Confluence Online Journal of World Philosophies Verlag Karl Alber Freiburg/Munich Vol. 3 · 2015 ISSN 2199-0360 · ISBN 978-3-495-46803-6 Confluence: Online Journal of World Philosophies Editors Confluence: Online Journal of World Philosophies is a bi-annual, peer- Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach (University Konstanz, Germany) reviewed, international journal dedicated to comparative thought. It James Maffie (University of Maryland, USA) seeks to explore common spaces and differences between philosophi- cal traditions in a global context. Without postulating cultures as monolithic, homogenous, or segregated wholes, it aspires to address Manuscript Editor key philosophical issues which bear on specific methodological, epis- temological, hermeneutic, ethical, social, and political questions in James Garrison (University of Vienna, Austria) comparative thought. Confluence aims to develop the contours of a philosophical understanding not subservient to dominant paradigms and provide a platform for diverse philosophical voices, including Advisory Board those long silenced by dominant academic discourses and institutions. Confluence also endeavors to serve as a juncture where specific phi- Robert Bernasconi (Pennsylvania State University, USA) losophical issues of global interest may be explored in an imaginative, Claudia Bickmann (University of Cologne, Germany) thought-provoking, and pioneering way. Anat Biletzki (Quinnipiac University, USA) We welcome innovative and persuasive ways of conceptualizing, Jonardon Ganeri (University Sussex, UK) articulating, and representing intercultural encounters. Contribu- Raghunath Ghosh (University of North Bengal, India) tions should be able to facilitate the development of new perspectives Peter S. Groff (Bucknell University, USA) on current global thought-processes and sketch the outlines of salient Paulin Hountondji (Emeritus, National Universities, Benin) future developments. Heinz Kimmerle (Emeritus, University of Rotterdam, Netherlands) Michael Krausz (Bryn Mawr College, USA) Ram Adhar Mall (Jena, Germany) Dismas Masolo (University of Louisville, USA) Lorraine Mayer (Brandon University, Canada) Seyyed Hossein Nasr (George Washington University, USA) Frederick Ochieng Odhiambo (University of the West Indies, Barbados) Ryosuke Ohashi (Emeritus, Kyoto University, Japan) Henry Rosemont, Jr. (Brown University, USA) Ofelia Schutte (Emerita, University of South Florida, USA) Lenart Škof (University of Primorska, Slovenia) Georg Stenger (University of Vienna, Austria) Willie L. van der Merwe (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) Franz Martin Wimmer (Emeritus, University of Vienna, Austria) Contents Articles . 7 J. O. Chimakonam, Conversational Philosophy as a New School of Thought in African Philosophy: A Conversation with Bruce Janz on the Concept of ›Philosophical Space‹ . 9 R. Bhattacharya, From Proto-materialism to Materialism: The Indian Scenario . 41 A. Smirnov, Towards an Understanding of Islamic Ornament: Approaching Islamic Ornament through Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam’s Notions of the Ẓāhir-Bāṭin Interplay and the Ṣūfī Ḥayra 60 S. Brentjes, Relationships Between Early Modern Christian and Islamicate Societies in Eurasia and North Africa as Reflected in the History of Science and Medicine . 85 Symposium: How Are Histories of Non-Western Philosophies Relevant to Intercultural Philosophizing? F.-M. Wimmer, How Are Histories of Non-Western Philosophies Relevant to Intercultural Philosophizing? . 125 R. Bernasconi, The Kantian Canon: Response to Wimmer . 133 P. Hountondji, Franz Wimmer’s Statement: A Comment . 139 T. Norton-Smith, A Shawnee Reflection on Franz Wimmer’s »How Are Histories of Non-Western Philosophies Relevant to Intercultural Philosophizing?« . 145 F.-M. Wimmer, Reply . 151 5 Contents Philosophical Journeys H. Verran, Comparative Philosophy and I . 171 R. Ohashi, Philosophy as Auto-Bio-Graphy: The Example of the Kyoto School . 189 Survey Articles Articles L. Kalmanson, Have We Got a Method for You!: Recent Developments in Comparative and Cross-Cultural Methodologies . 205 H. Shadi, An Epistemological Turn in Contemporary Islamic Reform Discourse: On Abdolkarim Soroush’s Epistemology . 215 Conference Report Asixoxe-Let’s Talk!, 1stand 2nd May 2015, SOAS, University of London, UK . 243 Institutional Programs on Comparative Philosophy The Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy (CEACOP), City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (SAR) . 249 Non-Western Philosophy, University of Reading, Reading, UK . 250 The Center for Comparative Philosophy (CCP), Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA . 251 Department of Philosophy, San Jose State University, California, USA . 