THE ULTIMATE
DAWITT ABRAHA - UNLEASHED
MY PHILOSOPHY IS TRUTH AND TRUTH IS MY WISDOM
What About FREE WILL
A sketch by Dawitt Abraha January 3, 2023 in the New Year mood in Chiang Mai northern Thailand https://theconversation.com/free-will-why-people-believe-in-it-even-when-they-think-theyre-being-manipulated-196316 INTRO: Do you think that free will exists really all things considered under the circumstances? The literature is full of seemingly contradictory narratives for it's existence for it's non-existence, partial-existence under certain conditions only. PREDICAMENT: I have, or my body has low tolerance of alcohol and of recreational drug consumption/processing. Growing up I had some of my peers consume so much of all of it. I could not catch up to the norm. I wanted to fit in so badly and look "cool" but my body did not deliver. I have always asked around discussions on free will as to where was my free will to cosume as much as was the norm of the day? I did not order this body, it was assigned to me like many of the advantageous predicaments that I have been granted without even asking for. I would like to state that I am not complaining. Not at all. Life has been mostly kind to me physically, socio-economically and especially donating me the most-giving (of both love, TLC and of material accoutrements) wonderful parents that I could have asked for. ONE thing I fault my delightful parents in is: why did they not settle in Hawaii before they had me ? LOL. Smiles of ALOHA: MAHALO nui-loa for having me and raising me wholesomingly. CHOICES: Do we have choices?! I hear a lot of people lament things like if they had a choice they would have designed their lives differently. Does this thing called "free will" exist during this lifetime, anyway? Here the philosophy of re-incarnation does lend a plausible way out. I write to address the issues that i regularly face that challenge my decisions on my acceptable morality standards. Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism, the way you play it is free will. I am leaving it up to ya'll.
INDEXED PHILOSOPHICAL WAY OF THINKING
by Dawitt Abraha December 4, 2022 inside Temple House Gallery Cafe sipping on hot matcha green tea Lamphoun Town, Northern Thailand
Who said that life is going to be easy?
Try life as a single person, first as a female - AND then as a male single person. AND for a differing taste of life try a married life, try one with children and try another one without children. Furthermore try one life as a business owner. Attempt another one as a full-time writer. Try life as a farmer. Try life as full-time student. How about the life of a teacher?! AND venture out into the life if an international traveller. After that become a respectable part of the landed gentry. Well it is all good after all is said and done. It is just a matter of an "indexed" perspective. What do you feel when hearing the concept of "indexed philosophy" from me here? An indexed perspective is a philosophical inquiry that I have been perusing. Enjoy life in the Now!
A Perspective of the Recent History of The Republic of South African
Whatever happened in the history of yesterday and of today? by Dawitt Abraha November 2022 Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
This video reminds of a 1960s1970s movie produced by a Japanese producer-director, Desmond Nakano, entitled "The White Man's Burden".
It starred Harry Belafonte as the privileged upper class and John Travolta as the working poor class as the main characters.
Desmond Nakano (born 1953) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is Sansei, or third-generation Japanese American.
We are all actors in the world stage performing roles assigned to each one us, sometimes by a sheer accident of birth irrespective of the attributes of physical attributes color, ethnicity etc.
Some writers narrate the privileges of the proverbial genetic lottery. While others counter-point that with the more progressive influences of nature over versus nurture. I say we should note that we 're all social constructs for the greater part, responding to all our defining programming fabrications along the socio-political - economic order of the day. My Observation: It is a-day and night differentiation in the Republic South Africa of pre and post 1994. Why? What changed? The premises shifted and consequentially the predicament followed . The socio-economic milieu was altered and nature rather obediently reflected that. I would go as far to say that the nature of things is largely a derivative of the social-political-economic awareness constructs all other things being equal (ceteris-paribus) under those given circumstamces. Life immitating art. It follows the theme of the plot of Trading Places played by noted comedian/actor Eddie Murphy and by John Ackroyd respectively.
