Essays on Contemporary Issues in African Philosophy

Preface
Introduction
	The Unfolding Palms of Contemporary African Philosophy
Contents
Eight Practical Issues in Contemporary African Philosophy
	1 Introduction
	2 Racism
	3 Poverty
	4 Religion
	5 Gender
	6 Afrophobia
	7 Sexuality
	8 Democracy
	9 Environment
	10 Conclusion
	References
How African is Philosophy in Africa?
	1 Ethno-philosophy
	2 Philosophy Done by Africans
	3 Conclusion
	References
Doing Philosophy in the African Place: A Perspective on the Language Challenge
	1 Introduction
	2 The Question of the ‘Africanness’ of a Philosophy
	3 The Implication of Doing African Philosophy in African or Foreign Language(s)
	4 Inaugurating Linguistic Complementarity as a Panacea to the Language Challenge
	5 Conclusion
	References
The Fallacy of Exclusion and the Promise of Conversational Philosophy in Africa
	1 Introduction
	2 The Fallacy of Exclusion Presented
		2.1 The Fallacy by European Philosophers from Outside Africa
		2.2 The Fallacy by Some European Philosophers Resident in South Africa
	3 Reactions to the Fallacy by Ramose and Mangena
	4 The Way Forward: Chimakonam and the Promise of Conversational Philosophy
	5 Conclusion
	References
How Conversational Philosophy Profits from the Particularist and the Universalist Agenda
	1 Introduction
	2 The Question of African Philosophy and Its Development
	3 The Methodological Question in African Philosophy
	4 Conversational School and the Bipolarity of Contemporary African Philosophy
	5 Conclusion
	References
Examining the Method and Praxis of Conversationalism
	1 Introduction
	2 Ethnophilosophy as a Method in African Philosophy
	3 Philosophic Sagacity as a Method of African Philosophy
	4 The Conversational Method of African Philosophy
	5 The Up-Down Movement of Thought
	6 The Conversational Method at the Sub-micro Level
	7 Conclusion
	References
Why the Normative Conception of Personhood is Problematic: A Proposal for a Conversational Account
	1 Introduction
	2 Menkiti’s Normative Account of Personhood
	3 Why the Normative Conception is Inadequate and Problematic
	4 A Proposal for the Conversational Account of Personhood
	5 Conclusion
	References
African Ethics and Agent-Centred Duties
	1 Introduction
	2 Wiredu’s Sympathetic Impartiality
	3 Gyekye’s Moderate Communitarianism
	4 Metz’s Friendship Principle
	5 Agent-Centred Considerations
	6 Wiredu and Agent-Centred Considerations
	7 Gyekye and Agent-Centred Considerations
	8 Metz and Agent-Centred Considerations
	9 Conclusion
	References
On the One Concept and Many Accounts of African Ethics
	1 Introduction
	2 One Concept and Many Accounts
	3 Some Examples of One Concept and Many Accounts
	4 Communal Flourishing in the One and Many Accounts
	5 Ubuntu as One of the Many Accounts of African Ethics
	6 Ujamaa as One of the Many Accounts of African Ethics
	7 Ukama as One of the Many Accounts of African Ethics
	8 The Flourishing Argument and Ubuntu, Ujamaa and Ukama
		8.1 Ontological Outlook
		8.2 Ethical Precept
	9 Some Problems and Responses
		9.1 First Problem and Responses
		9.2 Second Problem and Response
	10 Conclusion
	References
How to Report on War in the Light of an African Ethic
	1 Introduction
	2 An African Moral Theory
	3 Implications for Journalism in General
	4 Implications for Reporting on War in Particular
	5 Conclusion
	References
Taking African Virtue Ethics and Character Training Principles to the Schools
	1 Introduction
	2 Virtue and Character
	3 What the Proposal on Teaching Virtue Means
	4 Virtue and Character as a Subject of Instruction
	5 Conclusion
	References
Ubuntu as a Plausible Ground for a Normative Theory of Justice from the African Place
	1 Introduction
	2 An Overview of the Academic Debate on Ubuntu in Contemporary Africa and Beyond
	3 On the Meaning of Ubuntu
	4 A Historical Study on the Interpretation of Ubuntu in the Extant Literature
	5 Understanding Ubuntu as a Cluster of the Distinctive Features of Personhood
	6 Remarks on Ubuntu-Inspired Interdependence Theory of Personhood in Relation to Justice
