Philosophy 210 – Tutorial Assignment 3
Steve Biko
Dialectical Reasoning

Name: Meggan Williams
Student Number: 13188195
Tutor: Kagiso Mataboge

“The thesis, the anti-thesis and the synthesis have been mentioned by some great philosophers as the cardinal points around which any social revolution revolves”. This statement is critical to Steve Biko’s argument as he is striving for a social revolution for Black consciousness and without the correct dialectic he will be increasingly hard for his cause.
The philosophy of Black Consciousness is expresses group pride, Untimely Biko refers to Black Consciousness as a way of life (a revolution), he continuously reinforces the idea that “the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression”. This statement will become important later when explain Biko’s justification behind his path to this synthesis.
According to Biko, there has been a formulation of two different dialectics in South Africa. The first from the Liberals, which states, the thesis is apartheid, the antithesis is non-racialism, and finally the synthesis is integration as the solution, however according to Biko this is merely “very feebly defined”
On the other hand the second dialectic is one formed by the ideology behind Black Consciousness, Which states that the thesis is a strong white racism and as a result of this the antithesis must be a strong black solidarity, and finally the synthesis is hoped to be a humanity where the political powers will have no place.
From the two dialectics above, Biko obviously agreed with the second. Therefore the Anti-thesis and the Synthesis that he identifies are: * Ant-thesis – “ a strong solidarity amongst the blacks on whom this white racism (thesis) seeks to prey “ * Synthesis –“ hope to reach some kind of balance- a true humanity where power politics will have no place “
Biko’s postulation of his synthesis does in fact follow logically from his analysis and argument, as his argument states that the only way to counteract this “strong white racism” it must be met with a stronger solidarity amongst the blacks. As Biko feels the white people aim to break down the solidarity amongst the black people in order to control them. However I find it important to note that Biko does not agree with the idea of integration as proposed with the liberal dialectic, because he feels and I quote “White people now despise black people, not because they need to reinforce their attitude and so justify their own position of privilege but simply because they actually believe that black is inferior and bad. And because of this Biko comes the conclusion that integration is not a possibility. As stated earlier it is essential to his Black consciousness movement for his dialectic to follow logically and with his argument of the purpose behind black consciousness, and the original need for the movement, then his postulation cannot be faulted.

The Synthesis that Biko comes to is as a result of the solidarity amongst the white people and the overwhelming power of that, as it has been said that “The overall success of the white power structure has been in managing to bind the whites together in defence of the status quo”.