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so-called knowledge and perception is based on the mental
platform. On that mental platform, one is simply pulled this
or that way by the material senses. Therefore, this talk of
liberalism, open-mindedness, being free is just a royal edition
of animals, as Śrīla Prabhupāda said.
Western philosophy is nothing but footnotes of Plato’s
philosophy. He was an atheist, especially when it came to
moral law. Plato claimed that morality is not a law given by
a personal God, and that ideal behaviour of people can be
discovered through intelligence as there is no authority to
teach us.
The problem with this is when one is speculating and is not yet
purified then from his heart comes all kinds of material desires
and nasty things, and these influence one’s thoughts (lust,
anger, greed, illusion, envy, and madness). Post-modernism
especially considers that everything is what you make out of
it by yourself.
Nietzsche (probably the first post-modern philosopher) said
that modern man has to remake his soul. It means everyone
has to make an identity for oneself out of nothing. In other
words it means – we become God. These concepts are of the
modern dominant philosophy known as New Age, which
considers Truth to be something you yourself discover by your
own process.
Jean Paul Sartre wrote a book ‘Being Out of Nothingness,’ and
his girlfriend Simone de Beauvoir (the prototype of feminism)
wrote a book ‘The Second Sex,’ but actually she drew her
inspiration from Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche said that people should be adventurous, experimental,
dangerous and they should celebrate the body. In his moral
system good is what heightens the feeling of power. And