Are We Really Just Social Constructs, after all?
by Dawitt Abraha September 2022 seated under a tree overlooking the Suthep mountain range Angh Kaew Reservoir Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
Whatever happened in your upbringing
OR, in other words in your socialization process? No wonder that we turn out, for the most part anyway; just the way we were designed to act and behave. There are some really compellingly serious considerations towards issues related to free will and reincarnation. Those considerations are outside the terms of reference and scope of my short intro essay. However; I note that we can debate (in a venue other than this one) the different dimensions of the concepts and conceptions of free will and or of the past life to successive present and future reincarnation precepts. AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY
My take is that we are essentially all social constructs.
For the fundamentally important aspects of our lives we get trained, and acculturated by our parents, by religion, by society and by our respective communities. And some may even say that we get brainwashed to act our designated roles the way the choreographer directed the show of living this lifetime around. Here is an attached case study of children behaving holistically in the way they were designed to https://www.facebook.com/Ubuntu-African-Proverbs-107245517731687/
MY POINTS OF VIEW: ONE OF MANY
by Dawitt Abraha August 25, 2022 Umong, Lampoun, Northern Thailand
https://medium.com/@riseabovethought/10-timeless-friedrich-nietzsche-quotes-to-endure-suffering-9d6c241be4a6
One of the greatest western philosophers to reckon with, for whatever he may be worth to you. Suffering, is it all there is to life? The Buddha and F Nietsche acknowledge that it may be part of living this lifetime. While they both acknowledge that aspect they both have dedicated part of their writings and teachings on approaches towards an affirmation of life by overcoming suffering. On the other hand another notable western philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, asserts pessimism in that life can only be full of suffering/pain plus insists on the nihilistic negation of life with negative views of living a life. It is really up to you. Different philosophers can come with differing readings of living a life, ending often in divergent views. Death is unpleasant, hence our natural response is to avoid thinking about it. We realise we`ll have very little time for ourselves in this already short lifespan. WHAT's of substantial importance here is your, POV. My POV is rather simply: "Life-I love you, It's always groovy". I am out living life communing with nature, NOW. Acceptably and participatingly contributing towards my and the universal communal enjoyment of whatever it may offer at that moment, often times most of it with graceful surrender most of the time. All things considered under the circumstances. The wise person in Baashai Teguanez Ogbai, my maternal grandfather counsels, paraphrasing here that "It is what it is". AND that "...the pleasures of madness are only known to the mad person".
Celebrating day in America
by Dawitt Abraha July 2, 2022 Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand I am very progressive, if you want to celebrate a partial Independence Day have your July Fourth! I am not sure if I have much to celebrate in this day except to comply with the tyranny of the majority which excluded Blacks, Indegenous people and Women folks. These three groups subsequently after a long and arduous liberation struggle got their much delayed respective independence. JUNE TENTH is a much more American kind of Independence Day to celebrate.
by Dawitt Abraha
(original draft version of February 2016) Revised and Updated March 2021, Koh Samui, Thailand ON THE SUBJECT OF INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT IQ AND ON WHAT EXACTLY IT IS IT PURPORTED TO QUANTIFIABLY MEASURE?
INTRODUCTION:
LET us ask ourselves what constitutes knowledge ; what is intelligence? And what kind(s) of inteĺigenc(es) are we trying to measure up? i know and I have no doubt that you're very intelligent in may be more than in one kind and hence my reasons why I chose to hang around you. What kinds of intelligence do you mostly seem to apply and excel in? Here is a list from theory of multiple intelligences 8 types in no particular order and explained below: 1) Naturalistic intelligence. 2) Inter-personal intelligence. 3) Intra-personal intelligence. 4) Linguistic intelligence. 5) Musical intelligence. 6) Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. 7) Spatial intelligence. 