Allan Bloom On Fukuyama & Kojeve

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by  Allan Bloom

Responses to F ukuyama
The editors invited six comments, representing diverse disciplines and viewpoints, on "The End ofH istory?"
Robert Tucker's ~arterly at the end of the issue also bears on the subject.
Allan Bloom of modern liberal democracy. Fukuyama's re
jection of the various reductionist accounts,
FUKUY AMA'S BOLD and brilliant such as those of economic determinism or
article, which he surely does not power politics, of the struggle against these
present as the last word, is the first word in twin threats is certainly fully justified. It is
a discussion imperative for us, we faithful de not that accounts of the kind are ignoble and
fenders of the Western Alliance. Now that it take away the gloriousness and freedom from
appears that we have won, what are we and human <teeds. It is simply that they cannot
what are we to do? This glorious victory, if accurately describe or explain the phenomena
victory it really is, is the noblest achievement and must distort them to fit their rigid molds.
of democracy, a miracle of steadfastness on This fifty years of oppOsition to fascism
the part of an alliance of popular govern and communism provided us with clear moral
ments, with divided authorities and changing and political goals, but they were ~egative.
leaderships, over a fifty year period. What is We took our orientation from the evil we
more, this victory is the victory of justice, of faced, and it brought out the best in us. The
freedom over tyranny, the rallying of all good threat from outside disciplined us inside while
and reasonable men and women. Never has protecting us from too much depressing re
theory so dominated practice in the history flection on ourselves. The global nature of the
of human affairs, relieving the monotony of conflicts we were engaged in imposed an un
the meaningless rise and fall of great powers. precedented uniformity on the world. It has
As Fukuyama underlines, it is the ideas of free been liberalism-or else. The practical disas
dom and equality that have animated the West ter of the anti-liberal Right and Left has in
and have won by convincing almost all na general been taken to be a refutation of the
tions that they are true, by destroying the theories which supported or justified them.
intellectual and political foundations of alter Now, however, all bets are off. The glance
native understandings of justice. The chal back towards ourselves, as Fukuyama indi
lenges to the West from fascism and com cates, is likely to be not entirely satisfying. It
munism were also ideas, formulated to oppose appears that the world has been made safe for
the success of the historical embodiments of reason as understood by the market, and we
Enlightenment principles which swept the are moving toward a global common market
world after the American and French Revo the only goal of which is to minister to men's
lutions. Both fascism and communism con bodily needs and whims. The world has been
stituted themselves as the enemies of the bour demystified, and at the end of history all the
geois, the unflattering description of the citizen struggles and all the higher dedications and
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myths turn out to have served only to satisfy been refuted and buried by history, i.e. the
the demands of man's original animality. supra rational claims of Felig!()n, !l~!!()!l, fam
Moreover, with the loss of our negative pole !ly, £~~~, and !.~~. For the first time there-are
of orientation, one can expect a profuse flow no essential contradictions between our rea
ering of positive demands, liberated from son and our duties or loyalties. Thus the
Cold War sobriety and reflecting the non-ra~ world is now a feast for reason, replacing pie
tionalized residue of human longing. There ty. What was a project of Enlightenment has,
"Wlif be-movements agitating for the comple through history, become a part of being. The
tion of the project of equality in all possible, historicist who is also a rationalist must hold
and impossible: ways. Religion and national that there is an end of history, for otherwise
ism will also be heard from in the name of there could be no knowledge and every prin
higher callings. ciple, every frame of reference, would be im
Kojeve's decision to spend the hours permanent and changing, even historicism it
when he was not philosophizing as a bureau self. The end of history is both a philosophic
crat preparing the ground for the Common necessity and a political fulfillment, each sup
Market was his response to the atmosphere of porting and enhancing the other. The goal of
existential despair so fashionable in France philosophy, wisdom, is attained, and that of
after the war. He said he wanted to re-estab politics, freedom and equality, is simulta
lish the Roman Empire, but this time its goal neously reached.
would be a multi-national soccer team. A se There are elements of Kojeve's thought
rious man, he implied, would adapt himself about the end of history to which Fukuyama
to the vulgarities which would necessarily ac does not give sufficient weight. The goodness
company the dull business of providing for of the end of history, and for Kojeve it is good,
all equally and the suppression of the anom consists in the possibility of unconstrained
alies of nation, class, sex, and religion. The . philosophizing and in the moral recognition
existence of the Soviet Union which, accord of all human beings as ends in themselves.
