University of London students demand white philosophers be removed

originally posted by: trollz

University of London students are demanding that thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, and Immanuel Kant be banned from the philosophy syllabus... because they are white.

London, England?? Students studying there are demanding the exclusion of

Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire and Kant.... Frenchman, Prussian, and Greek (dark

skinned?) who go well back in time/history!!!

I thought these sjw's were into diversity, is no 'whites' to become the new

face of racism?

A statement from the students’ union added that banning white philosophers should be part of a wider campaign to “decolonize” the university

How can you "de/colonise" an English University in England???

The vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, Sir Anthony Seldon, told The Daily Mail that it looks like “a real danger” of “political correctness getting out of control.”

Hear, Hear! I think "pc" is already well out of control.

Pro-Director (Learning and Teaching) Dr. Deborah Johnston sees the students’ initiative to question the syllabus as positive

I always thought the Universities set the syllabus .... and the students

learned ......"a case of the lunatics running the asylum"

Students in the University of London are demanding that white philosophers be removed from the university syllabus and replaced with philosophers from Africa and Asia instead. Apparently, learning about white philosophers promotes colonization and colonialism.

Banning one or the other can be construed as encouraging diversity and

racism not the opposite.

a reply to: trollz

Are those students mentally retards for equating "Philosophy" with "Skin Color" ? What comes next ? Removing all white Mathematicians ? How about Physicists ? etc.

Would have hurt them to add those African and Asian philosophers to the current philosophy syllabus ? Enough with those Snowflakes.


Peace

Apparently now people can think "white" too, not just act it. Ask Plato.

originally posted by: WilsonWilson
Dear god! They don't want them removed completely, they have the crazy weird idea that they should study philosophers from the area of the world they are studying! Why don't people read before they start all this racist bull#.

That's a fair point, and I think it bears further investigating. Are these students only learning about "white" philosophers, or are they also taking courses on Lao Tzu, Confucius etc? If Asian and African philosophers are included in the current curriculum, and I would imagine they are, the removal of philosophers of a European bent would seem uncalled for, would it not?

No matter their field of study, these students are in fact attending a European University in a so called "white" country. At the very least a study of the similarities and differences of said philosophers has real academic merit even in the context of these students field of studies, no? There is indeed a racist undertone to this news, but I don't think it's so obvious which way it cuts.

They attending a University in England, yes, but they are attending The School of ORIENTAL and AFRICAN STUDIES.
With the amount they pay in tuition, they should get to study what they paid for.

my advice = do it - ban all " white " learning from thier syllabus

then just sit back - and wait till they " think " they are going to graduate

ooops no degree - you didnt learn anything

a reply to: eisegesis

You seem pretty disgusted about this, but step back a minute and ask yourself a question.

Are there any white students left at the University of London? If so.......how many and what percentage of the student population do they represent?

And, if I suspect, they're a severe minority, (its not called Londonistan for nothing), really...........who cares?

originally posted by: WilsonWilson
They attending a University in England, yes, but they are attending The School of ORIENTAL and AFRICAN STUDIES.
With the amount they pay in tuition, they should get to study what they paid for.

If they are studying philosophy, you would think they would need to have a thorough grounding in the subject and that would include a broad survey of forms of philosophical thought, not just forms related to African and Asian studies. I can see them concentrating on those forms but I would expect that a well rounded understanding of philosophy would expose me to the subject in its diversity, not one narrow aspect of it.

originally posted by: ketsuko
Apparently now people can think "white" too, not just act it. Ask Plato.

It's spelled, "Play-Doh".

Just sayin'

originally posted by: WilsonWilson
They attending a University in England, yes, but they are attending The School of ORIENTAL and AFRICAN STUDIES.
With the amount they pay in tuition, they should get to study what they paid for.

