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What can I know (if trust in knowledge has been lost)? | 19
unlimited replaceability of dwindling natural resources, the less said
about them, the better.
Confusing questions, arise, however, even regarding the common
concept of development itself. The above-mentioned criteria of
development fit the history of the cultures familiar to us: their pattern
differentiates as they move forward in time. It enables the given people
— or even several successive peoples — to reach ever more complex and
particular achievements. But what explains their decline, the process of
disintegration and collapse? Why should internal tensions and external
effects, which until that point had acted in one way or another as a
stimulus to the development of the given civilisation, lead beyond that
point to the collapse of the seemingly solid structures, exposing their
inability to renew themselves? ‘The examination of this exciting question
would lead us far from our subject, but it is perhaps obvious that decline
and destruction are just as much a part of the life of civilisations as of
living organisms. Take modern Europe and the current Cosmopolis
built on the European pattern (the monumental second flowering of the
ancient civilisation that developed around the Eastern Mediterranean
Basin). Despite its relatively young age, has it not already reached the
stage of decadence? Must it not collapse under the weight of the internal
contradictions precipitated by its unprecedentedly rapid development
and aggressive expansion?
We can avoid the troublesome question in two ways. We can say,
first of all, that our knowledge is superior and our achievement is of
a higher order than that of the others, which is why we were able to
defeat and incorporate all other civilisations. The problem with this
answer is that we lack the outside perspective and unit of measurement
which would enable us to compare the performance of the various
civilisations. We can be sure that the sages of the Egyptian New
Kingdom or of the Golden Age of Athens could bring up several
points that prove the paltriness of our knowledge and the lowliness of
our way of life compared to theirs. Confucius and Lao-Tse would note
in despair that everything from which they tried to protect the people
has come to pass. We might find their reasoning risible, but this is
exactly what I am talking about: every great civilisation is superior to
the others in its own ways, according to its own system of values. As
for our global expansion, that is not exactly proof of success. It is not
only the common destiny of invasive species and rapidly disappearing
empires that make me say this, but rather the aforementioned
destructive processes that have already escaped from our control, such