252 6 Conversational Philosophy as a New School of Thought in African Philosophy: A Conversation with Bruce Janz on the Concept of ›Philosophical Space‹1 Abstract In the aftermath of the great debate in African philosophy, questions have been asked which triggered what we would call post-debate dis- illusionments. One such question posed to the advocates of Philoso- phical Universalism who ridiculed ethnophilosophy is: having dises- tablished the episteme of what they ridiculed as ethnophilosophy, what do they offer in its place? The second question posed to both the advocates of Philosophical Universalism and Philosophical Parti- cularism2 is: in the absence of any other point to debate about and in the absence of any commonly accepted episteme, what constitutes the concern and the future direction of African philosophy now? The fact that none of the two schools had any definite answers to these ques- tions created unexpected disillusionments which saw many who had expended great intellectual energy during the debate silently exit the stage of African philosophy. One of our goals in this essay shall be sketching a brief outline of systematic African philosophy. In doing this, we shall show how the conversational school has evolved as a new school of thought that takes phenomenological3 issues as its con- 1 I wish to heartily thank Prof. Olatunji A. Oyeshile of the University of Ibadan and V. C. A. Nweke of the University of Calabar for reading through the initial draft of this essay. Their critical commentaries have been very helpful in producing the cur- rent version of this essay. I thank them immensely. 2 I have employed the categories ›Philosophical Universalism‹ and ›Philosophical Par- ticularism‹ in the same senses Edwin Etieyibo first employed them. Whatever does not completely fall into one can be regarded as a member of both. See E. Etieyibo, ›Post-Modern Thinking and African Philosophy,‹ Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions, Vol. 3, No 1. 2014, pp. 67–82. 3 Throughout this essay I have employed the derivative »phenomenological« thirteen times and in two related senses: 1. To refer to issues that are present in the lifeworld or in the day-to-day experiences of a people e.g. »phenomenological issues/concerns« and, 2. To refer to a method that seeks through systematic reflection to determine the essential properties and structures of experience, e.g. »phenomenological engage- 9 J. O. Chimakonam Conversational Philosophy as a New School of Thought in African Philosophy cern in the contemporary period. Understandably, the promise of this took shape. Thus began the history of systematic African philosophy new school shall be the centerpiece of this essay as we engage Bruce with nationalist and ideological constructions. I have clarified that it Janz in a conversation on the concept of »philosophical space.« Our was the frustration of the returnee African scholars that first led them methods shall be evaluative, critical and prescriptive. into systematic philosophizing and that still leads some African phi- losophers to this day – Africa, being a continent in turmoil (2014: Keywords 325).6 But I have stated this without also gainsaying the place and Conversational philosophy, conversational, conversationalism, Afri- presence of »wonder« in the philosophical activities of African philo- can philosophy, space, place, Bruce Janz. sophers of today (ibid.). In an earlier writing, I have delineated the history of African philosophy into two broad categorizations – to wit, the Pre-systema- 1 Introduction tic and the Systematic. The former refers to Africa’s philosophical culture, thoughts of anonymous African thinkers, and may include I have argued elsewhere that the history of African philosophy began the problematic7 of Egyptian legacy. The latter refers to the period with frustration4 that inexorably generated angry questions and then marking the return of Africa’s first eleven or Western-tutored philo- responses and reactions that then initially manifested in nationalist sophers8 spanning from the 1920s to the modern day (Chimakonam and ideological thoughts and excavations. Here, I wish to strengthen 2015: 12). This latter category could further be delineated into four that claim and advance the notion that not only the history of African periods, namely: philosophy, but what I label systematic African philosophy, itself 1. Early period: 1920s-1960s started from the springboard of frustration. Evidently as I argued 2. Middle period: 1960s-1980s elsewhere, the frustration was borne out of a colonial caricature of 3. Later period: 1980s-1990s Africa as culturally naïve, intellectually docile, and rationally inept 4. New (contemporary) Era: 1990s- till today. (2015: 9).5 These developments are not without some consequences. Beginning with the identity crisis of the