>They aresaid to be the founding fathers of Western philosophy, whose ideas underpin civilised society.
>But students at a prestigious London university are demanding that figures such as Plato, Descartes and Immanuel Kant should be largely dropped from the curriculum because they are white.
>The student union at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)insiststhat when studying philosophy “the majority of philosophers on our courses” should be from Africa and Asia.
telegraph.co.uk
It's the school of Asian and African studies. Still, it's ridiculous that they find it offensive that they're taught Western philosophers alongside non-Western ones.
They should be arguing for more inclusive and well-rounded syllabi and not dropping parts for others.
It's the difference between "black lives matter" and "all lives matter." The former is exclusionary whereas the latter is inclusive.
Well whats the problem? Let them study their way. Im sure it will help them in their future endeavours.
As a philosophy student, I wish there were more world philosophy in our curriculum. Asian philosophy is particularly fascinating and, in many ways, just as deep. African philosophy is cool too. Would love to take a course on the pyramid texts and the book of going forth by day.
Unfortunately, there's simply not as much research done on these subjects which means that oftentimes it seems shallower if only because the roots of our culture don't extend as deeply into these traditions.
>The student union at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) insists that when studying philosophy “the majority of philosophers on our courses” should be from Africa and Asia.
It makes sense in context, but who the fuck cares about context nowadays right?
If you want to study it, just read the books yourself
Yeah why would you want an understanding of Western thought as a Westerner? How could that possibly help you with your studies of other philosophy? #Decolonialize
>School of Oriental and African Studies
What is it that you don't understand?
how many times will this fucking story be reposted on this board?
>I'm a philosophy student
>Asian philosophy is fascinating
>African philosophy is cool too
Are you serious?
>The union said it is part of wider campaign to “decolonise” the university, as it seeks to “address the structural and epistemological legacy of colonialism”.
>The student union at SOAS, a leading centre for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, stated that “decolonising” the university and “confronting the white institution” is one of its priorities for the academic year.
>the Greeks did only influence Europe
fuck off
>Asian philosophy is particularly fascinating and, in many ways, just as deep
lol no, Asian philosophy, especially Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, are all simple and shallow as fuck.
Why exactly is it bad that students learn about Western philosophers? It influenced non-Western philosophy, and it's necessary for being a well-educated person.
Isn't Oriental and African Studies mostly bitching about colonialism? Isn't it important for them to know why the colonialism happened?
made me laugh
Welcome the philosophers of the 21th century
>the book of going forth by day
It's literally just an instruction manual of how to get into the afterlife you mong.
In this we could agree. I was only refering to the fact that Asia and Africa studies should focus on Asia and Africa. Making them dissapear from everywhere would be an horrible idea, but Asia and Africa studies focusing on Africa and Asia seems logical.
>The most important part of a certain culture are other cultures
I'm not saying is bad. I'm only saying if the studies are about Asia and Africa it's logical they study asian and african cultures. If they were studying world philosophy or western philosophy then it would be a stupid thing to do, but if this is Asia and Africa studies it's logical that it focus on Asia and Africa.
>If you want to study it, just read the books yourself
I have. Still doesn't hurt to have an expert's guidance (altho as I mention, there are less experts in the west).
Why wouldn't I be?
>ignoring the Indians
Wew lad
It's not a program, it's a school. They still need to teach Western philosophy like they need to teach basic math.
And Plato describes philosophy as preparation for death. Your point?
>professors
>experts
I guess / hope not focus exclusively on that. I mean, there was a world before colonialism. If they truly want to "decolonise" the university they shouldn't make the importance of those other cultures just a relation point to Western relations with them.
hmmmmmm
>>The most important part of a certain culture are other cultures
Who said it was the most important part?
You're right, user. The true philosophy experts are all frogposters on /r9k/.
>"decolonise" the university they shouldn't make the importance of those other cultures just a relation point to Western relations with them
Dude, Academia is a Western concept.
There is no "decolonizing" that can be done in the academia without destroying it.
Most they can do is study something not as highly politicized/try not to politicize education further
My point is that it's not a philosophy book.
And yet if Plato and the Pythagoreans are to be believed, philosophy as a way of life is based on analogous Egyptian traditions.
Is Homer and Hesiod irrelevant to the philsoopher?
>Is Homer and Hesiod irrelevant to the philsoopher?
Yes.
Good luck understanding Neoplatonism then.
Neoplatonism is not a philosophical movement, it's a religious one
You seem to be under a fundamental misapprehension. Philosophy and religion are one in the same. Re-read the Greeks.
