Considerations about the state of Western Civilization, from the perspective of the philosophy of civilization

Abstract

               The man only partially understands the basics of the world. In the tension of fragile existence, he transcends to the higher self, seeking blindly "causes and principles of what is and what is happening"; he gradually guesses the premises for the functioning of his own mind and collective mentality; it comes to deeper insights and self-reflections that modify its image of itself, others, the world and God. He changes his own way of being towards the "other", Transcendent. By changing her own self-knowledge and environment, she co-creates multi-generational communities and civilizations. This is what the philosophers of civilization treat the most.

               In my speech I have would like to draw attention to concerns about the condition of the Western civilization and its future from the point of view of selected positions represented, among others by Arnold Toynbe and Eric Voegelin ..

               Arnold Toynbee suggested that the justification for the continued existence of modern Western civilization is that it gives Christianity and its three sister religions a specific service: creating a ground for a friendly meeting on a global scale, making them feel the unity of their ultimate beliefs and values ​​and putting them all towards the challenge of the revival of idolatry in a particularly disastrous form of the collective self-divinization of man.

               In 1959, Eric Voegelin mentioned threats from ideological parties of anti-philosophical and anti-Christian nature. The suppression of these anti-Christian parties is to be indispensable "to maintain the European order" and to neutralize the harmful actions (gnostic) ideologies. Voegelin was also concerned about the state of self-awareness of churches. In his opinion, we still live in the times of the domination of natural sciences, the separation of philosophy and science - in the times of hegemony of ideology. Philosophy ceased to play a role in public life. Two sources of authority - revelation and philosophy - no longer have public status; in the aftermath, a fusion of the sources of authority, remaining in one hand - namely in the ideological regime of a totalitarian state. Therefore, we would have "the end of the European order".