Abstract
Hountondji calls for a transcultural debate on universal norms as opposed both to moral relativism and to Western monolingualism in the discussion on global values. This chapter reconstructs his early critique of African particularism in the context of his engagement with ethnophilosophy and connects this to his later pledge for the universal scope of a transculturally oriented philosophy. Following on from this, we bring Hountondji’s position into dialogue with other theoretical positions on particularism and universalism within contemporary African philosophy. An excursus to the idea of human rights serves an example to illustrate this debate. As a final step, this chapter discusses the implications of a critical universalism for normative theorising in general.
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Notes
- 1.
A reworked version of this talk was published in 2017 in Méthod(es): African Review of Social Sciences Methodology (cf. Hountondji 2017).
- 2.
Whereas intercultural philosophy stresses the dialogue between philosophies from different cultures, transcultural philosophy stresses the hybridity and interpenetration of contemporary cultures and their philosophies. Hountondji calls for a transcultural orientation in philosophy.
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Dübgen, F., Skupien, S. (2019). Debating the Universal as an Unfinished Project and Regulative Ideal. In: Paulin Hountondji. Global Political Thinkers. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01995-2_8
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