There is a false and misleading assumption that on the one end, there is some notion called “philosophy” and on the other, some things and actions named “culture”. Culture is philosophy as lived and celebrated in a society. Human beings do not behave like dry leaves, smoke or clouds which are blown here and there by winds. Men live in organizations called institutions: the family and clan, a chiefdom or kingdom or age-set system. He has a religion, an army, legal and other institutions. And all these institutions are formed by or built around the central issue of a people, what they believe, what life is all about, their social philosophy, their world view.
>The bourgeois believe that liberty consists in absence of social organization; that liberty is a negative quality, the reward of endeavor and wisdom… Because of this basic fallacy this type of intellectual always *tries to cure positive social evils, such as wars, by negative individual actions, such as non-cooperation, passive resistance or conscientious objection.* This is because he cannot ride himself of the assumption that the individual is free. But we have shown that the individual in *never free*. He can only obtain freedom by *social cooperation*. He can only do what he wants by *using social forces*. But in order to use social relations he must understand them. He must become conscious of the laws of society, just as if he wants to lever up some stone, he must know the laws of levers – Christopher Caudwell
The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was quite wrong when he declared “Man is born free…” Man is not born free. At birth he is firmly tied to his mother through the umbilical cord. He physically cut free from her. But *this cutting free* is not merely a biological act. It is symbolic and most significant. Henceforth, he is an individual, who through upbringing is prepared to play his full role as a member of society. Rousseau was not correct when he added, “and everywhere he is in chains.” Man is not born free. He cannot be free. He is incapable of being free. For only by being in *chains* can he be and remain “human”. What constitute these chains? Man has a bundle of *rights* and *privileges* that society owes him. In African belief, even death does not free him. If he had been an important member of society while he lived, his ghost continues to be revered and fed: and he in turn is expected to guide and protect the living. This is the essence of what is wrongly called “ancestor worship”. Should he die a shameful death, his haunting ghost has to be laid. In some cases his ghost has to be “killed.” “Till death do us part,” the Christian vow made between at the wedding ritual, sounds hallow, in that at the death of the man, the woman does not walk out of the “home.” She is *inherited* by one of the brothers of the dead man. Should the woman her death does not extinguish the bonds between the man and his in-laws.
Man has always asked the most terrifying questions: What am I? What is the purpose of life? Why do people suffer? What is happiness? What is death? Is it the end? Etc. etc. And, according to the “answers: provided by “wise men,” and have been accepted, society is then organized to achieve these ends. It is these fundamental ideas, the philosophy of life, which constitute the pillars, the foundations, on which the social institutions are erected. Some have called these *myths* or *world-views*: others refer to them as ideologies (which, as in the case of socialism, is even described as scientific): fanatics refer to them as *Truth*, as if these ideas are about verifiable and indisputable facts, or about the actual state of the matter. These fundamental ideas are concerned with *meaning*. The meaning of being alive in this world. And meaning is wider in scope than is truth. As John Dewey has put it, “…truths are about one class of meanings, namely, those in which a claim to verifiability by their consequences is an intrinsic part of the meaning. Beyond this island of meanings, which in their own nature are true and false, lies the ocean of meanings to which truth and falsity are irrelevant.” Man cannot and must not be free. “Son,” “Mother,” “Daughter,” “Father,” “Uncle,” “Husband,” “Grandfather,” “wife,” “Clansman,” “Mother-in-law,” “Grandfather,” “Chief,” “Medicineman,” and many other such terms, are the stamps pf man’s unfreedom. It is by such complex titles that a person if defined and identified. They order and determine human behavior in society. The central question of “Who am I?” cannot be answered in any meaningful way unless the relationship in question is known. Because “I” is not only one relationship, but numerous relationships: “I” has a clan, and a shrine, a country, a job. “I” may or may not be married, may or may not have children. Is “I” a chief? Then he has subjects or followers, ect. etc.
Permanent bondage seems to be man’s fate. Because he cannot escape, he cannot be liberated, freed. The so-called “outcast” in not a free agent. Being “cast out” from society, for a while, does not sever the chains that bind him to society. The act is a judgement, punishment and a lesson, not only for the victim, but for all members of the society. But the outcast, the refugee, the exile, soon joins another society and becomes a subscribed member of the group. Even the hermit who pretends to withdraw to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion, is not free. He peoples his cave, forest, mountain top, oasis, riverside, or whatever abode, with gods and spirits, devils and angels, etc.; and, as has been reported by one of St. Francis of Assisi, these cowards (hermits), who exile themselves from human society, enter into communion with these non-existent , imaginary creations as well as with Nature: birds, flowers, animals, reptiles, trees, fruits, rocks and rivers, etc.
Man is free as long as he does not encroach on another man's freedom. Society is meant to honor this.
Ryder Morris
Philosophy has very little to do with culture, specifically. Most philosophy has absolutely nothing to do with culture, it's a technical field divorced from lived experience. As it should be.
Aaron Green
How are your countries doing btw
Ethan Diaz
I live in America. The answer to that question is very different depending on who you ask.
Personally, I don't like where the US is heading, but this has been true my entire life.
Brayden Kelly
progressively getting shitter, irrespectove of philosophy
Jonathan Allen
Africa has philosophers?
Jackson Reed
America has been heading the way since for a long time now.
Tyler Morris
>Culture is philosophy as lived and celebrated in a society. That's a really weird definition of culture.
Christopher Phillips
I dont mind this definition too much, it's just incomplete to me.
Ethan Wilson
It's a description of a contingent property of culture, not of culture's essence.
Ayden Torres
Agreed, but it's still true. The philosophy of a people will expressed in the arts and the way they live. There are other factors that weigh in.
Dominic Martin
>other factors More important factors but yes. It's still a weird enough thing to lead with in a post by someone using a swastika as their name to turn me off to reading the rest of the TL;DR.
Liam Scott
I was about to pass this by because of the swastika too, but the pairing with an African philosopher seemed odd
Jaxson Price
>It is these fundamental ideas, the philosophy of life, which constitute the pillars, the foundations, on which the social institutions are erected. It's pure idealism anyway, it can be discarded.
Isaiah Diaz
>It's a description of a contingent property of culture, not of culture's essence. >cultures essence >It's pure idealism anyway, it can be discarded.
Wow both of you are stupid I’m glad you found each other now piss off retards
Leo Morgan
>Man has always asked the most terrifying questions: What am I? What is the purpose of life? Why do people suffer? What is happiness? What is death? Is it the end? Etc. etc. And, according to the “answers: provided by “wise men,” and have been accepted, society is then organized to achieve these ends. It is these fundamental ideas, the philosophy of life, which constitute the pillars, the foundations, on which the social institutions are erected.
