Philosopher views

BLACK NIHILISM IS BAD FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS

1. BLACK NIHILISM LEADS TO A COLLAPSE OF THE MEANING IN LIFE

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, RACE MATTERS, 1993, p. 5.

The collapse of meaning in life—the eclipse of hope and absence of love of self and others, the breakdown of family and neighborhood bonds—leads to the social deracination and cultural denouement of urban dwellers, especially children. We have created rootless, dangling people with little link to the supportive networks—family, friends, school—that sustain some sense of purpose in life. We have witnessed the collapse of the spiritual communities that in the past helped Americans face despair, disease, and death and that transmit through the generations dignity and decency, excellence and elegance.

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, RACE MATTERS, 1993, p. 18.

Sadly, the combination of the market way of life, poverty-ridden conditions, black existential angst, and the lessening of fear of white authorities has directed most of the anger, rage, and despair toward fellow black citizens, especially toward black women who are the most vulnerable in our society and in black communities. Only recently has this nihilistic threat—and its ugly inhumane outlook and actions—surfaced in the larger American society.
3. NIHILISM LEADS TO A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE DISPOSITION

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, RACE MATTERS, 1993, p. 14.

Nihilism is to be understood here not as a philosophic doctrine that there are no rational grounds for legitimate standards or authority; it is, far more, the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness. The frightening result is a numbing detachment from others and a self-destructive disposition toward the world.

NO ABSOLUTE SET OF VALUES IS POSSIBLE

1. CERTAIN UNIVERSAL VALUES DO NOT EXIST

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, THE ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF MARXIST THOUGHT, 1991, p. 2-3.

The radical historicist approach discards the quest for philosophic certainty and the search for philosophic foundations because, it claims, this quest and search rests upon a misguided picture of philosophy -- a picture of philosophy as the discipline that enables us to grasp necessary and universal forms, essences, substances, categories, or grounds upon which fleeting cultural and historical phenomena can rest. For the radical historicist, philosophy itself is but a part of the fleeting cultural and historical phenomena, and it is hence incapable of grounding anything else. The vision of philosophy as a quest for philosophic certainty and search for philosophic foundations is an ahistorical vision, a hapless attempt to escape from the flux of history by being philosophic, that is, by being bound to certainty, tied to necessity, or linked to universality.

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, THE ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF MARXIST THOUGHT, 1991, p. 1-2.

By calling into question the possibility of securing either timeless criteria, necessary grounds, or universal foundations for moral principles, the radical historicist approach is calling into question a particular conception of objectivity in ethics and hence the possibility of ethics as a philosophic discipline. Without such criteria, grounds, or foundations to serve as a last court of appeal for adjudicating between rival moral principles, objectivity in ethics or valid justification of moral principles becomes but a dream, a philosopher’s dream which results from an obsession with philosophic certainty and security in the flux of historical change and development. In this sense, ethics as a philosophic discipline has no subject matter.
3. VALUE HIERARCHIES ARE CULTURE AND COMMUNITY DEPENDENT

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, THE ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF MARXIST THOUGHT, 1991, p. 12-13.

Once more to put it crudely, the radical historicist is a moral relativist who has made this metaphilosophical move. The radical historicist discards the pejorative self-description “relativist” and rejects the objectivist lens. The radical historicist does not see attainable or unattainable timeless criteria, necessary grounds, or universal foundations which cut through the flux of history, but rather different dynamic human agreements and disagreements and changing community-specific criteria constituting continuous and discontinuous traditions which are linked in highly complex ways to multiple human needs, interests, biases, aims, goals, and objectives.

VALUES MUST BE ASSESSED ACCORDING TO THE SITUATION

1. MORAL PHILOSOPHY OUGHT TO FOCUS ON ETHICS FOR PARTICULAR SITUATIONS

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, THE ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF MARXIST THOUGHT, 1991, p.3.

Two noteworthy implications for moral philosophy result from the radical historicist approach to ethics. First, the distinction between moral philosopher and social critic breaks down. The moral philosopher is no longer viewed as either engaging in an investigation into the nature of the “logic of moral discourse” or generating timeless criteria, necessary grounds, or universal foundations for moral principles which should regulate human behavior. Rather the moral philosopher attempts to put forward “moral” guidelines or insights as to how to solve particular pressing problems, overcome urgent dilemmas, and alleviate specific hardships. Of course, the moral philosopher must still “justify” guidelines or insights, but the notion of justification is understood in a new way.

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, THE ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF MARXIST THOUGHT, 1991, p. 2.

Therefore, for the radical historicist, the search for philosophic foundations or grounds for moral principles is but an edifying way of reminding (and possibly further committing) oneself and others to what particular (old or new) moral community or group of believers one belongs to. Instead of focusing on the status (objective or subjective, necessary or contingent, universal or particular) of moral principles, the radical historicist approach stresses the role and function these principles (or any principles) play in various cultures and societies. Instead of accenting the validity or objectivity of the justification of moral principles, the radical historicist approach highlights the plausible descriptions and explanations of the emergence, dominance, and decline of particular moral principles under specific social conditions in the historical process. Instead of philosophic notions such as status, validity, objectivity, the radical historicist approach prefers theoretic notions such as role, function, description, and explanation.
3. VALUE CONFLICTS MUST BE JUDGED BY COMPARING PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVES

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, THE ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF MARXIST THOUGHT, 1991, p. 3-4.

For the radical historicist, the task of ethics is not philosophic, it is not to put forward irrefutable justifications of particular moral viewpoints. Rather the task of ethics is theoretic: the task is to discover ways in which to develop a larger consensus and community such as through example and exposure, through pressure and persuasion, without the idea of a last philosophic court of appeal in the background. If one disagrees with a particular consensus or community
4. VALUE CONFLICTS CAN ONLY BE ASSESSED IN PARTICULAR SITUATIONS

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, THE ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF MARXIST THOUGHT, 1991, p. 12.

The radical historicist is a moral relativist liberated from the vision of philosophy which holds the moral relativist captive. This liberation primarily consists of overcoming the fundamental distinctions of objectivism/relativism, necessary/arbitrary, essential/accidental, universality/particularity, etc., by understanding that these positions are but alternate sides of the same coin, that both positions are tied to a common picture of what philosophy is and ought to be, that both positions become credible alternatives only by freezing the historical process or by selecting a particular time slice in a specific culture and society.
5. BLACK CHRISTIAN VALUES PROVIDE A SENSE OF EQUALITY AMONG BLACKS

Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University, PROPHESY DELIVERANCE: AN AFRO­AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY CHRISTIANITY, 1982, p. 16.

The basic contribution of prophetic Christianity, despite the countless calamities perpetrated by Christian churches, is that every individual regardless of class, country, caste, race, or sex should have the opportunity to fulfill his or her potentialities. This first and fundamental norm is the core of the prophetic Christian gospel. A transcendent God before whom all persons are equal thus endows the well-being and ultimate salvation of each with equal value and significance. I shall call this radical egalitarian idea the Christian principle of the self-realization of individuality within community.