African Philosophy, Second Edition: Myth and Reality - Paulin J. Hountondji

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Résumé :
In this seminal exploration of the nature and future of African philosophy, Paulin J. Hountondji attacks a myth popularized by ethnophilosophers such as Placide Temples and Alexis Kagame that there is an indigenous, collective African philosophy, separate and distinct from the Western philosophical tradition. Hountondji contends that ideological manifestations of this view that stress the uniqueness of the African experience are protonationalist reactions against colonialism conducted, paradoxically, in the terms of colonialist discourse.

Biographie:
Paulin J. Hountondji is Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Benin, Cotonou. He is editor of and contributor to Philosophical Research in Africa: A Bibliographic Survey and Endogenous Knowledge: Research Trails. Hountondji is former Minister of Culture and Communication and Special Advisor to the Head of State of Benin.

Sommaire:
Preface to the second edition
Introduction by Abiola IrelePart One: Arguments
1. An alienated literature
2. History of a myth
3. African philosophy, myth, and reality
4. Philosophy and its revolutionsPart Two: Analyses
5. An African philosopher in Germany in the eighteenth century: Anton-Wilhelm Amo
6. The end of 'Nkrumaism' and the (re)birth of Nkrumah
7. The idea of philosophy in Nkrumah's Consciencism
8. True and false pluralismPostscript
Notes and references
Index