Caribbean Political Philosophy Essay

Western political Philosophy in the opinion of this examine is a concerted begin to project and impose on a hapless mess a foundation for immediate, continued domi solid ground and exploitation, we, thusly as a united Caribbean people, shadowernot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. This news report identifies and discusses the central themes (thinking) of Gordon Lewis principal(prenominal) Currents in Caribbean Thought, Paget enthalpys Calibans soil, Rex Nettlefords The Battle for Space and Charles W. mill about blackamoor megascopic. This identification and intelligence (generally) is achieved by tracing the development of Caribbean semipolitical belief by dint of with(predicate) an examination of melt/class, explanations of underdevelopment, perspectives on dependency and the anti compound movement inter alia. The base goes on to explain ( specialally) the manner in which these works assist in understanding the diagnostic features, head aches and center of Caribbean policy-making estimation.The final section briefly examines where the Caribbean is at currently by discriminate the present set of circumstances engaging the islands. In doing so the paper hopes to make a contribution to the understanding and progress of Caribbean policy-making eyeshot. innovation The Caribbean has been described as an area of European colonisation and exploitation through slavery and the plantation system gibe to Dennis Benn (1987), it has also been described in terms of the product of these conjoined vari satis pointorys, the product of a racial smorgasbord of African, European and Asian referred to as Creole.Nigel Bolland (2004) describes Creole as locally innate(p) persons of non-native origin, which, in the Americas, generally means people of either African or European ancestry. This prove goes further and defines this groups contribution to this space, diverse in cultural, pagan and sacred inputs, in terms of the new demands to be made on the state from the product of the aforementioned conjoining. Contribution is achieved by way of a promiscuously articulated semi governmental doctrine moderating the competing pastime.It is this articulation that is the aspect of this essay. To this end an effort will be made to identify and critically discuss the central themes of Gordon Lewis Main Currents in Caribbean Thought, Paget Henrys Calibans Reason, Rex Nettlefords The Battle for Space and Charles W. Mills Blackness Visible. To achieve the needful coverage of the issues the essay will proceed as follows an analysis of the characteristic features, concerns and content of Caribbean semi semipolitical thought.Comparisons will be made to typically typical aspects of African and European political philosophical system (characteristic features), democracy, representation, institutional arrangement and leave (concerns), equality, tender justice, welfare (content). It is by this comparison to the as sumed standard that a location of Caribbean political thought could be made and understanding of its human step on it assessed. Finally the understanding sought will be put to engross in locating the Caribbean in this worldwide milieu.It is hoped that a contribution til now small will contribute to the ongoing development of Caribbean political Thought. symptomatic FEATURES The assumption that philosophical system is held as a European monopoly is grounded in an knowing tradition whose history consists of the evolution of mens thoughts about political problems over time fit in to Sabine and Thorson (1973). Thankfully, on that point is balance to the discussion accorded by nuanced analysis describing the aforementioned assertion as a faithlessly assumption given that these phenomena as known to the Greek were but artefacts of thought George Belle (1996).The suspense must, therefore, be asked to what extent the character of Caribbean political philosophy shown a level of i ndependence from westward political philosophy and by extention an learn path that reflects its African/European/Asian origin and alliance of its peoples (Creole). This coalescence is described, to a giving extent, by C W Mills (1998) as the coexistence of parallel but incompatible institutional arrangements within a treasure political state speaks clearly to the mevery complex issues engaging the mess of interest acting within this Caribbean.Significantly and more than importantly, is the anti- colonial struggle that is fought at the level of the psyche through cultural and spiritual expressions Paget Henry (1997). This essay will examine both examples and place them into context. Henry argues that religion has undergone opinionated alienation within the Caribbean theatre by way of a punishing of its register or importance to thought. His observations show an embrace of Eurocentric Christianity purpose by the former colonials as a tool of control and supremacy culminat ing in a radical disenfranchising of traditional African religions pertaining to inherited Afro-Caribbean Christianity (voodoo and shango). He explained A deployment of binaries (negative assertions) led to European/Christian denials of the existence of an African religious philosophy, significantly and more importantly, is the anti-colonial struggle that is fought at the level of the psyche through cultural and spiritual expressions. What is noted by Henry is the idea that doldrums has been allowed to take root in the philosophy allowing gaps for re-colonisation. These gaps are identified by Mills (1998) as he draws on the efforts of David T Wellman (1993) who made clear It has been argued that the historic source of white racism lies in a cabal of religious intolerance and cultural predis coifs to see non-whites as alien. The medieval battles against Islam are accordingly the precursors of the racism that was to accompany European expansionism into the human race.African relig ions were seen as lecture worship, black culture and customs viewed as mumbo jumbo, paradigmatically bizarre. Henry and Mills jointly recognised the Eurocentric