Education in the Modern World

To speak about education in the modern world, it is necessary to begin by answering the question: What is the modern world? Simply stated, the modern world stands juxtaposed to the traditional world.

The traditional world, simply put, can be surmised through the following three principles:

1. The Supreme Principle – Absolute and Infinite at once; singular and unique. The metacosmic sphere whose centre is everywhere and circumference is nowhere. The Pure Subject that contemplates His own Object.
2. The macrocosm which is the outward projection and “exteriorisation” of the Supreme Principle in the modality of its objectivity – that never breaks the integrity of the Absolute – vis-a-vis the microcosm.
3. The microcosm which is the interiorisation of the Supreme Principle in the modality of its subjectivity vis-a-vis the macrocosm.

The effulgence of the Supreme Principle is by way of fracturing itself into the infinite of infinities – an infinite hierarchic ordering of principles, qualities, archetypes – the most essential of which are Truth, Goodness and Beauty.

It must be emphasized that the objectivity of the Absolute, that is, the macrocosm and the subjectivity of the Absolute, that is, the microcosm, are complementary expressions of the same Principle – in the modality of its manifestation – and thus serves as the mutual reflection for each other. This bi-unity is the first distinction that arises within the Supreme Principle because of the very nature of itself – the Absolute-Infinite – without in any way affecting its singular, unique nature and the integrity of the Principle is always is, as it always was. Pertaining to the domain of the non-manifest, there is neither the subject nor the object, neither an inside nor an outside, neither transcendence nor immanence; it is Beyond all the predications, affirmations and negations. It is the Absolute Darkness, the Pure Black Light. He is the Deus Absconditia, the Theo Agnostia.

Briefly elucidating on point three: The idea of microcosm is precisely the idea of Man – in the proper sense of the word – who is an extraction of the cosmos, that is, a reorganisation of the macrocosmic elements in a singular spherical point. The microcosm corresponds to the infolding of the Absolute whereas the macrocosmos pertains to the unfolding of the Absolute. We must not lose sight of the fact that it is the Supreme Principle that is responsible for the bi-unitive correspondence of the macrocosm and the microcosm and the basis of their “mirroring,” for the true reflection reveals the Principle of reflection. However, the Supreme Principle in itself never reveals, dualities are resolved, the inside is outside, the outside in inside; the transcendent is immanent and the immanent is transcendent, the first is the last and the last is the first, the manifest is the non-manifest and the non-manifest is the manifest.

In the traditional world the idea of education pertains to the actualisation of man’s interiorisation of the Absolute, the infolding of the Infinite as the subject and unfolding as exteriorisation of the Absolute. It is the cultivation of being who is able to become the perfect mirror of the Principle. The realisation and actualisation of the Supreme Identity. The domain of incorporating within oneself the highest of infinite hierarchic principles, namely Truth, Good and Beauty.

Here we will only very briefly address these principles whose complete metaphysics lies outside the scope of this paper and in reality cannot be exhausted for these pertain to the domain of the meta-cosmic, configuring the very inner geometry of the Absolute.

1. The highest meaning of Truth is such that it coincides with the Absolute – to speak of Absolute is to also speak of Infinite, for otherwise, Absolute would not be Absolute – it is Reality as such, an all-pervading presence that can neither be ignored nor denied. It is Truth in its totality that is pervasive in all possible truths.
2. The Sovereign Good by its very nature is beyond any multiplicity, for it is the principle of unity and multiplicity. It is in the absolutive mode that the Sovereign Good serves to be the Supreme Principle and “the author of all things,” while the Sovereign Good in its Infinitive mode emanates the Good through the process of universal breath. The Sovereign Good transcends the duality of good and evil. To speak of good and evil as contraries is to place oneself on the plane of relativity; however, the Sovereign Good is the Supreme Good, the Supreme Reality, the metaphysical zero. It is the pure Essence, hence pure goodness without any connotations of morality. Within this framework, no privation or limitation can exist in opposition to it. It is in this profound sense that the Sovereign Good is the Absolute Good or Absolute Plenitude, representing the pinnacle of perfection and completeness.
3. Pertaining to Beauty, the divine Plato has said, “Beauty is the splendor of Truth.” Beauty is like the sun: it acts without detours, without dialectical intermediaries, its ways are free, direct, incalculable. Beauty is a crystallisation of some aspect of universal joy; it is something limitless expressed by means of a limit. It is the superabundance and equilibrium of the Divine qualities, and at the same time the overflowing of the existential potentialities in pure Being.

