African Philosophy: Methodology

This paper describes some epistemic cultural considerations which shape the uses of psychology. I argue the study of mind is bound by the metaphysical background of the given locale and era in which it is practiced. The epistemic setting in which psychology takes place will shape what is worth observing, how it is to be studied, how the data is to be interpreted, and the nature of the ultimate explanatory units. To demonstrate conceptual epistemic constraints, I discuss metaphor use in (...) psychology. In addition, epistemic constraints shape the praxes that arise from structural study of the mind. In order to illustrate this cultural constraint, I discuss Soviet Psychology and provide a contrast between practical uses of psychoanalysis in India, Egypt, and rural Ghana. In response to these conceptual and practical epistemic limitations, psychology could adapt methods drawn from history and anthropology. (shrink)

This article argues that if world philosophies are to remain relevant for social emancipation in the present time, they must incorporate critical reflections about the methods and sources of philosophy that were at the center of the African philosophy debates in the 1970s and 1980s. The debates that surrounded the emergence of African philosophy as an academic discipline entailed thorough and innovative methodological reflections on the role of ethnography, language, and genre in philosophical expression. These reflections critically recast the relationship (...) between indigenous traditions and academic texts and between popular and professional philosophical expression, enabling their practitioners to re-think the important questions of what it means to philosophize and who philosophizes. My argument is that these methodological reflections from African philosophy reveal the profound and essential link between methods and content of philosophy and that they must be incorporated as key methodologies for world philosophies to tackle questions of social and political relevance in the present time. (shrink)

Since the 1960s, the focus of African Philosophy has predominantly been Afrocentric, and with an emphasis on racial issues, as a reaction to Eurocentrism. To hold an open intercultural dialogue on African Philosophy with African and other philosophers is, therefore, not-self-evident. This article will argue that intercultural dialogues or (in case of more than two participants) ‘polylogues’ can and should become a more central point of focus in the academic study of African Philosophy. The author will center on how three (...) renowned African(a) philosophers with a focus on the Akan people of Ghana have initiated intercultural dialogues for the enhancement of human wellbeing. These are Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye and Kwame Anthony Appiah. What these philosophers have in common is their belief that all human beings are interdependent and that an emphatic, ethic orientation to one another and mutual communication helps to live together in social harmony, which enhances the wellbeing of mankind. Discussing these African philosophers’ insights into depth will pave the way for other scholars to explore the intercultural dialogue as a weak or non-centric and non-racial focused philosophical method and to enhance understanding of its relation to African(a) Philosophy and a Global Ethics of care. Keywords: Global Ethics, African(a) Philosophy, Akan, intercultural philosophical dialogue, human wellbeing. (shrink)

ABSTRACT It is no secret that philosophy was historically established as the endeavor of white men and that this history continues to underpin and inform the workings of the institutionalized discipline in contemporary university spaces. The discipline’s inherent preoccupation with the universal rather than the particular, the abstract rather than the material, has rendered philosophy particularly obtuse for certain kinds of thinking, and oblivious to large currents of political and aesthetic reflection that have shaped contemporary intellectual engagement with our world. (...) In this article, the authors’ aim is to read the epistemic erasures/foreclosures/violences associated with African philosophy differently, to ask whether it can change key. The article discusses Black African women’s creative work as theory or as philosophy done on different terms. The creative text that the authors center in this regard is the poem bientang (2020) by Black Afrikaans writer Jolyn Phillips. (shrink)

O desejo de compreender o que, afinal de contas, cabe à filosofia realizar e, como consequência disso, qual papel está reservado ao filósofo, no jogo da vida e do conhecimento, embora bastante antigo (no Fédon, Platão já havia se esforçado para definir o que compete ao filósofo fazer), tendo recebido muita atenção ao longo do século XX, continua se mantendo bem atual. Assim, nesta exposição, nós também trataremos disso, entretanto, fazendo um recorte, o continente africano. Desse modo, o nosso objetivo (...) principal aqui é discutir a práxis filosófica, partindo do princípio de que esse tipo de intelectual, apesar de suas ligações próprias com o ambiente teórico, é indissociável da vida concreta, experimentada pelo homem em seu cotidiano. Nesse debate, dialogaremos com pensadores africanos (como Kwasi Wiredu, que destaca a importância do conhecimento filosófico para a modernização da África) e ocidentais. (shrink)

