By Franz J. T. Lee
PANDEMONIUM
BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS.
Merida, Venezuela, 1999.
COPYRIGHT: Franz J. T. Lee.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
History of Wisdom II
By Franz J. T. Lee
PANDEMONIUM
BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS.
Merida, Venezuela, 1999.
COPYRIGHT: Franz J. T. Lee.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
History of Wisdom II
"Western" Philosophy ?
Generally, all "thought" that is not born in the "Cradle" of "Western Civilization"-- that is, all intellectual and rational reflections prior to Thales -- are not considered as being "Ancient Philosophy"; for this very reason, everything else is classified as mythology, theosophy, animism. superstition or black magic. In the introduction, we indicated that this is simply inborn arrogance or well-bred ignorance. Of course, nowadays as byproduct of the European alma mater, even "Bantu Philosophy" is being taught at African Universities, but an African Plato or Hegel, Marx or Bloch, will never see the Visionary Light, will never leave the "Cave of Underdevelopment". With sophia or wisdom this arrogant attitude surely has very little to do. However, since the advent of Labour on Planet Earth, no matter where it was born, essentially it was generated as a non-relation, and henceforth it persists as maltreated Nature vis-a-vis perverted Society, as Alienation per se.
Labour & Original Sin !
Ever since the "Neolithic Revolution", ever since the Great Agricultural
Revolution, Physical Labour -- no matter its "historical" level, also,
no matter its geographic birthplace -- was directed at the Economic Exploitation
of Nature, in the service of "human need", better, in the service
of "human greed" for "survival" purposes. Mother Nature produced
"Man" and she surely did not forget to forge the "survival gene". Labour
or Work was surely not on her production and reproduction agenda. Man violated
his own mother, in the style of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Ghost.
If we take the Old Testament as the "gospel truth", then, originally, the Almighty Yahweh found his non-labouring human creatures "good", and he did not plan that "Work" should be performed in the "Garden of Eden". Only later, when "Man" ate from "the tree of life" alias of "knowledge", he became a "moral" human being and could distinguish between "good" and "evil". As such he was ingloriously thrown out of Paradise, into Hell, into "History", into the coming Orwellian "1984"; only then "tilling the soil" with "sweat on his brow" Man became a historic reality. In nuce, the "Original Sin" against Mother Nature unveiled itself as Labour.
Intellectual Property is Theft !
The historical, ideological superstructure, Intellectual Labour -- no matter its specific degree of Politiccal Domination -- was produced as the expression of maltreated Nature and perverted Society. This Non-Relation, this "and" was and still is its "Truth"; all this is euphemistically called the Patria, the Fatherland, Heimat, Culture or Civilization.
Certainly, the superstructure of the Patria on a global scale was not constructed exclusively by Oriental and European philosophers and thinkers, although the latter provided the "lion’s share", as can be verified in the "History of Philosophy". However, the privatization of thought, private property of thought, intellectual property rights, all fall in the realm of Proudhon’s excellent discovery: Property is Theft!
Firstly, a global European "discovery", robbery and colonization of "Intellectual Labour" took place; secondly, it was christianized exclusively as "European Thought", and finally, all traces and relations of "philosophy" toward extra-European intellectual sources were declared negligible, censored, carefully erased or burnt in the fires of the Inquisition. Only then, after the intellectual "holocaust" was accomplished, in the alma mater the "Wise Men", the "Renaissance", the "Reformation" and the "Enlightenment" could flourish; and surely ever since, across the centuries, there was no doubt about the superb degree of "European" intelligence and the excellence of philosophic genius, about the triumphant forward march of Reason, of the accumulation of Capital, of the construction of wealthy metropolitan capitals.
"History of Philosophy" or "History of Plagiarism"?
In the introduction we indicated that crypto-hylozoistic thought was
already developed in Ancient Egypt, India, Iran, China and Japan. Now we
will briefly expound some of these philosophic reflections; after all,
India had been an advanced "Culture and Civilization" long before
the dawn of Hellas. Millennia before, along the Ganges and the Indus, physical
and intellectual labour were flourishing, were more advanced than anywhere
in "Europe". However, in no way we mention this in order to glorify or
deify the ancient wise Indian thinkers, or to belittle the "poor" Europeans
who were practically still trying to descend from the "trees" or to leave
the dark "caves". Au contraire
, we are just emphasizing the even, uneven and combined development of
physical and intellectual labour on a world scale towards its logical transhistoric
nirvana: towards Capital, Accumulation, Profits, Imperialism, Monopoly,
Oligopoly, Intellectual Property Rights, Globalization.
After the Neolithic Revolution, in toto, "mankind" has entered a historic level of production and reproduction which necessarily created materialist and idealist conceptions of the world. Of course, related to its level of physical production, Ancient India had brought forth its own "Wise Men", teaching panpsychic or hylozoistic materialist doctrines. A superficial survey of the collections of ancient Indian hymns or prayers, of the Vedas, dating back to 3000 B.C., will reveal caustic anti-dogmatism, atheistic and materialist tendencies. It is of interest to note that the concept "veda", in Sanskrit, does not mean "prayer" or "hymn", it denotes "knowledge".
The above tendencies are especially emphasized in the older Upanishads,
among them, Isa, Taittiriya, Svestasvatara, Chandogya, Brhadaranyaka,
Kena and Katha. In these Vedas
a strong anti-Brahmanism with materialist
ideological undertones can be detected. The Rgveda,
X, 129 states :
"Who knows from where Being came ?
The Gods only came into Being after It
already existed. –
Who can say from where It came ?"
This perpetual materialist-idealist, natural-social contradiction in Indian philosophy can be traced even in the old epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, also in the "Laws of Manu". From their very inception, Jainism and Buddhism had criticized Brahmanism. Until as late as the 4th Century B.C., these philosophic schools had attacked each other with the same scientific-philosophic stringency that we are accustomed to in Platonism, Aristotelianism and Atomism. Numerous Indian philosophers were hated by the Brahman establishment; they were persecuted and their works destroyed.
"In the Beginning was Water"
Nevertheless, today still, we can read in the Brhadaranyaka-Upanishad that "In the Beginning was Water", not the "Word", simply Water. Hence, so original, so archaic, Thales was in no way! The Upanishads were downgraded to theosophy, and "ariston men hydor" was upgraded to philosophy. According to the above veda, to ancient Indian knowledge, Brahman, the Gods and the World Itself, all originated from Water. Furthermore, the soul originated from water, air, earth and fire, and it returns to these elements.
Here we have the complete ancient Greek Philosophy-Chemistry, which formed the material basis of the Carvaka doctrines. The burning philosophic issue which had given the Ionians headaches, that is the problem of sense-perception and cognitive knowledge, was already debated in Ramayana, by Rama and Jabali, the ancient Indian materialist. Ancient India had its own "Seven Wise Men", one of them, the famous Brhaspati, was a kind of "Thales", a hylozoistic materialist, who stated : "Life originated from Matter" – c’est-a-dire, from prakrti. Seen from this angle, there was really "nothing new under the philosophic sun" in Ancient Hellas.
In this militant, optimistic, philosophic "spirit", we shall now display some philosophical reflections about Thinking a n d Thought; thereafter, we will introduce the natural a n d social environment of the "First Philosopher", of the "Wise Man", Thales of Miletus.
PANDEMONIUM2
USERS
GO
BACK FROM WHERE
THEY
CAME: HERE !!!