imposition that has come to be known as Christianity and its use as a tool to negatively impact race relations dividing and colonising a people. The expectation would be a Caribbean response in defense and ownership of that cosmology which was African. Instead, according to Belle (1996), an intellectual stasis was the result complementing the fantasy of negative binaries.Belle went on to intimate Haitian political actors culturally trivialised and ridiculed voodum. The percentage of voodum, a spiritual expression, in the Haitian experience was central for them in their supernatural and cultural expressions within an anti colonial context. Recall Mills (1998) incompatible institutional arrangement alluded to earlier consider that Henry was able to capture the Haitian dynamic beautifully, this also in the context that Ha iti holds the mark of being the first autonomous black state of the new adult male.He expressed it as A series of extended debates amongst the major(ip) competing racial groups of the Euro-Caribbean, Amerindians, Indo-Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean over projects of colonial domination. The philosophical productions of the Euro-Caribbean were aimed at effecting European political and social hegemony (recall Belle (1996)). While, in contrast, the philosophical undertakings of the Indo-Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean were aimed at destroying European hegemony by destroying the genuineness of their colonial projects. It is clear from these exertions to define the character of Caribbean political philosophy accent mark has been placed on its utility as an anti colonial tool for overcoming and overturning projects of European hegemony according to Henry (1995). At the heart of these projects are elbow greases to play down the effort to develop an alternative to Christianity, reconnect ion to an African cosmology that bore attester to the imposition of European dogma and through the condemnation of Islam.This essay accepts that any attempt to build out a project must at the same time brace a level of self appraisal attempted by Mills and Henry in this instance. What are of concern to this essay are efforts from within to compromise the character of the project. It is remaining hand to be determined if concerns (to be discussed) will suffer the same fate. CONCERNS The classic leaning in favour of western political thought is found in social-contract theories, first proposed by seventeenth-century philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.Social-contract theory, in fact, constitutes the basis for concerns in new political thought according to Andrew Heywood (2004). The joust is referenced to fraternity without government, a so-called state of disposition. Hobbes poignantly describes this state of nature as being solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short rein forcing that without government to restrain egocentric impulses, order and stability would be impossible. To what extent has this argument been a mandate of the contribution concerning Caribbean political philosophers or has there been a redefining of Hobbes position?Paget Henry (2000) identifies a situation of what came natural to the African and the colonial intrusion of a self appointed hegemonic force. In an attempt to locate the discussion within the confines of the state Henry draws on Kwameh Nkrumah (1965) to establish a modern ideology unlike the European articulation of Hobbes state of nature. The African judicial decision is one of diametric opposition, Nkrumah explains The traditional face of Africa includes an spot toward man which can only be described, in its social manifestation, as being socialist.This arises from the fact that man is regarded in Africa as primarily a spiritual being, a being endowed originally with certain inward dignity, integrity and value. This tenableness of the African locates him apart from his European counterpart. Henry showed the widespread existence of unilateral states in Africa was not due to one particular outlook he opined it pointed to the persistence of a traditional political culture that included a grammar of chiefly or kingly political behaviour.The argument is not without cerebrate given the application by Plato to the philosopher kings and much later the Divine overcompensate of Kings show a use of African political structure in an attempt to order a European society. The Caribbean, however, has shown no such careen having been to a large extent trapped in and shaped by social rivalries, ethnic animosities, weak personal/social identity and political fragmentation caused by the twin epiphenomena of slavery and colonialism according to Gordon Lewis (1983).This is not by accident Lewis argued that the inability of Caribbean people to come to grips with this reality, that was not imagined but was real, left them open to continued exploitation. He went on to explain quite accurately that Slavery was also a government agencyful ideolegitimate deterrent, for it generated a scurf of values in the top, dominant groups of the colonies, in which fear of the black crowd stifled aspiration for content independence.At every turn in the story, these groups opted for selfish treason rather than for popular revolt. Lewis contribution established the resultant of the native bourgeoisies sparing dependence upon the colonial bourgeoisie. It has never been the intent of the former coloniser to give more for less on the contrary the intent was one of taking more for less. Observe how the precedent struggle ostensibly between colonised and coloniser gets displaced by power relations within the colonised body politic itself.Remember the argument is one of government structure based on self interest (Hobbes and Locke) against one based on consensus (Paget Henry). Seemingly self-serving political and economic ambitions knows no boundary and does not seek to serve the interests of the newly independent proletariat. Frantz Fanon (1963) suggests the ways in which intellectual leaders often betray the topic working-class