8) Logical-mathematical intelligence. For starters let us consider the theory of multiple intelligences introduced in his 1983 book “Frames of Mind” by Howard Gardner, a psychologist and professor at Harvard University He states that there are eight types of human intelligence — each representing different ways of how a person best processes information. See a follow up treatise by Dr Kumar Mehta's essay in http://matterslo.com/2021/03/10/harvard-psychologist-types-of-intelligence-where-do-you-score-highest-in.html An additional intelligently unusual treatise is provided by John Zerzan in his book, A PEOPLES HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION April 2018 Google Books. John Zerzan (/ˈzɜːrzən/ ZUR-zən born August 10, 1943) is an American anarchist and primitivist ecophilosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive and advocates drawing upon the ways of life of hunter-gatherers as an inspiration for what a free society should look like. Subjects of his criticism include domestication, language, symbolic thought (such as mathematics and art) and the concept of time. SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES I happen to have grown up in an Eritrean village permaculture farming with popular traditional "indigenous" medicine practices. Like many in my upbringing and across the vast populations of the world I happen to be slightly versed in some limited effective home remedies and cures. Does my knowledge (which happens to be similarly wide-spread common knowledge among an estimated about 85% of the global populations) translate into a high IQ score in a limited scope of Western industrial setting (which only amounts to a meagre about 10%-15% of the global population?) The answer seems to be a, No, not really, not yet so far. If that turns out as to be true, than something is amiss here. So much traditional knowledge is going unnoticed in global ourselves and in our universal series of measures of intelligence quotients as well as in concurrent world civilization contexts. We are consequently becoming relatively intellectually impoverished and we are all losing out by committing parts of our world knowledge base . The debate regarding IQ (intelligence quotient) has raised serious controversies. In 1900 the French government commissioned French psychologist/scientist Alfred Binet, to come up with some identifying measures to segregate lagging students who would need remedial support. The purpose was to provide services to children in need and raise them to the norm as per Natalie Frank PhD in clinical psychology and author of the essay "Intelligence testing and the beginnings of eugenics" published in the June 25 2018 issue of, OWLCATION, cited in the reading list below. In 1905 the BINET-SIMON SCALE was devised with the proviso that, (a) using a single score could not quantify intelligence, (b) the Binet-Simon Scale was not to be used as a definitive indication of a child's level of intelligence, (c) not an indicator of inability but rather the need to be taught using different strategies for learning (Binet, Simon 1916). Binet-Simon scale stressed that, as is commonly acknowledged today after all those years, intelligence progressed at variable rates, that it was malleable and could be altered by the conducive environment and that it was only to be compared among children of the same background in education (Binet-Simon 1916). It was later renamed, IQ standard test, when it crossed the Atlantic Ocean into the ripe hands of the American eugenics movements of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Some argue that it is still going on up to today. This presumptive white-supremacist-movement was instrumental in the forced sterilization and genocide of American socio-economic groupings deemed to be so-called "feeble-minded". The Nazis in 1920/30/40s Nazi Germany adopted this American handbook for ethnic cleansing and genocide of Jews, Gypsies and of others, what an irony of history!? (My notes: We need to remind ourselves that the same contents of this handbook is also in an earlier period of history that fell into the hands of brutish and cruel barbaric marauding colonial regimes who went over uninvited, to Africa, to South and North America, to Asia and in apartheid strongholds). Furthermore, this subject of IQ has had an ongoing cross-over relationship relevance to the dynamic additional conversations on NATURE vs NURTURE. For a sober and sagacious contribution, I suggest: The pioneers of social genetics were racists and eugenicists: should we give up on the science they founded altogether? Kathryn Paige Harden is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin. Her first book, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, will be published by Princeton University Press in Fall 2021. Kathryn Paige Harden essay entitled (The science of terrible men) appeared in Aeon Magazine/Psyche dated 12 March 2021 https://aeon.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=89c6e02ebaf75bbc918731474&id=695b8b0aae&e=107fdb0365. For a sobering opinion ,let's refer to a December 16, 2020" Quora Digest " essay by Brendan Kelly, PhD in pure mathematics: https://www.quora.com/qemail/tc?al_pri=1&aoid=1WYi32R3kiB&aoty=2&aty=4&cp=8&et=2&id=223fbf0d424d4fe49edbe071b50d94fc&q_aid=jnd1qEEea1u&uid=jv7zrHOqeB1 Furthermore; I recommend two controversial interviews by SAM HARRIS PODCAST (#108) and (#221). One was with Washington DC journalist/podcaster, Ezra Klein (#108) and secondly with author of "BluePrint: how DNA make us the way we are" by psychologist Robert Plomin (#221) who has studied extensive twin and adoption studies exclusively in England and in USA contexts. Robert Plomin states, inter alia, that DNA plus polygenic scores are heritable, sheer chance factors, not deterministic, only probabilistic indications based on characteristics