Notes on Eric Voegelin, Science, Politics and Gnosticism

I.Nature of Gnosticism
     A.Elitist
          1.Illumination - one (or a few) see the truth
          2.Initiation - they reveal parts of the truth to others
          3.Most are unfit for knowledge, salvation, existence
     B.Apocalyptic view of the world
          1.The crisis is upon us
          2.We must act now!
          3.libido dominandi
     C.Salvation theory
          1.Secular - based on the actions of gnostic man
          2.Escape - escape from this imperfect world
          3.Transformation - transform man/universe to gnostic ideal
     D.Existence is an illusion
          1.Reality is not as it seems
          2.Only the elite possess the truth
     E.Dogmatic
          1.Complex view of world/history
          2.Demands unquestioning acceptance
          3.Demands unquestioning obedience

II.Voegelin on Modern Gnosticism
     A.The Will to Power
          1.to reshape the world to perfection
          2.to become as Gods
          3.to accelerate the course of history towards the
          destined and inevitable end
     B.Prohibition of Questions
          1.Questions undermine the vision of perfection
          2.Questions come from the unenlightened
     C.Systematic thinking
          1.If an argument is integrated into a system of thought,
          that is sufficient proof of it's validity
          2.The existence of a system is justification for the system
     D.The Murder of God
          1.If we are masters of our destiny, then God cannot now
          exist, nor could God ever have existed
          2.Once God is retroactively murdered, then gnostic man
          can take his place as architect, creator, redeemer, and judge
     E.The End of History
          1.The plan/perfection envisioned by gnostic man is now
          and always has been the object of history
          2.Reality is plastic with gnostic man as the sculptor
          3.Progress is inevitable, resistance is futile

III.Some Quotations from/about Voegelin

     page viii "personal resistance to untruth" (Sandoz)

     page x "protecting philosophy against perversion is vital to
     the larger task of protecting human existence itself against
     perversion and tyranny." (Sandoz)

     page 6 "The loss of meaning that results from the breakdown
     of institutions, civilization, and the ethnic cohesion evokes
     attempts to regain an understanding of the meaning of human
     existence in the given conditions of the world."

     page 7 "Gnostic man no longer wishes to perceive in
     admiration the intrinsic order of the cosmos. For him the
     world has become a prison from which he wants to escape."

     page 8 "gnostic man must carry on the work of salvation himself."

     page 8 "self-salvation through knowledge has its own magic,
     and this magic is not harmless."

     page 19 "Marx was an intellectual swindler."

     page 15 "The spiritual disorder of our time, the
     civilizational crisis of which everyone so readily speaks,
     does not by any means have to be borne as an inevitable fate;
     ... on the contrary, everyone possesses the means of
     overcoming it in his own life.... No one is obliged to take
     part in the spiritual crisis of a society; on the contrary,
     everyone is obliged to avoid this folly and live his life in order."

     page 22 "the gnostic thinker really does commit an
     intellectual swindle, and he knows it."

     page 30 "Gnosis desires dominance over being; in order to
     seize control of being the gnostic constructs his system. The
     building of systems is a gnostic form of reasoning, not a
     philosophical one."

     page 31 "Whoever reduces being to a system cannot permit
     questions that invalidate systems as a form of reasoning."

     page 35 "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
     prefect and just order.... In order, therefore, that the
     attempt to create a new world may seem to make sense, the
     givenness of the order or being must be obliterated; the order
     of being must be interpreted, rather, as essentially under
     man's control."

     page 36 "The murder of God must be made retroactive
     speculatively."

     page 42 "Man cannot become God. If he tries, in the process
     of self-idolization he will become a demon wilfully shutting
     himself off from God."

     page 43 "Man cannot transform himself into a superman; the
     attempt to create a superman is an attempt to murder man.
     Historically, the murder of God is not followed by the
     superman, but by the murder of man: the deicide of the gnostic
     theoreticians is followed by the homicide of the revolutionary
     practitioners."