Olumba Olumba,
Jollof rice in the textbook always looks, smells and tastes different from jollof rice on the table but it is not a 'double error' to say that it is jollof rice that you have in your mouth if it tastes, smells and looks like jollof rice.
If you do not understand something, you should ask a question instead of displaying ignorance with categorical statements of na lie without any explanation. My opinion was not just a textbook definition of essentialism as opposed to existentialism that you can find online and in dictionaries. Mine is an application of the knowledge that was invited by the speech writers of Baba Jubril. He claims that his policy is existential but Nigerian philosophers and political scientists failed to call him out on that or to expose the absurdity of the unrepentant claim that suggests that the leopard does not change its spots. If you have a different application of the philosophy of existentialism to the policies of successive regimes in Nigeria than what I offered, that does not prove me wrong because your interpretation may be equally valid.
Falola has gently cautioned, in his big Kikiwe - In Praise of Greatness - which includes some essays that originated on this forum, that it is wrong for some individuals to always want to win every discussion thread on the list whereas this is a community of interpretation not Man U v. Liverpool FC which does not even always end in a win but could be a nothing-nothing draw. Obododinma repeated this warning in one of his blog posts by narrating that it is not very smart to win every argument especially when you insist on continuing the debate after everyone has surrendered and told you that you done win. No, no, no, you protest, can you prove to me that I won? I beg jooko mbe. Go siddon jare. Mechie onu.
You may have a point, though. The Europeans who developed Existentialism as a critique of rationalism may have been intending that the philosophy is more applicable to Orientalism than to the Enlightenment. Sarte used the Black Orpheus to suggest that Africans are every bit as hateful as Europeans and that what we practice as anti-racism is simply anti-racism racism. The futility with which Sisyphus rolls up the rock to the top of the hill only for it to roll down and force him to continue the task imposed by the gods was intended by Camus as a mythology for the working class struggle but he was probably referring to the African working class that is yet to make a successful revolution and go beyond the salutation, La Luta Continua. Why, Fela asked. When will the struggle end in victory so that we go follow enjoy small? Nietzsche used the master - slave relationship to suggest that slavery can never be abolished following the victory of enslaved Africans in Haiti because they remained slavish in their religious beliefs compared to the more rational European capitalists. He did not mention the role of imperialism or finance capital that forced Haiti to pay France reparations for ending slavery.
Shina said that I was wrong in associating Existentialism with absurdity but, in the same sentence, he said that only one existentialist embraced absurdism. He forgot to add that the first time that Sarte was called an existentialist, he actually denied it only to turn round to embrace it a few months later. But Shina is a philosopher while I am wise enough to say that all I know is that I do not know enough. So, philosophers in the house, what did Baba Go Slow mean by 'This is an existential policy'? Do his speech writers know the meaning of the dogo nturenchi about existential wetin, about mere technicalities, about the admissibility of evidence that may have been tainted if obtained under duress, or about the fact that a Chief Justice who has been investing consistently for 30 years is likely to be a millionaire, or about the fact that it is not the Chief Justice alone who decides cases in the Supreme Court?
Those are the issues that I raised in my layman opinion. The learned colleagues here may want to offer legal perspectives, the philosophers may offer their love of wisdom and the political scientists and economists may want to explore the policy implications of dictatorial tendencies in a democracy. Mine is a perspective from the sociology of Law or Law and Society, the narrow area of my PhD specialization with a dissertation on Black Women and the Criminal Justice System.
Biko
On Monday, 28 January 2019, 13:01:50 GMT-5, 'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I thought that the double error (logical and historical) implicit in O B's unqualified characterization "Existentialism is the European belief that existence comes before essence") was apparent. Even Gabriel Marcel who coined the term and applied it initially to a particular European who popularized it did not use it dogmatically. All I am saying to O B: Please beware/be aware of the = sign when pontificating.
to simplify this, nowadays no one believes in essence. "essentialism" is a criticism on student term papers, meaning we are supposed innately determined rather than constructed; constructionism is the dominant belief nowadays.
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2019 3:38:32 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari on Existentialism
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2019 3:38:32 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari on Existentialism
Dear OO,
Your response to Oga Biko's characterization of existentialism is a rejection without an explanation. You seem to think that summarizing existentialism as "existence preceding essence" is misleading and accurate. And then you clammed up. What then is an accurate description?
Yes, existentialism differs from Kierkegaard and Heidegger to Sartre and Camus to Merleau Ponty. Agozino betrays this unawareness a bit with his reference to an absurd world, which is basic to Camus rather than Sartre or Heidegger. But then, all existentialists take existence as more fundamental than essence. Why is that inaccurate? What perspective are you coming from sir?
Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429
On Sunday, January 27, 2019, 2:10:29 AM GMT+1, 'O O' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
"Existentialism is the European belief that existence comes before essence": A statement so misleading, so inaccurate.
On Jan 26, 2019, at 12:52 PM, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--This may interest some:
BUHARI ON EXISTENTIALISM
By Biko Agozino In rationalizing his suspension of the Chief Justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court, Presiden...
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