Mechanization

The dominant thought in the Western environment laid the necessary foundations for the formation of Western civilization. In fact, the Renaissance's approach to God, humanity, and the surrounding environment gradually caused profound changes in human lifestyles at various levels, eventually replacing the traditional, meaning-oriented relationship between humans and their surroundings with a modern, meaning-deficient one. This study presents a critique of Western civilization from the perspective of Mahdist teachings. The article is written using a descriptive and analytical approach. Today, the West faces numerous challenges at various levels, to the extent that, according to Western thinkers, these issues were not resolved even with the emergence of postmodernism. This is because the civilizational system, grounded in Renaissance thought, adopts a materialistic worldview and denies the unseen in its perception of God, self, and existence.

What is the ultimate end of higher education? Giambattista Vico, echoing Socrates’s Delphic oracle, claimed that the ultimate end of all education is self-knowledge. I fully agree with Vico’s claim, but also radically extend his idea about education, in accordance with contemporary and futuristic Kantianism, and then apply it specifically to contemporary and near-future higher education. In 1784, Kant published an essay called “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” in which he argued that the fundamental thesis of “enlightenment” or Aufklärung is that all rational human animals are strictly obligated to think for themselves and to act freely, with resolution and courage, in accordance with sufficient respect for their own and everyone else’s human dignity. Taking together Vico’s Socratic idea about self-knowledge, with Kant’s idea about enlightenment, and then creatively revising-&-updating them both to fit the contemporary 21st century existential, moral, and sociopolitical predicament of humankind, then in my view, the ultimate end of higher education is not only (i) self-knowledge, but also (ii) rational autonomy in thinking, caring, and acting, (iii) authentic human creativity, and (iv) sufficient respect for everyone’s human dignity. In turn, the four-part conjunction of these ultimate ends is what I call radical enlightenment. Therefore, I’m saying that the ultimate end of higher education is radical enlightenment.