Theory and History of Ontology

by Raul Corazzon - e-mail: raul.corazzon[at]formalontology.it

For an overview see the Index of the Pages, the SITE MAP or the Alphabetical Index of the Philosophers: A-F - G-O - P-Z; You can also download this page as

Table of Contemporary Ontologists (click on the image to see the PDF file)

African Philosophy: A Survey of Contemporary Studies

Pathways to Non-Western Philosophy

• Pathways to Comparative Philosophy (a selection of reference works about non-Western ontology and logic)

• African Philosophy. A Survey of Contemporary Studies (introductory works and studies about African conceptions of Being and Truth)

• Logic and Language in Ancient China (a survey of contemporary studies)

• Logic and Ontology in Ancient India (with particular reference the Nyaya-Vaisesika School):

  • Annotated bibliography: Introductory readings

  • Annotated bibliography: Advanced Readings

• Buddhist Logic and Ontology (Indian and Tibetan developments of Buddhism)

• Islamic (Arabic and Persian) Logic and Ontology (the introduction of Greek philosophy in the Islamic world)

INTRODUCTION: AFRICAN AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

"In the past three decades, philosophers -- especially African-born who are trained in Western philosophy -- have engaged in a metaphilosophical debate over whether there exists an African philosophy and, if so, what its nature is. This debate regarding the nature and existence of African philosophy has culminated in two camps, which I shall call the universalists and the particularists. Wiredu characterizes the latter as the anti-universalists or the nationalists.(1) The former camp, represented by the works of Bodunrin, Wiredu, Appiah, and Hountondji, among others, argues that the concept of 'philosophy', in terms of the methodology and subject matter of the discipline, should be the same in both the Western and African senses.(2) The latter camp, as seen in the works of Ayoade, Gyekye, Sodipo, and Onwuanibe, among others, argues that different cultures have different ways of explaining reality; hence Africans must have a philosophy that is essentially different from other philosophies. Perhaps it is along this line of trying to articulate the essential nature of 'African philosophy', Safro Kwame argues, that the metaphilosophical approach of the Western analytic tradition is not African, and as such, it is not and should not be a legitimate approach in African philosophy.(3) Some of the people in this camp have thus questioned the use of the been characterized by African philosophers as African philosophy, and three of these have been criticized by the universalists as unphilosophical. The universalists argue that, compared to their paradigm view of the nature of philosophy -- that is, the contemporary analytic tradition of Western philosophy -- African philosophy does not have the requisite features of a tradition of writing and a rigorous and critical analytical approach to debates over universal conceptual and abstract issues that are engaged in by individuals. However, it is my view that there are both universalist and particularist elements in African philosophy. In other words, although there are culturally determined philosophical ways of constructing meaning, these ways are not incommensurable. As such, we can use the 'known' universal (?) philosophical concepts and methods of one 'culture' to analyze and make understandable the philosophical beliefs and worldviews of another culture that may 'appear' arcane -and this, in my view, is what many of the particularists have tried to do with African worldviews. This does not imply, as the universalists have claimed, that the beliefs and worldviews of one culture (Western) are comparatively superior to another philosophically, to the extent of denigrating one (African) as unphilosophical or denying its existence as a philosophical system."

(1) Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy and an African Culture (London: Cambridge University Press, 1980 ), p. 27.

(2) This stance can be found in the following works: P. O. Bodunrin, "The Question of African Philosophy", Philosophy 56 ( 1981 ), reprinted in Richard A. Wright, ed., African Philosophy: An Introduction (New York: University Press of America, 1984 ); Kwasi Wiredu , Philosophy and an African Culture; Paulin Hountondji, African Philosophy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983 ); and Anthony Appiah, Necessary Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1989 ). (3) Safro Kwame, "How Not to Teach African Philosophy", APA Newsletter 91 (1) ( Spring 1992 ): p. 29.

From: Polycarp Ikuenobe - The Parochial Universalist Conception of 'Philosophy' and 'African Philosophy' - Philosophy East and West, 47, 1997, pp. 189-190.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS TO AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

1. African philosophy. An introduction. Edited by Wright Richard A. Washington: University Press of America 1977.
   Second edition 1979; Third expanded edition 1984.

    

2. African philosophy. Edited by Floistad Guttorm. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff 1987.
   Contemporary philosophy. A new survey (Vol. V).

    

3. The African philosophy reader. A text with readings. Edited by Coetzee Pieter Hendrik and Roux A.P.J. New York: Routledge 1998.
   Second expanded edition 2003.

