Page 41 - CONSCIENCISM By Kwame Nkrumah_Neat

34 CONSCIBNCISM
PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY 35
by historical circumstances - at the same time, they are not chaff
currents, that they arose from social exigencies. Thus, 'fhales'
before the wind ofchange, but have a solid ideological basis.
philosophy needed, if it was to destroy the allegedly heaven­
Revolution has two aspects. Revolution is a revolution against sanctioned aristocratic society, to assert the irrelevance of a pan­
an old order; and it is also a contestfor a new order. The Marxist
theon, and this he did in his attempt to bring all explanation of
emphasis on the determining force ofthe material circumstances of
nature within the ambit of nature itscl£ A revolutionary, as op­
life is correct. But I would like also to give great emphasis to the
posed to a reformist, attenuation ofclerical influence called not for
determining power ofideology. A revolutionary ideology is not an amelioration here and there ofsocial inequalities, the smoothing
merely negative. It is not a mere conceptual refutation ofa dying of this sharp corner and the trimming of that eminence, but for a
social order, but a positive creative theory, the guiding light ofthe total rejection ofthe idea ofsocial inequality. That, in metaphysics,
emerging social order. This is conftrmed by the letter from Engels which implies this rejection of social inequality is precisely that
quoted on the motto page ofthis book.
which is common to all monists, those who assert the unity of
Not only is it signifIcant that Thales should have chosen water nature and of different kinds of things as only different manifes­
as the fundamental substance, but the fact that he maintained
tations of the same thing.
at all that everything was derived from one and the same substance It was this idea of the unity of nature as well as that of basic
was ofgreat importance. For, bymaintaining this, he was implying
equality and justice whidl required that Thales should generalize
the fundamental identity of man as well, man according to him those rules of thumb picked up in the marshes of the Nile delta.
being not half natural, halfsupernatural, but wholly natural. That
Rules of thumb allow for a certain measure of arbitrariness and
is to say, on the social plane, his metaphysical principle amounted partiality in application. The rules which the Egyptian arpedonapts
to an assertion ofthe fundamental equality and brotherhood ofmen. used in marking out farms were bound to lead to injustices, for
Nevertheless his philosophy only supported a revolution which they were measured with knotted pieces ofcord. Thales' egalitarian
was in a sense bourgeois. The assertion of the fundamental equality perceptions necessary for a mercantile economy, led him to seek
and brotherhood ofman does not automatically issue in socialism,
general forms ofrules. When rules become general, they guarantee
for it does not amount to the assertion of social equality. Indeed, an objective impartiality, and impartiality is the outward mark
Thales' specification ofa form of matter as basic naturally places
ofegalitarianism.
a premium on water, and in the social plane, remains compatible
Thales' successor, Anaximander, reasoned however that the
with a class structure. His philosophy therefore only supported a
unity of nature could not by itself guarantee equality and im­
sort ofbourgeois democratic revolution, and not a socialist one.
partiality. Indeed, Thales himself was bourgeois in his actual
On the only recorded opportunity which Thales had of trans­ political life. In Anaximander's thought, a need was felt for an
lating his metaphysics into politics, he firmly urged unity on the active social principle which would illuminate and sanction social
balkanized Ionian states. This was hardly surprising as he had structure. This he called the principle of justice, a groundwork
asserted the unity of nature. The Ionians paid scant heed to him principle which in Anaximander's system regulated both social
and they were duly undone.
organization and the metaphysical generation of things.
The point which I am anxious to make is not merely that the In his philosophy, he conceived a stock of neutral material in
earliest philosophies carried implications of a political and social
which nothing was differentiated, a boundless, featureless, eternal
nature, and so were warmly connected with the actualities oflife;
expanse whose restlessness separated out the things of this world.
I am suggesting that these philosophies were reflections of social
These things abide in the world for a time, measured out according

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