This article explores the potential utility of the theory of Holism as developed by South African philosopher, British Commonwealth statesman and military leader, Jan Smuts, for philosophical counselling or practice. Central to the philosophical counseling process is philosophical counsellors or practitioners applying the work of philosophers to inspire, educate and guide their counselees in dealing with life problems. For example, Logic-Based Therapy, a method of philosophical counselling developed by Elliot Cohen, provides a rational framework for confronting problems of living, where (...) the counselor helps the counselee find an uplifting philosophy that promotes a guiding virtue that acts as an antidote to unrealistic and often self-defeating conclusions derived from irrational premises. We present the argument that Holism is one such uplifting philosophy which can be of utility to philosophical counselors or practitioners to help their counselees with confronting problems of living. Furthermore, we argue that Smuts’ articulation of freedom can act as a guiding virtue within this uplifting philosophy of Holism in accordance with the methodology of LBT. Smuts’ contribution to philosophy and psychology is arguably inadequately credited, and for this reason, and to the best of our knowledge, Smuts’ theory of Holism has yet to be discussed in the context of philosophical counseling or practice. Given these omissions, we begin this article with a discussion of his influence on 20th Century Anglo-American psychology. We then provide a brief historical context, and an introduction to the central argument of Smuts’ Holism, as well as a brief overview of the origins of Smut’s Holism and an introduction to his book Holism and Evolution. In the remainder of the article, we discuss several foundational concepts that underlie Smuts’ theory of Holism, as articulated and developed in his book Holism and Evolution, to substantiate our arguments. We conclude by highlighting the limitations of our article, limitations to Smuts’ model, and the challenges inherent in the use of a now largely antiquated theory, even by Smuts’ own admission nineteen years after its publication, for the purposes of contextualizing and substantiating the arguments and recommendations presented herein. (shrink)

How should African philosophy be done in African Language? In response to this question, I engage Ngugi and Wiredu in their response to this language question in African philosophy. My aim is to appraise and extend their arguments by answering the question of “how” doing African philosophy in African language can be practically achieved. In this regard, I make a case for the creation of an indigenous cultural language that serves as a means of articulating, communicating and disseminating African philosophical (...) ideas. I suggest the need for African scholars to develop a language culture under the auspices of African Language Network (A.L.N.) that will enable them to do philosophy and present it in an African language. I show that African philosophy done in a foreign or colonial language is like dressing Africa in a borrowed rope, and that as long as African scholars continue to overlook this, the lofty goal of restoring the lost glory of Africa, the gains and further progress in African philosophy, rather than being consolidated, may become greatly hampered. Recognizing the diversity of languages in African culture, I present Afrolingualism as the key to achieving this end. Afrolingualism is a conscientious effort by African scholars to contrive a unanimously accepted indigenous language of discourse in philosophy. (shrink)

How should African philosophy be done in African Language? In response to this question, I engage Ngugi and Wiredu in their response to this language question in African philosophy. My aim is to appraise and extend their arguments by answering the question of “how” doing African philosophy in African language can be practically achieved. In this regard, I make a case for the creation of an indigenous cultural language that serves as a means of articulating, communicating and disseminating African philosophical (...) ideas. I suggest the need for African scholars to develop a language culture under the auspices of African Language Network (A.L.N.) that will enable them to do philosophy and present it in an African language. I show that African philosophy done in a foreign or colonial language is like dressing Africa in a borrowed rope, and that as long as African scholars continue to overlook this, the lofty goal of restoring the lost glory of Africa, the gains and further progress in African philosophy, rather than being consolidated, may become greatly hampered. Recognizing the diversity of languages in African culture, I present Afrolingualism as the key to achieving this end. Afrolingualism is a conscientious effort by African scholars to contrive a unanimously accepted indigenous language of discourse in philosophy. (shrink)

This article offers a prolegomenon for an African feminist philosophy. The prompt for this as an interrogation of Oluwele’s claim that an African feminist philosophy cannot develop until identifiable African worldviews that guide the relationship between men and women have been established. She argues that until there is general agreement about the nature of African philosophy itself, African feminist philosophy will remain impoverished. I critique this claim, unpacking Oluwele’s argument, and examine the contested nature of both African and Western philosophy. (...) Drawing from the work of Mignolo and decolonial thinking, I then argue for the possibility of “epistemic disobedience” concerning the emergence of an African feminist philosophy. Engaging with precolonial African examples which disrupt modern normative gender assumptions and looking at the project of decoloniality, I issue a call for an African feminist philosophy unfettered by the falsely universal claims of modernity/coloniality. My call is for an African feminist philosophy from African loci of enunciation, rooted in the epistemes and experiences of African women. (shrink)

The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Volume 60, Issue 2, Page 154-172, June 2022.