    

4. African philosophy. An anthology. Edited by Eze Emmanuel Chukwudi. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 1998.

    

5. Perspectives on Africa. A reader in culture, history, and representation. Edited by Grinker Roy Richard and Steiner Christopher B. Cambridge: Blackwell 1998.

    

6. A companion to African philosophy. Edited by Wiredu Kwasi. Oxford Blackwell: 2004.

    

7. African philosophy. New and traditional perspectives. Edited by Brown Lee M. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004.

    

8. Apostel Leo. African philosophy: myth or reality? Gent, Belgium: Story-Scientia 1981.

    

9. Bell Richard H. Understanding African philosophy. A cross-cultural approach to classical and contemporary issues in Africa. New York: Routledge 2002.

    

10. Hallen Barry. A short history of African philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2002.

     

11. Hountondji Paulin J. African philosophy: myth and reality. London: Hutchinson 1983.
    Translation of: Sur la philosophie africaine. Critique de l'ethnophilosophie - Paris, Maspéro, 1976.
    Second edition with a new preface by the author 1997.

     

12. Imbo Samuel Olouch. An introduction to African philosophy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield 1998.

     

13. Masolo Dismas A. African philosophy in search of identity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1994.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: MORE SPECIALIZED WORKS

1. Readings in African philosophy. An Akan collection. Edited by Kwame Safro. Lanham: University Press of America 1995.

    

2. Bedu-Addo Joseph T. Wiredu on truth as opinion and the Akan language. In Philosophy in Africa: trends and perspectives. Edited by Bodunrin Peter. Ife: University of Ife Press 1985. pp. 68-90

    

3. Blakeley Thomas J. The categories of Mtu and the categories of Aristotle. In African philosophy. An introduction. Edited by Wright Richard A. Washington: University Press of America 1984. pp. 163-170

    

4. Bodunrin Peter, "The question of African philosophy," Philosophy 56: 161-179 (1981).

    

5. Dukor Maduabu, "African cosmology and ontology," Indian Philosophical Quarterly 16: 367-391 (1989).

    

6. Gyekye Kwame. An essay on African philosophical thought. The Akan conceptual scheme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1987.
   Second revised edition: Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1995.

    

7. Hallen Barry and Sodipo J.Olubi. Knowledge, belief and witchcraft: analytic experiments in African philosophy. London: Ethnographica 1986.
   Foreword by Dorothy Emmett.
   Second edition with a new foreword by Willard Van Orman Quine and a new afterword by Barry Hallen - Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1997.

    

8. Ikuenobe Polycarp, "The parochial universalist conception of 'philosophy' and 'African philosophy'," Philosophy East and West 47 (2): 189-210 (1997).
   "The universalists argue that there is currently no African philosophy. Compared to Western philosophy, African philosophy does not have the requisite features of a writing tradition and a rigorous and critical analytical approach to debates over universal conceptual issues, engaged in by individuals. This stance, it is argued here, involves a parochial conception of 'philosophy' that is applied to African philosophy and captures only the contemporary analytic tradition of western philosophy -- while the ancient and medieval periods indicate that other speculative, constructive, and normative approaches to philosophy exist that are not captured by this conception. Moreover, African philosophy that is equivalent to the ancient and medieval periods does exist, and this African equivalent is a precursor to the contemporary analytic philosophy that the universalists are looking for in Africa."

    

9. Jahn Janheinz. Muntu. An outline of neo-African culture. London: Faber and Faber 1961.
   Translated from the German Muntu. Umrisse der neoafrikanischen Kultur (1958) by Marjorie Grene
   Reprinted, with a new introduction by Calvin C. Hernton wit the title: Muntu. African culture and the Western world - New York, Grove Press, 1990.

    

10. Kagame Alexis. La philosophie bantu-rwandaise de l'Être. Bruxelles: Editions Duculot, Gembloux 1956.

     

11. Kagame Alexis. La Philosophie bantu comparée. Paris: Présence africaine 1976.

     

12. Obanda Simon. Re-creation de la philosophie africaine. Rupture avec Tempels et Kagame. Bern: Peter Lang 2005.

     

13. Tempels Placide. Bantu philosophy. Paris: Présence africaine 1952.
    Translated into English from La philosophie Bantoue the French version by A. Rubbens of Tempels' original work.
    With a foreword to the English edition by Margaret Read
    Reprinted 1969.

     

14. Wiredu Kwasi. Cultural universals and particulars: an African perspective. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1996.

RELATED PAGES

Ontology and the History of Western Logic. An Introduction

Last modified: Tuesday, March 09, 2010