DOCSLIB.ORG

(Universals) in Aristotle

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
(Universals) in Aristotle Rethinking Universalism and Particularism in African Philosophy: Towards an Eclectic Approach by Mutshidzi Maraganedzha Supervisor: Prof Bernard Matolino This dissertation is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy, in the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics. College of Humanities, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg November 2019 Declaration The author declares that the content of this thesis is his work unless the contrary has been specifically indicated. This thesis has not been submitted in any form for any specific degree to any other university across the world. Citations, references and to a greater extend borrowed ideas are properly acknowledged within the text. Signed: __________________ _______________ Mutshidzi Maraganedzha Date Student No. 207505743 I declare that this work has been submitted with the approval of the University supervisor. Signed: __________________ _______________ Prof. Bernard Matolino Date School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics University of KwaZulu-Natal i Dedication I dedicate this thesis to my late father, Khamusi Samson Maraganedzha who passed-away at the beginning of my doctoral studies. ii Abstract The study focuses on the dispute between the universalists and particularists in the characterization of the nature of African philosophy. In African philosophy the debate is formulated as a dichotomy between the universalists and the particularists. At the center of this debate is the notion of ‘universal’ and its relationship to the particular. The universalists argue that the nature of (African) philosophy–its methodology and subject matter–has to be universal and should be the same when applied to Western and African thought systems. In essence, the universalist thesis holds that African philosophy should be critical and not descriptive of African beliefs. Nevertheless, against this universalist thesis, the particularist camp argues that different cultures have different ways of explaining reality. Hence, Africans must have a philosophy different from other philosophies. It is evident from the foregoing that there is an impasse between the universalists and particularists’ conception of the nature of philosophy. The study contends that the solution to the impasse lies on investigating the true nature of ‘universal’ as it is at the center of the debate. The researcher is of the opinion that there is a need to go past the philosophical universalism as it neglects the true nature of universals. Consequently, there is a need for an alternative nature of (African) philosophy hinged on acknowledging that the nature of ‘universal’ is dependent on the ‘particular’ but not independent of its ‘particular’. It is argued that the viable and robust nature of (African) philosophy and what African philosophers should aspire to, is premised on their humanity; being a member of particular group and still be a member of homo sapiens at large. Keywords: Universals, Particulars, Universalists, Particularists, Philosophy, the Problem of universals iii Acknowledgement I owe my gratitude to my mother; Ndishavhelafhi Alphosinah Mphaya. To my brother and sister; Dakalo and Phathutshedzo Maraganedzha for their support and encouragement throughout my study. My special thanks are extended to Colleagues; Dr Mostamai Molefe, Dr Jacek Brzozowski, and Dr Heidi L. Matisonn for their insightful comments of certain parts of the project. My special thanks are also extended to my friends; Sakhile Austin Nkosi, Ntokozo Horward Vundla, Warren Mushonga, Dr Simon M. Mankwinja and Lungelo Siphosethu Mbatha, who have a special place in my heart. Finally, I wish to thank my Supervisor Prof. Bernard Matolino for his professional guidance and unfailing support throughout the course of this project. I am grateful for his ability to politely provide the platform where I could share my frustrations and confusions. iv Table of Contents Declaration ........................................................................................................................... i Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Abstract.............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgement .............................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v General Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One ...................................................................................................................... 10 Universalism and Particularism: Its Origin and Development .................................... 10 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Universals and particulars: A Brief History ................................................................... 11 1.2.1. Plato’s Theory of Forms ..................................................................................................................... 13 1.2.2. Aristotle on Plato’s Theory of Forms ........................................................................................... 18 1.3. The Development of the debate of Universals ................................................................ 23 1.3.1. Realism ...................................................................................................................................................... 27 1.3.2. Nominalism .............................................................................................................................................. 28 1.3.3. Conceptualism ........................................................................................................................................ 31 1.4. Family of Resemblance and Universalism ...................................................................... 32 1.5. The Problematization of the debate between Universalists and Particularists ........... 36 1.6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 38 Chapter Two ...................................................................................................................... 