Description
In the decline of the modern world, increasingly we find reality not only challenged by increased technological dominance, but displaced by ideological fantasy. Truth concerning morality, politics, religion, and architectonic wisdom, once rejected from the public domain, becomes too a matter to be conquered and bent to the purposes of the will. But at the heart of every human being there sits a desire for meaning that cannot be ignored. Ideology thus emerges—to grant a sense of purpose.
Yet, untethered from the truth, from the underlying reality, this results in a kind of “insanity”. As Eric Voegelin, the principal guide for this seminar writes:
In classic and Christian ethics the first of the moral virtues is sophia or prudentia, because without adequate understanding of the structure of reality, including the conditio humana, moral action with rational co-ordination of means and ends is hardly possible. In the gnostic dream world, on the other hand, nonrecognition of reality is the first principle. As a consequence, types of action that in the real world would be considered morally insane because of the real effects that they have will be considered moral in the dream world because they intended an entirely different effect. The gap between intended and real effect will be imputed not the gnostic immorality of ignoring the structure of reality but to the immorality of some other person or society that does not behave as it should behave according to the dream conception of cause and effect.
Voegelin 1951: The New Science of Politics
Politics
Second Reality: On the Problem
Of Ideology
Our inquiry will begin with the philosophical roots of the ideological age, where suspicion toward truth and transcendence becomes a dominant feature of modern thought. From there, we will examine the rise of political ideologies in the twentieth century—communism, fascism, liberalism, and their totalitarian tendencies—not merely as historical movements, but as attempts to construct substitute realities.
The central question of the seminar is not simply, “Which ideologies are false?” but rather: why does ideology emerge in the first place? What happens when man refuses to acknowledge the tension between immanence and transcendence? Why does the promise of total explanation so often become the justification for domination, violence, and unquestioning adherence to ideas not themselves truly understood? And how can political thought recover its orientation toward reality?
This seminar is for those who want to understand the deeper roots of modern political disorder: not only the slogans, movements, and regimes, but the spiritual deformation beneath them. Ideology is not just something that happened in the twentieth century. It remains one of the chief temptations of the modern mind.
Details
All Lyceum Institute seminars include weekly readings, lectures, and live discussion sessions. The discussion sessions are recorded. This seminar includes focused readings of Eric Voegelin and David Walsh, and continual discussions surrounding their texts. Participants are encouraged to purchase Voegelin’s Modernity without Restraint. PDFs for other works will be provided. This seminar is taught by Dr. Francisco Plaza.
Priced from $60 per person.
Discussion sessions occur on Saturdays at 1:15pm–2:15pm ET (see world times here), beginning on June 6 and running until August 1 (with a break at the midway point). Find more details in the syllabus and register today!
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