of specifically selected observed groupings in The USA and in England. I have reservations as to the presumed openly generalized applicability universal validity of outcomes based on exclusive Euro-centric specifications. We can read these as part of the general literature with appropriate disclaimers. The literature on this subject is enormous. No need to deal with definitions here. Suffice it to mention two aspects: First of all what, kinds of intelligence are we trying to quantify? For an instance; one kind of intelligence useful in an agricultural setting may not be applicable or appreciated in an industrial environment. What is then the point of measuring IQ ? Secondly, IQ measurement result does not reflect as to how socially valuable a person can be to one's community. For illustration purposes;I have selected two essays out of the suggested reading list below: "IQ tests have a dark, controversial history — but there are finally some efforts being used for some good" Daphne Martschenko, The Conversation Oct 12, 2017, 12:43 AM including: Natalie Frank cited above ?????***********************??????? ??????????????????????????????? "WHAT IS IQ and what the hell is it puported to measure?" How about we test each other here?: Scientists still debate the merit(s) of standard conventional IQ testing. Here is a part of a sample IQ test: let's try it all of us together, for whatever it is worth. 1) John, 12-years-old, is three times as old as his brother. How old will John be when he is twice as old as his brother? 2) Two families go bowling. While they are bowling they order a pizza for $12, six sodas for $1.25 each, and two large buckets of popcorn for $10.86. If they are going to split the bill between the families, how much does each family owe? 3) 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, ?, 64. What number is missing from the sequence? These are questions from online Intelligence Quotient or IQ tests. Hope that you aced this IQ test. Here is another essay with interesting remarks and opinion by Susanna Viljanen who works at Aealto University featured on the www.quora.com December 1 Quora Digest www.quira com Are there things that a person of low IQ can comprehend, but a person of high IQ cannot? Yes, and a lot of those, she asserts. She compares and contrasts differences regarding approaches and reactions towards humor, towards team match sports and towards connections to nature. She concludes; " They tend to be practical, that is persons with lower IQ where the mean average on the scale is 100, which includes the vast majority in every society by extension. This is something that people with high IQ, who have much more theoretical and distant approach may have a hard time to comprehend." ********** MY THOUGHTS: I note with agreement that a standard IQ test does not necessarily reflect one's absolute value to society, nor one's real temperaments and nor one's moral attitudes. All these are essential ingredients in all social groupings. *** My bottom line is that standard IQ tests measure only and reflect the quantifiable technical predicaments indicators cast upon one's role in that particular life charactetized by the random accident of birth (DNA) plus and by the surroundings and environments that accompany us throughout life. What is your predicament in this life of yours? And I will tell you your likely standard IQ scores. ************************************************************ https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Science News Study shows difference in cognitive ability between low-income rural, urban children. Date: October 15, 2013 Source: Dartmouth College Summary: Studies have long shown a difference in cognitive ability between high- and low-income children, but for the first time, scientists have found a difference between low-income children growing up in rural areas and those growing up in urban environments. The results of the Dartmouth study appear online in the Journal of Cognition and Development " Yes, IQ has been used to measure some forms of "intelligence" or some form of mastery of factoids and/or some technical analysis capabilities in a given setting of time and place. It does not and cannot measure, definitively, markedly, seriously speaking, endemic and/or inherent attributes. Inherent or endemic attributes are mutable. It should not be confused and conflated to make wild presumptions that IQ standard tests do reliably measure the IQ of Black or of White (or between and among Northern and Southern Europeans, lowlanders and highlanders within a given specific country) or of Asian persons per se. It measures the results of what their present day DNA plus environmental components/characteristics/attributes/ and predicaments so dictate them to perform. If we measured, say in the year 1950, the standard IQ of a typical mainland China person (= typical to be defined in simple agreed upon reasonable ways) it would predictably be lower than that of a typical mainland China person today in 2021. They are all the same Chinese people(s) for the most part. We are really objectively measuring the predicaments of a typical China person under different scenarios. It is not a measure of inherent and or endemic attributes. However it is taken