41 The Classical debate between the Universalists and Particularists in African Philosophy.......................................................................................................................... 41 2. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 41 2.1. The Great Debate .............................................................................................................. 42 2.1.1. Two distinct Positions amongst philosophers who agree that African philosophy exists ...... 43 2.2. Criticisms against the Universalists Thesis ..................................................................... 67 2.3. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 70 Chapter Three ................................................................................................................... 71 v The Contemporary Debate on the Problem of Universals in African Philosophy: A Rejoinder ........................................................................................................................... 71 3. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 71 3.1. Is the Debate between the Universalists and Particularists about Methodology? ....... 73 3.2. The Contemporary debate on the Universal and Particular of Philosophy ................. 76 3.2.1. Emmanuel C. Eze on African and Analytical Philosophy ................................................... 77 3.2.1. Ward Jones on Universalism ........................................................................................................... 82 3.3. Conversational Philosophy ............................................................................................... 98 3.3.1 Debate on Philosophical Space ...................................................................................................... 100 3.4. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 102 Chapter Four ................................................................................................................... 104 The Concept of Philosophy: An Analysis of the debate in African Philosophy ........ 104 4. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 104 4.1. Inadequacy of Envisaging African Philosophy as purely Universal ........................... 106 4.2. Inadequacy of Envisaging African Philosophy as purely Particular .......................... 115 4.3. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 123 Chapter Five ...................................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Visibility of Invisible Africans
    Vol. 18. 2006 ISSN 0794-8670 BULLETINI OF ECUMENICAL ·THEOLOGY· MIGRATION AND RELEVANCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSION Visibility of Invisible Africans PUBLISHED BY The Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologians BULLETIN OF ECUMENICAL THEOLOGY ISSN 0794-8670 Vol.18 2006 MIGRATION AND RELEVANCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSION VISIBILITY OF INVISIBLE AFRICANS PUBLISHED BY The Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologians Editor Elochukwu E. Uzukwu, C.S.Sp. - Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin 6, Ireland Deputy Editor Nicholas Ibeawuchi Omenka - Abia State University, Uturu Editorial Board J.P.c. Nzomiwu, - Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Chris I. Ejizu - University of Port Harcourt Chris U. Manus, - Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife Ibrahim Musa Ahmadu, - University of Jos Obiora Ike - Catholic Institute for Development, Justice and Peace, Enugu Emmanuel N. Onwu - University of Nigeria, Nsukka SUBSCRIPTION RATES Nigeria - 400.00 per issue Foreign - US$ 20 ( €20) per annum US$ 20 (€20) per combined issue (air mail postage included) Payments overseas: Congregazione dello Spirito Santo Casa Generalizia Clivo di Cinna, 195 00136, Roma, Italia Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology is published by the Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologians (EANT), and printed in Nigeria by SNAAP Press Ltd, Enugu. EANT acknowledges its indebtedness to SIST for affording it facilities to continue publishing the Bulletin. All Correspondence should be addressed to the Editor, B.E.Th. Spiritan International School of Theology (SIST), P.O. Box 9696, Enugu, Nigeria, Tel. (042) 250865; 450445; Fax: 253781; E-mail: [email protected] BULLETIN OF ECUMENICAL THEOLOGY Volume 18 (2006) CONTENTS Editorial 1 Bernard Ukwuegbu . The Judeo-Christian Redemptive History: an Alternative Framework for the Migration Debate 6 Patrick Roe C.S.Sp.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Reason with Emmanuel Eze Formations
    Africana philosophy through his founding and editorship of the journal Philosophia Africana. The journal under Eze’s Symposia on Gender, Race and editorial leadership was committed to promoting “scholarly Philosophy exchanges across [the] historical and cultural boundaries” represented by African, African-American, and Afro- Volume 4, Special Issue on Emmanuel Eze, Spring 2008 Caribbean philosophical traditions. He also edited two http://web.mit.edu/sgrp important anthologies, Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader (1997) and African Philosophy: An Anthology (1998), in which he took pains to draw contributions from writers working in all of these three subdisciplinary Reading Reason with Emmanuel Eze formations. Eze is perhaps best known for his critical reading of Kant’s JOHN PITTMAN anthropological writings and the philosophical ‘raciology’ Department of Art, Music, and Philosophy they contain, in his important article, “The Color of Reason: John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York The Idea of ‘Race’ in Kant’s Anthropology.” He extended that 899 Tenth Ave. critique to include Hume as well in his edited volume on Race New York, NY 10019 and the Enlightenment. Indeed, Emmanuel Eze was the USA contemporary writer who most consistently explored the [email protected] issue of the racial logic of the founding thinkers of the European enlightenment. In Achieving our Humanity: The Idea of a Postracial Future (2001), Eze extended that inquiry, Emmanuel Eze’s last and, terribly, posthumous book is On discussing at length the history of race conceptions in Reason: Rationality in a World of Cultural Conflict and Racism European thought, arguing that the modern origins of (2008).
