2. Pius Mosima Introduction African
Philosophy
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Samenvatting hele boek
In this work, Pius Maija Mosima attempts to contribute to the future of African and intercultural
philosophy by comparing the late Kenyan philosopher, Henry Odera Oruka’s philosophic sagacity
and intercultural philosophy as conceived by Dutch intercultural philosopher Wim van
Binsbergen. He attempts to answer three main questions: what is philosophic sagacity or sage
philosophy and how does one distinguish it from the other forms of philosophy that are available
in Africa? What is the best approach for contemporary African philosophy to take in a context
marked by the high degree of global interconnectedness and interactions today? Sage
philosophy refers to the body of thought produced by persons considered wise by their
communities. Oruka categorizes these wise persons into two groups: folk sages and philosophic
sages. Folk sages are well versed with the popular wisdoms, culture and beliefs of their people.
Philosophic sages are those that seek rational foundation and critically evaluate commonly held
cultural beliefs. They can transcend these communal beliefs by taking a critical and rational
distance. The author identifies globalization as the one of the most important socio-political and
cultural developments in our contemporary world. He proposes an intercultural philosophy that
enables us to think beyond local to global sagacity.
Samenvatting
He will attempt to critically evaluate Henry Odera Oruka’s contributions to the development of
contemporary African philosophy, form an intercultural philosophical perspective.
Western Philosophy: is a product of civilization and a disciplinary quest that is almost 3000 years old.
African Philosophy: has no such history, unless the arguments and conclusions of Afrocentrism are
accepted in totality.
Afrocentrism: the claim that examples of philosophical text existed in Ancient Egypt. It is sometimes
unfairly and one-dimensionally typed as an attempt to inflate the international importance and
influence of Ancient Egyptian culture totally out of proportion to the scientific evidence for it.
- Best known in western scholarship for its arguments that both the form and the content of
Ancient Greek and subsequently European/western philosophy and science were derives
directly from Egyptian civilization.
- This thought urged scholars of Greek and Roman civilization to posit that the character of
Greek thought and civilization was different and distinctive from that of their Egyptian
counterparts. VB blz 2.
- Bernal against this view. Argument that roots of Western civilization are to be sought not in
Ancient Greece but outside Europe, In Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Cultural relations
between Ancient Egypt and Greece with western turkey.
- Van Binsbergen conducts a constructive reassessment of Bernal’s work. In his quest for
intercultural counter-hegemony, he broadens the scope for intercontinental comparison
with ancillary sciences. Moreover, his intercultural philosophy focus drove him increasingly
not so much to the conceptual theorizing, but to empirical historical exploration in wider and
wider stretches of space and time. This method enables him to empirically underpin the
premise of the fundamental unity of humankind and to endorse the undeniable empirical
, reality of massive cultural continuities through space and time, on a transcontinental scale,
and profoundly involving Africa.
- Nevertheless, given the problematic ruptures and discontinuities between contemporary
African realities and the undoubtedly impressive cultural and intellectual achievements of
Ancient Egypt, it is difficult to sustain a continuous relationship between the 2 textual
genres.
Origins of African philosophy
- Its encounter with post-Enlightenment modernity. Slavery, apartheid, colonization,
decolonization, and the postcolonial aftermath: neo-colony. Birth is in its modern and
contemporary formation.
Discussion of one compound question: is there an African philosophy? And if there is, what is it? How
can we retrieve it? What are the conditions of its possibility?
- The first part of this question ha unhesitatingly been answered in the affirmative. But some
are hesitant and some say no. blz. 4.
- Nevertheless, dispute has been primarily over the second part of the question, as the various
specimens of African philosophy presented do not pass muster. The question itself is what
constitutes African Philosophy (AP). Rather than doing philosophy, these paralyzing
questions and forays into unproductive ontology prevailed in the initial attempts to define
the parameters of the discipline. Other labels do not puzzle anyone, but why does African
philosophy? A casual dismissal of the problem ignores the important observation concerning
the high status of philosophy in western culture. Any discussion of AP involves, necessarily,
confronting this privileged self-image.
- Van Hook thus contends that questions concerning the nature and existence of AP are thus
perceived as reflecting a western colonial bias, such that there is no such thing as – and there
never has been – an AP, because allegedly Africans cannot be considered as rational beings
or are simply not as rational as Westerners, or they lack the disposition needed to
philosophize.
- Questions concerning the nature of philosophy need not be viewed as bad or unpleasant.
They are indicative of a much more general concern about the necessary and sufficient
conditions for anything to count as philosophy. The different positions as to the nature of AP
reflect different understandings of the meaning of philosophy itself. The issue pf
philosophy’s identity may be more visible in Africa than in the West, however, because
dominant and marginal philosophical traditions are neither as clear nor as firmly established.
In an attempt to answer the questions or demonstrate examples of the existence and nature of AP, a
deeper analysis reveals that there are 2 distinct senses in the usage of the expression AP:
1. The particularizing perspective (traditionalists): AP is explained or defined in opposition to
philosophy in other continents – and, in particular, to Western or European philosophy.
Africans have a unique way of thinking and conceptualizing. AP is understood as a corpus of
thoughts and beliefs produced by this way of thinking. European opposed to AP. A based on
intuition and Eu more rationalism. Any philosophy is qualified by the cultural orientation of
its propounders. No philosophic theme can be handled competently without familiarity with
culture.
2. The universalizing perspective (modernists): in its general sense, philosophy is viewed as a
universal discipline whose meaning and content are independent of racial or regional
boundaries and particular disciplines. This universalizing perspective provides the possibility
of an intercultural philosophy. Most philosophical problems transcend racial and cultural
boundaries. AP can only be authentic when ideas are appropriated and discussed in the
African context. Philosophy is not seen as a monopoly of Europe or any race but as an activity
for which every race has the potentiality.
