On the Death of a Civilization - by Marcel de Corte (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

First-ever translation of Essai sur la fin d'une civilisation originally published in 1949.

Our contemporary civilization is in distress. Society is unraveling, with rampant individualism, moral dissipation, identity crises, unchecked consumerism, and social isolation. De Corte, writing in the mid-twentieth century, studies these trends and discerns their causes: the prevalence of philosophies rooted in idealism or materialism, the reign of ideologies inspired by these philosophies, objectification of workers in both free-market capitalism and communism as economic progress trumps social well-being, the efforts of some in the Church to compromise the truth in order to adapt to the world, and, most importantly, the rejection of the transcendent. To heal society and build a new civilization emerging from the old, De Corte prescribes restoring a religious, moral, and philosophical compass to society, and the development of small-scale communities with an organic relationship to the environment and fostering close interpersonal connections.

Review Quotes

The eminent professor from Liège has diagnosed the condition of our Western civilization as grave. A philosopher of history and contemporary society, he does not hesitate to show us that our society is degenerating and everywhere our boats are leaking water....He observes a pronounced liking for abstraction, theory, ideology, and strings of concepts at a time when our lifestyle encourages gratification of material instincts. There is a latent conflict in the heart of man between these two contradictory tendencies which threatens the very existence of our civilization. -Jacques Decerf, in the Revue Philosophique de Louvain, 1950.

De Corte discusses the principle errors of the modern world. His "anti-modern stance"...refers to the importance he gives to tradition and to his radical criticism of pseudo-Christian progressivism, a most grave offense to human dignity and a path to mass society. Consequently he attacks all forms of modern statism, which takes away political liberty. De Corte holds that in modern thought morality no longer exists because it has "exiled the truth." Thus is born a new sophistry from which can only emerge materialism on the theoretical level and nihilism on the practical level. -Andrea Dalledonne in the journal Divus Thomas, 1976.

This book, published in 1949, examines with acuity four major problems of late modernity in its postmodern metamorphosis: the conflict between spirit and life, the conflict between the political and the social, the relationship between technology and collectivism, and the tension between Christianity and modern civilisation. Themes De Corte further develops in his later works are already present in this essay, whose intent is to cover all the factors that point to the end of a civilisation. -Miguel Ayuso, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law, Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid