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On the Alleged Dilemma in a Work Being both African and Philosophy

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Creative Virtualities in Human Self-Interpretation-in-Culture

Part of the book series: Analecta Husserliana ((ANHU,volume 55))

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Abstract

Philosophy is an English word expressing a Western European concept and it would be wrong to apply it to thought systems outside Western Europe. In other words, philosophy is defined tautologically as Western philosophy, which definition portrays the very notion of African philosophy as a misnomer.

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Notes

  1. P. O. Bodunrin, “The Question of African Philosophy”, in Readings in African Philosophy (An Anthology), ed by S. B. Oluwole (Lagos: Masstech Publishers, 1989), p. 149.

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  2. Ibid., p. 149.

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  3. C. S. Momoh, “African Philosophy — Does it Exist?”, Diogenes 130 (1985), p. 74.

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  4. Bodunrin, op. cit., p. 154.

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  5. Ibid., pp. 159–160.

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  6. H. O. Oruka, “The Fundamental Principles in the Question of African Philosophy”, in Readings in African Philosophy (An Anthology), ed. Oluwole, op. cit., p. 149.

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  7. J. E. Wiredu, “An African Orientation in Philosophy”, in Readings in African Philosophy, ed. Oluwole, op. cit., p. 99.

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  8. P. Hountondji, “African Philosophy: Myth and Reality”, in Readings in African Philosophy, ed. Oluwole, op. cit., pp. 115–117.

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  9. P. O. Bodunrin, “Philosophy as the Pivot in Economic, Social and Political Re-Orientation of Society”, The Searchlight: Journal of the National Association of Philosophy Students 2(4), p. 28.

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  10. Ibid., pp. 27–28.

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  11. G. Blocker, “African Philosophy”, in Readings in African Philosophy, ed. Oluwole, op. cit., p. 190.

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  12. Ibid., p. 190.

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  13. Ibid., pp. 191–192.

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  15. Hountondji, op. cit., pp. 120.

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  16. See Olabiyi Yai, “Theory and Practice in African Philosophy”, Second Order: An African Journal of Philosophy VI(2) (1977), p. 7.

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  17. For details, see I. O. Onyewuenyi, The African Origin of Greek Philosophy: An Exercise in Afrocentrism (Nsukka: University of Nigeria Press, 1993), p. viii.

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  24. Ibid., p. 3.

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  27. Ibid., p. 7.

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  29. Details of this can be found in Gordon Hunnings, “Logic, Language and Culture”, Second Order: An African Journal of Philosophy IV(1) (1975), pp. 12–13.

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  30. Momoh distinguishes three periods of African philosophy — Ancient, Transitional and Modern. For details see Momoh, op. cit., p. 79.

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  31. Ibid., p. 79.

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  32. Ibid.

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  33. Ibid., p. 84.

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  35. Dr. Momoh has contended this issue with Professor Odera Oruka in “Modern Theories in an African Philosophy”, The Nigerian Journal of Philosophy 1(2) (1981), pp. 17–18.

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  36. Ibid., p. 18.

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  42. Patti Lather is concerned, among other things, with research methodologies appropriate for a rewarding feminism.

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  50. Bernard Dauenhauer and Karsten Harries, among others, have dwelt on the social and political commitments of Heidegger’s philosophy. For details, B. P. Dauenhauer, “Renovating the Problems of Politics”, The Review of Metaphysics XXIX(4), p. 626 and Karsten Harries, “Heidegger a Political Thinker”, The Review of Metaphysics XXIX(4), p. 642.

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  52. Ibid., p. 204.

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  54. See Karl Popper, “The Sources of Knowledge and Ignorance” in Conjectures and Refutations (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963), pp. 5–6.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Of Lagos, Nigeria

    Jim I. Unah

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  1. Jim I. Unah
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  1. The World Phenomenology Institute, USA

    Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Unah, J.I. (1998). On the Alleged Dilemma in a Work Being both African and Philosophy. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Creative Virtualities in Human Self-Interpretation-in-Culture. Analecta Husserliana, vol 55. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4890-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4890-0_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6050-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4890-0

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