JAH - SOmewhat of an Essay

Return to Reasoning List

Here is a link to this page:
http://www.jah-rastafari.com/forum/message-view.asp?message_group=2631&start_row=1

SOmewhat of an Essay

1 - 10

11 - 12

Time Zone: EST (New York, Toronto)

Messenger: Prince Hotep

Sent: 2/25/2008 4:01:42 PM

Blessed love Royal House of Ras Tafar I

Since I don't write some papers and essays in Inglish, and since I had an assingment from I English propfessor in I U n I Verstity, this English teacher some how reminds InI of the Queen the Harlot the bitch herselfs and no wonder that she hate I.So she gave this assingment to write an essay about the subject "what is philosophy?" since it's the subject that I study in the Xtablishment it was just for 200 words, but somehow I got a likkle bit carried away, maybe I will not present her the whole of it because it's to big and too BIG for her she might go berserk on I.
So here it is.
What is philosophy?

So what can be defined as philosophy? A lot of philosophers have different opinions on this subject and because of that there are a lot of philosophical schools. Well the answer depends from where the philosophy comes from in other words where is the start of being philosophycal, people even have a typical oppinion, but the same people ussually get a glimpse of what is philosophy and don't realise that that was philosophy. The Eurocentrist view of philosophy begins with the question, for example the question "what is philosophy?" is already philosophy. Also what I learned till today I can base I oppinion on it that philosophy is neither teoretical neither ignorable, because one thing is clear as the sky on a sunny day, that I start being philosophycal when, I start living it philosophically, it never ends, because philosophy is light of mind, the light of essence, not European philosophy, because it doesn‘t help people, it is confusing people, because it is based on the question, the question is good when one knows the answer and the answer is not in vain. So this tradition ends up is in a situation when there is only answer "a fool can deny more things than a wise man can answer" not to call I and I a very wise human being, but a one is fool who come in a manner that is either bold, either blasphemous. But people like these don‘t know themselfs don‘t look into themselfs for the answers, with questions, that themselfs can‘t answer and even don‘t want the I to answer it subconsciouslly or consciouslly it doesn‘t matter because if the live in vain eventually they will die in vain and it‘s all the same from the begining of time, there was philosophy, the people in this institution can ignore the Khemetical(Ancient Egypt) tradition as much as they want, they can deny the fact that philosophy in Greece was just a little skylarking concering things going down in "The Black Land" but they can‘t deny the fact that spiritually, that means philosophically, it was developed and both the logical(Europhilosophy is only based on the logical side of things, this is made by ignoring the other, the subconscios half of the brain) thinking and spirituall because what I realised is that the gratest philosophy can come from spirituallity not from the duality of man and a wombman not with the duality of the human being there is ONE simple truth that there is ONE.
So that is the answer I can give about philosophy and what it is.

Inspired as allways by
King of Kings His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I
JAH Ras Tafar I

Messenger: Ten

Sent: 2/25/2008 7:31:03 PM

Blessed Love
Aya I have read your piece and I overs what the I is getting, and I apprecilove the conviction you have to set things straight. Bless. My advice, however as someone in a related field also at university, I would suggest a few things Aya. I am not trying to re-write your essay for you, I've no idea what the greater part of it said and no doubt you have a deep knowledge of the subject and expectations of the course so my comments are only from an outsider. Aya in order to get your point across you have to consider from whose perspective is philosophy considered philosophy? Who defines it and who philosphizes? Historically it has been qualified with a European discourse and the voices of European philosphers such as Aristotle, Confucious etc have been privileged as authorities but other forms of philosophy from other parts of the globe have not. You need to give specific concrete examples, from a whole range of places by the indigenous peoples of India, the different parts of Africa, Asia, Australsia and emphasise that philosophy is not only viewed from a Euro perspective. Then you can bring in your perspective and your philosophies from an Afro-Rasta view bec that's contemporary philosophy too bec it merges Af. philosphy with a spiritual vibe.
Sometimes I n I have to work within the system in order to infiltrate and bring it down, that's why I n I must keep up the struggle within these institutions and construct platforms for I n I to express our worldly knowledge.
I hope my comments were useful and all the best with the essay.
JAH Bless

Messenger: SunofMan

Sent: 2/26/2008 1:24:00 AM

Confucius??? a european philosopher? I don't think so.

