The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kanye says: Truth is my goal. Controversy is my gym. I’ll do a hundred reps of controversy for a 6 pack of truth
Kampala, Uganda | MARK SAVAGE | “It’s not where you take things from. It’s where you take them to.”
We all knew Kanye West had a way with words. But instead of rap lyrics, these days the star is dropping knowledge on Twitter. Since he reactivated his account on April 16, West has been sending out a series of bon mots and aphorisms.
“Oh by the way this is my book that I’m writing in real time,” he noted.
“No publisher or publicist will tell me what to put where or how many pages to write. This is not a financial opportunity, this is an innate need to be expressive.”
West’s lyrical proclamations have included such gems as “reach for the stars, so if you fall you land on a cloud” and “hurry up with my damn croissants!”
But how does he shape up as a philosopher? Can he legitimately be ranked alongside Nietzsche, Descartes and Kant?
We wanted an expert to scrutinise the star’s tweets.
While one replied that they “wouldn’t know how to assess them taken as philosophy”, Dr Lauren Ware – a lecturer at the University of Kent – was up for the challenge.
Here’s what Dr Ware made of the Kanyean school of philosophy: “Philosophy as the pursuit of truth, the love of wisdom, is well-known, but Kanye’s embrace of controversy marks him out as genuinely engaging in philosophical practice.
“I teach a module at Kent called “Philosophical Reading and Writing”, and when students struggle to come up with material for their essays, we tell them: Find the controversy, find a problem, turn that into a question, and then your answer to that question is your thesis statement.”
Kanye says: “Truth is my goal. Controversy is my gym. I’ll do a hundred reps of controversy for a 6 pack of truth.”
Kanye identifies here his philosophical methodology: the arrival at truth through controversy.
Philosophy starts with controversy, and training and exercise in identifying and dealing with it charitably is a great way to flex your philosophical muscles.
Kanye says: “Cars have four wheels. Hoodies have hoods. It’s amusing to me when someone says this is an original hoodie. Bro… it’s a hoodie.”
Here we get into the solid metaphysical commitments of Kanyean philosophy. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that asks questions about reality and existence: What does it mean to be real? Do dreams exist? What makes a hoodie a hoodie and not a car?
What Kanye is doing here is laying down what are called in philosophy the “necessary and sufficient conditions” for being a hoodie. You can’t be a hoodie without a hood, so hoods are necessary for hoodie-hood. But it remains to be seen in his theory whether hoods are sufficient for hoodie-hood.
Do hoods alone a hoodie make?
Another interesting element is this notion of originality: Would the very concept of the hoodie – hoodiness incarnate – be itself the one, true, original hoodie? Does this concept of the hoodie exist? Can I buy it?
Kanye says: “I don’t believe in the concept of an enemy. We have been conditioned to always be in competition. Stop looking for something to beat and just be. You don’t have to do all the work. Once you start moving in love the universe will assist you.”
Here’s a concept that definitely does not exist in the Yeezian universe: the enemy.
What does it mean for a concept to cease to exist? If everyone followed Kanye and stopped believing in enemies, do they disappear?