ing to Kojeve, professed that its inten.tion was Fukuyama's presentation emphasizes the gray
to establish the universal homogenous state, uniformity of life in "the post-historical"
was forcing the West to actualize the like world. He says, "The end of history will be
promise contained in its principles. All snob a very sad time," and almost predicts that he
bisms-which is how he described the various will rebel against it in order to get history
reactions against equality-were being extin started all over again. He finds the satisfac
guished. This is a universal movement. The tions presented by Kojeve paltry, so paltry he
science, natural and political, of the West has does not mention them. However, rebellion
won in the non-Western world, and it is large against history is not criminal, Kojeve would
ly Western nostalgia that wants those old, say, but foolish. To do so would be to rebel
rooted cultures to be preserved when those against reason, which no sensible man can do.
who belong to them no longer really want Of course, Fukuyama doubts that these
them and their grounds have disappeared in satisfactions are as real as Kojeve says they
the light of reason. are. If wisdom, the owl of Minerva, Hies at
And it must be underlined that for Kojeve dusk, as Hegel says it does, is it not evident
and Kojeve's Hegel we are at the end of his that the end of history is a night? Does the
tory because reason has won, the real has be attainment of wisdom not mean the end of
come rational. Socrates' dialectic has come to philosophizing? And is the peace and reci
an historic end (in both senses of end, final procity of the market really moral or is it he~4~
and perfect), because the last contradictions like calm? Does not, finally, Kojeve's thinking
have been resolved. Everything that stood in through of Hegel and Marx, the profoundest
the way of the reciprocal recognition of men's thinking through of that position, amount to
dignity as men always and everywhere has a refutation of the claim that the end is a peak
20 ___________ The National Interest-Summer 1989 ____________
and of the possibility that reality can ever be be the profoundest public confrontation be
rational? tween two philosophers in this century, and
Kojeve himself is the source of Fukuya the most important task of these remarks is
rna's doubts about the goodness of the end of to point'the readers to it, as Fukuyama has
history. In his later writings there is much to pointed us to Kojeve. They were friends, at
suggest that he began to believe that we are the peak of their powers, differing completely
witnessing the ultimate trivialization of man about the answers while agreeing about the
and his reentry into the merely animal order. questions, and able to discuss the weightiest
These writings were very witty, but one won matters with levity. In it Strauss depicts the
ders whether he quite had the right to them. irrational culmination of Kojeve's reason and
The note on Japan inserted in the second edi asks whether the fate of reason is simply iden
tion of Introduction to Reading Hegel to which tical to that of Hegel. Must reading for today.
Fukuyama refers is a case in point. I disagree Their clarity about the problems enabled
with his interpretation of it. Kojeve did not them to see thirty-five years ago what we feel
mean that in Japan history had not ended, but now.
rather that there they had invented, centuries To conclude, liberalism has won, but it
ago during a long peaceful period, an inter may be decisively unsatisfactory. Commu
esting way of spending the end of history: a nism was a mad extension of liberal ration
'pure snobbism of forms, like the tea cere alism, and everyone has seen that it neither
mony, flower arrangement, and the No play, works nor is desirable. And, although fascism
which provide graceful empty activity. The was defeated on the battlefield, its dark pos
alternative to the Japanese formalist is the sibilities were not seen through to the end. If
American consumer-stereos, power tools, an alternative is sought there is nowhere else
etc. This he suggested would be the post-his to seek it. I would suggest that fascism has a
torical contest for the taste of the universal future, if not the future. Much that Fukuyama
homogenous state: the Japanization of Amer says points in that direction. The facts do too.
ica vs. the Americanization of Japan. ~othing The African and Near Eastern nations, which
is at stake. for s0l!l~ re_ason do not succeed easily at mod
It would seem that Kojeve had moved, or ernity, have temptations to find meaning and
had always been, closer to Nietzsche's inter self-assertion in varieties of obscurantism.
pretation of modem man as the "last man" The European nations, .which can find no ra
than to Hegel's description of him. The "last tional g~o~l!d for the exclusion of countless
man" is such a degraded being that he nec potential immigrants from their homelands,
essarily evokes nausea and revolt. And if, as look back to their national myths. And the
Nietzsche believed, the "last man" is the ul American Left has enthusiastically embraced
timate product of reason, then reason is bad the fascist arguments against modernity and
and we must look more closely to unreason Eurocentrism-understood as rationalism.
for hope of salvation. God is dead, and we However this may be, Fukuyama has intro
need new gods. The consequences of this anal duced practical men to the necessity of phi
ysis are earth-shaking, and this is the thought losophy, now that ideolQgy is dead or dying,
of the most modern modernity. Certainly Fu for those who want to interpret our very new
kuyama points in this direction. situation.
These issues were addressed in a stunning
debate between Kojeve and Leo Strauss con Allan Bloom is a professor on the Committee on
tained in Strauss's On Tyranny. This may well Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
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