Before independence, the leader generally embodies the aspirations of the people for independence, political liberty, and national dignity.But as soon as independence is declared, far from embodying in concrete form the needs of the people in what touches bread, land, and the restoration of the untaught to the sacred hands of the people, the leader will reveal his inner declare oneself to become the general president of that company of profiteers impatient for their returns which constitutes the national bourgeoisie. Fanons sagacity is encapsulated by a more circumstantial argument against the existence of a Caribbean Philosophy, it is the perception of the absence of an intellectual tradition, and the belief the Caribbean is a cultural desert.Th e wide held view of the Caribbean as a region of the three Ss sea, sand and sex. A notion upon which the tourism industry has been constructed by and to this mean solar day exploited by a select few (national bourgeoisie). The writers, to a large extent, have highlighted the threats to democracy, representation, institutional arrangement and authority by way of concerns. A social contract theory promulgated by the former colonial has been helped by an African option structured on consensus. A by the bye observation of the constraints to growth based on petty rivalries is a proctor of the island state vulnerability to external influence.This essay suggests that betrayal of the political elect(ip) fairly represents the intellectual dilemma the Caribbean is now facing if Fanon (1963) is accepted. This essay argues that if these concerns were communicate maybe the stability of the natural African heritage would have offered up a leader and a type of governance sensitive to the m ickle and diversification needed.This essay understands the contribution of Henry and Lewis in attempting to show there was an intellectual tradition drawing attention to democracy, institutional arrangement and authority to address the myriad of concerns. CONTENT Issues that, historically and today, have most come to political philosophers begin with a set of questions about equality, justice and welfare. These could be thought of as an enquiry into the best form of state according to David Miller (1998). It is a fact that for most of our history human beings have not been governed by states hence the free roaming tribes of Africa, Taino and Kalilingo of the Caribbean and not to be left out the marauding barbarians of Europe.From the inception this essay has identified a specific group as central to the continued existence of the Caribbean. Rex Nettleford (1993) and Charles Mills (2007) endorse that centrality by, in the first instance, identifying the group as one of three ampl e elements shaping the society in the second instance, through a specific schema that embodies a racial polity both starting at diverging points but eventually reaching a mutually silent location.Nettleford has been innovative using the concept of space to draw attention to social injustice he describes maronnage or the crawfish into safe psychic sanctums traffic on inner reserves beyond the reach of external violators. This retreat came about with the use of language to communicate, plan and execute rebellion in a tongue foreign to the invaders bringing some equality to a struggle that was always almost dictated by the colonial.He explained .. Creole, in the proper sense of native-born, native-bred and not in the sense of an aberration of a dialect to the norm of a standard tongue. The very code shift pick up , so normal to Caribbean people in the liberal use of Creole for appropriate circumstances transformed to the lingua franca as the occasion demands (sometimes in one sen tence), is a sign of the capacity to master the flow between inner and outer space on one level. The code transposition to which he refers is an attempt to push back an institution not appealing to the Creole. To organise and communicate meant the mastery of a tongue foreign to the colonial because the institutions to which he had a monopoly were unequal, lacked social justice and had no welfare. This was identified by an economic relationship that marginalised tray merchants placing the Caribbean person on the periphery of existence according to Nettleford (1993).The exclusion from the vicinity of formal commercial enterprises driving the trader immunity to the informal economy away from the formal economy clearly establishes a prima facie content for the judicial, executive and legislative institutions to answer with regard to the espouse precepts of western political thought. Mills wasted no time high spot the fact that race has been essentially reduced to a minimal debate, glossed over, and otherwise left out of the majority of the multiculturalism literature Mills (1998).His evaluation was logical and nuanced, he argued that Tracing the evolution of the concepts of race and ethnicity race began as a biological and therefore immutable aspect of the human condition, while ethnicity was and is seen as a consequence of culture. Racism and ethnocentrism were differentiated by their essential films washout is a consequence of biology and therefore racism presumes a biological pecking order ethnicity is a consequence of culture and therefore ethnocentrism requires a give up of cultural distinction and assimilation. Given the consensus within the scientific community that biological race and thus biological hierarchy do not exist, what pertains in the Caribbean, therefore, in the form of Creole ethnicity and ethnocentrism are seen as relatively more logical and reasoned according to Mills (2007). There is confirmation of this legal opinion by Lewis (1 983). He articulated a position that the Caribbeans wholeness greatest contribution to political thought is its open exploration of the question concerning race.This exploration, as Lewis puts it, possibly offers a counter to a Eurocentric juju with its misplaced presumption of superiority on the subject, a sober Caribbean response. The content of Caribbean thought being characterised as