PHENOMENAL

PHENOMENALLY EMPIRICAL Some years ago a famous author and African American intellectual once admonished me not to be “too empirical” In my deductions. When I asked him what empiricism was, however, he made no reply. Today, in reading the book AFRICAN PHILOSOPHERS AND PHILOSOPHY by John H. McClendon III and Stephen C. Ferguson II (2019), I see this: “Plato’s epistemology is best described as ‘rationalism’, whereby reason supersedes experience as the foundation for knowledge. Concomitantly, Plato rejects ‘empiricism’ because it establishes knowledge based upon perceptual experience.” P. 127. Now with a context for my friend’s admonition—Plato—a philosopher who learned what little he knew in ancient Kemet from its priests and sages, by his own admission, in his TIMAEUS that “the Greeks are like children intellectually”, I double- down on my so-called empiricism. After all, I am phenomenally one among the many who has blessedly descended from the iconic Greek philosopher, Plato’s, own ancient African teachers, including their intellectual legacy; thus, I am also therefore, perforce, experientially, empirical, by the grace of God!