Summary of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis by John Vervaeke, Chapter 21: Luther and Descartes
Martin Luther was a key figure in both the reformation of the Catholic Church and the present day meaning crisis. Influenced by Augustine and the Rhineland Mystics, he sees the self as a wretched entity, entrapped by parasitic processing and inner conflict. No matter how much we try, he argued, we cannot save ourselves, we must rely on God’s grace. This raises the problem of salvation being an arbitrary act of God’s will, a predetermined destiny that we have basically no control over.
Despite this radical doubt in one’s own agency, people nonetheless have a desire to be saved, and this results in an expectation of unearned positive regard. It is, Vervaeke argues, the seed of a grammar of cultural narcissism, the expectation that we should be loved for who we are, regardless of our merits and virtues. Rather than being true to reality, the ultimate aim becomes about being true to oneself (the cult of authenticity).
Further, in this view, the idea that we can achieve self-transcendence is a prideful delusion, and as such the pursuit of wisdom is at best useless (sapiential obsolescence). Thus, knowledge becomes about power instead of wisdom, in particular the power over politics and matters of state. This leads to the separation between Church and State: whereas the Church is a sanctuary providing unearned positive regard for all (God’s love), the State is a cruel meritocracy where only the chosen few can succeed (God’s wrath).
One of the consequences of this is the Protestant work ethic, an elevation of material success as an implicit sign that one is among the chosen few who are saved. Out of this arises the spirit of capitalism, which flourishes in a world where excess wealth, rather than being consumed, is dutifully put to the work of generating even more capital.
As people begin to rely less on tradition and more on their own interpretation of religious scripture (the paper Pope), Protestantism inevitably fragments, as a kind of narcissism of small differences takes hold, driving increasing differentiation as a testament to the individual’s supposed uniqueness. This was in many ways a time of deep existential dread, as the empowerment of self-reliance gave way to self-doubt and orphanage from tradition.
Into this void steps Descartes, inventor of Cartesian graphing, the quintessential psychotechnology of science. In order to address the apparent anxiety driven by a lack of certainty, he proposes a way of interacting with the world grounded upon absolute propositional certainty. Rather than perspectival conformity, the goal is to use symbols, logic, and computation to get in touch with the true nature of reality. Hobbes arguably took this to its logical conclusion by proposing the idea of artificial intelligence, i.e. a way by which pure computation can replace human reason.
The ideas of Luther and Descartes left an uncomfortable paradox between radical doubt and certainty. In reality, we’ve been forced to accept that absolute certainty is unachievable even in the fundamental sciences, while also realizing that radical doubt is pathological as it undermines human agency and capacity to reason and live a meaningful life.