About western values, liberalism and the value of the individual life

In one of his previous posts Nathan suggested that, contrary to what I say, his brand of liberalism has deep roots in the history of Western civilization, and that ideas of modern liberals are representative of the most significant intellectual achievements of the Western thinkers. It is somewhat ironic that to prove his point Nathan resorts to Christianity and the figure of Jesus Christ, even though his ideological comrades routinely disparage Christians for their religiosity. However, I do admit that the term "Western Values" which I used is too broad for discussing this complex conglomerate of often mutually exclusive ideas, so I have to clarify myself.



Among of a great variety of diverse ideas proposed and discussed in the thousand year history of Western civilization, two played a particularly important role. First was the idea that the Universe is the objective reality governed by the universal laws discoverable by a man. The second is understanding that people are self-sufficient individuals possessing rational minds and free will, and that the value of an individual is derived from his individual qualities rather than is handed down to him by his relation to a nations or a state or a king.

The first of these ideas generated unprecedented development of scientific knowledge, while the second one helped people to realize that they have rights to participate in society as independent free agents. This included economic participation and the right to own fruits of their labor and/or ingenuity. The most direct material expression of this realization was the idea of private property as an equivalent of economic freedom. This freedom and scientific progress provided positive feedback to each other resulting in unprecedented development of European nations.
These two ideas, which I consider the foundation of Western civilization, have elevated a human to a position, where instead of being an object of God, or fate, or king, the individual is an actively engaged subject, a creator.


These concepts, of course, were always in a struggle with another set of ideas emphasizing importance of collective in human behavior. According to them a group of people, a society , a nation, a segregation is more important then any individual in the group. Sacrifice for the well-being of the group is encouraged and sometimes even required. Individual rights of the group members are subjugated to the goals of the collective, the common good, which usually are formulated by an authority figure - a king, a messiah, pope, union leaders, etc. Earlier Christians lived in communities, and naturally, Christian morality was formulated in the collectivist terms (strong must take care of the weak, sacrifice for the group is the reason for canonization, etc). They were poor, hence, the negative attitude toward material wealth, property, and concentration on introvertive life of the soul. In addition of promulgating collectivist ideas, Christianity for a long period of time also insisted on the absence of any rational order in Nature, weakness and inadequacy of human mind. This attitude played a particularly negative role for the European civilization seriously hindering its development for 10 centuries. Only Luther's reformation and development of protestantism, which somewhat freed an individual in a person, weakened the brakes of collectivism, leading up to capitalism, industrial revolution and significant improvement in living conditions of a large number of people.



I think, however, that the religious component of protestantism is incidental in this story. It is not the idea of individual G-d, but the allowance for a much larger degree of individualism in general , made this progress possible. A significant role, of course, was played by protestant ethic, with its emphasize on importance of honesty, hard work, sanctity of a contract, etc, but I do not want to get engaged in the discussion if these ethical values are inherent to the religious world view, or they can be formulated from secular positions. What is important for me now is that Luther allowed Christians to recognise the value of their individuality.

It seems to me that out of all major religions, only protestantism is inherently compatible with capitalism. Ideological foundations of other branches of Christianity (Catholicism and Orthodoxy) as well as of Islam are very much at odds with capitalist approach to life. One can easily find conformation of this proposition by looking at the history of colonization of America, or the states of the modern Europe. Territory, known presently as USA, was colonized mostly by Anglicans and protestants while Mexico and all of the Southern America was colonized by catholic Spain and Portugal. The difference in the results does not need any special discussion. Now, look at the list of European countries with biggest economic problems: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, all with predominantly Catholic or Orthodox populations.

Thus, of course, modern liberalism does have roots in some of the traditions developed in the West, but my point is that these are not the traditions, which made Western civilization what it is now, at least in terms of its material development.