Divine Philosophy and The Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory
“Philosophy is of two kinds: natural and divine. Natural philosophy seeks knowledge of physical verities and explains material phenomena, whereas divine philosophy deals with ideal verities and phenomena of the spirit.” ʻAbdu’l-Bahá, the son of the prophet founder of the Bahá’í Faith, explained at talk given during his 1912 visit to North America, “..divine philosophy — which has for its object the sublimation of human nature, spiritual advancement, heavenly guidance for the development of the human race, attainment to the breaths of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of the verities of God — has been outdistanced and neglected.”[1] He predicted that this outdistancing would have dire consequences for humanity.
ʻAbdu’l-Bahá’s use of what he termed Divine philosophy, brought a critical eye to the thoughts and assumptions of humanity; “ Old ideas and modes of thought are fast becoming obsolete. Ancient laws and archaic ethical systems will not meet the requirements of modern conditions,”[2] he explained. ʻAbdu’l-Bahá would go on to overtly challenge the institutionalized racism and sexism that permeated American culture at that time. For example, in a withering attack on the assumptions and cultural norms which he saw at the root of the impending violence inherent in western civilization he decried, “the breeding ground of all these tragedies is prejudice: prejudice of race and nation, of religion, of political opinion; and the root cause of prejudice is blind imitation of the past — imitation in religion, in racial attitudes, in national bias, in politics. So long as this aping of the past persisteth, just so long will the foundations of the social order be blown to the four winds, just so long will humanity be continually exposed to direst peril.”[3]
Not only in theory but in actual praxis did ʻAbdu’l-Bahá operate, such that at the beginning of the 20th century he had already not only advocated education of girls (in preference to boys) but went on to have the Bahá’ís establish the very first girls’ schools in Iran under very difficult social circumstances[4]. He explained that it was only through the education and emancipation of women and girls that a society can see real progress. He also inspired the American Bahá’í community by 1920’s to host the first ever Racial Amity Conference [5]and encouraged a wide variety of actions to challenge racial norms.
The Dialectic of Enlightenment
By the mid 20th century, the disasters which ʻAbdu’l-Bahá had clearly foreseen had already ravaged the world in the form of Fascist and Soviet style totalitarianism. This led the so-called Frankfurt School of German Marxists to question some of the fundamental assumptions of Marxism and the Western Enlightenment tradition. The inception of the age of Enlightenment is commonly attributed to the works of Immanuel Kant near the close of the 18th century, which entailed a pivot away from religion and tradition towards the use of pure rationality as the best means for arriving at truth. The Frankfurt School recognized that the project of Enlightenment had given birth to both Capitalist and Communist systems that had collectively wiped out 10 of millions lives in a few years and laid waste to much of the world. This view was expressed in the opening paragraph of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s famous work “The Dialectic of Enlightenment” :
“Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth radiates under the sign of disaster triumphant”[6].
The experience of the modern political age polarized by the advance use of psychological and social manipulation as exemplified by the work of Cambridge Analytica and others is illustrative of the problems which Adorno and Horkheimer were addressing. To them this was already evident in the aftermath of Fascism and totalitarianism Communism and how the science of propaganda and media was deployed to manipulate the masses. For while science bestowed great powers on humanity, those same powers could be deployed against itself objectifying humans and turning them and all things sacred, into commodities to be exploited.
The disasters of western civilization were also foreshadowed about century earlier in the ominous critiques of civilization given in writings of the prophet founder of the Bahá’í Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, the father of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá:
“The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective.”[7]
and in another passage.
“The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation. Meditate on this, O people, and be not of them that wander distraught in the wilderness of error. The day is approaching when its flame will devour the cities” [8]
Critical Theory
“The philosopher and sociologist Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) lived in this house from 1950 to 1963. Co-founder of the Frankfurt School, the “critical theory” of society persecuted and ostracized by the National Socialists. Honorary Citizen of the City of Frankfurt am Main “https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FFM_Max-Horkheimer-Gedenktafel.jpg
The Frankfurt School introduced what they termed “Critical Theory” as method to expose the inherent power structures embedded in the assumptions of Enlightenment style thinking. Ultimately it was these structures of knowledge in the service of a ruling class which were responsible for the domination and abuse which for example manifested itself as racism and sexism. They were maintained more by the social structures and what they termed the “Culture industry” than by the actions or psychology of any given individual. Horkheimer described Critical Theory as an approach, “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them.”
Herbert Marcuse another member of the Frankfurt school also sought to challenge the very concept of domination and exploitation inherent in Enlightenment style thinking, in his works “Eros and Civilization” and “One-Dimensional Man”. Marcuse believed that part of the salvation to the catastrophic consequences of the Enlightenment were to be found in the use of art as a method of social awakening and in the exercise of what he termed “The Great Refusal” against what ‘Is’. Change in Marcuse’s view required a change in the subjectivity of the masses of people since the societal problems where due to cultural norms, developed and reinforced by the entertainment and marketing industry. This so-called “Culture Industry” reduced and brain-washed humans into thinking of themselves in only two roles, workers and consumers lacking any depth outside of these two narrow categories of being. He saw art as one of the few ways to effect change against this mode of thinking and enkindle the type of radical subjectivity necessary to challenge outdated and oppressive cultural norms. He also saw the liberation of women as central to the liberation of all of oppressed people in society, thus echoing ʻAbdu’l-Bahá’s pronouncements concerning the imperative of education and emancipation of women decades earlier.
