one of the biggest lies in academia is the
2013-05-04
One of the biggest lies in academia is the existence of ‘western’ philosophy.
Note: this is also why ‘western’ is always code for ‘white’ in academic circles
(because, like, hello? The Indigenous peoples of the americas are located in the west – if we centre europe, of course – yet ‘western’ philosophy has never and likely will never actually include any of their systems of thought).
but this fiction of ‘western philosophy’ was also carefully constructed to white wash the contributions PoC civilizations have made to it since its very inception with classical Greek philosophy.
it is not by accident, at all, that we are supposed to understand ‘western’ philosophy as sitting on the pinnacle of human thought and that lines of influence and intellectual inheritance only flow downwards from ‘western’ philosophy to the rest of us lowly savages.
‘western’ philosophy, along with religion, was considered one of the major ‘civilizing’ tools. This indoctrination via spirituality and rationality ran concurrent.
And this is also why I continuously criticize the notion of ‘rationality’ and ‘logic’ as used in everyday speech.
Because we, as colonized people, were not only godless but incapable of higher level reasoning. This is why we needed white people to manage our affairs, resources, lands, and people.