State Formation and Secular-Rational Values

The regular LCSS working seminar took place on October 20, 2011. Roberto Foa, research fellow at LCSR, delivered a presentation on ''State Formation and Secular-Rational Values''.

Roberto Foa demonstrated a direct link between the development of secular and emancipative values in different countries in the period of 10 years (1995-2005). Secular values reflect the degree of religiosity, while emancipative values reflect self-expression values (index of social liberty, women and minority rights). In the most Eurasian states both secular and emancipative values are well-developed. In the Islamic countries, on the contrary, both secular and emancipative values are less developed.

World countries differ by the length of their history. The most ancient states are located in Eurasia (from China in the East via India, Persia, Turkey, to Europe in the West). There is a partial correlation between state history variable and secular-rational values. The countries with the longest state history – from France and Sweden to China, Korea and Japan – are also among the most secular.

According to Charles Taylor, secular rationalism is not simply the absence of spirituality, but rather a distant and original belief-system that includes materialism (nothing exists except matter), empiricism (no truth exists except one that can be verified by observation) and consequentialism (means-ends, costs & benefits). The highest expression of secular rationalism is positivism.

What are the historical origins of secular rationalism? ‘Supply-side’ theories argue that lack of religious competition explains secularization. But this theory is most applicable to US case. Other scholars associate the development of secular values with rising economic prosperity and material security, with capitalism and industrial revolution, and with Protestantism and reformation. These theories only partly explain the origin of secular rationalism. It is still unclear where did religious dissidents get their support and if secular rationalism the only possible outcome. 

Several mechanisms link state formation and secular-rationalism:

• Direct conflict between emerging states and religious structures over the monopoly of legitimacy;
• The role of states in sponsoring non-religious centers of knowledge;
• Socialization of the population into secular ideology as a precondition of bureaucratic recruitment;
• States as rationalizing agents in their own right, in order to make their societies legible;
• States as sources of order and human security, rendering religious faith less salient to everyday life.

The growth of universities in 1200-1800 is very closely tied to the formation of early European states. Many universities were founded by royal grants. Those which were founded without royal grants also reflected secular rational values. They existed because students needed accreditation in law. Hence, law, in particular, had a close relationship to secular rationalism (Copernicus, Descartes, Marx, most of the French Revolution leaders studied law). Not only did states break the church’s ‘monopoly of truth’ by nurturing secular poles of reflection and debate but played a direct role in rationalizing reality.

A vivid example of East Asian development of secular rationalism is China. As in Europe, in China a nexus was formed between scholars and the bureaucracy. China was once very religiously diverse, with strong Buddhist and Taoist subcultures, as well as with smaller groups of Judeo-Christian faiths. During the Tang Dynasty examination in Confucian works became the basis for recruitment into the imperial bureaucracy: one million examinees competed for just 20,000 positions in the imperial bureaucratic system. Those who failed were still trained in Confucian values. Many of them became scholars, teachers, or were employed in clerical trades and hence contributed to the spread of secular rationalism. Confucianism is essentially a secular ideology.

Secular rationalism did not flourish in the Islamic world for historical reasons. In the beginning there was ground for development of secular rationalism (secular law emerged in some states, secular leaders in post-Mongol countries came into conflict with religious authorities). However, the state was not strong enough. No nexus was formed between educational institutions and the state and hence secular rational values were not diffused in the society. Eventually, the post-Mongol states were ‘re-sacralized’ to various degrees. Later secularism was revived as official ideology by nationalists in most of Islamic states.

One of the discussants commented that the speaker applied European notion of secular rationalism to different cultures which is not exactly appropriate. For instance, Japan is not secular in European sense as there is no religion in European sense in this country. Roberto Foa agreed that secular rationalism is a multidimensional term and it appeared in the European culture. Nevertheless he pointed out that the given term can be applied to other cultures. For example, Confucianism is a good example of secular rational system of values, even though it originates from China.