Tocqueville's paradoxical formulation of secularization in America and the new worldview of the crisis of philosophy in the modernity

Abstract

The present article aims to analyze the paradoxical situation presented by the secularization in America reconstructed by Tocqueville. Bearing this postulate in mind, we will show the rupture that is established with respect to the Enlightenment on the issue of secularization, in order to discover a new variant of the crisis of philosophy that remains linked to the new organizational structure of modern democratic societies. Likewise, we will show how Tocqueville's liberal profile shows itself to be superior to the Eurocentric versions on the issue of the crisis of philosophy, insofar as its devaluation does not come solely from methodological anomalies, but from the change in intellectual authority brought about by secularization. to empower public opinion. For this reason, we will finally proceed to show to what extent the novelty of the paradox of secularization in America reconstructed by Tocqueville defines the crisis of philosophy as a matter of the future by virtue of the series of unpublished problems that it demands to satisfy.