Would you describe the Bible as unphilosophical? Do you think it is irrelevant to the philosopher? On the one hand, it is an instruction manual on how to ascend to heaven upon death. On the other hand, it presents a way of life (a philosophy) which engages and answers the most fundamental questions of existence. Same could be said of the Egyptian book of the dead. Or the Tibetan.
7/10 got me to respond
Slavoj Zizek philosophises about Coca-Cola.
Is Coca-Cola inherently philosophical just because a philosopher reacts to it?
Coca-cola promotes a philosophy of consumerism.
Will universities go to shit in our lifetime? I know it's not that bad right now (mostly) and STEM is still pretty good, but it feels like a slippery slope kind of thing.
wow you are infuriatingly retarded
ideologies are not philosophical movements
en.wikipedia.org
ideologies and religions can't help you with that
all they care for is to spread as far as they can
Asien "philosophe" belongs into the theology department. So called african "philosphy" belongs into the ethnology or cultural anthropology department.
How about westerners keep studying the philosophers who shaped their intellectual tradition, in their own countries, and then non-whites can do whatever the hell they want in their own countries?
Oriental philosophy was pretty much incorporated into the Western by Schopehnauer, so it's redundant to study it. And what about African philosophy? What it is even about?
They already are, poltics have arrived in every field, your chances are really bad, if you don't woreshipe or at least make those who decide think you woreship the current gods.
Don't see what's wrong.
Why should students who are paying £9000 a year to go to "The School of Oriental and African Studies" be forced to study the philosophy and literature of Italians and Greeks?
This is very minuscule a problem.
Here's a quick example for you:
Sickle cell anemia will lead you to having a shorter lifespan, i.e., will negatively affect your survival.
How the hell does it still exist?
Well, it helps you to fight off sickle-cell anemia, make as many babies as you can and die a dumb nigger.
Just because being all edgy and ideological helps you early on in life with socialization doesn't mean it will help you later
And yet... All major Greek philosophical movements were "philosophies of life"? Stoicism, epicureanism, even Platonism and Aristotelianism. I mean, shit, we don't have a single Cynic text but it's still considered a "school of philosophy". Save me the academic hair-splitting which was used to enforce the cultural hegemony of your favorite old white men authors.
>dumb nigger
I agree. You should stop being all edgy and ideological. It certainly won't help you later.
Students should have no saying over anything, they are a bunch of drunk and horny 20 year olds.
>All major Greek philosophical movements were "philosophies of life"? Stoicism, epicureanism, even Platonism and Aristotelianism. I mean, shit, we don't have a single Cynic text but it's still considered a "school of philosophy".
you retarded faggot
that's my point
all of these were philosophies of life
the only possible philosophy is the philosophy of life
neither neoplatonism nor any other ooga-booga nonsense you mentioned has anything to do with a good life
>People who literally pay 10s of thousands to keep the University going should have no say in its curriculum
I guess citizens shouldn't be able to complain about Government tax decisions then too :^)
Honestly more shocked they're not protesting it being "Oriental" studies and not Asian studies.
>people who are retarded enough to be duped into paying 10s of thousands for stupid nonsense to keep the University going should have no say in its curriculum
fixed that for you
>African philosophy
Name fifteen important and influential philosophers from that place
Nice deflection :^)
Camus
Nice false false equivalence there You must be the same faggot who asks for more magical thinking in the institutions of learnings
cringe post :^)
Students aren't shareholders, they have no right to interfere. Unlike a citizen, they additionally aren't legally required to contribute, it's a conscious decision they make, a decision that requires them to comply with the rules and the curriculum. You aren't allowed to piss on the floor of a nightclub because you bought a drink. Furthermore, a student being ignorant by definition—that's the purpose of his presence—he has even less of a justification to provide an intellectual opinion on the cursus he will follow.
Albert Camus is neither important nor influential, whatever the continent he's labelled from.
are you literally retarded? do you completely not understand the concept behind accreditation and why university degrees exist?
>cultural hegemony
>old white men
American philosophy students, everyone.
>do you completely not understand the concept behind accreditation and why university degrees exist?
I do, that's why I support all attempts to destabilize the education system.
>he thinks institutions of learning are required in an of the internet
lol :^)
>institutions of learning are required in an of the internet
Unimaginable, I know
STEMtards are such STEMtards amirite? ;-)
They even care about fucking genealogies in the age of birth control and free love: genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu
Don't understand the point you are making.
Trying to show off your recent discovery of a website, idiot?
Cuck!
No they don't, because they are clueless morons.
>Don't understand the point you are making.
Yeah, some points are just too subtle to be understood via this medium :(
If Neoplatonism is ooga-booga nonsense then why was Plotinus confused for Aristotle?
Also your thoughts on ooga booga continentals "much schizo deterritorializarion"and ooga booga analytics "muh chinese boxes"? They get more representation than most classical philosophers in modern degree programs.