    [Show full text]
  • Race in Early Modern Philosophy
    Introduction I.1. Nature In 1782, in the journal of an obscure Dutch scientific society, we find a relation of the voyage of a European seafarer to the Gold Coast of Africa some decades earlier. In the town of Axim in present- day Ghana, we learn, at some point in the late 1750s, David Henri Gallandat met a man he describes as a “hermit” and a “soothsayer.” “His father and a sister were still alive,” Gallandat relates, “and lived a four- days’ journey inland. He had a brother who was a slave in the colony of Suriname.”1 So far, there is nothing exceptional in this relation: countless families were broken up by the slave trade in just this way. But we also learn that the hermit’s soothsaying practice was deeply informed by “philosophy.” Gal- landat is not using this term in a loose sense, either. The man he meets, we are told, “spoke various languages— Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, High and Low German; he was very knowledgeable in astrology and as- tronomy, and a great philosopher.”2 In fact, this man, we learn, “had been sent to study at Halle and in Wittenberg, where in 1727 he was promoted to Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Liberal Arts.”3 On a certain understanding, there have been countless philosophers in Africa, whose status as such required no recognition by European institu- tions, no conferral of rank.4 On a narrower understanding, however, Anton Wilhelm Amo may rightly be held up as the first African philosopher in modern history. Gallandat tells us that after the death of Amo’s “master,” Duke August Wilhelm of Braunschweig- Wolfenbüttel, the philosopher- slave grew “melancholy,” and “decided to return to his home country.” 1 Verhandelingen uitgegeven door het Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen te Vlissingen, Negende Deel, Middelburg: Pieter Gillissen, 1782, 19– 20.
    [Show full text]
  • Political and Cultural Identity in the Global Postcolony: Postcolonial Thinkers on the Racist Enlightenment and the Struggle for Humanity
    www.acpo.cz recenzovaný časopis | peer-reviewed journal 2017 | vol. 9 | no. 1 | issn 1803–8220 ROOTHAAN, Angela (2017). Political and Cultural Identity in the Global Postcolony: Postcolonial Thinkers on the Racist Enlightenment and the Struggle for Humanity. Acta Politologica. Vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 31-44. Tento článek podléhá autorským právům, kopírování a využívání jeho obsahu bez řádného odkazování na něj je považováno za plagiátorství a podléhá sankcím dle platné legislativy. This article is protected by copyright. Copying and use of its content and presenting it as original research without proper citation is plagiarism, which is subject to legal sanctions. Katedra politologie Institutu politologických studií DepartmentFakulta of Political sociálních Science, věd u Instituteniverzity of Karlovy Political Studies Faculty of social sciences, charles university Political and Cultural Identity in the Global Postcolony: Postcolonial Thinkers on the Racist Enlightenment and the Struggle for Humanity Angela Roothaan1 Abstract: This paper investigates how, in the condition of postcolonialism, claims of political and cultural identity depend on the understanding of humanity, and how this understanding ultimately relates to historical agency. I understand postcolonialism as the condition that aims at the decolonization of thought of formerly colonized and former colonizers together – a condition that is global. I will construe my argument by discussing the following au- thors: Frantz Fanon, Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, Amilcar Cabral, Achille Mbembe and Michael Onyebuchi Eze. Fanon for his criticism of modern Western philosophy as dehumanizing the other; Emmanuel Eze for his in-depth critique of Kant and Hegel’s ideas of humanity and the racialised and racist frames of thought they left behind and both Fanon and Eze for their proposals to understand humanity as a project under construction; Amilcar Cabral for his views on the interrelatedness of political and cultural identity in a situation of the building of new nations.
