Afrikology and Transdisciplinarity: A Restorative Epistemology

2. The Central Problem: A Fragmented Polarised Worldview

19 Dani W Nabudere 2. The Central Problem: A Fragmented Polarised Worldview A. The historical origin of the problem In order to better understand the above dichotomies found in practice in understanding the concept of justice, it is necessary to trace their origins. It is clear that the problems of fragmented knowledge production arise out of the crafting of paradigms such as the natural, social science and the humanities. This fragmentation has to be overcome by a restorative practice and philosophy if we are to find solutions to the current crises in human relations. However, before this is attempted, there is need to discover more deeply the origin of the fragmentation problem itself. We have to pose the question: Why it is that humanity has found itself in these ‘intellectual jails’ that cannot enable it to join each part into a coherent nature? As David Bohm [1980] points out, the contemporary universe that we live in was characterised under the European Enlightenment by the Cartesian worldview and the scientific knowledge system that was created to buttress it. This epistemology has been under challenge from its inception by the Romantic challenge to the mood of Enlightenment that characterised the intellectual atmosphere of 18th century Europe. According to Bohm, such a fragmented worldview is the result of a culture in Western society in which people conceive themselves as being disjointed autonomous, atomistic and independent individuals. This worldview is sanctified by the Cartesian epistemology in which the world is understood to exist in separately existent parts. Such a worldview is bound to lead to ‘serious contradictions and confusions’ because it is this ‘Cartesian grid’ which informs our academic disciplines through which knowledge is conceived and organised: ‘Thus art, sciences, technology, and human work in general, are divided up into specialities, each considered to be separate in essence from the others.’ This is why some scholars have become dissatisfied with this state of affairs and attempted to set up 20 Africa Institute of South Africa Afrikology and Transdisciplinarity: A restorative epistemology interdisciplinary subjects, ‘which were intended to unite these specialities, but these new subjects have ultimately served mainly to add further separate fragments’ to the confusion. He adds: Then, society as a whole has developed into separate nations and different religions, political, economic, racial groups, etc. Man’s natural environment has correspondingly been seen as an aggregate of separate existent parts, to be exploited by different groups of people. Similarly, each human being has been fragmented into a large number of separate and conflicting departments, according to his different desires, aims, ambitions, loyalties, psychological characteristics, etc., to such an extent that it is generally accepted that some degree of neurosis is inevitable, while many individuals going beyond the ‘normal’ limits of fragmentation are classified as paranoid, schizoid, psychotic, etc. [Bohm 1980: 1-2]. Bohm continues that the notion that all these fragments are separately existent is evidently an illusion, and this illusion cannot do other than cause endless conflicts and confusion in the understandings of people about their existence: Indeed, the attempt to live according to the notion that the fragments are really separate is in essence, what has led to the growing series of extremely urgent crises that is confronting us today. Thus, it is now well-known, this way of life has brought about pollution, destruction of the balance of nature, over-population, world-wide economic and political disorder, and the creation of an overall environment that is neither physically nor mentally healthy for most of the people who have to live in it. Individually there has also developed a widespread feeling of helplessness and despair, in the race of what seems to be overwhelming mass of disparate social forces, going beyond the control and even the comprehension of human beings who are caught up in it.[Ibid: 2] David Bohm wrote this in the 1980s, but we are now in the 21st century, which is faced with a global climatic change that threatens the very existence of the human species on this earth. It is a century in which mass starvation has become a fact of life for over a billion human beings whose economic and social conditions have been worsened by a global capitalist economic crisis, which no leader of the world (including the former superpowers) can overcome. This is a reality from which we must extricate ourselves by returning to a more holistic worldview that can enable us to [18.117.81.240] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 04...