Eric Voegelin – Science, Politics and Gnosticism (1958)

Science, Politics and Gnosticism comprises two essays by Eric Voegelin (1901-85), arguably one of the most provocative and influential political philosophers of the last century. In these essays, Voegelin contends that certain modern movements, including positivism, Hegelianism, Marxism, and the "God is dead" school, are variants of the gnostic tradition he identified in his classic work The New Science of Politics. Voegelin attempts to resolve the intellectual confusion that has resulted from the dominance of gnostic thought by clarifying the distinction between political gnosticism and the philosophy of politics.

(0:00) Foreword by the author
(4:05) Introduction Gnosticism
(20:38) Science, Politics and Gnosticism
(34:49) Marx
(43:17) Nietzsche
(1:01:57) Hegel
(1:10:51) Heidegger
(1:16:36) The Murder of God
(1:47:31) Notes on Hegel's Philosophy of World History

See end of video for footnotes.

Support the channel:
👉 Paypal: https://paypal.me/mario1337
👉 BTC: 35iDtUzZq33CoJhmK38TdV9Xunvs7TKmzX
👉 ETH: 0xf396A0e10911b4BC975CfE80117412D484B24d1e

▶️Odysee: https://odysee.com/@EugenRichterAudiobooks:2
▶️Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1940805

"A scientific analysis, on the other hand, makes it possible to judge of the truth of the premises implied by an opinion. It can do this, however, only on the assumption that truth about the order of being—to which, of course, opinions also refer—is objectively ascertainable. And Platonic-Aristotelian analysis does in fact operate on the assumption that there is an order of being accessible to a science beyond opinion. Its aim is knowledge of the order of being, of the levels of the hierarchy of being and their interrelationships, of the essential structure of the realms of being, and especially of human nature and its place in the totality of being. Analysis, therefore, is scientific and leads to a science of order through the fact that, and insofar as, it is ontologically oriented."

"The aim of parousiastic gnosticism is to destroy the order of being, which is experienced as defective and unjust, and through man’s creative power to replace it with a perfect and just order."

"And the prerequisite of analysis is still the perception of the order of being unto its origin in transcendent being, in particular, the loving openness of the soul to its transcendent ground of order."

"We are confronted here with persons who know that, and why, their opinions cannot stand up under critical analysis and who therefore make the prohibition of the examination of their premises part of their dogma. This position of a conscious, deliberate, and painstakingly elaborated obstruction of ratio constitutes the new phenomenon."

Buy: https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/1932236481

#polticalscience #philosophy #gnosticism