
In the 17th and 18th centuries, a movement arose in the west. One major premise of this movement was doubt. Pioneered by a bunch of brilliant philosophers – Descarte, Comte, Kant, Lock, Bentham , to name a few- doubt and empiricism became its core premise with man(woman) at the centre. Thus began the ‘Age of Reason’. This was also known as the ‘Enlightenment’. Semantically , philosophically and practically , this meant that humans and the human mind stood free from ‘encumbrances’ like religion , tradition , convention and so on. In this schema , mankind stood ‘liberated’ and was on the cusp of a great future determined by man(woman). Other themes- democracy, liberalism, constitutional government, free speech- and so on were mere corollaries to the bedrock , foundational ideas or ideals of the West’s ‘enlightenment’.
Gradually and inexorably, it was held that ‘enlightenment’ ideas would envelop the whole world: mankind that ‘stood on the edge of the precipice’ would be wrapped in the garment of ‘nirvana’. The attendant and accompanying themes – structural and conceptual- like western colonialism, imperialism , total wars and so on- were, in this schemata mere blips in the larger direction and course of history. These blips were supposed to wither and wilt with the ‘End of History’ after the Cold War where one gifted sales person pronounced that all history had ended with America being the ultimate vortex into which the historical process melted and collapsed. Toward this end , the great German philosopher, Hegel’s dialectic was employed. The verdict was pronounced with Hegel used as a philosophic crutch. ( It may be that the aghast Hegel would still be twisting and turning in his grave).
Of course, this description is a crude and a reductive one of the West’s Enlightenment. But let me take this at face value. The question that arises is : Is the West really ‘Enlightened’ and ‘rational’? And should we, non -western brown and black men and women take these standards as our ultimate destiny?
But a caveat first: it maybe that the West’s enlightenment is flawed and rationality has been taken to an extreme, but undoubtedly the theoretical man(woman) created by the Enlightenment, at least in philosophical terms is an advanced man(woman)- at least pre-disposition to elemental aspects of ‘reality’. This is not a drooling or grovelling statement by a brown man in awe of the West. I would like to think I have a reasonable understanding and even appreciation of some aspects of the West without losing my essence in the process.
Now returning to the thematic core of this essay: Is the west Enlightened? Let me take Rene Descartes ‘Method’ – where this great philosopher collapsed ‘reality’ into the vortex of doubt and empiricism as a starting point. Descartes postulated that anything that cannot be proved empirically must be doubted. (This was later adduced by Karl Popper in the ‘truth’ /’falsification binary). If Enlightenment equals modernity then doubt is its cardinal premise. While doubt may serve as a useful corrective in terms of power and power dynamics in society – especially in Foucaldian terms- it is a serious liability when it comes to determining the higher purpose in life. Into the cauldron of doubt stepped Immanuel Kant who made reason the ‘new religion’ – with a focus on instrumental aspects of it. Parallelling Kant and Descartes were Jeremy Bentham and J S Mill who held that the apogee of the human endeavour was ‘pleasure maximization and pain minimization’ and ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’.
Again, this is a reductive delineation of western philosophy that informs the West’s Enlightenment. But does the West correspond to these? And are these ideas worth ‘the proverbial candle’?
Consider doubt first and apply it to the West’s power political paradigms. The ‘power elite’ in the West by playing the ‘Wizard of Oz’ on a daily basis creates an illusion of empowerment for people. Not only this, many aspects of public policy are crafted in such a way that obscures the import of these policies(foreign policies, for example) creating a ‘false consciousness ‘ in the process among people. Similarly , most of western mainstream media ‘manufactures consent’ in and among the people – sometimes subtly and other times ‘ in your face’ , that actually militates against reality and real welfare of people. In terms of the lived reality of most people in the West, relations are determined and mediated by capital and capitalism modes of production. This , in contemporary terms , means the ultimate endeavour of human kind is conspicuous consumption. ( At a sophisticated and advanced level, it means a post-industrial society informed and determined by Artificial Intelligence and Robotics where humans are ‘wired’ to be passive consumers of a virtual reality).
If the West does not itself conform to the tenets of its Enlightenment, why, the question is, should we? If the apogee of enlightenment is consumption and passive consumerism , and the illusion of empowerment, are not we – brown and black men and women ‘staring at the Nietzschean abyss’? Does this mean we negate and reject the west’s enlightenment?
Yes, if consumption and social relations mediated by capital is the answer. But if aspects of the west’s enlightenment mean curiosity , discovery and science in the service of humanity then surely these elements are worth their while. However, at the same time, if the summum bonum of the West’s Enlightenment are features delineated in this essay, then both Enlightenment are reason are very limiting themes , concepts and philosophies. Their very limitation then suggests an alternative. What is that?
Romanticism. Purely and simply. The grist and mill of romanticism is intuition, imagination, passion , and beauty, respect for the sublime and the heroic. If enlightenment reduces humans to mere ‘rational ‘ cogs whose highest endeavour is pain minimization and pleasure maximization, romanticism elevates humans and imbues life with a higher moral and aesthetic purpose. In this sense then romanticism merges and meshes with the essence of religion whose aim is to imbue humans with a higher purpose, morality and ethics and than mere ‘instrumentalists’. This may be best illustrated in the pithy but brilliant and profound couplet of the poet philosopher of the East, Allama Iqbal who enjoined us to think beyond reason and rationality:
‘ You are the falcon, soaring flight is your destiny
Many other skies beckon and await you’
This pithy couplet sums up the purpose of humans , their quest , endeavours and ultimate destiny. Grandeur, romance , romanticism, a higher purpose , a higher moral and ethical sensibility inheres in it. Contrarily, enlightenment rationality reduces humans to mere biological neurotransmitters whose ends of life should be prosaic enjoyment, pain avoidance and doubt , to finally rot and decompose into bodily elements in a grave where ‘both the king and the pawn go into the same box’ and its all over. Are we to accept aspects of rationality like the spirit of discovery that aid humanity and jettison the rest? Or are we to be romantics defined by a higher sensibility, higher moral and aesthetic quests and intuition that allows us to imagine in clear and lucid terms the humanity that resides in each of us? The choices are clear and ours to make!
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