African Philosophy: New and Traditional Perspectives
In the last two decades the idea of African Philosophy has undergone significant change and scrutiny. Some critics have maintained that the idea of a system of philosophical thought tied to African traditions is incoherent. In African Philosophy Lee Brown has collected new essays by top scholars in the field that in various ways respond to these criticisms and defend the notion of African Philosophy.\ The essays address both epistemological and metaphysical issues that are specific to the...
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In the last two decades the idea of African Philosophy has undergone significant change and scrutiny. Some critics have maintained that the idea of a system of philosophical thought tied to African traditions is incoherent. In African Philosophy Lee Brown has collected new essays by top scholars in the field that in various ways respond to these criticisms and defend the notion of African Philosophy.The essays address both epistemological and metaphysical issues that are specific to the traditional conceptual languages of sub-Saharan Africa. The primary focus of the collection is on traditional African conceptions of topics like mind, person, personal identity, truth, knowledge, understanding, objectivity, destiny, free will, causation, and reality. The contributors, who include Leke Adeofe, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Lee Brown, Segun Gbadegesin, D.A. Masolo, Albert Mosley, Ifeanyi Menkiti, and Kwasi Wiredu, incorporate concerns from various African philosophical traditions, including Akan, Azande, Bokis, Igno, Luo, and Yoruba.African Philosophy ultimately tries to bring a more rigorous conception of African philosophy into fruitful contact with Western philosophical concerns, specifically in the philosophies of psychology, mind, science, and language, as well as in metaphysics and epistemology. It will appeal to both scholars and students.
Contributors1Introduction: Seeing through the Conceptual Languages of Others32Akan and Euro-American Concepts of the Person213Truth and an African Language354An Outline of a Theory of Destiny515Personal Identity in African Metaphysics696The Concept of the Person in Luo Modes of Thought847Physical and Metaphysical Understanding: Nature, Agency, and Causation in African Traditional Thought1078Witchcraft, Science, and the Paranormal in Contemporary African Philosophy1369Understanding and Ontology in Traditional African Thought158Selected Bibliography of Epistemological and Metaphysical Perspectives in African Philosophical Thought179Index of Names187Index of Subjects189
