In A Secular Age, Taylor’s invocation of the “multiple modernities” thesis permits him to isolate the North Atlantic world as his bounded geographic subject

As David Scott has argued, implied in the “multiple modernities” approach is a confining narrative of repression and resistance, of subaltern agency and overcomin

To see “barbarians” as unable to follow rules, as John Stuart Mill describes them in “A Few Words on Non-Intervention,” to interpret their actions as irregular and aggressive in response to a European power’s sometimes (or often) provoking actions abroad, is already to move toward making particular forms of cultural and religious difference an object for just punishment and discipline by military state powers.

the subtle violences of the forces that we might call secularizing.

I am interested in secularism as an instrument of empire. To be clear, in no way am I suggesting that this is all that secularism is; rather, it simply constitutes my own interest in secularism today.

And neoliberalism, I would argue, is one of the key imperial forces of our time, probably more important in the long run than American military bellicosity or designs of regime change.

or how this story occludes the imperial face of Western secularism today.

express and deliberate antimaterialism

to render secularism as generated exclusively through Western Christian European history is to literally eschew the production of ourselves as secular through and against our imagined opposite.

oduct of tensions within Christendom rather than, in part, a feature of Christendom’s encounter with others and especially with its constitutive outside

EuroAtlantic secularism

rich, learned, careful, detailed, complex, attentive to a variety of forces

phenomenology of secularism

odern Western secularism as a peculiar way of being, knowing, inhabiting the world;

This entails somehow grasping our epistemological, ontological, cosmological and theological frameworks from without, a nearly impossible physical and metaphysical feat.

But just because many years later we can get something out of his sociology while ignoring his ethics and, for that matter, anything else besides sociology that he wrote, we would err in thinking that we have correctly interpreted Spencer let alone thinking that we have correctly interpreted even just his sociology.

Other things being equal, a society in which life, liberty, and property, are secure, and all interests justly regarded, must prosper more than one in which they are not

market utopias in which government withers away.

On Spencer’s account, social evolution unfolds through four universal stages

In sum, societies were not only becoming increasingly complex, heterogeneous and cohesive. They were becoming additionally interdependent and their components, including their human members, more and more specialized and individuated.

According to Spencer in First Principles, three principles regulate the universe, namely the Law of the Persistence of Force, the Law of the Instability of the Homogeneous and the Law of the Multiplicity of Effects.

pencer’s lasting impact has been most pronounced in sociology.

can effectively mimick the very best deontological liberalism.

we can more easily read our Spencer as he intended to be read, namely as a utilitarian who wanted to be a liberal just as much.

Happily, in rehabilitating him, some moral philosophers have begun to appreciate just how fundamentally utilitarian his practical reasoning was. And some sociologists have likewise begun reassessing Spencer.

“They amused themselves by remarking on the sly, ‘The white man is an old ape.’ The African will say of the European, ‘He looks like folks,’ [men], and the answer will often be, ‘No, he don’t.... Whilst the Caucasian doubts the humanity of the Hamite, the latter repays the compliment in kind.”1

What mistaken estimates of other races may result from over-estimation of one’s own race, will be most vividly shown by a case in which we are ourselves valued at a very low rate by a race we hold to be far inferior.

Such advantages, bodily and mental, as the race derives from the discipline of war, are exceeded by the disadvantages, bodily and mental, but especially mental, which result after a certain stage of progress is reached. Severe and bloody as the process is, the killing-off of inferior races and inferior individuals, leaves a balance of benefit to mankind

Where, as in France, conscriptions have gone on taking away the finest men, generation after generation, the needful lowering of the standard proves how disastrous is the effect on those animal qualities of a race which form a necessary basis for all higher qualities.

We habitually assume that a distinctive trait of humanity is rationality, and that rationality involves consistency; yet here we find an extinct race (unquestionably human and regarding itself as rational) in which the inconsistency of conduct and professed belief was as great as can well be imagined.

So that everywhere sociological thinking is more or less impeded by the difficulty of bearing in mind that the social states towards which our race is being carried, are probably as little conceivable by us as our present social state was conceivable by a Norse pirate and his followers.

But if all biological science, enforcing all popular belief, convinces you that by no possibility will an Aristotle come from a father and mother with facial angles of fifty degrees, and that out of a tribe of cannibals, whose chorus in preparation for a feast of human flesh is a kind of rhythmical roaring, there is not the remotest chance of a Beethoven arising; then you must admit that the genesis of the great man depends on the long series of complex Edition: current; Page: [35] influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown.

t will suffice, however, to instance, as more especially relevant, the cases of sexual distinctions within the human race itself, which have arisen in some varieties and not in others.

