If human dignity is a Christian concept, what happens to it after Christianity?
As in when Christianity is deader than God
Reading Nietzsche criticism after reading Berdyaev who read Nietzsche deeply is quite helpful in my thinking about the civic Death of God before 2020 that permitted this 2023 moment. Nietzsche's doctrine of the will to power informs his understanding of practical ideas, such as right, justice, and dignity. The Agon. The contest. Strife. Real Justice, not mythic, is the interest of the stronger.
Christianity and the Classical World
That question gains an edge when we remember that, as Harper has noted: “None of the classical political regimes, nor any of the classical philosophical schools, regarded human beings as universally free and incomparably worthy creatures. Classical civilization, in short, lacked the concept of human dignity.”
Aristotle famously believed that some human beings were destined to slavery by nature and lacked the moral reason necessary for flourishing as free agents.
Harari admits that “We’re not sure” how all this happened. But he then proceeds to confidently assert that human cognitive abilities arose via “accidental genetic mutations” that “changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens.” No discussion is attempted and no citation is given for exactly what these mutations were, what exactly they did, how many mutations were necessary, and whether they would be likely to arise via the neo-Darwinian mechanism of random mutation and natural selection in the available time periods.
If we don’t know the answers to any of those questions, then how do we know that his next statement is true: “It was a matter of pure chance, as far as we can tell”? Of course the answer is clear: We can’t know that his claim is true. He doesn’t know the claim is true. He’s overstating what we really know. After all, evolutionary biologists have admitted that the origin of human language is very difficult to explain since we lack adequate analogues or evolutionary precursors among animals.
Yet for Harari and so many others, the unquestioned answer is that human cognitive abilities arose due to “pure chance.” This is an extremely important claim that he confidently asserts and it sets the stage for the rest of the book, which purports to give an entirely materialistic account of human history. For example, a few pages later he lets slip his anti-religious ideological bias. This is revealed in a claim he asserts as factually true, but for which no justification whatsoever is provided:
There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.
SAPIENS, P. 28
Did Religion Evolve, or Was It Designed, to Foster Cooperation?
Harari’s conjecture — “There are no gods” — is not just a piece of inconsequential trivia about his worldview — it forms the basis of many other crucial claims in the book. This naturalistic assumption permeates Harari’s thinking.
https://adamah.media/can-you-have-human-dignity-without-christianity/
Ko-fi.com/thejournaloflingeringsanity
I think here arises the metaphysical difference between Stoic and Christian. https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-christianity-history/
Hi Steigel
Just thought I'd share a couple of thoughts with you while sipping a late morning coffee here in Japan.
I had also read a few translations of Nietzsche back in undergrad days, and admit that his prose has had an impact on me. But as a biology undergrad gravitating towards philosophy my gateway to Nietzsche was Schopenhauer's take on the teleological argument for evolution. I still remember reading his "The World as Will", but more recently, have interpreted that take on the basis of morality as true, but mostly for the sociopathic predators among us.
But the linguist in me, and influenced by the likes of Taoism, animism, zen, Jung and his disciples, etc. — particularly Joseph Campbell — tends to see "god" as a metaphor for nature-in-its-entirety. Maybe a "spiritual naturalist" is as close to a good label as I've see coined.
But very different from the likes of Harai, a combination of personal experience and a temperament (or empathy) for accepting and trying to acknowledge and integrate the understanding and experiences of a wide variety of others does not allow me the temperament to presume to reduce that 'god' or "nature-in-its-entirety' to knowable, predictable, mechanical structures.
Some theories from other domains seem to support my view ... for example, emergence theory and related fractal theory, and chaos theory. I think those YouTube mandelbrot sets are a great dynamic metaphor for recurring patterns within the infinite ... from the repeating change of seasons, to the birth-growth-death of man, to the rise-and-inevitable-fall of empires. Alas, sociopaths, in addition to not having the capacity or willingness to feel empathy, also appear to lack the wonder, awe, humility, and particular sense of aesthetics closely associated empathy.
While reading a quote you cited ... "Classical civilization, in short, lacked the concept of human dignity.” And though there is lots of wiggle room for defining "classical' as well as "dignity" ... I immediately thought of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Recently on the news, a young student posed a question to current LDP head and Prime Minister of Japan Kishida, why he wanted to become Prime Minister. I, and most Japanese, more or less expected him to parrot the lines of "to serve his country" ... but he was unexpectedly blunt for a Japanese. Not for a sociopath. He answered (with an acceptable translation), "So I could impose my will. (have my choices)." It is just as well I had not recognized such a creatures among my students while teaching ... as I would have been sorely tempted to impose my will on the beast.
If one such as Marcus Aurelius with so much social currency while alive was able to resist the temptation to "the world as will" ... I can't help but to speculate that there must have been love, respect, and dignity ... especially among those without such high social currency ... since long before even the bronze age, not to mention classical civilization. And when looking at current Japan and its "leadership" can't help but to think moral progress is an illusion at best.
And the mandelbrot set continues to spin round and round.
Two coffees finished.
Time to hit the exercise bike in my vain attempt to postpone the inevitable.
Take care Steigel.
Keep up the good fight for the latent dignity within us all.
steve