    [Show full text]
  • An Appraisal of the Challenges Confronting the Nature of African Philosophy
    AN APPRAISAL OF THE CHALLENGES CONFRONTING THE NATURE OF AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY Williams O. ASO Introduction The place of adequate definition on any subject of discussion cannot be overemphasized. A proper definition of an idea is a true path way to better understanding and appreciation of its components, from the main topic to the minutest parts. Hence, a good definition of an academic subject tele-guides those who have interest in the subject to know what the subject holds, its concerns and what distinguishes it from other related subjects. A definition that involves all these concerns will help participants in the discussion at stake to avoid misconceptions and misgivings in one sense and overcome ambiguities and equivocations in another sense. As a matter of fact, a justified definition is necessary for African philosophy to determine its scope, to illustrate its characteristics, to identify its concerns and inherent problems. This attempt will make anybody in an academic environment to have a clearer picture of what is African philosophy. There is no doubt that countless definitions of 138 139 African philosophy may come up as a result of diverse impulses from the background, the school, the culture and appreciated methodology of each philosopher. However, a notable parameter is necessary to judge if a particular definition of African philosophy is credible and acceptable. What count most in the definition of African philosophy is not as important as the relationship that such definition must have with African worldview. Therefore, any definition of African philosophy that reflects on African perspective either by an African or non-African is relevant for the understanding of African philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • FEATURE Reviews an Apology for Postcolonial Reason
    FEATURE REVIEWS An Apology for Postcolonial Reason Paul Lyons Department of English, University of Hawai‘i On Reason: Rationality in a World of Cultural Conflict and Racism. By Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2008. Pp. xx + 327. Following his death in 2007, responses to Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze’s posthumously published On Reason: Rationality in a World of Cultural Conflict and Racism had a memorializing tone, and took place around spaces devoted to Africana Philosophy.1 This was appropriate, given Eze’s contributions through the establishment of the jour- nal Philosophia Africana; through editing the field-mapping Post-Colonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader and On African Philosophy: An Anthology (collections whose Prefaces define Africana philosophy inclusively and extensively as including the diaspora and its engagements over time, in part because diasporic thought has returned to inform intellectual movements); and through a series of works that argued for the ongoing need to mark and counter the racism that Eze identifies as “coloring thought” within Enlightenment philosophy and its legacies. It would be unfortunate, however, if On Reason were not engaged more widely within philosophical circles, for while the book claims to have “quite modest” intentions (p. xi), its implications for philosophy in the “Postcolonial Age” are potentially far-reaching. Eze makes a compelling if largely implicit case that the figure of “Africa” in his- tory as a multi-sourced crossroads of thought, and as a generative site of postcolonial philosophy, necessitates a rethinking of the often East-West coordinates of philoso- phy as a discipline. In the process, On Reason offers subtle reflections on Africana philosophy; on the question of how and where Africana philosophy’s difference among the family of philosophical traditions might be located (in what “nonacciden- tal” forms of kindred thought [p.
