Core:Humanities

Midterm Exam Take-Home Portion

Due: February 23rd
Instructions: in addition to the in-class exam portion, complete the following takehome portion of the exam. Simply email me your response when youre done
(csmith@fisk.edu) or print it out and hand it during the in-class portion of the exam.
Write a minimum of 1-page, double-spaced, 12-font for this (but feel free to write as
much as youd like if you get into it).
Directions: choose any one of the following. Feel free to use the lectures I posted online
to help you with these, but you do not need to cite anything or refer to anyone in
particular if you dont want to. This can be entirely your own thoughts on the subject, but
the readings/lectures might help you organize your thoughts or inspire them further.
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When you get an advanced degree in philosophy in America today, there are
usually two major headings that all philosophy falls into: Western and Eastern.
Western philosophy begins in Greece c. 600 BCE, spreads throughout the
Mediterranean and from there splits to spread throughout the Middle East with
Islamic scholars and Europe with Christian scholars (and from there, eventually,
to America). Eastern philosophy begins around the same time in Asia and through
the theological-philosophical systems of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism
spreads throughout the Far East. As we noted, Africa is not mentioned and rarely
is African philosophy taught even in the most advanced degree programs in
America today. Why do you think that is that theres such a comparatively small
demand for classes in African philosophy in the discipline of philosophy today?

We spoke briefly about Outlaws and Yancys work on the transcendental norm
of experience. Stemming from Kings discussion of the power majority, the
transcendental norm dictates that we, in America today, experience as the
norm is conditioned by the traits of the power majority (i.e., what is white or
male is the norm, and doesnt need to be explained, its just assumed).
Everything else is defined as compared to that norm, or other than that norm. For
example: there is on White Entertainment Television (theres no WET). When
talking about TV programming, its assumed to be predominantly white, and
doesnt need further explanation. If you have Black Entertaining Television,
however, you need to point out that it is, specifically, Black Entertainment
Television (BET). Or if youre a basketball player, the norm is that youre male,
hence theres no need for an MNBA we can simply say NBA, but if youre a
woman, you have WNBA, defined only compared to the norm of masculinity in
basketball. There are limitless examples of this. With all that in mind heres the
question: do you think making these distinctions (black whatever, womens
whatever) but never making the same distinctions (white whatever, mens
whatever) is a good thing or a bad thing? In other words, is making these sorts of
distinctions highlighting that anything not white and/or male is secondary and

thus less important, or is it, instead, the case that making these distinctions and
highlighting things specifically black or female actually helps elevate them to
new levels of importance?
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Similar question to the one before: what should we do with the term African
Philosophy? Dubois believed that we should keep whats African about African
Philosophy by simply integrate it into Philosophy proper. Fanon, on the other
hand, did not what to get rid of the African part of African Philosophy but
wanted instead to keep it separate from Western (White) Philosophy as its own
unique field of study. What do you think?

Similar question pertaining to Fisk University: Fisk is historically known as an

African-American university and is also considered one of the finest and oldest
institutions in the south. Drawing upon the discussions weve had in class about
African Philosophy, do you think Fisk ought to be discussed as an AfricanAmerican university (i.e., should people highlight that fact when discussing how
great a university it is) or would you rather see Fisk University discussed as
simply a university without the added qualification that its an historically
African-American institution?

When discussing African Philosophy another question arises: who should be

included under that heading? Just people in and from Africa? Anyone of African
descent (thus including African-Americans)?
Just people who discuss,
specifically, things about Africa and African Philosophy? What about the
Caribbean or other predominantly black nations not technically on the continent
of Africa? How about white Africans? Who do you think should be included and
why?

Research Question: do some digging in books or online and come up with one
African philosopher (generally speaking) that we havent yet discussed in class
and simply write a short synopsis on who it is, when he/she lived, where he/she is
from, and what the general gist of the philosophy is about.

Setting aside the readings weve done so far and our brief synopsis of the history
of African Philosophy, simply in your own opinion, what sorts of topics would
you imagine might be a central feature of a specifically African form of
Philosophy? Politics? Ethics? Religion? Something else? What would you
expect to find reading about African philosophy and why?

Choose your own question: on any topic related to African Philosophy, create
your own topic and answer it any way you see fit so long as it remains related to
African Philosophy.