Method in philosophical counselling is still a contentious topic. That is, there is no consensus on whether the philosophical counsellor should have a method in her practice to help the counsellee resolve philosophical problems. Some philosophical counsellors claim that there should not be any rigid adherence to method(s) as this will render philosophy too dogmatic. Philosophical counselling, in light of this view, promotes a kind of mutual philosophising sans definite goal with the counsellee. What I call "dissentient philosophical counselling" takes (...) this claim even further: the philosophical counsellor lives/practices her philosophical counselling, that is, she embodies and practices philosophy as a way of life. This view is posed as a response to contemporary conceptualisations of philosophical counselling where the philosophical counsellor might stand in a disembodied relationship with her method(s) and tries to have a conversation "from nowhere". Dissentient philosophical counselling, even though more focused on living philosophically , still suffers from certain shortcomings. In this paper, I firstly showcase how even the seemingly innocuous but important question "How might one live?" suffers from a lack of much needed nuance. And secondly, I introduce, via a fictional narrative, a provisional way of practicing this reworked dissentient philosophical counselling. I do this by, firstly, introducing African conversational philosophy, via its method of conversationalism, and secondly, I introduce a peculiar version of Pyrrhonian scepticism especially regarding the notion of bios adoxastōs (life without dogma). (shrink)

Concerns related to the future of work has precipitated various studies aimed at ensuring that the labour market is a place where people can earn a living, work in dignity, and flourish as human beings. Studies on labour market inequalities and how macroeconomic policies can be used to address such inequalities are also plentiful. What macroeconomic studies have often failed to do, however, is highlight the differences _between_ individuals in the labour market. This is important, especially in an economy with (...) large inequalities, such as South Africa. These inequalities are further entrenched given that wage employment is the primary mode of income generation for the majority of households in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in quality of work at the microeconomic level in relation to changes in the macroeconomy, using a decent work index built from secondary labour force survey data. The data show that changes in the macroeconomic policy environment coincide with differential outcomes for different groups of workers in the labour market, with women benefitting in terms of quality of work during times in which the government undertakes an expansionary fiscal approach, although only in occupation groups which are male-dominated. The study also finds, however, that in some occupation groups, quality of work does not change in relation to shifts in the macroeconomy. The study highlights the need for microeconomic analyses to inform macroeconomic policies to ensure that expected outcomes are distributed in the intended way. (shrink)

The idea of change seems to be a vital part of human life and culture. With the concept of change, people, communities, and cultural practices have significantly evolved. Change has transformed some communities, traditions, cultural values and practices, communication methods, education, art, and literature. Thus, in this paper, I focus on the idea of change, African cultural practices, and the African sense of community. I aim to show how the concept of change has meddled with African cultural practices and the (...) African sense of community. I intend to achieve this by using the Ifá divination system, the idea of storytelling, and homosexuality or the LGBTIQA+1 people as examples. (shrink)

In recent times, scholarship has reduced the paradigm for why Africa remains largely underdeveloped to two: the externalist and the internalist views. The former is conceived to comprise scholars who tender that the reason Africa is underdeveloped and remains thus is due to the exploitative presence of Western capitalism and, in recent times, China. Walter Rodney has, however, been placed here as a key figure. The internalist, on the other hand, argues that the reason for Africa's underdevelopment may be traced (...) to the presence of bad leadership and mismanagement on the part of Africans themselves. 'Muyiwa Falaiye and George Ayittey are more pronounced representatives. In this research, I counter the locus that Rodney is an externalist. I disclose how criticizing him from this externalist reading amounts to a Strawman. I extract and build on the eclectic basis of his assessment of African development as a justification for why the externalist-internalist debate leads nowhere. (shrink)

