The Triumph of Inner Experience: How Humanity Redefined Truth and Authority

The transition of human civilization from relying on external dogmas to embracing internal subjective experiences represents a monumental shift in our collective consciousness. Throughout the ages, societies have continuously renegotiated the boundaries of knowledge, morality, and artistic expression, moving away from rigid external mandates toward a deeply personal understanding of existence. This profound transformation has fundamentally reshaped how individuals perceive their place in the universe, altering the very foundations of philosophy, scientific inquiry, and the cultural interpretation of monumental historical events.

The Pursuit of Inner Authenticity

The history of human civilization is deeply marked by a profound transformation in the comprehension of authority and truth. For countless generations, individuals looked toward inherited traditions and divine revelations to determine their rightful place in the world. Only in recent centuries did personal experience and individual feeling become the central focus of human endeavor. This evolutionary shift altered not only philosophy and science but also art and the perception of historical events like armed conflict. Every form of external authority inherently possesses its own limitations and vulnerabilities.

The Medieval Formula of Understanding

The humanistic perspective operates on the assumption that every individual possesses a unique and authentic inner self. However, attempting to listen to this inner voice often results in encountering mere silence or a contradictory jumble of various thoughts. To overcome this dilemma, humanism established a novel source of authority alongside a fresh method to connect with it and attain genuine insight. In medieval Europe, the primary formula for knowledge dictated that understanding emerged from ancient doctrines and logical deduction. Seeking answers to crucial questions required studying sacred traditions and utilizing the intellect to grasp their precise meaning.

The Rise of Empirical Investigation

Scholars once searched through sacred traditions for clues regarding the physical shape of the planet. An advocate of a flat world might point to a doctrine mentioning the corners of the earth, while another insisted on a passage describing a spherical globe. The scientific revolution introduced a completely different formula for knowledge, relying entirely on empirical data and mathematics. To determine the true shape of the planet, researchers observed celestial bodies from various locations across the globe. Once sufficient observations were gathered, mathematical instruments allowed them to calculate the structure of the entire solar system.

The Humanistic Approach to Morality

Scientists have since pursued knowledge by spending years in observatories and laboratories to collect and accurately interpret data. This new methodology led to groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy, physics, and medicine. It carried the massive drawback of being entirely incapable of addressing questions concerning value and meaning. Medieval scholars could state with absolute certainty that murder was reprehensible because sacred traditions dictated so. Scientists could not provide such moral judgments, as no amount of data or mathematical calculation can prove that a crime is inherently wrong.

The Refinement of Personal Sensitivity

This difficulty is overcome by combining the scientific method with the humanistic alternative rooted in experience and sensitivity. To find answers to moral questions, individuals must connect with their inner experiences and observe them with utmost mindfulness. In practice, people seek knowledge by accumulating experiences over many years and refining their emotional sensitivity. An experience consists not of atoms, molecules, or numbers, but is a purely subjective phenomenon. It encompasses sensory perceptions, emotions, and thoughts that define the entirety of existence in any specific moment.

Aesthetic and Moral Awakening

Sensitivity involves paying attention to these feelings and allowing them to influence personal behavior. Individuals must remain open to new impressions and permit them to transform their personalities. Experiences and sensitivity build upon each other in an endless cycle, for an individual cannot truly experience anything without being sensitive. Consider a tea drinker who initially consumes a sugary infusion merely to stay awake. Eventually, this person reduces the sugar, closes their eyes, and focuses entirely on the unique aroma of the beverage.

The Modern Economy of Experience

Soon, this individual begins comparing different varieties from distant mountains and purchases their tea exclusively from elite merchants. What applies to tea consumption applies to all aesthetic and moral realization, as we are not born with a finished consciousness. As we navigate through life, we harm others and are harmed ourselves, which sharpens moral sensitivity when approached with attention. Humanism views life as a gradual internal transformation leading from ignorance to enlightenment. The ultimate goal is to fully develop understanding through an enormous variety of mental and physical experiences.

The Shift in Narrative Focus

The modern world emerged from an alliance between science and humanism, where every scientific element contains a humanistic counterpart. Science provides power, while humanism supplies meaning and moral judgments. People often only see the sober, logical side of modernity, overlooking that no culture has ever assigned so much importance to human feelings. The humanistic view of life as a chain of experiences has become the founding myth of numerous modern industries. Travel agencies and restaurants sell us not mere services, but entirely new experiences and emotional journeys.

The Reinterpretation of Armed Conflict

Similarly, most modern novels and films focus heavily on internal feelings rather than just external events. In ancient Greece or medieval Europe, the idea of pure emotional observation would have been completely alien to audiences. Ancient heroes were fearless warriors who fought monsters and rescued royalty without undergoing any real internal transformation. Their deeds reinforced their courage but brought them little new knowledge about their own inner selves. By shifting the focus from actions to feelings, humanism fundamentally changed art, placing the inner lives of ordinary individuals at the center.

The Perspective of the Common Soldier

In many modern stories, protagonists leave their homes to travel in old vehicles, seeking life-changing experiences. They connect with themselves, discuss their deepest feelings, and reach their destinations as wiser individuals who have learned to embrace all experiences. This formula of gaining knowledge through experience has also altered the perception of monumental events like armed conflict. In the past, people consulted divine traditions to know if a war was just, while the opinions of ordinary soldiers interested almost no one. A famous painting of the battle at Breitenfeld, which took place on September 17 in the year 1631, glorifies the Swedish monarch.

The Emotional Reality of Warfare

The painter depicts the monarch towering over the battlefield like a god of war, leading troops to a decisive victory. The viewer gets the impression that the ruler directs the battle like a chess player, while common fighters are merely tiny dots in the background. The artist had no interest in what the soldiers felt as they attacked, fled, or perished. Another famous painting shows the battle at White Mountain in November 1620 from an aerial view. The painter wanted to commemorate this victory by meticulously depicting various formations and troop movements.

The Modern Narrative of the Recruit

Far less attention was paid to the experiences and feelings of the common soldier, forcing the observer to watch the events from above. Looking closely at the image reveals that the apparent geometry is actually a scene of bloody slaughter. Here and there, the faces of individual soldiers running, shooting, or piercing an enemy with a lance can be recognized. For millennia, people viewing such depictions saw deities and great heroes, while individual suffering was embedded in a general context. Over the past two centuries, kings and generals have been increasingly pushed to the margins, bringing the experience of the ordinary soldier into the spotlight.

The Reversal of Traditional Hierarchies

Modern accounts of armed conflict often begin with a naive recruit who knows little about themselves and the world. A brief period of weeks filled with mud and blood shatters their illusions, and they leave the battlefield as a significantly wiser individual. Paradoxically, this narrative approach has become so influential that it is repeatedly adopted by politicians and educators today. Painters have also lost their interest in generals on horseback, preferring to depict how the ordinary soldier feels. Masterpieces of war art from the years 1929 to 1932 and from 1944 portray war as a purely emotional phenomenon.

The genius of generals or tactical details are completely irrelevant to these artists because war is universally devastating. The empty gaze of a traumatized soldier opens a window to the terrible truth, which often must be hidden behind a gas mask. Artists of this era reversed the traditional hierarchy of war by viewing personal experience as the source of all meaning. In the past, wars could be just as terrible, yet even the most horrific experiences were interpreted as a gateway to heaven. A soldier could tell themselves that their suffering had meaning because the authorities were fighting for a good cause.

Today, the opposite logic prevails, stating that individual suffering proves how terrible war is, and any support from the authorities is exposed as a fundamental error.