likewise concerned with the use of race converges to the concept of Creole recall the alignment sought earlier by Nettleford (1993) and Mills (2007) it is no wonder, therefore, that ethnicity as articulated by Mills (2007) is seen as a more politically palatable category to discuss and philosophically legitimate engaging the polity at all levels.As a people are we therefore satisfied with the aforementioned argument in its attempt to reconcile what is a contentiously debated topic? This essay suggest that the attempt at convergence is likely due to the challenge of the (particularism) of Caribbea n Political thought essentially a question of authenticity which can be define as of undisputed origin, genuine, reliable and trustworthy. It is a question of who constitutes the Caribbean person, in this character the African or Asian or European or is it the Creole or maybe none of the previously mentioned.Since it is suggested by some that the attempt at convergence is unlikely must the debate be reduced to one or the other in an attempt to secure an answer? This essay further suggests a complexity that cannot be determined by way of who has the right to speak on behalf of the Caribbean and a claim of superiority. To attempt this would in the opinion of this essay reduce the debate to that which western political thought is insecure in its biological existence. This is where maturity and understanding is rife in the construction of a worthwhile paradigm independent of western political dogma.UNDERSTANDING CARIBBEAN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY The term political philosophy often refer s to a view, specific political belief or attitude about politics that does not necessarily be foresighted to the technical champaign of philosophy. In short, political philosophy is the activity, as with all philosophy, whereby the conceptual machine behind such concepts as aforementioned are analysed, in their history, intent, evolution and the like according to Jean Hampton (1997).Tim Hector questioned, Where is our philosophy? as if to think of that the aforementioned concepts are yet to be found or hit not understood and overlooked. His ask is reasonable given the time our people have occupied this space with the accompanying accoutrements of independence and must be answered against a background of accepted criteria as to what a political philosophy is Hampton (1997). Right or wrong the confluence, convergence, divergence, lack of application that has become substitutable with these islands gives what they have to say a genuine uniqueness.Since independence, for all the l imitations, they have not found the need to go on crusades slaughtering millions in the name of God, use an intellectually convenient ideology to foist on the rest of the world a self serving expansionist ideology under growing Africa and the Caribbean in the name of capitalism, murder its own in two world wars and as this essay concludes present globalisation as the new destabilising force.It is the position of this essay that the writers have been able to establish a prima facie case toward a political philosophy there is history, intent and evolution however more needs to be done if only to say Caribbean political philosophy is not what western political philosophy is. As long as the peoples resist the urge to lean toward their own understanding Caribbean Political Philosophy has a chance to become a global resolving power to its Western Political nemesis.CONCLUSIONIt is clear that an understanding of Caribbean political philosophy is an understanding of the post colonial proje ct and the need for the Caribbean to extricate itself from the political dogma that is Eurocentric in construction and delivery. In summary this exposure of Caribbean thought places a high value on overturning projects of European hegemony Nettleford (1995). So important is this aspect of the project that an epistemology, ontology perspective was developed to give structure and ground the thinking given the purported monopoly expressed by the European.Henry (2000) highlights the key thematic lines along which Caribbean political thought has thus far been expressed. This, however, has not been without controversy the claim that the Caribbeans single greatest contribution to global thought is its exploration of the question of race Lewis (1983) has triggered the characterisation as overly concerned with the utilisation of race as an analytical category. Mills (2007) answers the characterisation with a nuanced alternative articulating that biological race and thus biological hierarchy do not exist, what pertains in the Caribbean in a form of Creole ethnicity and ethnocentrism.If exclusively defined by the Western Political standards the Caribbean would be strenuous pressed to identify a political philosophy, the debate is thus absorbed to what is important to the people occupying the space. The fundamental difference is with application of what needs to be done given that the Caribbean is young relative to its European counterpart then there is more to be accomplished. This essay understands the confluence, convergence, divergence, dialectic that has become equivalent to these balkanised geographical dispersed islands.This essay accepts that understanding of a situation comes not with a presumption of right or wrong but receptiveness to arguments, that, if placed on a balance of probabilities could become the reality of the reader. BIBLIOGRAPHY Belle, George. 1996 Against Colonialism Political possibleness and Re-Colonisation in the Caribbean. Paper present ed at the Conference on Caribbean market-gardening Mona Jamaica UWI. Benn, Dennis. 1987 Ideology and Political Development the Growth and Development of Political Ideas in the Caribbean 1774-1983.Jamaica ISER, Mona. Bolland, Nigel. 2004 The Birth of Caribbean civilization A century of ideas about culture and identity, nation and society Kingston Ian Randle Fanon, Frantz. 1963 The Wretched of the Earth. New York Grove Press. Hampton, Jean. 1997. 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