Theoretical Underpinnings of Wiredu’s Empiricalism

UTAFITI Journal of African Perspectives (forthcoming)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Wiredu uses the term ‘empiricalism’ to characterize a mode of thinking that is essentially empirical in orientation but admits non-transcendental metaphysical categories and existents into its systems of thought. Wiredu finds evidence of this mode of thinking in the Akan language. The central question I engage with in this paper is this: what makes empiricalism a plausible system of thought that has universal validity and intelligibility? I argue that the plausibility and universality of empiricalism is evident in Wiredu’s logical and semantic thinking that underpins the theses of empiricalism. Rather than it being an isolated doctrine of Wiredu, the central theses of empiricalism are rooted in, and cast in terms of, his logical and semantic analysis of distinctions such as signification and reference, concept and object, and of his analysis of terms such as ‘existence’. These analyses show that the attractiveness of empiricalism is dependent on theoretical principles other than, and in addition to, the linguistic evidence that Akan provides.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Cultural universals and particulars: an African perspective.Kwasi Wiredu - 1996 - Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Truth and the Akan Language.Kwasi Wiredu - 1995 - In Safro Kwame (ed.), Readings in African Philosophy: An Akan Collection. University Press of America. pp. 187-191.
Wiredu, Kwasi.Sanya Osha - 2014 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The concept of truth in the Akan language.Kwasi Wiredu - 1998 - In Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze (ed.), African Philosophy: An Anthology. Malden MA / Oxford UK: Blackwell. pp. 176-180.
Particularity in morality and its relation to community.Pieter H. Coetzee - 2003 - In P. H. Coetzee & A. P. J. Roux (eds.), Philosophy from Africa: a text with readings. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. pp. 273-286.
The Concept of Mind.Kwasi Wiredu - 1995 - In Safro Kwame (ed.), Readings in African Philosophy: An Akan Collection. University Press of America. pp. 125-150.
Particularity in morality and its relation to community.Pieter H. Coetzee - 2003 - In P. H. Coetzee & A. P. J. Roux (eds.), Philosophy from Africa: A text with readings 2nd Edition. London, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. Pp. 273-286.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-11-10

Downloads
0

6 months
0

Historical graph of downloads

Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references