I might detail evidence that has been collected showing the much greater liability there is for a parent to bequeath malformations and diseases to children of the same sex, than to those of the opposite sex

weaker men had habitually left posterity when the stronger did not, a progressive deterioration of the race would have resulted.

Necessarily, then, the men of the conquering races which gave origin to the civilized races, were men in whom the brutal characteristics were dominant; and necessarily the women of such races, having to deal with brutal men, prospered in proportion as they possessed, or acquired, fit adjustments of nature.

And then, after centuries during which we have been breeding the race as much as possible from the improvident, and repressing the multiplication of the provident, we lift our hands and exclaim at the recklessness our people exhibit

Alike by the complaints of the Americans, that the Germans are ousting them from their own businesses by working hard and living cheaply, and by the success here of German traders and the preference shown for German waiters, we are taught that in other divisions of the Teutonic race there is nothing like this lack of self-control

Only in those abnormal cases where a race of one type is subject to a race of much-superior type, is this qualification pertinent. In our own case, as in the cases of all societies having populations approximately homogeneous in character, and having institutions evolved by that character, there may rightly be aimed at the greatest rigour possible

Men having constitutions fitted for one climate, cannot be fitted to an extremely-different climate by persistently living in it, because they do not survive, generation after generation. Such changes can be brought about only by slow spreadings of the race through intermediate regions having intermediate climates, to which successive generations are accustomed little by little.

We can see nothing save crime in the endeavour of the Hindus to throw off our yoke; and we recognize no excuse for the efforts of the Irish to establish their independent nationality. We entirely ignore the fact that the motives are in all such cases the same, and are to be judged apart from results.

Probably most readers will conclude that in this, and in the preceding section, I am simply carrying out the views of Mr. Darwin in their applications to the human race.

will be manifest on asking what would have happened if women had by preference attached themselves to the weaker men.

蓋意求勝斯賓塞，遂未嘗深考斯賓氏之所據耳。夫斯賓塞所謂民群任天演之自然，則必日進善，不日趨惡，而郅治必有時而臻者，其豎義至堅，殆難破也。

如斯多噶之徒言，則人道固當扶強而抑弱，重少而輕老，且使五洲殊種之民，至今猶巢居鮮食而後可。

吾嘗取斯多噶之教，與喬答摩之教，較而論之，則喬答摩悲天閔人，不見世間之真美；而斯多噶樂天任運，不睹人世之足悲。二教雖均有所偏，而使二者必取一焉，則斯多噶似為差樂。但不幸生人之事，欲忘世間之真美易，

毗耶一會，文殊師利菩薩，唱不二法門之旨

涅槃者，蓋佛以謂三界諸有為相，無論自創創他，皆暫時合成觀，終於消亡。而人身之有，則以想愛同結，聚幻成身。世界如空華，羯摩如空果，世世生生，相續不絕，人天地獄，各隨所修。是以貪欲一捐，諸幻都滅。無生既証，則與生俱生者，隨之而盡，此涅槃最淺義諦也。然自世尊宣揚正教以來，其中聖賢，於泥洹皆不著文字言說，以為不二法門，超諸理解。豈曰無辨，辨所不能言也。然而津逮之功，非言不顯，苟不得已而有云，則其體用固可得以微指也。一是涅槃為物，無形體，無方相，無一切有為法。舉其大意言之，固與寂滅真無者，無以異也。二是涅槃寂不真寂，滅不真滅。假其真無，則無上正偏知之名，烏從起乎

道在悲智兼大，以利濟群生，名相兩忘，而淨修三業。質而言之，要不外塞物競之流，絕自營之私，而明通公溥，物我一體而已矣。自營未嘗不爭，爭則物競興，而輪回無以自免矣。婆羅門之道為我，而佛反之以兼愛。此佛道徑塗，與舊教雖同，其堅苦卓厲，而用意又迥不相侔者也。此其一人作則，而萬類從風，越三千歲而長存，通九重譯而彌遠。自生民神道設教以來，其流傳廣遠，莫如佛者，有由然矣。

此與婆羅門所證聖果，初若相似，而實則夐乎不同。

羯磨，譯云種業

將由此而有擴充消長之功，此誠不誣之說。顧云是必足以變化氣質，則尚有難言者。世固有畢生刻厲，而育子不必賢於其親；抑或終身慆淫，而生孫乃遠勝於厥祖。身則善矣，惡矣，而氣質之本然，或未嘗變也；薰修勤矣，而果則不必証也。由是知竺乾之教，獨謂薰修為必足證果者，蓋使居養修行之事，期於變化氣質，乃在或然或否之間，則不徒因果之說，將無所施，而吾生所恃以自性自度者，亦從此而盡廢。而彼所謂超生死出輪回者，又烏從以致其力乎？故竺乾新舊二教，皆有薰修証果之言，而推其根源，則亦起於不得已也

