African Philosophy: New and Traditional Perspectives

by Lee M. Brown (Editor)

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.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2003

Reviews

[Andrew]

With the caveat that I'm a long ways out from the academy these days, I didn't find a lot to like about this volume. Only about half of the essays really use African culture and language as a central facet of their argument rather than just an example or anecdote. The second essay, in particular, "Truth and an African Language", is 90% a defense of a modified Deweyan pragmatism and only brings in the Akan terms for truth in the last two pages. And even when this happens, it's only to make the point that, in his estimation, a certain characterization of the truth relation is only considered a problem in some languages, such as English, as it is a tautology in Akan (and presumably other non-English languages as well).

There are two very interesting discussions of metaphysics, and the concepts of destiny and free will, but it's still a very mixed bag.