The Frankfurt School recognized the fact that meaning had become a causality of the process of Enlightenment, “On their way toward modern science human beings have discarded meaning.”[6] Adorno and Horkheimer observed. This loss of meaning in modern society permits the tools and rationality of science to be deployed in such a pitiless and cynical manner against humanity. In the Enlightenment’s assault on superstition and religion, any pretense of objective morality has perished with it. The ominous consequences of this were foreshadowed in famous words of Nietzsche, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?” [9] The effect is such that the souls of humanity have become disenfranchised and alienated against each other.
Bahá’í Critique of Materialism
Shoghi Effendi, the grandson of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá and head of the Bahá’í Faith till his passing in 1957, elaborated on Bahá’u’lláh’s critique of western civilization making an interestingly parallel observation around the same time as Adorno and Horkheimer. He attributed the catastrophic moral failings of both Marxist and Capitalistic societies to materialism.
“ — an evil which the nation, and indeed all those within the capitalist system, though to a lesser degree, share with that state [Soviet] and its satellites regarded as the sworn enemies of that system — is the crass materialism, which lays excessive and ever-increasing emphasis on material well-being, forgetful of those things of the spirit on which alone a sure and stable foundation can be laid for human society. It is this same cancerous materialism, born originally in Europe, carried to excess in the North American continent, contaminating the Asiatic peoples and nations, spreading its ominous tentacles to the borders of Africa, and now invading its very heart, which Bahá’u’lláh in unequivocal and emphatic language denounced in His Writings, comparing it to a devouring flame and regarding it as the chief factor in precipitating the dire ordeals and world-shaking crises that must necessarily involve the burning of cities and the spread of terror and consternation in the hearts of men.” [10]
This materialism can be seen as the natural outgrowth of the collapse of traditional religious authority under the unforgiving rational scrutiny of the Enlightenment and science. The collapse was made possible since these traditions were riddled with superstition, dogma, literalism and their own form of materialism, and not due to their inherent rational weakness.
There is some agreement between this view and the Frankfurt School’s, though they would attribute the downfall of religion as due to its inherent rational failings. Indeed, Marcuse’s concept of “radical subjectivity” is reminiscent of Bahá’u’lláh’s seemingly opposite call for radical objectivity in the opening verse of the Book of Certitude where he predicates “true understanding” on being “detached from all that is in heaven and on earth” or in the Hidden Words, his call to see “with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others”. Both “radical subjectivity” and radical objectivity required questioning and being detached from one’s cultural and social norms.
Yet being Marxist, the Frankfurt school philosophers rejected religion and viewed it as part of the tools of power and domination utilized by the ruling class. To them, like the majority of Enlightenment thinkers, religion was the source of much of the problems of society and in fact much of the social structures rooted in religion was what Critical Theory was created to challenge. For example they argued that while perhaps in the past rules of sexual morality served a valuable societal function, the progress of science, especially the advent of birth control made it no longer relevant and was now functioning to needlessly limit and control human behavior.
Contrary to this, Bahá’ís view religion as one of the most powerfully liberating tools of human civilization, Baha’u’llah explains “Say: True liberty consisteth in man’s submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it.”[11] and further, “Religion is verily the chief instrument for the establishment of order in the world and of tranquility amongst its peoples.”[12] Bahá’ís view religion as a force, which when shorn of the literalism, mindless dogma and superstition can moderate the dehumanizing forces of Enlightenment thinking and infuse the masses of humanity with meaning. Thus ʻAbdu’l-Bahá predicted:
“ When religion, shorn of its superstitions, traditions, and unintelligent dogmas, shows its conformity with science, then will there be a great unifying, cleansing force in the world which will sweep before it all wars, disagreements, discords and struggles — and then will mankind be united in the power of the Love of God.”[13]
So on one level Bahá’ís might agree in principle with the practice of Critical Theory, that of challenging assumptions and definitions of social discourse which no longer serve humanity. Yet, in many cases their conclusions are the polar opposite of the practitioners of Critical Theory. For example, in the case of traditional sexual morality, contrary to the Frankfurt School they see it as still highly relevant to the proper functioning of modern civilization. Further while the use of the arts is acknowledged by both as a powerful tool in moving human consciousness, even greater and more lasting is religion.
One can argue that from the Bab and Baha’u’llah to the present-day, Baha’i’s have engaged in what might be seen as a type of Critical Theory when dealing with the assumptions and norms of contemporary society. For example, the elected head of the world-wide Baha’i community The Universal house of Justice explains in their March 2017 letter,
“The vision of Bahá’u’lláh challenges many of the assumptions that are allowed to shape contemporary discourse — for instance, that self-interest, far from needing to be restrained, drives prosperity, and that progress depends upon its expression through relentless competition. To view the worth of an individual chiefly in terms of how much one can accumulate and how many goods one can consume relative to others is wholly alien to Bahá’í thought. But neither are the teachings in sympathy with sweeping dismissals of wealth as inherently distasteful or immoral, and asceticism is prohibited. Wealth must serve humanity. Its use must accord with spiritual principles; systems must be created in their light…”[14]
References
[1] The Promulgation of Universal Peace p 320
[2] Foundations of World Unity p 83
[3] Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá p247
[4] Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi (2013) The Tarbiyat Girls’ School of Tehran: Iranian and American Baha’i Contributions to Modern Education, Middle East Critique, 22:1, 77–93, DOI: 10.1080/19436149.2012.755298
[6] Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments is translated from Volume 5 of Max Horkheimer, Gesammelte Schriften: Dialektik der Aufklärung und Schriften 1940–1950
[7] Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh p216
[8] Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh p342
[9] FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE The Gay Science With a Prelude in German Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs p120
[10] Citadel of Faith, pp.124–125
[11] Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh p336
[12] Epistle to the Son of the Wolf p26
[13] Paris Talks p 146
[14] https://universalhouseofjustice.bahai.org/involvement-life-society/20170301_001
