Abstract

An almost mythological narrative of the Occident states that with the European Enlightenment, humans began to no longer leave their fate to higher authorities, but to take it into their own hands with courageous confidence in their own powers. Apart from the fact that this topos of the self-determined human being characterizes the mythologies and heroic epics of numerous cultures, including non-European ones, the modern European narrative at least seems to tie its ideal of self-development as well as social and individual perfection to the idea of constant progress. Using the example of some central Hindu ideas, I will attempt to outline from a cultural-psychological perspective that individual perfection can also be conceived as possible in cosmological ideas that emphasize constant dissolution and destruction as the principle of all being. I will conclude with some brief reflections on how such ideas can contribute to a more comprehensive analysis of certain aspects of contemporary society and politics.