the wrong way in American education as per articles on American IQ Tests featured in The Conversation Huffpost and EducationWeek cited in the reading lists below. **** Here is an interesting video of another much more powerful point of view from the very renowned American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, responding to a serious query raised at a meeting regarding why there are not so many notable presences of American women in the sciences and on low numbers of accomplished Black American persons in the canon of the sciences at this moment in time? https://youtu.be/z7ihNLEDiuM CONCLUDING REMARKS : Keep my commentaries in mind, keep an open mind and let's take our exchanges of views at our next meet-up. WE are constantly challenged socio-politically-economically by the questions as to what kind(s) of knowledge and by what sorts of intelligence can a modern-day society manage to handle it's development and growth? The outstanding challenge after all is said and done, how to construct a widely relevant universally applicable standardized intelligence quotient test. All these observed local and or international preoccupations and disagreements over IQ validity/relevance declare that the use of standard IQ tests in a range of settings indicate the extreme important value set on knowledge/intelligence however differently defined and adversely/variably understood. Some argue in favor of UBI (universal basic income) as one plausible alternative instrument and let each and everyone soar. This diverse group of intellectuals include, inter alia, Dr Martin L King (MLK), psychologist Robert Plomin in conversations with Sam Harris Podcast (221) economist/commentator Paul Mason in Www iai.tv and economist of finance, former Greek minister of finance Yanis Varoufakis in Big Think of May 27 2019. See also "South Korea UBI experiment" in Wall Street Journal(WSJ) of October 9 2019. After reviewing the texts that gave rise to eugenics, to forced sterilization and to ethnic cleansing in America and historically subsequently in the 1930/40s Nazi Germany, Natalie Frank recommends Edwin Black's book entitled, WAR AGAINST THE WEAK for further reading along with her personal reactions and reflections as well as readers comments. Readings : For class discussion. Please read before class: Cultures and IQ Tests: Business Insider, The Conversation, Education Week, Huffpost, Owlcation The theory of multiple intelligences. was first introduced in his 1983 book “Frames of Mind,” Howard Gardner, a psychologist, and professor at Harvard University, states that there are eight types of human intelligence — each representing different ways of how a person best processes information. And: See a follow-up treatise. by Dr. Kumar Mehta's essay in http://matterslo.com/2021/03/10/harvard-psychologist-types-of-intelligence-where-do-you-score-highest-in.html "If you want to learn to be exceptional at something, your best bet is to understand the unique areas of intelligence where you have an advantage, and then build upon those strengths." ****** The pioneers of social genetics were racists and eugenicists: should we give up on the science they founded altogether? Kathryn Paige Harden is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her first book, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, will be published by Princeton University Press in Fall 2021. ON A LIMITED SCALE: Some folks amongst us in a given community were born with many favorably disposed traits, all things considered under the circumstances. Life is full of chaos energy and it blasts curses and gifts in all directions. Some people are granted green pastures for no reason. There’s no point in getting jealous or depressed over that fact. "It is what it is", is a popular Buddhist refrain. Put your elbows out and work with what you’ve got, advises the Griot.
NOTES TO MYSELF on wisdom accumulated over the span of time
by Dawitt Abraha February 2, 2021 Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
THESE are but three out of my roster of accumulated wisdom through living a life:
(oh)(oh)(oh), the joys of living long enough and still kicking it! “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” - Martin Luther King Jr. Enjoy life. Be here now, NOW! Love one another. This is the basis for a successful and satisfying life as per many sayings from my sage maternal grandfather, from my beloved and greater than life father and from many other sages, shamans and philosophers out there in every corner of the globe. I have resigned and accepted to embrace the mysteries of life and of death. “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”- John Lennon. Question everything. Buddha said; “believe nothing, merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your shaman teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher”. Insist that your elders, shamans, sages, teachers, scientists, priests, sheikhs and rabbis support and embrace your questioning.
To: Notes to MySelf
From: MySelf
QUESTION HANDED DOWN ACCULTURATION AND FREE UP YOURSELF
by Dawitt Abraha January 2021 Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
I recommend that we sit quietly as often as possible and reflect outside of our ordinary circumstances.