The history of the methodology of African philosophy can be divided into two periods: the nascent stage that’s characterized by a rigor-demand, and the contemporary stage that’s characterized by a relevance-demand. In this, paper, I argue for one way to strike the appropriate balance between relevance and rigor in African philosophy. Specifically, I argue that the unconscious rejection of conceptual analysis as a philosophical method by contemporary African philosophers played a major role in how African philosophy came to be characterized (...) by a relevance-demand. Consequently, I submit that even though being only or excessively relevance-oriented is not bad, African philosophy would become rich enough to compete with other regional philosophies—Western, Chinese, and so on—if it re-installs conceptual analysis as part of its methodology. (shrink)

The Igbo knowledge system articulated by Amaechi Udefi is insufficient to ensure knowledge progress as opposed to the system found in fallibilism theory. The reason is that there is a level of intellectual openness fallibilism theory guarantees that is not found in Udefi’s thought. This paper aims to do a comparative study of fallibilism theory and Udefi’s account of the Igbo knowledge system. The study also investigates to what extent each knowledge system can ensure knowledge growth and development. The significance (...) of this study is to highlight the importance of knowledge progress in the overall development of society. This paper argues that even though Udefi and Popper were reasoning from different cultural environments, Popper’s falsifiability theory is more open to knowledge progress than Udefi’s Igbo knowledge system. The expository, historical, comparative and evaluative methods were used. (shrink)

Zhongdaology is the core of Chinese traditional Confucian philosophy. The zhongdaological way of thinking represents the Chinese philosophical thinking mode, with Confucianism as the main body, and has deeply influenced many aspects of Chinese culture. It is different from the traditional ontological thinking in the West. However, for a long time, due to the influence of the dominant position of Western ontological thinking in the field of philosophical research, the characteristics of zhongdaological thinking have not been fully elaborated and promoted. (...) This essay briefly exposes the historical origin of the doctrine of zhongdaology and its significance in Confucianism. Like the situation of traditional Chinese philosophy, African philosophy also has long been overshadowed and ignored by western philosophy to some extent. To this end, it can be safely stated that the dominance of western tradition is why the interaction between Chinese philosophy and African philosophy and otherunderrepresented philosophical traditions in the south have not taken firm roots. This essay makes some preliminary comparisons betweenChinese Confucian zhongdaology with some African philosophical ideas such as Ezumezu and Ubuntu, to show, first, the significance of broader dialogue and exchange among different philosophical traditions in the south, second how zhongdaology itself could serve as a veritable framework for doing philosophy across borders. (shrink)

This article advances the claim that the Òrìṣà tradition is best conceived of as a legal tradition. Notwithstanding the fact that scholars have written extensively about the tradition from the perspectives of religion, philosophy, the arts, and many other domains of inquiry, I maintain that the extant scholarship has underrated the significance of tradition, and has almost completely overlooked the fact that the primary function of Òrìṣà is the improvement of social interaction through the governance and regulation of conduct—which makes (...) it a legal tradition. (shrink)

"In this highly original book, Ada Agada responds to the question of how a philosophy can be African and at the same time universally relevant by constructing an original philosophical system that is at once African and universal. Drawing on African forms of thought and conceptual schemes like ethnophilosophy, ubuntu, sage philosophy, négritude, ibuanyidanda philosophy, and ezumezu logic, the author introduces new concepts and conceptual schemes like mood and proto-panpsychism into philosophical vocabulary and weaves them into a coherent and original (...) system that promises to significantly impact contemporary African philosophy. Arguing for intercultural and comparative philosophy as a desirable mode of philosophising in a continually globalising and interconnected world, the book demonstrates the universal applicability of consolationism. This book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of African Studies, intercultural philosophy, philosophy of mind, and existentialism"--. (shrink)

Examining the literature on the question of life’s meaning from an African perspective, I find that existing theories almost solely stem from the context of traditional African thought. Thus, very little, if anything at all, is said about contemporary African accounts of meaningfulness. It is this gap that this article fills. In this article, I identify two major accounts of meaningfulness that can be derived from the contemporary African context. The first is what I call “living a religious life ” (...) theory and the second is a conglomeration of three theories of meaning, which I call the cluster view. The first view locates meaning in living honorably and pursuing the religious ideals of one’s religious sect. The second view locates meaning in a cluster of ideals and in the pursuit of these ideals. (shrink)