	7 Conclusion
	References
Remedial Approach to Cultural Globalization and Intercultural Competence
	1 Introduction
	2 Cultural Globalization
	3 Dimensions of Cultural Globalization
		3.1 Homogenization Dimension
		3.2 The Hybridization Dimension of Cultural Globalization
		3.3 The Polarization Dimension of Cultural Globalization
	4 Intercultural Competence Versus Dimensions of Cultural Globalization
		4.1 The Expatriate Aspect
		4.2 The Immigration Aspect
		4.3 The Inclusive Local Aspect
		4.4 The Inclusive Global Aspect
	5 Intercultural Dialogue as Prelude to Cultural Synergy
	6 Cultural Synergy Within the Afropolitan Model
	7 Conclusion
	References
Decolonial Philosophical Praxis Exemplified Through Superiorist and Adseredative Understandings of Development
	1 Introduction
	2 A Harsh Truth
	3 The Twofold Process of Decolonization
		3.1 The First Component: Adseredition
		3.2 The Second Component: Desuperiorization
		3.3 The New European Consensus on Development
			3.3.1 The Superioristic Understanding of Development
			3.3.2 Tertium non datur
	4 Development and African Philosophy
	5 Exploitation and Self-Deception
	6 Superaltern Studies
	7 Self-Perception and Reality
	8 Conclusion: The African Philosopher and the Western Enigma
	References
Totality by Analogy; Or: The Limits of Law and Black Subjectivity
	1 An Epistemology of ‘Boundary’ and ‘Totality’
	2 The Mystical Totality of Black Consciousness
	3 Aporia-archē as Boundary Between Justice and Justice
	4 ‘Conclusion’ as Failed Totality
	References
The African Philosopher and The Burden of Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS)
	1 Introduction
	2 Constitutive Elements of Development in the Contemporary African Society
	3 The Conflict Between Tradition and Modernity in African Development: A Philosophical Debate
	4 Modernity and Its Presuppositions
	5 Indigenous Knowledge and Its Place in Contemporary African Realities
	6 African Philosophers and Indigenous Knowledge
	7 Conclusion
	References
Changes, Adaptation and Complementary Noetic Transformation
	1 Introduction: Craving for Changes and Adaptation
	2 Complementarity, Management of Relativity and Universal History
	3 The Problem of Method, the Negation of Differences and Self-negation
	4 Transcendent Complementary Comprehensive Existential Analysis: Addressing the Rift in the Ego
	5 Reconstituting Method as Complementary Disposition: Noetic Transformation
	6 Ibuanyidanda and some Challenges of Systematisation in African Philosophy
	References
Ageing, Ageism, Cultural Representations of the Elderly and the Duty to Care in African Traditions
	1 Introduction
	2 Conceptualising Ageing
	3 Ageing and the Treatment of the Elderly in African Cultures
	4 Moral Considerations of the Challenge of Ageism to the African Moral Duty to Care for the Elderly
	5 Some Concluding Remarks
	References
The Struggle to Forgive: Some Philosophical and Theological Reflections
	1 Introduction
	2 Explanatory Cases
	3 Meaning of Forgiveness
	4 Early Notions of Forgiveness
	5 Conclusion
	References
The Themes of Nihilism, Pessimism, and Optimism in Ibuanyidanda and Consolation Ontologies
	1 Introduction
	2 The Concepts of Nihilism, Pessimism, and Optimism
	3 Asouzu’s Ibuanyidanda Philosophy and the Optimistic Vision of the World
	4 The Consolationist Vision
		4.1 Consolationism: The Doctrine of Mood
		4.2 Nihilism and Pessimism in the Perspective of Consolation Philosophy
		4.3 Ibuanyidanda and Consolation Philosophy: Towards an African Theory of Meaning in Life
	5 Conclusion
	References
African Philosophy: The Twentieth Century Rhetorics of Identity
	1 Introduction
	2 African Philosophy: The Problematics of a When Response for a What Question
	3 African Philosophy: Other Problematics of a Where-Response to a What Question
	4 African Philosophy: Yet Other Problematics of a Who Response to a What Question
	5 A Short Simplification of the What of an African Philosophy
	6 Practitioners and Emerging Schools in Contemporary African Philosophy
	7 Conclusion
	References
Index