SELAM

Messenger: Prince Hotep

Sent: 2/26/2008 2:26:10 AM

Blessed love
Yes I
I get what the I is saying, but since this essay doesn't have a specific meaning, it is just to get a grade for the Inglish knowlege, seen? But yes the I is right.
Confucious is a Chinese philosopher.
Emmanuel I Selassie I JAH Ras Tafar I

Messenger: Ten

Sent: 2/26/2008 4:04:46 AM

Ises
Yes he's a Chinese philosopher, give thanks for pointing it out SunofMan sorry I didnt finish off what I was saying I had it in my head at the time but what I was trying to say is that his thought have been adapted into European mainstream philosophy so its like even though in Chinese & Asian Philosphy he influenced alot of thought on society and ethics, Western variations now take his concepts and put him alongside their own thinkers like Des Cartes, but still deny that the Chinese have a system of knowledge that is worthy of acknowledgement. Even for the 'alternative thinkers' who practice Confucianism they'll only go so far and still have a Western approach to Chinese philosophy pple like Bartmoore Gilbert in 'postcolonial' literature have this kind of attitude....Anyway Prince Hotep, my bad I thought it was for an actual philosophy course but if its for and English knowledge course then all you have to worry about is the grammar and more faya to you for your beliefs.
Jah Bless

Messenger: Prince Hotep

Sent: 2/26/2008 6:32:44 AM

Ises High
Yes I
give thanks Ten
And oh, the grammar well I fixed it when I gave it in. In case the I is wondering why it's so simple, it's because I'm not from a English speaking country and this Xtablishment of course is not English speaking, well English is not the primary language and yet InI still am only in the first course, but what I learned so far is that European philosophy(at least the Greek and Roman) and the thinking of this philosophy is kinda simple in it's manner and it's goals.

Messenger: Elijah

Sent: 2/26/2008 3:22:10 PM

Greetings

I would start the essay with simple answer to the question.
Philosophy is what it literally means in Greek PHILO (Love) SOPHIA (Wisdom) = Love of Wisdom or Love to Wisdom.
The meaning of this term is very self explanatory, so if InI follow this path of reasoning it is quite easy to say what it is the Philosophy.
Whoever loves wisdom is an philosopher.
I think it is interesting also, to answer question: Why to Love Wisdom?
or why is Wise to Love? etc. so many questions follows those ones.

Blessed Love
Love RasTafarI

Humble I

Messenger: Prince Hotep

Sent: 2/26/2008 5:25:55 PM

Blessed love
Yes I. But to put it in that way is somewhat of simplistic. And I don't like to litteraly translate the meaning because it is translation from Greek, because of that it can only refer only to the Greek way of thinking and Greek verbal communication, though litteraly it is translated that way, but the meaning is always more complicated than that. And philosophy is more than just old Greek pedophile slave owners talking about "surpise and the question that goes forward after the surprise" The "grate" Aristoteles said that slaves are made from a different material than the citizens of Athens. Whole Greek Batty Erotical culture with the Olympic games(naked men competing, no women aloud to watch) In I first semester I had to read this "About love" by Plato, plot line: men talking about love with men and esspecially "the perfect love" between a wise-man(philosopher) and a boy. Blood clott NAMBLA!
The point I man a make here is that the I can't explain what is philosophy just by translating some Greek word.
Ises brethren
Praise The Most High
Jah Ras Tafar I

Messenger: Elijah

Sent: 2/27/2008 2:54:42 PM

Yes I

Thats the way to make things simple and clear. I wouldn't blame all old school Greek philosophers for what they have been and what customs they use to have, even if it was blasphemies or slavery etc. It was the culture they were growing within and they wasn't aware of different ways and orders. The I can't take from them the trues they find out and discoveries which where they own, and as first people they have put it down in some logical order, even if mistaken they try their best. Take attention that it was fault of the next generations to make the wrong interpretation and taking some of the theoretical reasoning as absolute true.
I think it is nothing wrong with love for the wisdom and true. I would stay with the interpretation of the word philosophia, as it has its meaning word sound and power. If I love the true it is wise love, as love can be only wise.
Maybe they where very wrong in the ways of them lives, but for sure they had very good intuitions about many things, and good understanding for the matters, what is missing in the todays world. They were asking for questions that people has to ask, no matter what time and place in the world they live.
...

