The End of all Philosophy

A cursory glance around, is sufficient to assess that the contemporary world is imbued and penetrated with the spirit of post-modernity, a spirit that is unphilosophical, amoral and certainly relativistic and materialist. Of course, such statements are not meant to be condemnatory of post-modernity but they simply attempt to unveil the moral and existential fabric of the current times.

First, let us ponder as to what post-modernity is. Clearly, it is the period that follows the advent of modernity, that new age of humanity which inaugurated a new attitude, intellectual in nature characterized by the desire for human autonomy and the quest for temporal advancement. In this regard, the period following the Renaissance and the Copernican Revolution are often accepted to be in the Western scale of time, as the emergence of modern man. A belief in human reason and in the ability of human science to create and further human progress have been the hallmarks of modernity. Even further, the liberation of human freedom and the acquisition of human liberties have also been issues of concern. To this day, these ideas endure through the pursuit of democratic expansion and the search for economic and material development, primarily achieved through a technical, voire technological, mastery of both human and natural resources.

Modernity symbolizes man as master of his own destiny, as confident in his capacity of reason and as proud of his liberty to reign over his kingdom: the temporal plane of earthly reality. In theological terms, modernity operates a displacement of Faith and Hope from eschatological expectations of a spiritual or religious nature, to a Faith and a Hope in human autonomy and the realization of human progress apart from Divine Dispensation. Modernity is fundamentally naturalistic and rationalistic in its orientation although it maintains a worldview that elevates human desires and quests to divine absolutes such as the emancipation of Reason, the pursuit of Freedom and Liberty and the realization of Civilization's final form. In short, it is a firm confidence in Humanity's ineluctable Progress that has characterized the Western Civilization's world-shaping and restructuring endeavors.

Today, the common man carries within his mind, this cultural baggage, which has been disseminated through the heritage of colonial education and the reality of technological innovation. Man still believes in Reason. Man still yearns for Freedom and Democracy. Man still cries for Peace and Civilization. And although, contemporary man still appears to be invested in the aspirations of modernity, the world all-around is decidedly post-modern.

Post-modernity, in a few words, celebrates the Death of God and the abolition of moral absolutes. Its intrinsic characteristic, is the affirmation of the human self apart from all objective canons of behavior and attitude as well as the temporal realization of human happiness through a philosophy of man that attempts to be holistic in its operation and yet materialistic in nature. The post-modern world, in many respects, adheres to the relativity of life and the fundamental inability of the human mind to arrive at any existential Truths. In this sense, it rings the end of all philosophical endeavors.

Indeed, if in a not too distant past, the philosopher, the theologian and the man of religion were the objects of human respect and nobility, the reality is that in contemporary times and since the time of modernity, it is the man of science and knowledge who has been found worthy of human respect.

Nevertheless, the post-modern man in his attitude towards life appears decidedly unphilosophical, that is unprincipled, and thus practical, pragmatic and in many respects amoral. In this manner, post-modernity is in reality a refutation and a capitulation of philosophical truth, a condition and a psychological position encapsulated in the intellectual tenets of existential philosophy, which proclaims no greater existence than the human self and accepts no greater certainty, than the absurdity of human existence. To put it mildly, contemporary life is devoid of a central, unified reason that elevates man beyond the concerns of daily life and the tragic reality is simply that the human being has come to accommodate himself with this situation.

Certainly, philosophy is itself a reflection of spirituality; a reflection of a spiritual sentiment that in many ways echoes religious feeling. For this fact, post-modernity and its corollary, the social apathy fanned and cultivated by the attraction of technological innovation and material well-being, represent a tragic and albeit, irreversible stage of human development since they involve in reality the annulment and progressive but silent annihilation of human feeling, that tinge in man that longs for spiritual vitality and religious emotion. Emotion is itself not a negative quality, but rather a force that can be canalized in positive ways toward the knowledge of the True, the All and the Beautiful.

The loss of philosophical concern is reflected in the lack of concern for the Beautiful, an intrinsic human quality now viewed commonly in ambiguous terms. In truth, the post-modern world for all its unmistakable progress and unmatched knowledge is severely lacking in spiritual vitality. In this sense, post-modernity is a celebration of the Death of God, an intriguing and concerning trend which in itself marks the end of all True and Beautiful philosophy.

Amen.