    [Show full text]
  • APA Newsletter on Indigenous Philosophy, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring 2017)
    NEWSLETTER | The American Philosophical Association Indigenous Philosophy SPRING 2017 VOLUME 16 | NUMBER 2 FROM THE EDITOR Agnes B. Curry SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ARTICLES Chike Jeffers On Listening to Ourselves Joseph Osei The Philosophical Significance of Listening to Ourselves Gail Presbey The Best of Both Worlds: Philosophy in African Languages and English Translation BOOK REVIEW Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights Reviewed by Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner VOLUME 16 | NUMBER 2 SPRING 2017 © 2017 BY THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION ISSN 2155-9708 APA NEWSLETTER ON Indigenous Philosophy AGNES B. CURRY, EDITOR VOLUME 16 | NUMBER 2 | SPRING 2017 Bridging the gaps—conceptual and existential—between FROM THE EDITOR the language of one’s academic training and professional identity, and one’s “home” language, seems formidable. Starting Differently I don’t know this personally; rather, I speak as a Xicana who never adequately learned her mother’s tongue of Agnes Curry Spanish—but who was once told by one of my philosophy UNIVERSITY OF SAINT JOSEPH, CONNECTICUT professors that nothing of philosophical merit had been written in Spanish. I was told that the language itself, This edition of the APA Newsletter on Indigenous Philosophy while emotionally expressive, was not conducive to the features some of the papers presented at the special panel, articulation of rational thought. And that’s the European sponsored by the Committee on Indigenous Philosophers, language! Let’s not even broach considering the on Listening to Ourselves: A Multilingual Anthology of forgotten great-great-great grandmother’s tongue, buried African Philosophy, edited by Chike Jeffers, held January under a family history of baptism, shame, and a certain 6, 2017, at the APA Eastern Division meeting in Baltimore.
    [Show full text]
  • White Supremacy in Eurocentric Epistemologies: on the West’S Responsibility for Its Philosophical Heritage
    Preliminary communication UDC 165:141.74(045) doi: 10.21464/sp33115 Received: May 11, 2018 Björn Freter [email protected] White Supremacy in Eurocentric Epistemologies: On the West’s Responsibility for its Philosophical Heritage Abstract There is a largely overlooked fundamental flaw in the Eurocentric epistemological founda­ tion. Counter to the overwhelming ethos of the Enlightenment, this epistemological bedrock shockingly does not seem to be an epistemology of the human being, but only of the white human being. I, as a Western scholar, have to relativise my epistemological heritage, be­ cause it does not take into account the diversity of the human being. I will briefly explore the racist views of Voltaire, Hume, and Kant and I will argue that Western philosophy needs to (re)analyse its epistemological tradition with regards to the way the racist views of its pro­ tagonists corrupted their philosophical work. I suggest contextualization of the philosophi­ cal tradition and its desuperiorisation to foster ethical and broader philosophical dialogue amongst global scholars. Keywords white supremacy, racism, the Enlightenment, desuperiorisation, Voltaire, David Hume, Im- manuel Kant Introduction It is my critical evaluation that there is a largely overlooked fundamental flaw in the Western epistemological foundation, which no doubt has origins that can be traced back further, but is (re)introduced by the philosophers of the Enlightenment. Counter to the overwhelming ethos of the Enlightenment, this epistemological bedrock shockingly does not seem to be an epistemology of the human being, but only of the white human being. Indeed, I, as a Western scholar, have to relativise my epistemological heritage, because it does not take into account the diversity of the human being.
    [Show full text]
  • An African Existentialist Perspective on the Permissibility of Same Sex Marriage
    Nnamdi Azikiwe Journal of Philosophy. Volume 9, No 1 My Life, Our Right: An African Existentialist Perspective on the Permissibility of Same Sex Marriage 1Asia, Emmanuel & 2Odigie, Joseph Ndidi 1,2Department of Philosophy and Religions, Faculty of Arts, University of Benin, Benin City. Abstract Marriage is arguably a given in most societies but in recent years there has been a debate on the permissibility of same sex marriage. That is, whether it is possible for people of the same sex to be pronounced husband and wife. There have been several contradictory arguments for and against the permissibility of same sex marriage. Some of these arguments against same sex marriage include among others that it is anti-religious, that it destroys procreation which is a major reason why people get married in the first place, it leads to polygamy, it is incestuous, and bestial while on the other hand those in favour of same sex marriage argues along existentialist line that it is their life and their right to choose their sexual partner. However, this paper explores the African understanding of marriage and argues that the African understanding of marriage as exemplified among the Edo people should be used as an alternative solution to the controversial arguments on same sex marriage in western social philosophy. Thus, this paper argues that the question of marriage is a cultural phenomenon and given that the western culture had missed the true essence of marriage, that the Edo understanding of marriage should be use to correct the perverted notion of marriage in Western discourse. Keywords: Marriage, African, Same sex, Existentialism Last night I invented a new pleasure, and as I was giving it my first trial, an angel and a devil came rushing toward my house.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Race Theory Professor Peter K
