week 2

Question 1

according to wiredu what role does culture and tradition play in answering philosophical questions, particularly after the legacy of colonialism

Answer 1

• Language can play a direct role addressing philosophical questions against the legacy of colonialism

Question 2

what is the objection to wiredu’s view that language can play a direct role in addressing philosophical questions against the legacy of colonialism?

Answer 2

wiredu is merely assuming that the language provides philosophical insight, or that the predispositions of the language impart truth
- linguistic facts cannot be used as a decisive argument for or against a philosophical position

Question 3

how does wiredu reply to the objection

Answer 3

• the Akan linguistic predispositions provide grounds for an independent argument for the idea that the mind is a categorically different sort of thing from the existence of a spirit.
• the point is that none of these phrases have the tendency to invoke concealment of infallibility.

Question 4

adwene

Answer 4

the closest approximation to “mind”- a capacity that depends on the brain (amene). Additionally, a person is constituted by a body (nipadua)

Question 5

okra

Answer 5

“life-giving entity”- what makes one a human being. A capacity for rationality.

There is a disagreement about how to render “okra” in English.

Question 6

sunsum

Answer 6

“that which gives one personality”- non physical, but perishes at death. psychological traits- courage, kindness, honesty, jealousy

Question 7

how does wiredu object to Descartes view that the mind is a substance (using Akan terms)

Answer 7

if, in Akan, the mind is a capacity that depends on the functioning of the brain, then it would be odd for it to be though of as a substance
- from the concept of mind in Akan, one can straigthaway rule out any prospect of a cartesian dualism

Question 8

Descartes argument that the mind is a substance

Answer 8

I think therefore I exist
- “while I saw that I could pretend that I had no body and that there was no world and no place for me to be in, I still couldn’t pretend that I didn’t exist”
“ from the mere fact thought about doubting the truth of other things, it followed quite evidently and certainly that I existed”… independent of my physical body, therefore the mind is a thinking thing, a substance.