In the West, we have been sold an Enlightenment story: reason will free us, knowledge will accumulate, and history will deliver progress. But this story is in jeopardy. Reason has eaten its own tail, leaving us unmoored in a seemingly post-truth age. Progress for many has stalled, with young people often expecting to be less well off than their parents. Meanwhile, the economic and political dominance of the West is unravelling. In recent years, almost 60% of global GDP growth has been generated in Asia, while liberal democracy around the world has been in retreat for 17 consecutive years.
Should we see the unravelling of Enlightenment values and of the West's economic and political dominance as connected phenomena? Can a civilisation exist without foundational ideas, and if our notions of objective truth and progress are now in question, what should replace them?
Influential critic of humanism and author of Straw Dogs, philosopher John Gray, and Closure theorist and post-postmodern philosopher Hilary Lawson debate the new world after the West.