種姓

且輪迴之說，固亦本之可見之人事物理以為推，即求之日用常行之間，亦實有其相似，此考道窮神之士，所為樂反覆其說，而求其義之所底也。

此善群進種之至術也。

刑罰非不中也，害群之民，或流之，或殺之，或錮之終身焉。又以游惰呰窳者之種下也，振貧之令曰

然而種分壤據，民之相殘，不啻毒蟲猛獸也。至合種成國，則此患又減，而轉患孳乳之寖多。群而不足，大爭起矣。

今者天下非一家也，五洲之民非一種也

赫胥黎執其末以齊其本，此其言群理，所以不若斯賓塞氏之密也。且以感通為人道之本，其說發於計學家亞丹斯密，亦非赫胥黎氏所獨標之新理也。

天良者，保群之主，所以制自營之私，不使過用以敗群者也。4 復案：赫胥黎保群之論，可謂辨矣。然其謂群道由人心善相感而立，則有倒果為因之病，又不可不知也。蓋人之由散入群，原為安利，其始正與禽獸下生等耳，初非由感通而立也。

然而天地之性，物之最能為群者，又莫人若。如是則其所受於天，必有以制此自營者，夫而後有群之效也。

從來人種難分

民種

彼乃積摧其惡種，積擇其善種

由是而推之，凡人生保身保種，合群進化之事，凡所當為，皆有其自然者，

種族

其《群誼篇》立進種

斯賓塞爾者，與達同時，亦本天演著《天人會通論》，舉天、地、人、形氣、心性、動植之事而一貫之，其說尤為精闢宏富。其第一書開宗明義，集格致之大成，以發明天演之旨。第二書以天演言生學。第三書以天演言性靈。第四書以天演言群理。最後第五書，乃考道德之本源，明政教之條貫，而以保種進化之公例要術終焉。嗚乎!歐洲自有生民以來，無此作也。不佞近翻《群誼》書，即其第五書中之編也。斯賓氏迄今尚存，年七十有六矣。其全書於客歲始蕆事，所謂體大思精，殫畢生之力者也。達爾文生嘉慶十四年，卒於光緒八年壬午。赫胥黎於

斯賓塞爾曰：「天擇者，存其最宜者也。」

曰物競，曰天擇。此萬物莫不然，而於有生之類為尤著。物競者，物爭自存也。以一物以與物物爭，或存或亡，而其效則歸於大擇。天擇者，物爭焉而獨存

自強保種

有斯賓塞爾者，以天演自然言化，著書造論，貫大地人而一理之。此亦晚近之絕作也。其為天演界說曰：「翕以合質，闢以出力，始簡易而終雜糅。」而《易》則曰：「坤其靜也翕，其動也闢。」至於全力不增減之說，則有自強不息為之先；

衛其種族之說

種族

I understand the main tenet of Materialism to be that there is nothing in the universe but matter and force; and that all the phenomena of nature are explicable by deduction from the properties assignable to these two primitive factors.

hat Mr. Lilly should play into the hands of his foes,

Mr. Lilly,

Cinderella is modestly conscious of her ignorance of these high matters

ut in a real and living belief in that fixed order of nature which sends social disorganisation upon the track of immorality, as surely as it sends physical disease after physical trespasses.

Herbert Spencer

by which the esoterically Buddhistic sage "upon the farthest mountain in Cathay

there must be something in telepathy

ccording to Buddhism, the relation of one life to the next is merely that borne by the flame of one lamp to the same of another lamp which is set alight by it. To the 'Arahat' or adept "no outward form, no compound thing, no

" strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,"

the heroic childhood of our race

we should cast aside the notion that the escape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.

the outcome of millions of years of severe training,

for millions of years, our globe has taken the upward road

But Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, have all had to pass through similar phases, before they reached the stage at which their influence became an important factor in human affairs

The history of civilization details the steps by which men have succeeded in building up an artificial world within the cosmos.

The struggle for existence, which has done such admirable work in cosmic nature, must, it appears, be equally beneficent in the ethical sphere. Yet if that which I have insisted upon is true; if the cosmic process has no sort of relation to moral ends; if the imitation of it by man is inconsistent with the first principles of ethics; what becomes of this surprising theory?

the individual of his duty to the community

As I have already urged, the practice of that which is ethically best–what we call goodness or virtue–involves a course of conduct which, in all [82] respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence.

The struggle for existence tends to eliminate those less fitted to adapt themselves to the circumstances of their existence

by means of the struggle for existence and the consequent 'survival of the fittest';

Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and the evil tendencies of man may have come about; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before.

most men

Modern thought is making a fresh start from the base whence Indian and Greek philosophy set out; and, the human mind being very much what [78] it was six-and-twenty centuries ago, there is no ground for wonder if it presents indications of a tendency to move along the old lines to the same results.

