in its own order, could not pass in our eyes as fully sufficient; to stop there would be to allow oneself to be influenced by one of those modern illusions against which we precisely raise ourselves on every occasion.1 Some, as we said, vaguely sense the imminent end of something whose nature and scope they cannot exactly define; it must be admitted that they have here a very real perception, though vague and subject to false interpretations or imaginative deformations, since, whatever this end may be, the crisis that must inevitably lead to it is apparent enough, and a multitude of unambiguous signs, easy to observe, all converge in a concordant manner towards the same conclusion.2 This end is doubtless not the ‘end of the world’, in the total sense that some wish to give it, but it is at least the end of a world;3 and, if what must end is Western civilisation in its present form, it is understandable that those who have become accustomed to seeing nothing outside it, to considering it as ‘civilisation’ without epithet, easily believe that everything will end with it, and that, if it should disappear, it will truly be the ‘end of the world’.4
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Summary

Guénon argues that a merely psychological explanation of the idea of the ‘end of the world’ is insufficient and would amount to yielding to a modern illusion. He admits that some vaguely sense the imminent end of something, and that this perception is real, though vague and subject to distortions. The crisis is apparent, and many unambiguous signs converge towards the same conclusion. This end is not the ‘end of the world’ in the absolute sense, but at least the end of a world. If what must end is Western civilisation in its present form, those who see nothing outside it naturally believe that its disappearance would truly be the ‘end of the world’.

General notes

  1. explication simplement « psychologique » — Rendered as 'merely 'psychological' explanation'. Guénon warns against psychologistic reductionism, very much in vogue in his time (psychoanalysis, crowd psychology, etc.). Explaining beliefs by subjective mental states is not enough; one must also seek the real object that provokes these states. The error of psychologism is to mistake cause for effect: it is not because one has hallucinations that there is nothing; it is because there is something that unbalanced minds interpret it fantastically. Guénon's method is the opposite: he starts from objective facts and symbols, not from states of consciousness. ↩︎
  2. signes non équivoques — Rendered as 'unambiguous signs'. Guénon does not specify these signs here, but they can be deduced from his work: the disappearance of traditional structures (hierarchies, corporations, rites), the rise of individualism and materialism, uprooting, loss of the sense of the sacred, confusion of genres and levels, acceleration of history, development of pseudo-religions and modern superstitions (progress, science, nation, race, etc.). All these signs converge to indicate that a civilisation is in its terminal phase. The difficulty is that to see them, one needs eyes formed by traditional doctrine; most contemporaries, immersed in these phenomena, do not perceive them as signs of crisis, but as the norm. ↩︎
  3. fin d'un monde — Rendered as 'end of a world'. A capital distinction between 'end of the world' (absolute, total) and 'end of a world' (relative, cyclical). Guénon carefully refrains from predicting the end of humanity or of the planet. What is coming to an end is a historical phase, a form of civilisation, a mode of thought and social organisation: that of Western modernity. Other worlds (other civilisations) have disappeared before it, others will appear after it. The 'end of the world' in the absolute sense does not belong to cyclical doctrine (which knows only relative ends and beginnings), but to certain popular or apocalyptic interpretations. ↩︎
  4. « la civilisation » sans épithète — Rendered as 'civilisation' without epithet'. Guénon here denounces a form of Western ethnocentrism: the habit of confusing modern Western civilisation with civilisation itself. Those who think in this way, when they imagine the end of their own world, cannot conceive that anything else might survive it or replace it. They believe in the end of everything, because they have never known anything else and cannot imagine another order. This is an optical illusion of history, but it nevertheless has real effects on mentalities and behaviours. ↩︎