Learn new languages, new musical instruments, new dance, travel locally and internationally as expansively as possible. Try your hands at drawing or at making sketches. Make a special effort to do things in different ways each and every time possible. Try to figure out what many forces and multitudes of factors went on into our socio-psychological make-up. We can be a hopeless jumble of inherited wisdom's, linguistic coding, cultural programing and confirmation bias cognitive dissonance. Or a diamond in the rough! KNOWINGNESS SATISFICING by Dawitt Abraha September 2020 Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand Under lock-down in one of the best places in the world to experience the dynamics of that
Intro:
Philosopher Barry Schwartz uses this term: satisficing (= satisfactory plus sufficient in my own words) in his 2017 revised edition book entitled THE PARADOX OF CHOICE: Why more is less.
Philosopher Barry Schwartz
I have had a set of almost lifelong refrains inculcated into me by my wonderful parents and by grandparents, by my culture and by other primary influences in my life.
One of my mainstay memes has been present in my political economic philosophical in my political economic philosophical discussions which states that; *You are what and who you know" *"The pleasures of madness is only known to the madman". Our mostly accidental seemingly ambiguous chaotic happenstance, predicaments seem to have a largely significant imprints in our developments, psychological, physical and or philosophical developments. After all is said and done, it is what it is. Sometimes it may be mostly just sheer luck after all. That is the basis of most or of a good deal of our KNOWINGNESS. And as poet William Blake observed in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93): "You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough". We can hack life experiences(to use a contemporary verbiage. One of the host of possible contributors to wisdom can be Eco-travel. Another among many, probable modality can a conscious and conscientious self-exposure to extended regimens of fasting, deep meditation retreats, extended covid-19 mandated quarantine and or lock-down long-term out of office work environment. See for instance https://www.fastcompany.com/90544975/4-major-long-term-psychological-effects-of-continued-remote-work?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits On the primarily physical plane couple with mental attitudes towards body building and healthy aging : Allow me to share this information that I find to be very powerful. This lifestyle may not be suitable for everyone, but the knowledge and advice presented is however essentially beneficial to all of us, I reckon. Please watch it all with an open mind. COMMENTARY: revised March 2020 Original by Dawitt Abraha March 2013 Maui, Hawaii WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
A working definition of what is philosophy goes something like this.
It is a systematic examination of ideas and or feelings and other sensual experiences of our general environment to arrive at an awareness at an understanding and/or at an explanation thereof. I gleaned such a definition from many sources in my readings and or from my discussions. BY DEFINITION; as human beings developed symbolism and later languages, they have been philosophizing, examining their respective environments all over the globe, in every corner of the world. Some individuals, some social classes and some occupations within a given community, in many parts of the world may have relatively more time at their disposal to dedicate to the examination of ideas and of the environment. Some others may prove to have been conditioned with greater analytic, or verbal, or intellectual predispositions, or aptitudes towards this discipline/this metier and hence would possibly excel at it in every corner of our world at that point in time. All these situations are mutable under different political-economic structures. Nothing seems to be endemic. Some communities in different parts of the world may have been environmentally favored at that point in time to have developed written records and may have kept expansive wisdom and or philosophical archives. We should all be grateful for those resources. Some others have mostly wisdom and philosophical oral legends, oral history repeatedly handed down by bards, by griots, by phenomenal wise persons. All these situations are mutable under differing political-economic structures . Nothing seems to be endemic. Paintings recorded on cave walls or legends stored on goatskin, on papyrus, petroglyphs and hieroglyphics are all good sources of the study of philosophy in a given culture . The accidental historical predisposition of an industrialized culture should not be preemptively prejudicial to other forms of saving philosophical recording or record keeping. It is my sense of poverty in the canon of philosophy to not appropriately duly include Africa, Asia and The Native Cultures of The Americas regarding the general study of philosophy in many centers of learning all over the world What a pity and what a lacking it has been for some good time! Things are changing. The tunnel vision and arrogance of The Western system is subsiding per force. See for instance Julian Baggini's recent book HOW THE WORLD THINKS: A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY (Granta Publishers October 2018). The development of archival collections of what is called Western philosophy and science has been subsidized and underwritten, in some materially considerable measure by contributions from Africa,from Asia especially during the historical enslavement of Africans for European business interests. And more significantly in the form of the material and financial contributions to Europe during European colonization of Africa, of Asia and of The Americas. Even today there is a direct net outflow of materials and of financial instruments from Africa, from Asia and The Americas heading to Europe. See for instance Walter Rodney,"How Europe underdeveloped Africa" (Bogke-L'ouverture Publications 1972). Dambissa Moyo,"Dead Aid" (Penguin Books October 2010). And former World Bank director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has stated that the first "Marshall Plan" rescuing Europe was from Africa and from Asia while the second "Marshall Plan to Europe" was from The USA. Contrarily, peoples and philosophers in Africa, Asia and in The Americas, have been smart enough to study all disciplines and all chapters of philosophy, that is available out there. Philosophy should not distinguish between methods.