Thus the extremes touch. Greek thought and [77] Indian thought set out from ground common to both, diverge widely, develop under very different physical and moral conditions, and finally converge to practically the same end.

I find it difficult to discover any very great difference between Apatheia and Nirvana,

But what part is played by the theory of evolution in this view of ethics? So far as I can discern, the ethical system of the Stoics, which is essentially intuitive, and reverences the categorical imperative as strongly as that of any later moralists,

But the attempt of the Stoics to blind themselves to the reality of evil, as a necessary concomitant of the cosmic process, had less success than that of the Indian philosophers to exclude the reality of good from their purview.

But when the focus of Greek intellectual activity shifted to Athens, the leading minds concentrated

Let us now set our faces westwards, towards Asia Minor and Greece and Italy, to view the rise and progress of another philosophy, apparently independent, but no less pervaded by the conception of evolution

it is to these ethical qualities that Buddhism owes its marvellous success

Thus there is no very great practical disagreement between Gautama and his predecessors with respect to the end of action

This end of life's dream is Nirvana. What Nirvana is the learned do not agree. But, since the best original authorities tell us there is neither desire nor activity, nor any possibility of phenomenal reappearance for the sage who has entered Nirvana, it may be safely said of this acme of Buddhistic philosophy–"the rest is silence.

What then becomes of karma? Karma remains untouched. As the peculiar form of energy we call magnetism may be transmitted from a loadstone to a piece of steel, from the steel to a piece of nickel, as it may be strengthened or weakened by the conditions to which it is subjected while resident in each piece, so it seems to have been conceived that karma might be transmitted from one phenomenal association to another by a sort of induction.

Gautama proceeded to eliminate substance altogether; and to reduce the cosmos to a mere flow of sensations, emotions, volitions, and thoughts, devoid of any substratum. As, on the surface of a stream of water, we see ripples and whirlpools

Heracleitus says, Hotamw gar ouk esti dis embhnai to antw; but, to be strictly accurate, the river remains, though the water of which it is composed changes–just as a man retains his identity though the whole substance of his body is constantly shifting.

Gautama got rid of even that [66] shade of a shadow of permanent existence by a metaphysical tour de force of great interest to the student of philosophy, seeing that it supplies the wanting half of Bishop Berkeley's well-known idealistic argument. Granting the premises, I am not aware of any escape from Berkeley's conclusion,

Property, social ties, family affections, common companionship, must be abandoned; the most natural appetites, even that for food, must be suppressed, or at least minimized

If the karma is modifiable by self-discipline, if its coarser desires, one after another, can be extinguished, the ultimate funda[64]mental desire of self-assertion, or the desire to be, may also be destroyed.7 Then the bubble of illusion will burst, and the freed individual 'Atman' will lose itself in the universal 'Brahma.' Such seems to have been the pre-Buddhistic conception of salvation

The Indian philosophers called character, as thus defined, 'karma

grouped under the name of heredit

none but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the ground of inherent absurdity

the algebraical sum of accumulated positive and negative deserts

"There is within the body of every man a soul which, at the death of the body, flies away from it like a bird out of a cage, and enters upon a new life . . . either in one of the heavens or one of the hells or on this earth. The only exception is the rare case of a man having in this life acquired a true knowledge of God. According to the pre-Buddhistic theory, the soul of such a man goes along the path of the Gods to God, and, being united with Him, enters upon an immortal life in which his individuality is not extinguished. In the latter theory, his soul is directly absorbed into the Great Soul, is lost in it, and has no longer any independent existence. The souls of all other men enter, after the death of the body, upon a new existence in one or other of the many different modes of being. If in heaven or hell, the soul itself becomes a god or demon without entering a body; all superhuman beings, save the great gods, being looked upon as not eternal, but merely temporary creatures. If the soul returns to earth it may or may not enter a new body; and this either of a human being, an animal, a plant, or even a material object. For all these are possessed of souls, and there is no essential difference between these souls and the souls of men–all being alike mere sparks of the Great Spirit, who is the only real [91] existenc

the Indian and the Greek, less wise perhaps, attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable and plead for the defendant.

man revolted against

Greek and Semite and Indian are agreed upon [59] this subject. The book of Job is at one with the "Works and Days" and the Buddhist Sutras; the Psalmist and the Preacher of Israel, with the Tragic Poets of Greece.

The idea of justice thus underwent a gradual sublimation from punishment and reward according to acts, to punishment and reward according to desert; or, in other words, according to motive.

The most rudimentary polity is a pack of men living under the like tacit, [57] or expressed, understanding; and having made the very important advance upon wolf society, that they agree to use the force of the whole body against individuals who violate it and in favour of those who observe it.