The 'Real' Aristotle

Times Online

Aristotle as he really looked

A bust of Aristotle found beneath the Acropolis in Athens is the first to show the Greek philosopher with a hooked nose

Hmm, so this is what Aristotle may have looked like. No big surprise, but maybe it is to all those Afrocentrists out there who claim that he and the other Socratic philosophers (and virtually any famous person from antiquity) were black. Of course, I always lose this battle with some of my friends, because the self-deception is quite strong in them.

According to some of my pals, and others who aren't, my social beliefs are "white-washed" from my Eurocentric studies because I disbelieve that these ancient people were black. Although there is no credible evidence to support the Afrocentric claims which they otherwise avow. (Notice that I restrict the scope of 'evidence' with the modifier 'credible', to emphasize that the so-called evidence they do have is unconvincing. Afrocentrists tend to cherrypick evidence that supports their views and reject the ones that don't. To be frank, they're just practicing pseudohistory.)

Ah well, none of us are immune to irrational beliefs. Critical thinking skills, pursuing reason to wherever it may lead, seems to be a good antidote to irrationality (at least to the degree that human psychology allows us to). Aristotle and his Socratic predecessors certainly thought so.


~AP