by Dawitt Abraha
(MARCH 2020) CHIANG MAI, NORTHERN THAILAND AUTRE SPEAKING AUTRESPEAKING is the description of situations, personal, collective or phenomenal where the narrative is USURPED, dominated (or mainstreamed) by social-political-economic factors outside of the main agent. It purports to questions of agency. Illustrations: *Columbus" discovered America. Femininity and female-centered development causes featured through the eyes of male figures or and characteristics. Minorities and other anomalous groupings as autre spoken by mainstream structures. For a critical look at the perils of autrespeaking is a case put forth by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh THE PATH,A NEW WAY TO THINK ABOUT EVERYTHING, Simon & Shuster 2016. If you get a chance to go out to the movies, look out for: the Biggest Little Farm, which is a 2018 American documentary film, starring husband-wife duo, all the resident farm animals as well as the wild ones, all potentially beneficial and harmful insects as well as all the flora and fauna. It was written and directed by Emmy Award Winning director John Chester. The film profiles Chester and his wife Molly as they acquire and establish themselves on Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California. They champion permaculture regenerative, centuries old proven and perfected as well as evolving indigenous agricultural practices. The farm works in tandem with all ecological designs, just like many, many successful indigenous communities all over the globe. They are supposed to follow centuries old proven "indegenous" permaculture, which is the porte-monteau to permanent agriculture practices "popularized" as opposed to the most often "autre speak" of "discovered" by among others is the best resource of permaculture is the 2011 edition of Bill Mollison's INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE. Another great contribution is "THE ONE STRAW REVOLUTION: An Intro to natural farming by MASANOBU FUKUOKA. AUTRE SPEAK: The word "autre speak" is a word that i coined combining the French word, autre= other, and combined it with speak. It illustrates situations where personal collective and social narrative is often time usurped by mainstream or majority dominant structures. "The pleasures of madness is only known to the mad person" is a saying that I have always been hearing about, but most of our societal imagery of mad persons is through representations of them by neighbors, by places of worship, by supposedly patently mental health authorities figures of clinically diagnostically sane psychiatrists, psychologists and such other mainstream structures ..*********"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE "VOICELESS." THERE IS ONLY THE DELIBERATELY SILENCED OR THE PREFERABLY UNHEARD. - Arundhati Roy *********** Let us take the historical life of, Sarah Baartman, aka The Hottentot Venus during apartheid South African historical period, for whatever it is worth. (See Wikipaedia for some story of Sarah Baartman). One of the saddest phenomenons of exclusion is that all sides get impoverished perspectives of each other failing to grasp the multiple beauties of all sides. In the case of almost all anomalous persons and or groupings like Sarah Baartman, besides her enslavement and objectification is the absence of her own voice in her own narrative. Every account, almost, we in the popular culture, the mainstream, know of the anomalous in literature and in popular imagery is what obtains in the dominant cultural archives of her captors in the science labs, as well as from the entertainment industry of the day from memoirs of audience members who benefited from gawking and similar circumstances. The anomalous are, albeit temporarily taking into account the dialectical evolution of political economic forces at play, historical perspectives structurally notwithstanding are reduced to being seen and not to be heard at that very moment in history. But really, have we all not been amused, flabbergasted and surprised by the overtaking of the thereto fore unthinkable? So what is really going on but a flimsy passing of time. With such an awareness, can we not grasp that we are just insignificant players on the stage? I want us all to realize that we exercise some small powers to turn things around, slowly ,slowly !*************" WHO LOOKS OUTSIDE, END UP DREAMING, WHO LOOKS INSIDE,AWAKES. CARL JUNG ************* How much time do you have left in this life,this time around?
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