What is Modernity?

Modernity, properly speaking, is a phenomenon that was born approximately during the 15th century as antithetical to the traditional world, as it inaugurated an age that was a deviation to the sacred order. However, that which at first only appeared to be antithetical was in essence a subversion of metaphysics. At first it severed the cosmic margin and the human margin from its vertical orientation and the axis mundi by introducing isms such as rationalism, empiricism, humanism and materialism. Once these isms became the very substance and the matrix of the new world, it regeometrified the constellation whereby now there was not only a deviation or a revolt, but rather an inversion of the metaphysical principles vis-a-vis the ascendency of these pseudo ideas.

In The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, Guénon argues that modernity not only substitutes quality with quantity, but rather it has initiated an era of reign of quantity thereby effacing the metaphysical and theosophical transparency, leaving opaque residues of a fractured, disintegrated, quantimized material order. The crown for human margin is the luciferean intelligence and a promethean will, eclipsing the initiatic function of knowledge that leads it to its celestial archetype. It is essential to emphasize that the modern isms should not be viewed as innocent aberrations; rather, are active agents and conscious auxiliaries of counter-Initiation, preparing the terrain for counter-Tradition: the final parody whose ultimate telos is the manifestation of the false unity of Anti-Christ towards the final dissolution of the world.

Challenges of Modernity to the Principles of the Sacred

In modernity, the three archa-paradigmical principles are not merely forgotten; they are systematically obscured, distorted and inverted. The modern world, in its denial of, or rather, subversion of metaphysics, has erected a worldview that is fragmented, horizontal and anthropocentric, thereby mounting a direct revolt against these primordial and principial truths and in the final analysis parodying them.

Truth as such is rationalized, relativized and secularized, resulting in a prodigious distortion of its original metaphysical nature. To speak of rationalizing truth is to speak of imprisoning the truth in accordance with the empirical ego of the subject. Rationalism implies the polarisation of one’s self so that he may be able to compare different facts and produce a conclusion. It prioritizes discursive reasoning that is premised in the fracturing of information into infinitesimal isolated components, which culminates in empiricism. Knowledge becomes autoptic, veiled and imprisoned in the empirical shadows and is denied its hierophanic radiance until sanctioned by physical senses. Relativisation further undermines truth by ushering a tendency towards pure multiplicity, and by severing from metaphysics all unity and objectivity is an illusion. The loss of unity suggests fragmentation, dispersion and disintegration, where phenomena become purely relative. In such a world, there is no hierarchy; no eternal principles that are able to govern and give meaning to the cosmos. In the final analysis it leads to the era of post-truth, that is, the denial of truth itself and freeing oneself from the “constraint” of truth. Lastly, the secularisation of truth is confined to the material realm. The ascendency of the physical world has eliminated all transcendental dimensions of reality and no sacred origin can be conceived. Thus the idea of the truth is stripped of spiritual significance; exiled from its hieratic presence and is reduced to “pure” quantity. In such a climate, truth loses its revelatory character and becomes a tool of utility rather than the path to the Real.

The aforementioned hierophanic occultation extends to the idea of the Good, which once radiated in its archa-paradigmical brilliance, is now eclipsed by isms such as: humanism-transhumanism, liberalism and emotivism, each of which produces a frakensteinian distortion of the Good. Humanism posits that it is the empirical ego itself by which reality is measured, hence personal self-indulgence and self-expression become the highest goods. It is only a logical and necessary consequence that humanism leads to transhumanism – an idea that it is only a technological man gone through stages of digital evolution and artificial intelligence that is the epitome of good and defines good. Liberalism, which is a necessary consequence of individualism, emphasizes civil liberties and democratic values that are divorced from any higher metaphysical Good. Lastly emotivism compounds this subversion by reducing reality exclusively to its moral modality such that all objectivity is replaced by subjective, emotive expressions. It is these isms that veil the metaphysical Good by the psychic tides of the ego.

