The urgency of thought; the ethical dilemma of a respectful encounter with others: a space for discourse between africa and the west

Résumé du document

Philosophers for a very long time now have called attention to or revealed the difficulties men have in living together. Jean Paul Sartre, among others, has revealed the necessity of conflict in human relations in opposition to thinkers who have perceived other forms of relations among human beings. According to Edgar Morin, we are still in the prehistoric mode of the human mind and thinking implying that the human mental capacities are still under-exploited especially at the level of our relations with others. We are, as such, barbarians in our relations with others. In the conflict-relation predominating up to date and constituting a major pathology the question is if there are other forms of relations that are envisageable? The axial point of this paper is to reveal the significant point of convergence between western thinkers (ie, Kant, Emmanuel Levinas etc. ) and the sapential function in African thought regarding a ceremonious experience with others.

Extraits

[...] The urgency of thought; the ethical dilemma of a respectful encounter with others: a space for discourse between africa and the west ABSTRACT Philosophers from time immemorial have called attention to or revealed the difficulties men have in living together. Jean Paul Sartre, among others, has revealed the necessity of conflict in human relations in opposition to thinkers who have perceived other forms of relations among human beings. According to Edgar Morin, we are in the prehistory of the human mind, signifying that the human mental capacities are yet under-exploited notably at the level of our relations with others. [...]

[...] A Jew cannot communicate with a Palestinian, A Serb cannot communicate with a Croatian, an American cannot communicate with an Arab etc. How could communication take place when cleavages among men still exist? Let the image falls, or better let it not appear, for then communion exist. And when communion is there, communication is warm and spontaneous. No longer any barriers. No more cleavage. It supposes a great humility. This means throwing away every fictitious identity laboriously constructed by the ego. Accept the extreme denouement of being a human being, close to a human being. [...]

[...] The carnage and barbarism of the 20th century answering to the names of war, genocide, as well as the conflict predominating up to date seem to confirm Freud's thesis. Accordingly, the ethics of our civilisation in total peril. We are thus summoned to ask ourselves whether other relations are envisionable and whether the conflict- relation predominating up to date does not constitute a major pathology. It would be convenient to ask as to which attitude should be good and legitimate to adopt in our relations to others. [...]

[...] The genius of the kiluba language allows the formation of the substantive in the germinate form: kalemeleme, respectful manners in opposition to kapélepele referring to the contrary or the lack or want of respect, the want of good manners. The acme of the kiluba conceptual construction is thus found in the syntagm: mulemantu which has a plural: balemantu, referring to a person who respects himself/herself, thus in turn making himself or herself respected, because he or she is a wise or virtuous person, faults free, wise, prudent, pleasant, welcoming, respected, venerated. [...]

[...] At any rate, whether we want it or not, humanity has entered a multicultural era, the whole question is to know how we will arrive at pacifying the relation between different cultures. But thinkers including philosophers, ethnologist, anthroplogists, linguists, etc. have proposed different solutions to human conflicts, which, thanks to limited space, I cannot enumerate here. Levinas sees the solution of this problem in ethics and parole. He suggests to us that the relation to the other or thinking is ethical. [...]