AfricaMaat: Plato and Aristotle: the two pillars of western thought

These two men alone, moreover very famous, illustrate the dualism of the Western paradigm. To emphasize their importance and at the same time show their divergent views, the painter Raphael, in his famous painting entitled "the Athenian school," showed them in a posture which reveals the very essence of their philosophy: Plato is pointing his index finger towards the sky while Aristotle’s left hand falls towards the ground.

Both men have determined the way we think, analyze, debate, classify and understand the basic values of life which all Western thinkers use today. Together, they worked out the basic structure of social life, the rules of European dialectic and the roles assigned to things and men.

PLATON ET ARISTOTE

PEINTURE DE RAPHAËL

PAINTING BY RAPHAËL

These two completely different men maintained a student/master relationship for almost 20 years, Aristotle was Plato’s pupil before becoming his strongest opponent. Even European spiritual thought did not escape their influence. The analysis of the "Vulgate" made by the fathers of the Church and the first Latin translation of the "Septante," still remain under the influence of these two masters of Greek philosophy especially when it comes to understanding spirituality.

These two diametrically opposing philosophies symbolizes perfectly the two modes of thinking of European intellectuals. Plato the philosopher, reveals his idealist leaning, through his abstractions, his dialogues and his mystical thoughts. Aristotle the rationalist remains concerned with material things, methodical inventories and systematization. The first untirelessly seeks and questions the reasons for the world and for our existence, while the second seeks to understand how things work, their causes and their effects.. One imagines an ideal city under the influence of "philosopher kings" whose mission would be to guide in the name of good, the human community, the other attempts to generate a social order while justifying social inequalities.

It is clear therefore that Europeans, strongly influenced by these ideas, are either Platonic or Aristotelian in their manner of seeing the world, in their relationship with others and in their manner of understanding their society. Add a "feeling of superiority" to the recipe and you will understand their modus operandi. It is of little consequence which one they support, as it is only their historical experiences and philosophical ideas which fulfill the necessary criteria (read white,) to be bestowed with the seal of "Universalism." It is these dogmatic Eurocentrist ideas which have been severely attacked by Afrocentricity philosophy.

Frustrated Western historians blinded by their "racial" pride, generally prefer to hide the fact that Plato spent 13 years in ancient Egypt being taught philosophy by African priests in the temple of Iounou (Héliopolis). Strabon himself acknowledged that he visited Plato’s room in Africa. Aristotle, tutor of the young Alexander the Great (destroyer of civilizations) obviously watered down Egyptian literature especially when he shows that the diversity of what comprises the universe is unity (he is referring here to the Egyptian idea of "Noun") or even when he admits that Egypt is the true cradle of mathematical science (see Metaphysics).

Loyal to their societies which were steeped in injustice, inequality and vices of every kind, these two mastodons of European thought are to be handled with tweezers. Indeed, Aristotle was the first to justify with a rare violence, slavery and the idea of man as an “inanimate object "meaning an "inferior being." As for Plato, he justifies not only slavery but also debauchery by yielding to the temptations of the flesh ....male.

These two collosal men deep down thus reveal a completely, unfinished, philosophical content, without any substance, because they were citizens of a society at heart devoid of humanism, prisoners of earthly wealth and easy prey to temptations of all kinds. In their search, they could not detect that true intelligence, which comes from the heart, is that which allows man not to act on his impulses but rather to control them, by using universal and divine wisdom.

Man understands the world with his intellect and not with his heart, which is the seat of divine and human sensitivity. It is because the wise men of Africa during the Pharaonic period understood this that they chided the Greeks for being, as Plato states, childish spirits, incapable of controlling their animal and earthly impulses.

In hindsight, we could add that Platonic Europeans can also be described as pyromaniacs playing sorcerer’s apprentices because it should not be forgotten that they played a major role in European strategy in the conquest and destruction of Africa. They were the first salvo which diverted people’s minds with their pseudo philosophical religious concepts.

European Aristotelians were the second blast which disappeared with all our human and material wealth, leaving the still fresh odor of gunpowder oozing in the air.

For centuries now the game of these two men has been running smoothly.