Think more about it, has to go now.

Blessed Love

Love RasTafarI

Humble I

Messenger: Ten

Sent: 2/27/2008 3:49:46 PM

Greetings
Elijah I find the I's words rather puzzling first you said,
"Philosophy is what it literally means in Greek PHILO (Love) SOPHIA (Wisdom) = Love of Wisdom or Love to Wisdom.The meaning of this term is very self explanatory, so if InI follow this path of reasoning it is quite easy to say what it is the Philosophy.
Whoever loves wisdom is an philosopher."
As Prince Hotep rightly pointed out its a bit of a simplisitc view because its not that easy to just say philosophy is "a love of wisdom". Historically philosophy is as intellectual institution of privilege and of whiteness, it is a system that allowed people to form opinions of other races and treat them as sub-human. Just today I was at a forum on humanism and we were discussing how the notion of humanism was used only in reference to white Europeans and every other people was excluded. The humanist argument was used to justify slavery like the writings of Kant, Hume and even the liberalist JS Mill in some way rationalised that white represented human. Its angering and its painful to find brutality justified. And that's why philosophy is not just a love of wisdom there are power dynamics involved too. Whose wisdom is it? And wisdom abt what? What if that wisdom were lies is it still philosophy? Does it make it ok for Kant and Hume to philosophize the way they did just because they were 'lovers of wisdom'?
And another side to it is that there are vast amounts of knowledge in other cultures that were excluded too, in African cultures there are so many ways of conceptualizing the world that do not divide people according to race, class, gender or intellectual capacity. What lies did we spew out to the world in order to achieve dominance? What abt the value of other Asian, Indian, Maori, Aboriginie, Native American views of the world. When have they ever been privileged? Are they even seen as philosophy? I think we are still very far from simple definitions of philosophy - the wounds of history are still too fresh and more wounds continue being created even today. Our struggle as Black people to be seen as human as beings with worldly knowledge is far from coming into full light...

And then you went on to say:
"what they have been and what customs they use to have, even if it was blasphemies or slavery etc. It was the culture they were growing within and they wasn't aware of different ways and orders. The I can't take from them the trues they find out and discoveries which where they own, and as first people they have put it down in some logical order, even if mistaken they try their best. Take attention that it was fault of the next generations to make the wrong interpretation and taking some of the theoretical reasoning as absolute true. "

To this I say fire, fire because you can't justify the kind of hate stuff they used to write. If it hadn't been for Darwin and Levi would we talk of evolution and Blacks as semi-human, if it hadn't been for the paintings of Burglar in the 14th Century or Cesar Ripa's racist take on the Ible would we know that Black is different from white? And Joyce Cary's Heart of Darkness, who would have called the Motherland that? Sorry I, Black was not in the imagination of these people and there is no way you can tell me it was the "culture" or "the times", we nah make no apology for brutality, we nah make no excuses for racism. Wrong is wrong. People like Des Cartes blaspheme and disavow God and you want to tell me its "logical order" JAH!!! It wasnt the fault of the coming generations, it was these philosphers who planted the seed of segregation and difference in the generations to follow. You can't make good with that.
Whatever positive contribution Kant, Hume, Aristotle and all them made to the world let it stand as that, I don't dispute that but what I reject is this whitewash over all the things they theorised and manufactured as 'the philosphy' to the exclusion of all other knowledges and to the denigration of millions of peoples for centuries.
I needed to vent and give thanks I have said I peace/piece.
Blessed love

1 - 10

11 - 12

Return to Reasoning List