Yes, I understand that, you said as much in your first post. Do you care to address any of the points I made? In my educational experience I had to study many things outside of my focus in order to obtain a degree. Something about a well rounded education and such, hence English and Sociology electives for a Computer Science student. Tell me how this is different?

The 'Customer' is always right, so goes the 'Capitalist' saying.

Now with young people paying a ludicrous price for their so called 'education' it was always going to be the case that the customer would decide 'what', 'how much' and 'if' they were to 'learn' something.

The Customer MUST pass their degree course so the course must be easy enough for the 95 % of the population who probably shouldn't be taking a degree course in the first place.

The Customer must also believe that since they PAID for this so called 'education' it MUST be correct and will never question it, no matter what 'tripe' they are taught!

Hence the value of a so called 'university education' will decline to nothing and finally the Real Knowledge will be back in the hands of the tiniest minority. We shall be back to the Mystery School Days.

You Cannot allow the students to decide what must be learnt. If they are 'students' the reality is they don't know anything much. How can they decide what should be in their course?

Now if they don't want to learn something simply because it is about 'white people' that it a different problem altogether and has a 'different name' altogether.

a reply to: Elliot

If we're going that route, then one really has tostart asking what values "studies" degreees actually have in the first place.

We advised ALL of our very bright children and their friends NOT to go to Uni.

The only ones who did were the not so bright who scored 'c' grades in their A levels.

They regret their decisions to take a Uni course.

The minute that a university education wasno longer limited to 5% of the population who could score highly on academic performance the 'value' of Uni was inevitably going to decline.

Most of us have been to a school and know the difference in academic achievement which is not the only measure of intelligence by any means. But Uni was an academic elitist establishment.

The minute the bar was lowered the value fell also. It was inevitable.

Students deciding what should be in the course is funny because in a way it means the student is now the teacher. How can that work out? If the student is deciding the content of the course despite never having studied the subject how is that going to be of any value? be dumbed also in
A couple of years ago they were discussing this problem on Radio 4 news. Britain's Universities were no longer offereing degrees of International value except for a few that were still very careful about who they let in with regard to previous academic record.

What value a Uni degree of a Uni that lets the students decide the curriculum?

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: trollz

Could we see some other confirmation other than RT news. Most people will believe their BS without question....I won't!

Them having a slant is one thing, but insinuating that a source would literally manufacture truly fake (hoax) news is another story altogether.

a reply to: trollz

It'd be quite fascinating to see the remaining list of philosophers once all "white" scholars were scrubbed, actually!

originally posted by: TonyS
Are there any white students left at the University of London? ...
And, if I suspect, they're a severe minority, (its not called Londonistan for nothing), really...........who cares?

The students at an English university are not drawn from the immediate locality. They will come from anywhere in the country, so the nature of the local population is no guideline at all.
I did my Theology at London University. Moved down there from Oxford, for the purpose.

a reply to: Orwells Ghost
It isn't any different, they will still be studying European philosophers, they just want the emphasis on Asian and African ones. There is nothing controversial in what they want. Its just being twisted by people with an agenda.

So, I take it students should now dictate the curriculum? Personally, I think they would be bettered catered for back in the country they came from. I have no time at all for 'snowflake' people, regardless of whatever ethnicity they are, and especially if they are denigrating white ethnicity.

Not to sound like a total A@@... but, while an argument can be made for some of the oriental philosophers being just as big as Plato Aristotle etc... with just as big an impact on society.

I must admit to being fairly ignorant on African Philosophers, I know there were more than a few.. but how well did their works survive... what sort of impact did they have on society etc??

I imagine the reason a lot of emphasis seems to be on the big Greek ones is the impact they had on civilization... if your studying philosophy, it seems like studying those that changed the world is the way to go.

It would kind of be like a math student studying their high school algebra teacher over Einstein.

a reply to: elysiumfire what are you talking about? Back where they came from? This is a world renowned school delivering courses on African And Asian culture and you think the students should "go back where they can from" The irony is amazing.