Problems and Prospects of a History of African Philosophy

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 77 (4):477-498 (2003)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Although African philosophy has become a part of the world philosophic heritage that can no longer be neglected, no comprehensive history of it is available yet. This lacuna is due to the numerous problems that affect any attempt to outline such a history. Among these problems are those inherent in the historiography of philosophy in general and many others specific to African philosophy. They include the absence of scholarly unanimity over the exact nature of philosophy and, by extension, African philosophy; the dispute over the beginning of philosophy in Ancient Egypt, as well as the Afrocentrist assertion of the origin of Greek philosophy in Egypt; the problem of periodization; the status of ethnophilosophy, etc. These difficulties do not make a comprehensive history of African philosophy an impossible or irrelevant task. On the contrary, such a history is a necessity that promises to exert an enormous positive influence on the future development of African philosophy.

Similar books and articles

Pearce's "african philosophy and the sociological thesis" a response.L. D. Keita - 1994 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 24 (2):192-203.
Rethinking the Tasks of African Philosophy in the 21st Century.Oladele Abiodun Balogun - 2008 - Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 28:45-54.
African religions & philosophy.John S. Mbiti - 1969 - Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-01-09

Downloads
8,196 (#471)

6 months
1,081 (#767)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references