{"id":11340,"date":"2019-11-05T23:08:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T04:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=11340"},"modified":"2019-11-06T22:11:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T03:11:42","slug":"political-platonism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=11340","title":{"rendered":"Political Platonism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe philosophical background of Guenon and his followers\u2019 traditionalism is extremely close to the Platonic tradition \u2026 In other words, traditionalism can be taken as radical Platonism. ~ Alexander Dugin<\/strong>, Political Platonism<\/em>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dugin\u2019s purpose seems to be to make Tradition academically palatable, by couching it in Platonic language. Obviously, as we shall demonstrate, unlike Dugin, there are certainly correspondences with Plato. However, Guenon probably refers to Aristotle and the Scholastics more than to Plato, so we shall also rely on them in developing a \u201cPlatonic\u201d political system. Unfortunately, Dugin makes this rather strange assertion:<\/p>\n

\nTraditionalism offers the entire necessary philosophical, ideational, conceptual, and sociological apparatus [to oppose globalization].\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Au contraire, Guenon rejected philosophy as now understood; a fortiori, he had no intention of creating any such apparatus, since it would be a symptom of modernity, not its cure. That is because Dugin presumes that Guenon created a \u201cschool\u201d called \u201cTraditionalism\u201d. That would make his project just one opinion among many. Now Guenon anticipated that; this is what he wrote about \u201cTraditionalism\u201d:<\/p>\n

\n[\u201ctraditionalists\u201d refer] to people who only have a sort of tendency or aspiration towards tradition without really knowing anything at all about it<\/em>; this is the measure of the distance dividing the \u201ctraditionalist\u201d spirit from the truly traditional spirit, for the latter implies a real knowledge<\/em> \u2026 ~ See The Absurdity of Traditionalism<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hate to sound harsh, but those are Guenon\u2019s words. Dugin is not alone; even Charles Upton refers to a \u201cSchool of Traditionalism\u201d. And they are hardly alone in promoting that misunderstanding. Reputations are built on the ignorance of readers.<\/p>\n

Since we are on the topic of Platonism, we must understand the distinction he made between opinion and real knowledge. Guenon is not interested in opinion, since opinions can be mistaken. Most thinkers are, since it is more fun to debate. On the other hand, knowledge is of Being or Reality and cannot be mistaken. Guenon calls the transition from opinion to knowledge as an \u201cintellectual conversion\u201d or \u201cmetaphysical realization\u201d. For the soi disant<\/em> Traditionalists, such knowledge is simply invisible to them, beyond their intellectual horizon, so they fail to understand it, and, worse, don\u2019t even seek it.<\/p>\n

Structure of Man and Society<\/h2>\n

We begin a Platonic political system with an understanding of the Being of man, who is constituted by the three soul forces, and united by a Self:<\/p>\n