What is African Philosophy?

The article focuses on the concept of African philosophy. I enter the discussion with some of the earliest texts that we can classify both as philosophical and of African origin. I proceed with an overview of four approaches to philosophising in Africa, as identified by Henry Oruka (ethno-philosophy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ars & Humanitas
Main Author: Pirc, Tadej
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete / Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/arshumanitas/article/view/8007
https://doi.org/10.4312/ars.12.1.189-203
Description
Summary:The article focuses on the concept of African philosophy. I enter the discussion with some of the earliest texts that we can classify both as philosophical and of African origin. I proceed with an overview of four approaches to philosophising in Africa, as identified by Henry Oruka (ethno-philosophy, philosophic sagacity, nationalist-ideological philosophy, and professional philosophy) and, in reference to other categorisations, emphasise the critique by Peter Bodunrin, who attributes the status of true philosophy exclusively to professional or academic philosophy. The explication makes it evident that the question of African Philosophy is in essence the question of Philosophy itself. Članek se osredotoča na pojem afriške filozofije. Razpravo pričnem z nekaterimi zgodnjimi deli, ki jih lahko opredelimo kot filozofska in hkrati afriškega izvora. Nadaljujem s pregledom štirih pristopov k filozofiranju v Afriki, kot jih je razbral Henry Oruka (etnofilozofija, filozofske modrosti, nacionalistično-ideološka filozofija in profesionalna filozofija), ter v navezavi z drugimi kategorizacijami izpostavim kritiko Petra Bodunrina, ki status prave filozofije pripiše le profesionalni oziroma akademski filozofiji. Med eksplikacijo se izkaže, da je vprašanje afriške filozofije bistveno vpraševanje po filozofiji sami.