Understanding African Philosophy: A Cross-cultural Approach to Classical and Contemporary Issues

206 Pages·2002·1.06 MB·English

by  Richard H. Bell

UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN
PHILOSOPHY
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UNDERSTANDING
AFRICAN
PHILOSOPHY
A CROSS-CULTURAL APPROACH TO
Classical and Contemporary Issues
RICHARD H.BELL
ROUTLEDGE
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Published in 2002 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group.
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
Copyright © 2002 by Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in
any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Design and typography: Jack Donner
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of
Congress.
Understanding African Philosophy/Richard H.Bell
ISBN 0-203-80074-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-80077-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-93936-4 (Print Edition)—ISBN 0-415-93937-2 (pbk.)
To my
wife and children,
Barbara, Jonathan, & Rebecca:
you have given me
great joy in life
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contents
P reface x
A cknowledgments xvi ii
1. U nderstanding Another Culture 1
Understanding Others and Ourselves
A Procedure from an Aesthetic Point of View
“Found in Translation”
2. F oundations of Modern African Philosophy 2 1
Ethnophilosophy and the “Negritude” Movement
Critical, Scientific Philosophy
Sage Philosophy
3. L iberation and Postcolonial African Philosophy 3 6
African Humanism and Socialism
Postcolonial African Thought
The Question of “Race”
4. A frican Moral Philosophy I: Community and Justice 5 8
Persons, Individualism, and Communalism
Suffering and Injustice
Poverty and Human Development
5. A frican Moral Philosophy II: Truth and Reconciliation 8 3
Linking Communalism, Ubuntu, and Restorative Justice
Understanding the Grammar of Justice after Apartheid
“Not All Storytelling Heals”: Criticisms of the TRC Process
Justice and Political Transformation
6. N arrative in African Philosophy: Orality and Icons 10 6
The Philosophical Significance of Oral Narratives
Rational Dialogue, Democracy, and the Village Palaver
Finding Pictures and Fictitious Narratives “Surprising”
viii UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY
Iconic Forms and the Aesthetic Consciousness Revisited
7. S ome Concluding Remarks 13 2
N otes 13 6
B ibliography 17 1
I ndex 18 1
Seriously to study another way of life is necessarily to extend our own.
—Peter Winch