Social philosophy, philosophy of politics and ontological status of the concepts of “power” and law” in Rene Guenon’s discourse

Abstract

This article explores the philosophy of politics, social philosophy and ontological status of the concepts of “power” and “law”. The author reviews the fundamental principles of Rene Guenon’s social philosophy: anthropological inequality, doctrine of “universal human”, methodology of organicism; examines his criticism of the modern bases of the society – egalitarianism, democracy, and equality; as well as analyzes the causes of “social chaos”. The article also discusses the ternary social stratification and its factors, division of society into Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Vaishyas and Shudras; analyzes the criteria “Namika” and “Gotrika” as the characteristics of an individual being. The study reviews the ontological essence of the “political” and its boundaries in the metaphysical-ontological system of Rene Guenon’s discourse; archetype “Manu” and its connotations, functions and comparisons. Comparative juxtapositions of the principles Brahatma, Mahatma and Mahanga in Hermeticism and Christianity, and their social dimensions. The use of systemic-structural analysis allowed determining “Purusha” as a sociological dimension of a “universal human”. Ontological method demonstrated the holistic connotations of subject and society within Rene Guenon’s social organicism. Systemic-structural,  metaphysical and comparative analyses allowed comparing the primary duality of Carl Schmitt and Rene Guenon as the founding areas and aspects of the ontological. Analysis is conducted on the ontological essence of “power” and its splitting into “Spiritual Rule” and “Worldly Power”, correlation between metaphysical and ontological with these principles and their sociological manifestation within the Varna system. The author determines the interrelation of the positions of ultimate realism and ontological status of the universalities “political”, “law”, “social”, and “power”.