PC students demand white philosophers be dropped from university syllabus

[Deleted]

I see these type of posts a lot lately.

It's racist, but apparently it's okay.

[serenka]

This is an obtuse "hot take" for what the students are actually asking for, and for completely misconstruing what's going on.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education...ng-plato-kant/


I mean, holy fuck! Students who are going to a school for Asian and African studies are asking for their philosophy classes to study Asian and African philosophers! SJWs run amok, clearly.

Go back to your safe spaces.

yeah this is how i see it. It doesn't seem theres anything wrong with their request honestly, its a school for Asian and African studies, so of course they would expect to be taught about more Asian and African philosophers rather than European or American ones.

[Krigaren]

I see these type of posts a lot lately.

It's racist, but apparently it's okay.

It's not remotely racist. The school the students attend has a specific focus, and they want their curriculum to reflect that focus.

[dark666105]

What?!?! No Nixx in this thread yet? I am shocked!

[Austilias]

If people want to stupefy themselves in the name of Identity Politics, they can be my guest.

[NineSpine]

I see these type of posts a lot lately.

It's racist, but apparently it's okay.

It's not racist for the same reason that someone taking a Greek Studies course would expect the talk about Greek philosophers, not Chinese philosophers.

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WTF are these snowflakes thinking?
And who will they replace these philosophers with?

@Conflux That movie crossed my mind when reading this.

They will replace them with philosophers from Asia and Africa, because the school is for students studying Asia and Africa.

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New headline: "Triggered conservatives on the internet demand that courses about Asia and Africa teach about white Europeans instead"

[Vargur]

They are non-caucasian students, just to be clear.

[Cosmic Janitor]

yeah this is how i see it. It doesn't seem theres anything wrong with their request honestly, its a school for Asian and African studies, so of course they would expect to be taught about more Asian and African philosophers rather than European or American ones.

It really depends on how the curriculum is structured. Many specialized courses and institutes have to teach the basics, which even today make up the majority of most courses. I know a lot of students tend to be frustrated by that and wonder what this has to do with the course they chose. They may very well have a reason to complain, but without seeing how their coursework is structured that is fairly difficult. This is further complicated by the fact that it usually requires extensive knoweldge in the field to further evaluate these courses in regards to their requirements and usefullnes. In engineering courses for example you usually tend to lear a broad swath of the basics, because most Universities have realized that it is very unlikely that you stay in exactly the field which you majored in, most work in places that intersect strongly with other disciplines or change the discipline entirely. I'd imagine the same holds true to at least some extend for lib-arts.

[Flarelaine]

I started wondering whether I myself needed an education on African philosophers, seeing as I can't name a single one. So I googled "great African philosophers". Two Frenchmen from Algeria, one vaguely familiar African-American name and St. Augustine. The rest are strangers to me. And I've wasted some years on the liberal arts, which had made me think if someone mattered I've probably heard their name before.

[NineSpine]

It really depends on how the curriculum is structured. Many specialized courses and institutes have to teach the basics, which even today make up the majority of most courses. I know a lot of students tend to be frustrated by that and wonder what this has to do with the course they chose. They may very well have a reason to complain, but without seeing how their coursework is structured that is fairly difficult. This is further complicated by the fact that it usually requires extensive knoweldge in the field to further evaluate these courses in regards to their requirements and usefullnes.

Considering that they are just asking for the majority to be from Asia and Africa, I think there is plenty of room for the "basics", but it may also be off-base to consider Greek philosophers the "basics" of Chinese philosophy.

[Macaquerie]

The school does concentrate on African and Eastern cultures and areas, as such, it does make sense for people residing in such places to be the primary focus of the coursework. However, it is important to take any subject as a whole and as such to dismiss large portion of a subject simply because of the color of a persons skin is ridiculous. This is especially true in philosophy as such pillars of the subject should have their philosophical principles applies to other areas and cultures to test as universal truths. It's almost as if many students don't go to school to learn anymore but simply to reaffirm their own prejudices.

I imagine the reasoning for this is that historically so much of what we know of African and Asian culture was written from a white European perspective that the perception of these cultures, even by African and Asians themselves, has been tainted by the authors' inherent biases. It really isn't a stretch to claim that white philosophers typically only had a superficial understanding of these cultures and rarely had anything good to say about them, apart from patronizing "noble savage" narratives, so emphasizing native perspectives instead is certainly a worthwhile undertaking.

[NineSpine]

I started wondering whether I myself needed an education on African philosophers, seeing as I can't name a single one. So I googled "great African philosophers". Two Frenchmen from Algeria, one vaguely familiar African-American name and St. Augustine. The rest are strangers to me. And I've wasted some years on the liberal arts, which had made me think if someone mattered I've probably heard their name before.

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_philosophy

[Cosmic Janitor]

Considering that they are just asking for the majority to be from Asia and Africa, I think there is plenty of room for the "basics", but it may also be off-base to consider Greek philosophers the "basics" of Chinese philosophy.

It can be quite challenging to get much specialization into a 6 semester course if you already need about 4-5 to cover essential basics. As I said, their demands may be reasonable, but I don't have the qualification to evaluate that (neither does the daily mail for that matter). The best guess usually is their respective faculty heads/boards. From the article it seems even their head is against it, but it might very well be misquote by the dailymail, since they can't be trusted at all.

[Cirayne24]

This is easily just a case of everyone being over sensitive... and it's both sides.

If a group of white students said, "Lets drop these philosophers because they are [insert skin color]." There would be an equal uproar about how racist that was.

So, if the group of students instead said, "Lets drop these Greek and German philosophers in order to focus on African, Middle Eastern and Chinese philosophers." No one would blink an eye.

This comes down to the concept that all white people are just that... white people, where as people of color have many different cultures and need to be separate. If one side doesn't want to be grouped together, then it's fair to do the same for the other side.

[KrazyK923]

Dumbass people say dumbass things in a college. News at 11.

Just say "no." The end.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Dumbass people say dumbass things in a college. News at 11.

Just say "no." The end.

But that might hurt their feelings. :'(

[Kalis]

Good luck studying Islamic-era Middle Eastern and North African philosophy without knowing Plato, he was the foundation of much of their philosophical thought, just as he was in Europe.

His works and those of other Greek philosophers, were also disseminated into Southern and Eastern Asia post-Alexander the Great, so much of their philosophy has Platonic/Greek roots/influences.

There is a reason the Greek philosophers are so widely known and that is because they were immensely influential internationally.

[Flarelaine]

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_philosophy

Oh, I can find Wikipedia all right (although I have to note that the linked article is woefully short at below 30,000 characters for such a large topic). The dilemma was, again: am I undereducated for not knowing a single African philosopher or there is simply none taken seriously enough by academia to be included in some sort of canon?

(Other than St. Augustine who was canonised long ago, but that's different.)

[shise]

The funniest part is that PC are the same as racist people, exactly the same, just as extreme right and extreme left parties... they are the same, they are extremes = irrational poop

[NineSpine]

Oh, I can find Wikipedia all right (although I have to note that the linked article is woefully short at below 30,000 characters for such a large topic). The dilemma was, again: am I undereducated for not knowing a single African philosopher or there is simply none taken seriously enough by academia to be included in some sort of canon?

It's a specialized topic. These are students who have chosen to attend a school to become fluent in that particular specialization. Whether it is broadly applicable and useful for general education is beside the point.