The impetus for this book emerged from our belief that as Africans across the globe are confronted with a myriad of challenges that have been birthed by globalization (i.e. the process of going to a more interconnected world by diminishing the world's social dimension and expansion of overall global consciousness), they must turn to their own ideas for solutions. While many books exist on individual African Isms, such as Afrocentrism, Nasserism, and Pan-Africanism, none exists that has looked at a series (...) of these Isms together. This book is the first to do so and, thus, its justification. Consequently, through this edited volume, we address the applicability of different African Isms to various issues, particularly current issues, on the continent of Africa. Each chapter provides a theoretical framework and topics or issues concerning African people of the continent. It is therefore an innovative scholarly work as no other work has examined these Isms in this manner. Thus, the ideas are quite appealing. Reexamining and applying each of the African Ism in order to challenge Eurocentric myth and reality in current African political, economic, cultural and social matters is quite logical and clear. (shrink)

In this book Maduabuchi Dukor seeks to articulate an authentic African Philosophy, one which is distinct and at its heart is a unique combination of holding that the enhancement of human interest is the ultimate end, albeit set in a world imbued with imperceptible agents such as God, lesser divinities, and ancestors. Dukor applies this 'theistic humanism' to a variety of debates, including idealism/materialism, mind/body, and determinism/indeterminism.

In this paper, I argue that poet M. Nourbese Philip's Zong! allows us to radically rethink the possibility of historical restitution and recovery. The formal ideas in Zong!, I argue, imply a metaphysical and ontological revolution in the way memory and mnesic traces are to be conceived. The evidentiary status of the voices and narratives that Zong! retrieves cannot be certified by historical-epistemological conceptions of evidence but rather find their warrant in alternative, ontological (or hauntological) registers.

Let me straight from the beginning confess one thing: I am not happy with the phrase “African Philosophy” used to describe a subject-matter, a specific discipline in the university curriculum. Why? Because it seems to particularize a kind of intellectual production that takes place in Africa and to deny its universal validity. It apparently means, to use the words by Chimakonam himself, “a border-sensitive, culture-bound exclusive system that holds only in Africa and is not universally applicable » Philosophical perceptions of (...) logic and order. IGI Global, Hershey, pp 96–121, 2018). This particularization, however, has its own story. I wish first in this paper to recall the earliest stage of this story briefly and then discuss alternative ways to remain authentically African while doing philosophy in Africa today. (shrink)

Social Media Communication has effectively infiltrated all kinds of social groupings, be it at family, community or corporate level. Incidentally, almost everyone who owns a smartphone, laptop, iPad or other related gadgets belongs to one, if not several, social media communication groups through different social media handles such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp Messenger. It is evident that social media groups have come to fill in the gap that has been created by distance between family and friends when members (...) separate or are not together for a while. In this regard, social media group communication has kept family members, friends and workmates in constant and consistent interaction regardless of the distance between them. Regrettably, social media group communication has come with integrity challenges. The African cultural values imbedded in the family court among the Ndau people in particular have been severely affected. In this chapter, an interrogation of the ethics of social media group communication from an African auto-ethnographic viewpoint is proffered. The chapter argues that, while social media group communication has become trendy in the era of the global village, it has also shattered the essential and valuable African traditional family court system. (shrink)

The intellectual climate of post-colonial Africa picked up a trail of interesting debates characterized by the quest for identity. In the second half of the twentieth century, for instance, arguments for and against the ‘Africanity’ of the philosophical culture of ancient Egypt occupied a considerable portion of the scholarly landscape of African philosophy. An average researcher into the literature produced by African philosophers in this period would wonder why the inclusion or exclusion of ancient Egyptian intellectual culture as ‘African’ would (...) be a contested issue, given that the word ‘Africa’ is taken to mean a continent in the same way Europe, Asia, and America is understood. Conversely, there are few contenders regarding the criteria of classifying Greek philosophy, German philosophy or even British philosophy as ‘European’. Nowadays, paradigmatic shifts of contemporary schools and systems of African philosophy turn to other scientific questions such as sources, subject matter, formal objects, approaches and methodology of African philosophy. In this chapter, I argue that this shift away from questions of identity to systematic issues in African philosophy is in the right direction given that these contemporary shifts offer a much more robust representation of the key questions and specific philosophical approaches which can be legitimately described as African. (shrink)