Description

René Guénon studies Gnosticism and the Demiurge in these essays. He looks at other spiritual traditions too. He traces Gnostic thought and its past. He asks how it has shaped other faiths and cultures. He also looks at symbols and allegories, or stories with deeper meanings. He asks what role mystical experience plays.

These essays deal with philosophy and metaphysics. They ask about life and what lies beyond the physical world. They are for readers drawn to these and spiritual questions. Guénon asks why good and evil exist. He asks how numbers relate to the divine. How far can science go in its search for truth? He weighs three ways to know things. Rationalism puts trust in reason. Intuitionism draws on what we sense to be true. Pragmatism looks at what works in practice.

He contrasts thought in the East and West. He asks how tradition relates to civilisation. He also asks how work can give life meaning. Through these questions, he seeks firm grounds for spiritual growth.

Guénon wrote more than thirty volumes. He draws on an idea called Philosophia Perennis. In this view, religious and metaphysical traditions share a core of wisdom. That core lasts through time. This book forms part of the Philosophia Perennis series. Daniel Hoblea translated it from French.