I am a citizen of the world.
>I am a citizen of the world.
Show me your passport.
le authoritarian meme
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
>ooga booga continentals "much schizo deterritorializarion"and ooga booga analytics "muh chinese boxes"
Well, you could probably imagine what my thoughts on this are.
>deterritorialization
self-help cult
>analytics
obscurantist proto-science
:^)
whats the best uni to study philo at?
I'm predicting some three thousand times or so. Whenever it is posted, I will consider it my personal wake up call to stop browsing Veeky Forums and do something productive. I've used the "academia-media-publishing industrial complex" frogposter for the same purpose with great success so far.
Oh, and
>why was Plotinus confused for Aristotle?
coz Aristotle wrote some horrible magical shit in Metaphysics and even before it
How many legs does an insect have, again?
I find Platonic dialogues superior (to almost everything)
>academia-media-publishing
One of these is not like the others.
See:
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
What's your point?
Academia is not your enemy, but it is an enemy of the media and publishers (especially if it's STEM)
Now will you please fuck off, I'm tired of explaining everything to you, I expected a higher standard of discourse from Veeky Forums, you dumb nigger
>white people dont have culture
okay pal
>I am a citizen of the world.
You're a citizen of nowhere
>REEEE AM I BEING DETAINED??!?? RAPE
You my dear sir, hit it right on the nail. I never thought of that and by god it is a perfect point!
But Greeks aren't white.
regardless of your thoughts on the matter
what a stupid biased poll
they aren't petitioning for removal
and of course they they play the anti-PC card with the shit either/or fallacy
only a fool would vote in that poll
What order should one read Plato, Veeky Forums?
I hate this fucking board so much.
Your North Americanism is showing
They only want this 'cos there are no ancient African philosphical texts & shit like the Tao Te Ching is a lot shorter, ambiguous, and easier to read than Kant & Plato
I'm just going on a limb here and say that you've read the works of Algis Uzdavinys. I enjoyed Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth and Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism, but they suffer from the authors ideological bias, not to mention the unorganized and repetitive nature of his prose and the severe reductionism of his general approach.
In regards to your first post, philosophical study requires specialization within a particular tradition, taking the technical vocabulary, cosmological framework and historical progression in to consideration. For technical vocabulary alone, I hope you realize that a study of Classical Chinese, Attic Greek and the Hieroglyphic script is quite a demand.
In regards to your last post, the early Arabs made a monotheistic paraphrase of Enneads IV-VI, known as the Theology of Aristotle. Pseudographical attributions were quite popular during the Middle Ages, for which reason Aristotle also had a book on Astrological Magic attributed to his name.
You are correct in your assumption, sir.
I too find Uzdavinys a bit repetitive and disorganized at times but his insights ocassionally dazzle and leave me in a state of philosophical wonder. For that reason alone, I cannot be too hard on him.
My primary area of interest is actually occult philosophy so unlike most I do not find it silly and in fact am studying Latin. Unsure what my second language will be.
>be conservative on university campus
>get harassed for what you believe in by people in the name of liberalism and understanding
They already are shit.
That's one, now fourteen more
>be conservative on campus
>no one cares, hardly anyone is political, they just want to not fail
1) Dumas
2) Cervantes
3) Rimbaud
4) Bolano
5) Baudelaire
6) Shakespeare
7) Rupi Kaur
8) Tao Lin
9) David Foster Walace
10) Franz Kafka
11) Haruki Murakami
12) Ryu Murakami
13) Immanuel Kant
14) Soren Kierkegaard
>Greeks
>white
>but it is an enemy of the media and publishers
no it isn't
>especially if it's STEM
this is irrelevant to what we're discussing in this thread
>I expected a higher standard of discourse from Veeky Forums
>you dumb nigger
apparently not
I don't think that's how university works, user.
I think we're missing the point here. Greeks, whether modern or ancient are pretty damn far away from "white"
Oriental just means "of the east." They probably include Arabs and Indians who aren't usually considered Asian in the way Chinese people and the Japanese are. Plus we've invented a lot of new, improved, racial slurs to use instead of Oriental, which is only mildly offensive.
You're right, why bother trying to understand anyone else who lives in a different place than yourself? Why read anyone who isn't famous and influential in your own country? Why think about anything outside of the prescribed Western Canon? Sounds like a fucking waste of time lmao.
Seriously though, what is this hostility you see on the right to having any interest at all in other cultures? It's very anti-intellectual.
>white people
>University of London
Pick one, my Aryan friend.
Theresa pls
Fuck off with your eastern mystic bullshit, yoga mom.
nigger...
what eastern literature have you read?