Menkiti Slide Show

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Menkiti Slide Show

• HMXP 102
• Dr. Fike

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Ifeanyi A. Menkiti
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Menkitis Life

• Menkiti was born in Onitsha, Nigeria. He came to
  the United States to attend Pomona College and
  went onto Columbia and New York universities for
  further studies. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy
  from Harvard and has taught at Wellesley for more
  than 30 years. He teaches courses in the area of
  medical ethics, philosophy of law, philosophy and
  literature and African philosophy. He has
  produced two previous collections of poetry,
  Affirmations (1971) and The Jubilation of Falling
  Bodies (1978). Published widely in African and
  American journals, including Philosophical Forum,
  Harvard Educational Review and Journal of the
  American Academy of Religion, his poetry has been
  read on National Public Radio and has received an
  award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
  
• Source http//www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Re
  leases/2005/0428052.html

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Vocabulary

• perduring (3)
• dictum
• ontology (re. being)
• epistemology (re. knowledge)
• plenitude (5)
• ontological progression (7)
• ontological status (9)
• circumscribe (22)
• sine qua non (23)
• metaphysics (re. reality)
• atomic (27)

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Activity 7 minutes

• On the following slide there are seven concepts
  from Menkitis essay.
• In groups of 2-3 persons, work together to
  understand one of these concepts.
• As you do so, find one or more quotations to
  support your answer. You will report to the whole
  class.
• If you finish your groups concept in the time
  provided, move on to one of the other concepts.

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Key Concepts

1. Society ?? Persons (esp. 28)      
2. The role of language (3-11)
3. Minimal and maximal views of the person (6)
4. "the processual nature of being" (5)
5. "a qualitative difference...between old and
   young" (7)
6. ethical maturitya key difference (14-17)
7. personal immortality vs. collective immortality
   (11-12)

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Two More Concepts

• Existentialism
• Community

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Existentialism

• Sartre was the only self-declared existentialist
  among the major thinkers. For him the central
  idea of all existential thought is that existence
  precedes essence. For Sartre there is no God and
  therefore no fixed human nature that forces one
  to act. Man is totally free and entirely
  responsible for what he makes of himself. It is
  this freedom and responsibility that, as for
  Kierkegaard, is the source of man's dread.
• Source http//0-www.xreferplus.com.library.winthr
  op.edu/entry.jsp?xrefid4272380secid.-hh1

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Existentialisms Key Points

• There is no God at the core of existence.
• The universe is indifferent to human beings.
• The ultimate reality is not consciousness
  (Descartes) but existence.
• Existence precedes essence (meaning).
• We are completely free to determine own meaning
  through decision and action.
• We make decisions based on what brings meaning,
  not necessarily on what is rational.
• We are completely responsible for creating our
  lives meaning.

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Existentialism vs. Africa

• Similarities
• Both view "personhood, or selfhood, as something
  acquired" (21)
• and "existence does precede essence" (22).
• Existentialism 
• "emphasis on individuals solely constituting
  themselves into selves" (22)
• "man's freedom...from all determining factors,
  including even reason" (22). 
• Infant/child and adult have equivalent
  ontological status.
• African thought 
• Developing selfhood is related to life in
  community
• infants and children are NOT equal to
  adultsthere is "a qualitative difference" (7).
• Summary next slide.

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Summary Existentialism vs. Africa

• In the light of the foregoing observations, I
  take it then that the African view of human
  personhood and the Existentialist view should not
  be conflated. Even though both views adopt a
  dynamic, non-static approach to the problem of
  definition of human selfhood, the underpinning
  metaphysical assumptions diverge significantly.
  Above all, whereas in the African understanding
  human community plays a crucial role in the
  individuals acquisition of full personhood, in
  the Sartrean existentialist view, the individual
  alone defines the self, or person, he is to
  become. Such collectivist insistences as we find
  in the African world-view are utterly lacking in
  the Existentialist tradition (25).

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Existentialism

• Albert Camus is an existentialist.

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Camus

• It is a story about the choice Sisyphus can make
  between melancholy and happiness (par. 7).
  True, it is absurd to be happy in the face of
  eternal torment, but existentialisms point is
  that one makes meaning as one goes along.
  Meaning, happiness, and well-being are not
  external constructs they arise from within us.
  We choose thema function of point of view.

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More on Camus

• Absurdity arises from accomplishing nothing
  (par. 4).
• Heroism relates to joy, happiness, and meaning.
• One is an absurd hero for concluding that all is
  well despite failure.
• Absurdity and happiness lead to each other and
  reinforce each other.
• Consciousness makes Sisyphus tragic, but it also
  marks his triumph.
• Sisyphuss actions make his fate it is created
  by him (par. 9).
• Existentialism the wholly human origin of all
  that is human is a matter of individual acts of
  creation, not a societal function as in Menkitis
  text.

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Community

• What is the difference between the African and
  the Western conceptions of community?
• See pars. 26-27.

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Community

• Western thought
• Community is a mere collection of
  self-interested persons
• a community is the aggregated sum of individuals
  comprising it (26).
• A community is a random collection of
  individuals and a non-organic bringing together
  of atomic individuals into a unit more akin to an
  association (27).
• The emphasis is on individual rights.
• African thought
• Communities are collectivities that have an
  organic dimension to the relationship between the
  component individuals (27).
• The emphasis is on duty.

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Three Types of Communities

• How would you illustrate each type?
• random collections of individuals
• constituted human groups a non-organic
  bringing together of atomic individuals into a
  unit more akin to an association than to a
  community
• collectivities there is assumed to be an
  organic dimension to the relationship between the
  component individuals

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Large-group Discussion

• We now need to evaluate Menkitis stark
  distinction between Western culture and African
  culture.
• Is the difference as stark as he believes? In
  other words, do some of the characteristics that
  he attributes to African culture also
  characterize American culture? See next slide.

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Do you find any of these supposedly African
characteristics in America?

• language and its associated social rules (3)
• a long process of social and ritual
  transformation (5)
• rituals of incorporation (6)
• the older an individual gets the more of a
  person he becomes (7)
• initiation at puberty time (10)
• Ethical maturity as a part of personhood (14)
• Animal rights challenge to personhood (19)
• Society ? personhood (29)

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Please Note

• The items on the previous slide can help you
  generate paper topics.

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Final Question

• Could it be that Menkiti takes a binary
  (either/or) approach to cultural difference when
  it would be more appropriate to suggest
  difference in degree as in a continuum? In other
  words, is it possible that he has produced a
  cultural version of the fallacy of false
  dichotomy? Isnt it possible to take a
  maximalist view of personhood and still have
  rituals of incorporation?
• END