    Course HUHI 6305.001: Ideas in Context: History of Race Theory Professor Peter K. J. Park Term Fall 2015 Class Meetings Wednesdays 4:00-6:45 p.m. Location: JO 4.708 Professor’s Contact Information Office Phone (972) 883-2152 Office Location JO 5.610 Office Hours Thursday afternoons. Please email me to let me know that you’re coming. Email Address [email protected] General Course Information Pre-requisites, Co- requisites, & other Open to M.A. and Ph.D. students restrictions This seminar is intended as a graduate-level historical and theoretical survey of both the history of race and racism and the scholarly field of critical race theory. This broad historical and theoretical survey is geographically centered on the West. It emphasizes the reading and criticism of classic works of critical race Course Description scholarship as well as important historical sources on race and racism in Western history. Among the ideas and practices falling under our purview are ancient and modern ethnography and ethnology, slavery, colonialism, natural history (or natural description or natural classification), natural rights, sociology of race, racialism, racial eliminativism, racial contract, and human development. Students will be able to (1) describe the major ideas and practices of race and racism in Western history, (2) describe major trends in the historiography of Learning Outcomes race and racism, (3) explain what critical race theory is, and (4) produce a work of historiography or a critical literature review. Bernasconi, Robert, and Tommy L. Lott, The Idea of Race. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000. Cox, Oliver C. Caste, Class, and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics.
    [Show full text]
  • A Defence of Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze's
    SCHOOL OF RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY AND CLASSICS A Defence of Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze’s Conception of Reason. Mohammed Xolile Ntshangase This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy in the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics. College of Humanities, University of KwaZulu- Natal, Pietermaritzburg November 2015 iii Declaration of originality The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research, carried in the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg from February to November 2015. I hereby declare that the content of this thesis is my work, unless specifically indicated to the contrary. This thesis has not been submitted in any form for any degree or diploma to any other University. All citations, references and borrowed ideas have been duly acknowledged. Sign……………… Date……………… iv Acknowledgements I owe my deepest gratitude to my Supervisor Dr. Bernard Matolino for his professional guidance. Special thanks to Shulika L Stella and Marion Jordan for editing my thesis. I am also grateful to Mr Mutshidzi Maraganedzha who helped me to shape my thoughts towards the completion of this thesis. My sincere gratitude also goes to my Muslim brotherhood from Scottville society. v Table of Content: Declaration of originality ................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Ka Osi Sọ Onye African Philosophy in the Postmodern
    Ka Osi S ọ Onye African Philosophy in the Postmodern Era Edited by Jonathan O. Chimakonam and Edwin Etieyibo With an introduction by Olatunji A. Oyeshile, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a foreword by Ifeanyi Menkiti, Wellesley College, USA Vernon Series in Philosophy Copyright © 2018 Vernon Press, an imprint of Vernon Art and Science Inc, on behalf of the author. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Vernon Art and Science Inc. www.vernonpress.com In the Americas: In the rest of the world: Vernon Press Vernon Press 1000 N West Street, C/Sancti Espiritu 17, Suite 1200, Wilmington, Malaga, 29006 Delaware 19801 Spain United States Vernon Series in Philosophy Library of Congress Control Number: 2017961724 ISBN: 978-1-62273-366-8 Product and company names mentioned in this work are the trademarks of their re- spective owners. While every care has been taken in preparing this work, neither the authors nor Vernon Art and Science Inc. may be held responsible for any loss or dam- age caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it. Table of Contents Foreword v Preface ix Acknowledgements xv Introduction: Reason and Postmodern Thinking in African Philosophy xvii Part One: Reason and African Philosophy Chapter 1 The Journey of Reason in African Philosophy 1 Jonathan O. Chimakonam Chapter 2 The Struggle for Reason in Africa Reloaded 21 Mogobe B.
    [Show full text]