Modernity survives by denying that it too rests on a metaphysics.

Evidence

Modernity appears unique in the imperial and “civilization-defined” history of mankind, at least insofar as it is a complex system (perhaps too complex) that has failed to acknowledge and articulate its own metaphysical doctrine. Indeed, any attribution to modern phenomena of a metaphysic has invariably been articulated as a critique of, rather than as an internal elaboration of, the modern project. The denial of the metaphysical doctrinal structure undergirding modernity is, needless to say, deemed both integral and indispensable to the continued justification and survival of the project as a “rational” one—the assumption being that metaphysics is a commodity of myth belonging to a primordial past. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 964

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the earlier chapters’ treatment of sovereignty and the ‘rational’ claim of the modern state, and with critiques like Schmidt’s on Hans Jonas. — connects to: Ancient philosophical formation built universality from concrete experience; modernity finds it ready-made and truncated. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1016