Guénon traces Western materialism to the loss of a higher ordering principle

Evidence

Yet, it seems that for Guénon even materialism is itself an effect of a higher cause, rather than a final cause. Materialism seems thus intelligible only within a framework in which the loss of principles is fully appreciated. But the loss of principles is in turn a function of yet another act. “The modern world has precisely reversed the natural relations between the different order of things,” a reversal that resulted in the “depreciation of the intellectual order” and “exaggeration of the materialist and sentimentalist order,” this latter meaning all the dogma, doctrine, “moralism,” and ideological paraphernalia that came to justify and legitimize this reversal, elevating “depreciation” into appreciation. The West, in other words, has lost “a principle of a higher order,” which stands as the ultimate cause for its “divergence,” for its arrogance (expressed in “racism,” “prejudice,” and a sense of “superiority” over others), and, most importantly, for its “barbarity.” — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 311

Categorization

• XREF: Guénon’s causal chain (materialism is an effect, not a final cause, of lost principles) parallels ‘The Bias of Communication’ Innis’s account of how communication technology reshapes whole civilizations through a deeper ordering medium.