tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post2774195247575068104..comments2024-03-29T03:17:12.880-04:00Comments on Nicholas Stix, Uncensored: Are Americans European?Nicholashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12372393717833610657noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post-81294266182831906042011-02-20T18:54:26.323-05:002011-02-20T18:54:26.323-05:00Anon,
Which British philosophers might you be ref...Anon,<br /><br />Which British philosophers might you be referring to?Nicholas Stixnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post-5022372586990758902011-02-18T18:48:53.281-05:002011-02-18T18:48:53.281-05:001. I have never seen "the West" refer to...1. I have never seen "the West" refer to just America.<br /><br />2. The term "the West" is certainly not a successor to "European." Historically, if this is indeed not the case today, "the West" does not cover all of geographic Europe (see e.g. Andalusia or Russia--especially before Peter I). Conversely, Western culture is not confined to Europe.<br /><br />3. "European-Americans" is basically a racist term, except when used to describe naturalized American citizens from Europe. For it suggests that white Americans have more in common with Europeans than with other Americans.<br /><br />4. America has a close cultural and historical relationship with Great Britain and to a lesser extent with the Netherlands, France, Germany, etc. <br /><br />5. And Britain has "a very close cultural/historical relationship" with France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, etc. One cannot separate Britain from Europe. British culture and customs cannot be explained without reference to the history of Europe and the West.<br /><br />6. Specifically, British legal and philosophic tradition is part of the European tradition and could not arise without Europe.<br /><br />7. One is rather at loss to deduce what is meant by "obscurantist metaphysical speculation." Surely the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason, democracy, and empirical science, with its origin in the Netherlands and its intellectual epicenter in France, can hardly be dismissed wholesale in such terms.<br /><br />8. That which is today understood by such words as "the West" and "Europe" had been universally known as "Christendom" from roughly the 11th century until the rise of modern secularism. Christianity was confined to Europe after the Byzantine Empire fell, and nearly so since the Arab 7th century Arab conquests of the Middle East and North Africa.<br /><br />9. It makes no sense to speak of Christianity as an "decadent, empty shell" in the 19th century, during which time Christianity was perhaps the fastest-growing religion with the most political power, and during which time ideas associated with "the West" were spreading through the world along with the people who carried them.<br /><br />10. The "official story" is that nationalist hatreds, having been stoked for the preceding century, were one of the chief causes of World War I. Pan-Germanism is nothing but German nationalism. National Socialism is quite obviously a form of German nationalism. The First World War had nothing to do with leftist internationalist movements, but marked the triumph of nationalism. <br /><br />I have commented only upon the assertions I could make sense of.S.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24200494.post-12521634044183561372011-02-17T13:05:28.332-05:002011-02-17T13:05:28.332-05:00The British philosophical tradition may be more ac...The British philosophical tradition may be more accurately termed an anti-philosophical tradition since British philosophers maintained that truth was unknowable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com