Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy Isaac E
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Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy Isaac E. Ukpokolo Editor Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy Editor Isaac E. Ukpokolo Department of Philosophy University of Ibadan Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria ISBN 978-3-319-40795-1 ISBN 978-3-319-40796-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40796-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957725 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © david sanger photography / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgments As I complete this volume, Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy, I wish to express my appreciation to all the contributors who cooperated with me in producing the work. Special thanks go to my friends and students, including Peter A. Ikhane, Timi Olujohungbe and Elvis Imafidon, who were at the very center of the production of this work. I extend this appreciation to my colleagues in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, who encouraged me and pepped me up when I was faced with frustrating challenges. I thank my dear wife, Francesca C. Ukpokolo, who, in addition to providing an enabling environment around me, read through some of the manuscript for correctness and alignment with the theme of the book. I am grateful to my children, Oseighele, Ebosetale, Irenose and Eseleose, and my nephew Jesse, who provided tranquility to enable me to concentrate on the writings. I appreciate the role played by Palgrave Macmillan in the publication and advertisement of the book. Above all, I give glory and praise to God, the holy mystery in whose eternal today has always existed the production of this book. v Contents 1 Introduction: The Shifting Focus of Philosophy in Africa 1 Isaac E. Ukpokolo 2 Revisiting the Terms of African Philosophy 11 C.B.N. Ogbogbo 3 African Metaphysics: Traditional and Modern Discussions 19 Wilfred Lajul 4 Critical Notes on the Metaphysics of Metallurgy in an African Culture 49 Omotade Adegbindin 5 An Overview of African Ethics 61 Thaddeus Metz 6 Transnational Ethics, Justice and Anyiam-Osigwe’s Philosophy of the Family 77 Ronald Olufemi Badru 7 Toward an African Moral Theory (Revised Edition) 97 Thaddeus Metz vii viii Contents 8 An African Theory of Knowledge 121 Anselm Kole Jimoh 9 Epistemic Insight from an African Way of Knowing 137 Peter A. Ikhane 10 The Imperative of Epistemic Decolonization in Contemporary Africa 145 Abosede Priscilla Ipadeola 11 A Gendered Interrogation of Virtue Ascription in an African Thought System 161 Isaac E. Ukpokolo 12 Women’s Agency and the Re-negotiation of Gender Depiction in an African Media Space 179 Benjamin Timi Olujohungbe 13 The Imperative of Developing African Eco-philosophy 191 Kevin Behrens 14 The Nature of African Aesthetics 205 Mathew A. Izibili 15 Philosophy and Existence in an African Condition 217 Anthony Akinwale 16 Human Life and the Question of Meaning in African Existentialism 237 Monday Lewis Igbafen 17 Western Specifications, African Approximations: Time, Colour and Existential Attitudes 255 Elvis Imafidon Contents ix 18 Probable Limits of Particularism in African Existential Discourse 267 Wale Olajide 19 Philosophy and the Challenge of Development in Africa 277 Peter A. Ikhane 20 Political Philosophy in the African Context 289 Joseph Osei 21 Concepts of Justice in Africa: Past and Present 305 Anke Graness 22 African Worldview and the Question of Democratic Substance 333 Christopher O. Agulanna and Peter Osimiri 23 Philosophy: Interrogating the Public Space and Culture 351 O. B. Lawuyi 24 Mandela’s Legacy for Political Philosophy in Africa 365 Joseph Osei Index 383 Notes on Contributors Omotade Adegbindin, Ph.D is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Christopher O. Agulanna, Ph.D is a professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Anthony Akinwale, Ph.D a Dominican friar of the Province of Nigeria, holds a PhD degree from Boston College in the USA. He is a professor at the Dominican Institute, Ibadan, and a visiting professor at Institut Saint Thomas d’Aquin de Yamoussoukro in Cote d’Ivoire. He specializes in systematic theology and the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. His research interests include retrieving the philosophical and theological insights of Thomas Aquinas in addressingphilosophical, religious and political issues in Africa. He has authored The Congress and the Council: Towards a Nigerian Reception of Vatican II and co-edited with Joseph Kenny Preaching in Contemporary Nigeria and Tradition and Compromises: Essays on the Challenge of Pentecostalism. He has also pub- lished essays in several academic journals within and outside Nigeria. Ronald Olufemi Badru, Ph.D is a lecturer in philosophy and politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria, as well as an associate lecturer in philosophy at the Major Seminary of Ss. Peter and Paul, Ibadan, Nigeria. He is also an associate lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Lead City University, Ibadan, where he teaches Argument and Evidence (Logic and Legal Epistemology). Dr. Badru’s core areas of academic research are political, moral and legal philosophy. He has published in peer-reviewed, scholarly international journals in countries outside of Nigeria, such as the USA, Romania, Poland, Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa, to mention a few. Moreover, he has contributed quality chapters to edited academic books in his areas of research. He has also been invited to present scholarly papers at various international academic conferences and workshops in many countries, such as Russia, the USA, Germany, Scotland, Malaysia, Greece, South Africa and Portugal. Dr. Badru is a Senior Research Fellow of “Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique, Nigeria.” xi xii Notes on Contributors Kevin G. Behrens, Ph.D is a senior lecturer at the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg. He holds a Doctorate in Public Philosophy and Ethics from the University of Johannesburg and a Master’s Degree in Applied Ethics for Professionals from Wits. Kevin is the academic coordinator of the PhD program in Bioethics and Health Law and the unit head for the “Foundations of Bioethics” unit in the Master of Science in Medicine in the Bioethics and Health Law program. His research interests lie in the area of applied ethics, in particular with regard to bioethics and environmental ethics. A major emphasis in his work is on applying sub-Saharan African moral philosophical notions to ethical questions. He has published widely in international and national journals and is on the editorial board of the South African Journal of Bioethics and Law. He holds a rating as an “Established Researcher” (C1) from the National Research Foundation. Anke Graness is Elise Richter Fellow at the Chair Philosophy in a Global World/ Intercultural Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna (Austria). She is the author of Das menschliche Minimum. Globale Gerechtigkeit aus afrikanischer Sicht: Henry Odera Oruka. She has also co-edited an anthology on the Kenyan phi- losopher Henry Odera Oruka, Sagacious Reasoning. H. Odera Oruka in memo- riam (with K. Kresse), and a book on intercultural philosophy, Perspektiven interkulturellen Philosophierens. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Methodik von Polylogen (with F. Gmainer-Pranzl). Graness has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals in the areas of African philosophy, intercultural philosophy and global justice. Her research interests include history of philosophy, ethics, political philosophy and feminist theory. Anke Graness is currently project leader of a FWF-funded research project on the history of philosophy in Africa at the University of Vienna. Monday Lewis Igbafen, Ph.D is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria. His areas of specialization/interest include social and political philosophy, existentialism and African philosophy. Peter A. Ikhane is a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. He teaches philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Dominican Institute, Ibadan, Nigeria. Elvis Imafidon is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria. His areas of specialization include African ontology and ethics, philosophy of modernity and philosophy of science. He has published several papers in various fields of African philosophy in learned journals. He is the editor of Ontologized Ethics: New Essays in African Meta-ethics (2014) and The Ethics of Subjectivity: Perspectives since the Dawn of Modernity (2015), and he is the author of The Question of the Rationality of African Traditional Thought: An Introduction (2013).