'What if [Hegel and Toynbee] did not exist the world will not miss them. Since they had gone is the world stagnant of ideas?'
Is that not an exaggeration?
Certain thinkers, writers and even politicians have defined the cognitive, artistic social traditions they operated in. Those traditions would be much poorer without them, yet these people also demonstrated profound inhumanity.
Hegel is fundamental to Western thought in the philosophy of history, aesthetics and metaphysics, yet, in relation to Africa, he had a small mind.
Kant is sublime in aesthetics and ethics and his epistemology is seen as fundamental to Western thought, yet he is quoted as stating of someone, 'The man was black from head to toe, meaning anything he had to say must be stupid'.
Howard Philips Lovecraft is perhaps the world's greatest writer in metaphysical horror, the indisputable emblem of the concept of demonic mysticism, in which the direct encounter with a form of ultimacy central to mysticism is attained in relation to a demonic rather than a divine presence, embodying uniquely the numinous as a primary criterion of human existence, yet, his racism against all non Anglo-Saxons was eloquently pathological.
Two central Yoruba institutions represented by Ogboni and Ifa are described as once performing human sacrifice, yet these institutions are key to Yoruba contributions to global culture.
The Hebrew Bible contains one of the earliest philosophies of genocide, described as a command by Yahweh to the Hebrews to occupy others' land and kill all living things there because God had given the land to them as they were God's chosen children, yet, within the same ideology of the chosen people some of the greatest explorations of relationships between God and humanity were created, and continue to inspire people today.
If we are discard all cultural forms with evil admixtures or history what would be left?
toyin
On Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 11:35:58 PM UTC+1, seguno2013 wrote:
"When I read your comment I thought you were throwing out the baby with the bath water, as it were." Ken
It may look so but in my tradition, if you give me a delicious food and just about for me to taste it and you insult my father and abuse my mother, honestly I will give your food back to you. The hunger and thirst will be gone right away.
Those guys have no monopoly of knowledge. What if they did not exist the world will not miss them. Since they had gone is the world stagnant of ideas? No Ken. You are a reference point in our intellectual discourses at conferences, classrooms and this platform.
Let the people of like mind racists know that knowledge without respect for humanity is harmful and dangerous. They are intellectually worse than ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and other similar terrorists or insurgents.
You need to consider the psychological trauma I went through that night Ken. I was furious and could hardly sleep.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Sep 28, 2016, at 9:46 AM, Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
>
> When I read your comment I thought you were throwing out the baby with the bath water, as it were.
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