‘The Idea of Philosophical Fieldwork: Global Justice, Moral Ignorance, and Intellectual Attitudes.’

Here's my review of this article, that speaks into the kinds of relationships bible translators have with indigenous colleagues, as well as the communicative role of the bible itself. This is quite a long article, and not an easy read, but packed with valuable content.

Flikschuh draws on a specialisation in the study of the philosopher Kant to question the universality of much Western thinking, in intercultural perspective, especially with reference to Africa. See here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jopp.12006/epdf

Flikschuh advocates for “philosophical fieldwork.” The objective of such fieldwork is to not provide premature solutions to other people’s problems that one has yet to understand, but to engage in what she calls “peaceful contact.” Flikschuh distinguishes ‘peaceful contact’ from ‘friendship’. Friendship is, according to Flikschuh, an interested relationship. That is, one entered into on the understanding that it will include some kind of reciprocity of intimacy – that one will ‘feel at one’ with the people one is befriending. ‘Peaceful contact’ however is that maintained “despite lack of personal intimacy or intuitive understanding and in the absence of shared values” (12). We must not, in seeking relationship with ‘distant others’ assume that “interaction depends on value proximity” (13). That is, as I understand her, we should continue to seek for Christian relationship, even if we do not find encouraging value overlap between ourselves and the people we are seeking to understand and reach. Flikschuh contradicts the notion widely held by liberals, that their philosophy is universal or can simply be extended universally. Instead, she makes it clear that any philosophy is rooted in particular circumstances and so is necessarily parochial.

Of direct relevance, and drawing from African philosophers at the end of her article, Flikschuh informs us of an important distinction between culture and tradition. Contemporary researchers easily make the mistake of thinking in Africa that ‘what you see is what you get’. Yet in actuality, Flikschuh tells us, and I agree, many African traditions might be underground, but are very much alive. Failing to take account of this category of ‘hidden tradition’ throws much intercultural engagement off course. In other words, the impression we can get of fellow African scholars’ being on-board with modern philosophy can be a misleading veneer covering an actual depth of a tradition very unfamiliar to the contemporary West.

In line with a currently ongoing Western philosophical culture, Flikschuh makes no overt mention of God. The direction of her article however points incredibly strongly to the necessity of faith in God as the missing link that can make sense of her own philosophical underpinnings, rooted in centuries of devoted Christianity. (Belief in God is the tradition in the West that is ‘hidden’, but yet very real.) In other words, in terms of the missionary endeavour, what keeps the missionary going is not finding people ‘like himself’, but recognising that in the end apparent incommensurabilities are rendered communicable through the unifying factor of faith in one all-powerful creator, Yhwh.