Civilizations: The Principles and the Presumptions

Principle Two: The Economy

It is impossible to ignore the role of economy in developing or destroying a nation. The economy is not merely a component of a civilization; it ensures the survival of human life. Economic well-being and comfort is, however, not the main cause of a civilization. Although no civilization can arise without economic order and comfort, achieving it does not necessarily imply a perfect civilization. There are civilizations enjoying economic luxury but devoid of great human virtues, like justice, moderation, love and many others. Economic progress provides the best grounds for the mental and psychological development – in many different aspects – of the members of the society. In other words, when the economic aspect of human life is fulfilled through logical economic principles, the best and even most essential background for human development in all aspects is provided. 

Principle Three: Free Will and Freedom

Freedom and free will are both necessary for a civilization to arise, and for it to survive, for if human beings cannot feel themselves autonomous in their activities, they will begin to feel like machines guided under no freedom at all. In such a case, man will not only be deprived of freedom, but also fall into self-bestrangedness. If social and individual activities do not originate from one's own conscience and freedom, it will be impossible to achieve a civilization truly human-oriented. 

We must keep in mind that the significant factor in recognizing the value of a civilization is "the developed freedom called free will" rather than pure freedom itself. Many sociologists take account of freedom in their evaluations of civilizations, but consider freedom as allowing man to do as he wishes. Such a freedom would conflict with conscience and common sense, and make man ignore all of the existing internal and external principles. 

Freedom is in fact a path to achieve perfection. Freedom must turn into free will if an ideal civilization is desired, for free will means, using freedom with the purpose of gaining what is good and elevating. 

When the human character reaches the level of free will, it always heads for goodness and perfection. Inside such a human being there is constant effort to do good, or act on good intentions. This is the free will founders of a real civilization need in order to achieve a human-oriented civilization.

Principle Four: Stagnant Civilizations Gradually Deteriorate

The activity of a civilization depends on its main resources. If the primary resources of a civilization stop advancing and developing, the civilization will become stagnant. For instance, if its true geniuses and leaders are dead or forgotten, stagnancy will occur.

Every civilization requires its own preservatives, without which it will fade away. Hence, only these civilizations can survive throughout history that rely on dynamic, self-sustained factors. 

Principle Five: The Law of Causality

1-Throughout history, there have been men who have claimed to aim for making justice a reality, but once they gained power, justice was downtrodden. Many a leader has boasted that he would provide his people with prosperity and greatness, but has forgotten all about it when he took charge, and treated people as mere means for his own goals. 

2-Mental and physical endeavor, sacrifice, putting aside one's personal desires and tolerating hardships is necessary for any society to develop. Unfortunately, however, some societies forget about the role of people after they achieve victory, and consider their triumph solely as their own.

These points have led some to imagine that humans are not the main factor in achieving social accomplishments. Their reasons for this are: 

If a society gains power, will its people have a prosperous life? Science does bring about the knowledge of reality, but has man always acted according to what he knows? Man sets laws to prevent injustice and atrocity, but does he obey them at all times? The answer to all of these questions is negative.

There are a few points we should keep in mind when discussing the domination of the law of causality on human behavior:

1-The law of causality is a general law and applies to all phenomena in the universe. No phenomenon in nature, history, the society or humanity occurs without a cause.

2-Man's will, which has played the main role in many human achievements, defies coincidence and the fact that an effect can occur with no cause. Since human activities are influenced by both internal and external factors, discussing the law of causality in human activities also should be done through considering these factors.

3-There are two ways to lead, justify and account for human will:

a)A fatalistic approach to the human will in an attempt to reach what the leaders of the society want, like moderating will powers to achieve a predetermined, outlined life.

b)Free will power heading for greatness and perfection. The grounds are readied for people to both moderate their desires and to develop themselves.

4-There are many forms of human activities, and sometimes several of them influence an effect. Consider observing many just behaviors from the people when studying a civilization. Does such behavior imply satisfactory law enforcement, or vice versa? Or maybe none, and external forces may have caused the moderations? Or perhaps an extremely elevated set of beliefs? Has fear also been influential, or the love for justice? All the above factors are possible and determining which requires in-depth investigation.

5-When studying human societies and civilizations, it is important to distinguish two kinds of reasons:

a)The reason that creates the effect, and

b)The reason that allows the effect to continue its existence.

If we are to study civilizations, we should keep in mind that sometimes a factor makes a civilization arise, but for the survival of the civilization other factors are needed. 

Now we can resolve one of the most complicated criticisms on the law of causality in civilizations and societies. For example, when looking for the existence of a set of intelligible beliefs and proper rights in a civilized society, we should not jump to the conclusion that since the cause for the arising of these beliefs and rights is present, they can exist forever. When we realize that they have not, we should not conclude that causality has no influence on societies and civilizations! Now that we have categorized causes into two groups – those that create and those that make existence continue – such a misunderstanding should be eliminated. In order for intelligible beliefs and proper rights to survive, the willingness of the people and other social and geographical factors are important, not the causes that created them.