Jonatán Nagy-Bato hosted law professor and legal philosopher Jenő Szmodis on the 26 June episode of his Glóbusz podcast. The Faith Radio host titled the episode ‘This Is Why the West Is in Decline’ on his YouTube channel.
Nagy-Bato asserted at the beginning that the topic of discussion will be ‘the concepts of humanity’; to which Szmodis replied that a conception of humanity and God are closely associated with each other; stating that the conceptions of humanity change from culture to culture, and era to era. He then pointed out that since the West consists of ‘progressive societies’, as per the distinction of 19th-century British historian Sir Henry Maine, the concepts of humanity change more rapidly there than in Eastern, so-called ‘static’ societies.
Mr Szmodis elaborated that in the West, more emphasis has been placed on individual rights and interests, as opposed to community duties. However, as he points out, this process started as early as the time of Ancient Greece and Rome in Europe. Also, it was the Renaissance period when the conceptions of humanity of the scholastic and Christian, clerical thinkers started to significantly diverge.
When asked about the contemporary, competing concepts of humanity,
Profesor Szmodis named four: the conservative, nationalist, socialist, and liberal notions.
‘The conservative conception of humanity, in essence, preserves the plurality and diversity of a more archaic concept of humanity. Liberalism differs from different eras’ concepts of humanity in that it puts the individual in the centre; just think of the social contract theories…The socialist concept of humanity evidently puts the emphasis of the communal, social aspect of humanity, as opposed to liberal individualism. Meanwhile, the nationalist concept of humanity prioritizes the value of a smaller—smaller in relation to the global scale—community, the nation,’ the professor explained.
Later, he also opined that he expects the pendulum to swing back to a more community-centred popular worldview after the extremely individualistic one currently prominent in the West, as the exact same pattern has repeated itself multiple times over the course of the history of humanity.
Host Nagy-Bato asked his guest if he thinks religion is shaping the concept of humanity, or if the concept of humanity is shaping religion. To this, Szmodics answered that humanity’s changing conception of itself evidently has an effect on its concept of God as well. However, this does not necessarily result in ‘heresy’ against established religions. He also said that this question is akin to asking if God created man in the image of itself or man created God in the image of itself, as some materialistic philosophers believe the latter.
Professor Szmodis also talked about a new interpretation of the idea of rights, which gives individuals the ‘right’ to demand respect and appreciation for their life choices. The speaker believes this in fact infringes on other people’s right to freedom of thought and expression; and he expressed that he would like to see today’s post-modern philosophers return to John Stuart Mill’s ideal of ‘your rights end where my rights begin’.
You Can Watch Professor Szmodis’ Appearance on the Glóbusz Podcast in Full Below
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