Lastly, the desacralisation of beauty in modernity is driven by the ideas such as instrumental rationalism, technocentrism and a cultural obsession with novelty, often termed “newism.” Instrumental rationalism prioritizes pragmatic function and efficiency over all spiritual resonance of objects; therefore, instead of viewing things as a Divine theophany they are reduced to their utility. The age of technology has exponentially helped in the ascendency of utilitarianism and in consequence all sacred forms are replaced by machines. Newism reinforces this trend by equating innovation with improvement, assuming that the newer is inherently superior to the traditional.

Education in the Modern World

As the cosmos goes through the process of regeometrification by the hands of profane man, in the inaugurated modern world, the idea of education has undergone a prodigious disintegration and subversion. It no longer serves as a sacred initiatic function allowing man for his hieratic ascent towards the Absolute. The education today no longer addresses the homo viator; rather, it exclusively celebrates the ascension of homo faber – an exiled ego that is bound to the temporal flux, thereby veiled from its own celestial prototype. Therefore, the section at hand addresses how, precisely by subverting Truth, Good and Beauty, an ontological rupture has created a pedagogical method that accelerates man towards the abyss from which no return is possible.

Repercussions of Subversion of Truth

The exile of truth to the domain of pure reason in the post-renaissancian world has ushered in a momentous transformation in the educational matrix, restructuring its goals and purpose. By imprisoning Truth – once conceived as a transcendent and hierophanic reality – within a purely rationalistic, discursive and empirical architecture, education becomes an analytical and skeptic methodology, whereby that which matters is the dissection of facts into infinitesimal disconnected units. The pure rationalistic framework of learning has destroyed the contemplative and symbolic dimensions, and the student, rather than being trained to contemplate the Absolute – that is what the intellect is made for – is indoctrinated in indefinite ways of managing, analyzing and organizing facts and data that condenses itself into the profane outcome of utility and productivity.

The relativity of truth has further introduced prodigious intensities and degrees of disturbances to the metaphysical integrity of education and learning. The absence of the Absolute destroys not only any possibility of ontological hierarchy but also other hierarchies, one of which is epistemological. The disciplines of learning and knowledge, instead of possessing the traditional architecture of the studia humanitatis, which was the reflection of the cosmic order, has descended into obscurity, occluded by a linear cerebeliac multiplicity. It is precisely this matrix that is boastfully celebrated in the name of inclusivity and critical thinking resulting only in dispersion. The educational philosophy and modern curriculum has become fragmented, profane and luciferean and has estranged the student to wander the expansive desert of indefinite expositions without any guidance of a transcendental orientation and there remains no way for his return to the metaphysical origin.

Finally, the last stage of secularisation of truth has confined educational discourse to the plane of material immanence, marginalising any reference to the sacred or the transcendent. Education is thus increasingly defined by its capacity to serve economic, technological and bureaucratic functions. The promethean triumph of science and scientism has dethroned metaphysics, and consequently all spiritual and metacosmological matters are discussed within a materialistic framework, or at most, from a psychic aspect that serves to produce therapeutic utility and emotional comfort. Displacing the spiritual purpose of learning — to cultivate wisdom, virtue, and interiority — by a focus on measurable outcomes, employability and utilitarian efficiency has precipitated a deviation towards knowledge becoming desacralized. The sacred image of the scholar as a seeker of the Real is replaced by that of an academic or a technician; the only concern for either of them is empirical facts. This climate of mechanisation of education creates the perfect storm out of which is born the mechanical man, ending in the mephistophelian man – going from being an instrument, to a desacralized word to the devil himself.

Reveraberations of Dethroning the Good

Humanism is to reduce all principles to the level of the human as an empirical ego, where everything is judged in a purely subjective manner and the profane man becomes the measure of all things. Education in a humanistic matrix emphasizes the individual expression in all its indefinite dimensions without any reference to the Absolute.

