Society And its Purpose
Book 4 - Psychological Laws and the End of Civil Societies
CHAPTER 35
The law governing the development of the FACULTIES OF THOUGHT and ABSTRACTION
839. There are two quite different opinions about the Middle Ages. Some people see this period as the epitome of wisdom, others as the epitome of barbarism. These different viewpoints are explained by the distinction between the faculty of thought and the faculty of abstraction. Those who see the Middle Ages as supremely wise look at the progress made by the faculty of thought; others view only the progress made by the faculty of abstraction. There is no doubt that enormous efforts were made at the time by the faculty of thought. This explains the sublimity and vastness of concepts, and the generosity of Catholic undertakings which filled these centuries. However, it is very difficult for the two faculties to go hand in hand. Development of the faculty of thought has to precede that of the faculty of abstraction.
The Middle Ages were rough and ready because progress on the part of the faculty of abstraction had not imbued the period with refinement and the diffusion of the arts. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that all the seeds of modern progress in civilisation were sown during these warlike and Christian centuries when Christianity, and mankind with it, made such substantial progress through the development of the faculty of thought.
840. The last three centuries, on the other hand, form a period destined by nature to the brilliant, captivating development of the faculty of abstraction — a development made possible, however, only by the previous progress of the faculty of thought. Modern times should not be childishly proud of its refinement, nor insult the roughness and crudeness of preceding ages. This would be an act of base disavowal similar to daubing a picture of Raffael with paint, insulting the artist long-dead, and boasting that the result was better than the master’s.
841. All the defects accompanying the sublime, Christian undertakings of the Middle Ages consist in the imperfection of the means employed. Accessories were neglected; there was a lack of precautions and guarantees against the accidental damage the work could suffer. In a word, the faculty of abstraction had not been greatly developed; time had not been sufficient to distinguish the harm mixed with the good, or to discover how to disentangle them. It was completely natural, once the faculty of thought had suffered many frustrations in obtaining its desired objects, for human beings to be shaken by their unhappy experiences, and to seek the cause of their failures. They found them finally in the imperfection of the means they had used to attain their ends.
842. The investigation of these means was the work of modern times, and is entirely the function of abstraction. We should not be surprised that the world, taken off balance by the brilliant, rapid results, should form an exaggerated, exclusive devotion for the faculty of abstraction, to which it owes so much. In this respect the world goes too far, and wrongly undervalues the solid work of the faculty of thought. This explains why the sciences concerned with ends have been despised in modern times, and why unbalance between the two faculties has been renewed. Abstraction has gained the upper hand and produced an unbalance more harmful than that present when the faculty of thought prevails over that of abstraction.
843. The natural progress of human society can, therefore, be suitably divided into the following periods.
First period: society in which both the faculty of thought and the faculty of abstraction are scarcely developed (state of total imperfection).
Second period: society in which the faculty of thought is developed, but without any corresponding development on the part of the faculty of abstraction (state of accidental imperfection).
Third period: society in which the faculty of thought has already been developed, and the faculty of abstraction is developing proportionately (state of perfection of society).
Fourth period: society in which love of the objects of the faculty of abstraction begins to grow, and attention is given solely to the development of this faculty, to the neglect of the faculty of thought. As a result, the faculty of abstraction develops vigorously, while the faculty of thought does not receive any corresponding development (state of corruption of society).
These periods correspond to the four social stages which we have previously distinguished.(359)
Notes
(359) Cf SC, c. 8, and also the present work.