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Old 10-28-2006, 05:28 AM   #1
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Default Racism in the Bible

In his review of 'The God Delusion' , http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/eagl01_.html Eagleton writes ' At its most philistine and provincial, it makes Dick Cheney sound like Thomas Mann. '

The Philistines were a group of people mentioned in the Bible.

Isn't the use of 'philistine' as a term of abuse, a racist term of abuse?


Wouldn't people be shocked if Eagleton had written '' At its most Jewish and provincial, it makes Dick Cheney sound like Thomas Mann. '

Yet what is the difference, apart from the fact that insulting people by calling them philistines comes from the Bible?
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Old 10-28-2006, 11:34 AM   #2
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I don't think the Philistines were a separate race. The use of the term is metaphor derived from the Biblical text, but without any particular racial or religious taint.

Wikipedia on metaphorical uses of the term Philistine:

Quote:
In non-historical usage, the word philistine refers to a person deficient in the culture of the liberal arts or can also connote a smug and intolerant opponent of the bohemian who exhibits a restrictive moral code. See Philistinism
From that last link:

Quote:
Philistinism is a derogatory term used to describe a particular attitude or set of values. When a person is called a Philistine (in the relevant sense), he is said to despise or undervalue art, beauty, intellectual content, and/or spiritual values. Philistines are also said to be materialistic, to favor conventional social values unthinkingly, and to favor forms of art that have a cheap and easy appeal (i.e. kitsch).

Philistinism affords a contrast to Bohemianism, as the character of a smugly conventional bourgeois social group perceived to lack all the desirably soulful 'bohemian' characteristics, especially an artistic temperament and a broad cultural horizon open to the avant-garde. To the chosen few, the 'Philistines' embodied a smug, anti-intellectual threatening majority, in the 'culture wars' of the 19th century.

A Philistine in Old Testament terms was a pagan inhabitant of the southwestern coastal cities of Canaan, such as Gaza. The Philistines were the neighbors and enemies of the Hebrews. The word came from Hebrew pelishtim, the people of 'Pelesheth' ('Philistia'). The word Philister (Luther's translation) was taken up in German student slang, supposedly first in Jena in the late 17th century, as a dismissive term for the townspeople (compare the British university slang, 'townies,') It is said that at a memorial service for a student killed in a town-gown clash, the minister took for his text the words of Delilah to Samson,'The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!'
There are further literary examples there.

The use of the term Philistine in regard to Dawkins implies that he is deficient in the culturally superior liberal arts, which would supposedly enable him to appreciate the higher artistic values of theology. Or something like that.
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Old 10-28-2006, 12:38 PM   #3
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I don't think the Philistines were a separate race. The use of the term is metaphor derived from the Biblical text, but without any particular racial or religious taint.
Are Jews a seperate race? Would saying that Dawkins was writing in a Jewish way, without understanding , be a shocking thing to say?

By racist, I mean classifying people by the group they belong to and making derogatory comments about that group.

Possibly Eagleton had forgotten the source of his insult 'Philistine'.

It shows just how much religious hatred has crept into ordinary language.

'Shibboleth' is a similar term. Originally used in the Bible to separate insiders from outsiders, it is now used in other contexts.

But religion is all about separating people into insiders and outsiders, sheep and goats. It is inherently divisive, and where there is division, there comes about conflict.
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Old 10-28-2006, 01:13 PM   #4
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By racist, I mean classifying people by the group they belong to and making derogatory comments about that group.
I would only classify something as racist if the classification is based on a biological characteristic that they are born with and can't readily change - skin, hair, DNA, etc.

I don't think that Jews are a separate race, but Hitler did, and calling something "Jewish" as an insult is likely to bring up all sorts of subtexts and opportunities for fistfights.

"Philistine" might have a religious derivation, but as an insult, it is primarily used by secularist moderns against conservative culturalists. People also use the word "orthodox" in a non-religious context, but I don't see any racial overtones.

Do you find the term "sacred cow" a religious insult to Hindus?
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Old 10-28-2006, 01:27 PM   #5
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I would only classify something as racist if the classification is based on a biological characteristic that they are born with and can't readily change - skin, hair, DNA, etc.
Well ,I don't.

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Originally Posted by Toto View Post

"Philistine" might have a religious derivation, but as an insult, it is primarily used by secularist moderns against conservative culturalists. People also use the word "orthodox" in a non-religious context, but I don't see any racial overtones.
Well, I do. And it is common usage in Britain to use it the way I do.

And the word does have a religious derivation, which only increases the irony of somebody using it in an article purporting to show how religion is wonderful.


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Do you find the term "sacred cow" a religious insult to Hindus?
Yes.

And also the word 'juggernaut'.

Both terms are used in the West with bad connotations, apparently without considering that it implies that some Hindu customs have aspects which are bad.

But Hindus don't issue death threats when that happens, so people keep on calling things 'sacred cows', with the implication that eg calling the ban on images of the Prophet Muhammad a sacred cow is an insult to Hindus.
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Old 10-28-2006, 01:33 PM   #6
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Is the word Vandal to be considered a racial insult ?
And what about Byzantine (as a term for say an over-intricate Bureaucracy) ?

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Old 10-28-2006, 01:37 PM   #7
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Is the word Vandal to be considered a racial insult ?
And what about Byzantine (as a term for say an over-intricate Bureaucracy) ?
I'm sure Eagleton simply forgot that Philistine was originally a term of racial abuse, derived from the Bible.

He did not mean it as a term of racial abuse, as he does not believe Dawkins comes from Philistia. In fact, he says Dawkins comes from North Oxford (Dawkins actually comes from Kenya, but Eagleton could not say that Dawkins was writing with an African mentality)
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Old 10-28-2006, 01:42 PM   #8
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Is the word Vandal to be considered a racial insult ?
How would you feel if your daughter married a Vandal?
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Old 10-28-2006, 01:46 PM   #9
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How would you feel if your daughter married a Vandal?
The eventuality is remote.

In general the names of dead cultures do become used metaphorically sometimes negatively sometimes in a more or less positive way (Spartan or Laconic) There is after all no one around to take personal offence.

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Old 10-28-2006, 01:53 PM   #10
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Isn't the use of 'philistine' as a term of abuse, a racist term of abuse?
To me, Richard Dawkins use of the term philistine in this context is legitimate. I understand the point. But in my view, the term originates from a specific tribe rather than a race per se. The analogy to vandal is the correct one and its use is equally appropriate.

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