Synthetic Judgment
From the atoms emerges the idea that material progress, when cut off from the symbolic horizon, does not fulfill human sufficiency; rather, it reveals a void of meaning that utility alone cannot fill.
What Emerges from the Gathering of Atoms
The atoms come together to show that technological and scientific reason expands the capacity to act, but it does not confer ultimate value on action, nor does it explain why action deserves to be carried out. Western modernity thus appears in this composition as a force of accomplishment, and also as a force of spiritual depletion when it closes in upon itself. European secularization appears here not as a complete solution, but as evidence that removing religious authority does not automatically produce a symbolic alternative capable of compensating for the need for meaning. From this perspective, material transformation becomes part of the problem rather than the whole of it: it succeeds in administration, but it is not enough to build a life of human depth. The atoms work together to show that they do not reject progress; rather, they prevent it from being reduced to the sole measure of the fullness of existence.
The Logic of the Composition
| Atom | Its role in the composition | What it adds to the relation |
|---|---|---|
| The need for a symbolic and spiritual horizon | Places human lack at the center | Shows that human beings seek meaning, not utility alone |
| Critique of technological and scientific reason | Limits the absolutization of technology | Reveals the limits of instrumental reason when it becomes an end |
| Western modernity empties the spirit | Links progress to its negative effect | Shows how achievement turns into inner hollowing |
| European secularization lacks a spiritual alternative | Indicates the absence of symbolic compensation | Explains why the removal of the sacred alone is not enough |
The Argumentative Function
This structure performs a function of critical expansion: it extends Arkoun’s critique from fundamentalism to modernity when modernity loses its human dimension, and it prevents reading modernization as a final answer to the question of the human being.
Bridges Within the Atlas
It is connected to the assemblages of the crisis of meaning, and to the concepts that address instrumental reason, the limits of secularization, and the need for symbolic resources in other books within the atlas.
Included Atoms
- Critique of technological and scientific reason
- Western modernity empties the spirit
- European secularization lacks a spiritual alternative
Limits of the Conclusion
This judgment must not be turned into a rejection of science or modernization, nor into a direct call to restore a traditional religious model as the only alternative to symbolic emptiness.