Moreover, liberalism, with its philosophical commitment to individual autonomy, equality and freedom of thought, further reconfigures education to the ascendency of equality, protection of individual choice and the celebration of pluralism for its own sake. In this context, the curriculum is reshaped not around perennial truths or metaphysical realities, rather by the dictates of students around progressive imperatives fostering mephistophelian intelligence that parodies traditional wisdom.

Lastly, emotivism in its most insidious guise perhaps presents the most corrosive challenge to education, as it inaugurates a subtle occlusion of the noetic faculty by reducing it to a flux of inferior psychic tendencies and subjective feelings. The learning curriculum and the entire edifice of education becomes imprisoned to the ego’s fragile, self-conjured projections measured by emotional resonance and individual comfort; thus, the only benchmark for evaluation is to affirm identities, protect sensitivities and generate positive therapeutic effect. In such a system there is no confrontation of the soul with the demands of the Truth and hence no ascent via hieratic degrees of Being which precisely is the raison d’etre of education in a traditional society.

Consequences for the Desacralisation of Beauty

Instrumental rationalism, by severing knowledge from its hierophanic origin, reduces knowledge to a purely reductionist, utilitarian function of the exiled empirical ego. The apparent inverted subordination of truth to a mechanistic operational efficiency and aestheticized performance matrix has produced a secularized and disintegrated luciferean culture in which the student only serves dehumanized, exilic, market-driven goals and has become the invisible slave of quantity.

In the same current of deviation, the age of technocentrism has stripped education of its initiatic character; that which once played a vertical, initiatic function is now only a horizontal, severed transmission of data governed by an algorithmic matrix rather than divine archetypes. Modern educational institutions have adopted purely subverted, mechanized methods of narcissistic instructions and desecrating syllabi that have alienated and transformed the once sacred learning environment into a barren and desolate landscape dominated by dehumanized digital stimulation. The metric-driven assessments and artificial interactions that prioritizes prodigious amounts of fragmented information exchange and overstimulating multitasking has left students sterile of any deep contemplative reflection, thereby making impossible any hieratic ascent towards the Divine Empyrean.

Finally, novelty – newism – as an expression of hypertrophy of modernity, further intensifies the deviation by substituting the ephemeral for eternal, the profane for the sacred. The illusion and myth of progress in modern education has systematically erased tradition. The eternal and archa-paradigmatical truths are nothing save an accumulation of obsolete residues that require surpassing. The curriculum is ceaselessly modified to keep up with contingent and progressive trends, profane ideologies and scientistic artefacts. In such an order, teaching only serves as an adaptation to samsaric contingencies. In such a climate, education is only an accelerant towards dispersion, and in the final analysis, a tool for counter-initiation.

Conclusion

In sum, the shift towards a modern, profane education — through the Truth being pushed to the periphery, the dethronement of the Good, and the eclipse of Beauty — has not only severed learning from its transcendent telos, casting the soul into a state of metaphysical exile; rather, it is gearing towards its final luciferean matrix. The vertical pole, once in resonance with the vibrations of the principial realities of Being, has been obscured by the reign of quantity, utility and horizontal flux. The hieratic function of the sacrosanct matrix of education that serves as a rite of passage, an initiatic unfolding of the Nous toward the Divine Archetype, has been replaced by a profane frankensteinian machinery of production, insidious configuration of adaptation, and infernal psychological appeasement. The modern student is no longer capable of ascending through the cascading hierarchy of means to the Absolute. In its stead, he aimlessly and perilously peregrinates the enigmatic labyrinth of relativism, emotivism, scientism and technological disillusion, becoming estranged from the cosmos and the self which has become quantimized. Pedagogy without hierophanic principles and seraphic orientation is a promethean endeavour.

Against this disintegrated landscape, the only cure for the malaise of modernity lies not in exilic linear recalibrations – political reform, social engineering, technological advancements – but in a reorientation towards the axis mundi, the principial pole, the Supreme Principle. It is only by returning to the metaphysical principles and erecting the metacosmic pillar that reintegration, sacredotal ascent and theomorphication of man is possible, which is precisely the meaning of education in the archetypical sense of the word. Restoring unio sympathetic nexus with the Absolute necessitates reawakening of the noetic faculty and the geometrification of the anamneitic matrix that is present in the very recess of man.