I chose this book I already mentioned to write on the subject of modernism, hoping, as usual, to find an application on the culture the latter gave birth to, so as to reveal its actual roots, no matter how non-cultural the language of the paper or my ‘thesis’ (another dubious title), may sound. Knowledge is for its own sake. Unity is not uniformity; it is far more profound than the latter. And, this is the difference I can make here. What follows now is an introduction to this book, which I picked up to clear my mind of the illusions of the modern times:
“The Reign of Quantity is an attack on the scientism of modern World. In these beautiful and profound pages Rene Guenon looks back to an ancient Wisdom, once common to both East and West but now almost entirely lost. Contemporary civilization itself – with its industrial societies and illusory notions of progress – is his target. In particular, he shows that today’s sciences are dominated by a quantitative approach, that they neglect that idea of quality. To this “reign of quantity” he opposes the sacred metaphysics of the ancients, which he sees as rooted in Divine Truth. His book is ultimately a warning against the real danger that humanity faces today – a warning all the more urgent because that danger is unperceived by those from whom guidance is sought and expected.”This is how Shaikh ‘Abdul Wahid Yahya, the author, describes the purpose of his book:
“Among the features characteristic of the modern mentality the tendency to bring everything down to an exclusively quantitative point of view will be taken from now on as the central theme of this treatise. This tendency is most marked in the scientific conceptions of recent centuries but it is almost as conspicuous in other domains, notably in that of social organization; so much so that with one reservation the nature and necessity of which will appear hereafter, our period could almost be defined as being essentially and primarily the “reign of quantity”. This characteristic is chosen in preference to any other not solely nor even principally because it is one of the most evident and least contestable but above all because of its truly fundamental nature for reduction to the quantitative is strictly in conformity with the conditions of the cyclic phase at which humanity has now arrived.”Moreover, my instructor once told me that to know capitalism is to know globalization. Understand the former; you’ll get what the latter is, he meant to say. I hope this conforms to my personal likings.
