Tag: Supremacism

Social Issues

Some Disorderly Thoughts on Antisemitism and Related Matters

1 In response to protests at American universities against Israelโ€™s genocidal โ€œwarโ€ in Gaza, the United States House of Representatives accepted the โ€œAntisemitism Awareness Actโ€ on April 30. This act codifies the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism as well as its attached list of eleven โ€œcontemporary examples of antisemitismโ€. Most of those examples are antisemitic indeed by any reasonable interpretation of the term, but three of those โ€“ namely, examples 7, 8, and 10 โ€“ are a bit more dubious, largely due to their ambiguity. The text of these examples is the following: (7) โ€” Denying...
Philosophy

Is โ€œPhilosophyโ€ Racist?

The term โ€œphilosophyโ€ without any adjectives or other qualifications is generally understood to refer to Western philosophy. Introductory philosophy or ethics courses typically donโ€™t pay any attention to non-Western philosophers (or merely drop a name once or twice in an attempt to feign a broader perspective), and one can easily get a philosophy degree without ever seriously engaging with Chinese or Indian philosophy. While there has been some pressure to broaden the scope of โ€œphilosophyโ€, thus far very little progress has been made in this respect. One might (and should) wonder: What explains this resistance to a more inclusive understanding...