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Mark Tyson's avatar

As the self-styled leading black British philosopher of my generation and founder of Black Cartesianism I've been dismissed as stupid, deluded and more. I'm okay with that. I never say 'we need more black philosophers', I set out long ago to be that person. Truth be told I never really set out to be a 'black philosopher'. 'Black Cartesianism' is a joke, I'm not 'black' as a matter of consciousness I am not 'black' and never have been. When I say Cartesian I mean a way of thinking or philosophising. I mean that I begin with me. To be a ' black philosopher' I would have to take a metaphysical leap. I would have to adopt a consciousness of the world that is chosen? selected? Imposed? Not a consciousness that evolves out of my own experience.

If we want to be great, then we have to become great, this involves recognising that we aren't great right now, perhaps divising a plan, and maybe at some point acknowledging that despite our best efforts we didn't quite make it. As for praise and recognition, who do we want praise and recognition from? The great jazz musician Miles Davis would famously turn his back to the audience as a sign of his indifference to them. A well-known soul singer, I can't remember who, said ' you need one other person apart from your mother who values what you do'. If we want to build something new (perhaps we need a 'we'), 'we' need to grow with our audience. To understand my Cartesianism you might need to find out something about Descartes. We (the new 'we') need to praise, recognise and challenge and criticise each other.

I think that Apa's list is a mixed bag, certainly Inaya has a remarkable skill-set. My super power is conceptual thinking, my challenge is to 'you', if you think that I'm wrong or deluded or whatever, that's okay, let me know. 'We' can combine our abilities.

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Winkfield Twyman's avatar

Excellent point!

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