ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Multilectics: Towards a New Enlightenment

A complex system is not constituted merely by the sum of its components, but also by the dynamic intricate multipolar relationships among these components. Broadly speaking, the whole history of philosophy can be noticeable in three phases. The first phase is of formal logic, where truth is sought in a one-dimensional direction. It ranges from the time of Greek philosophers to the end of the European middle ages. The second phase is of dialectical logic, also known as modern dialectics. This phase covers philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Adorno. Truth in dialectical logic is always in the form of a binary. The third is the phase of multilectical logic, which develops in the postmodern era. Nonetheless, multilectical logic emerged in the postmodern era and almost every postmodern philosopher discusses the issues on the structure of this logic, but as a logic it is not clearly mentioned by any postmodern philosopher. This research paper investigates this third phase of logic—which may seem to be the foundation of the postmodern era — and which may be known as multilectical logic, or multilectics. The paper argues that multilectics represents not merely an extension of dialectics, but a qualitative philosophical rupture: a logic adequate to complex, plural, and non-linear reality. The paper further situates multilectics as the contestant foundation for a New Enlightenment — one premised not on singular reason, but on relational, multipolar rationality.