African philosophy

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The term “ African philosophy ” is controversial and is also used very differently by different philosophers . Although philosophers originating from or teaching there also write and research in many traditional areas of philosophy (for example on questions of metaphysics , epistemology , moral philosophy and political philosophy ), a large part of the literature that appears there also deals with the essence of African Philosophy itself.

One of the key points of the discussion deals with the question of what exactly should be referred to by the expression “African”: the content of the philosophy there or the identity of the philosophers there. According to the first view, a philosophy is called African if it deals with specifically African topics and concepts or uses methods developed there ; according to the second opinion, African philosophy simply comprises that part of philosophy which is provided by African philosophers (or more generally by people of African descent).

In the following, African philosophy will be considered under the first of the considerations listed above, as this allows its existing peculiarities to be expressed particularly clearly. In addition, a change of perspective would not mean any significant change in the results, since in fact African philosophy in the first sense (still) coincides with philosophy in the second sense.

The following historical outline will initially proceed in a person-centered manner and illuminate philosophers who were born on the African continent; with the onset of modernity should be at the forefront then more and more of the content and the method of African philosophy. But first a short description of the development of African philosophy in antiquity .

Antiquity to modern times

The history of philosophy in premodern Africa can be divided into two large areas based on geographic conditions: developments in southern and northern Africa. This subdivision is based in turn on two related factors: the exchange with other cultural and religious traditions such as Judaism , Christianity and Islam and the development of a written language .

First of all, another distinction can be made, namely that between the philosophers on the one hand and philosophy on the other: Paulin J. Hountondji once remarked that without a written language

" Thousands of Socrates could never have given birth to Greek philosophy ... so thousands of philosophers without written works could never have given birth to an African philosophy "

Even if a rather broad definition of the term “philosopher” is assumed here - for example, Joseph I. Omoregebe suggested that a philosopher is someone

"Who devotes a good deal of his time reflecting on [fundamental questions about human life or the physical universe] and who frequently and habitually does this" -,

there is still a clear difference between the incoherent set of individual thoughts of such a thinker, and the continuity of a thought that deserves the name "philosophical tradition". Put more simply: Even if there are and have been African philosophers, this does not necessarily lead to the establishment of an independent African philosophy.

The second point of view starts with an alternative concept of philosophy: If we assume that every philosophy can be described as a coherent set of assumptions about nature , the world, and the place of man in it, one can have a kind of philosophical thinking in almost all cultures prove. Such a concept of philosophy no longer depends on the presence of people who philosophize in the sense of Omoregbe's suggestion; thus an African philosophy becomes conceivable even without African philosophers.

A lack of ability of the African inhabitants to think philosophically is no longer seriously suggested by anyone and would probably be difficult to justify. The current view is that for philosophical (or, more generally, scientific) thinking there must be a certain kind of social structure (that at least part of society has enough time and leisure to think and discuss); other factors are also mentioned. Even if one were to assume that no philosophical thinking had developed in ancient Africa, this would only be an indication that one or more of these contingent factors did not exist there; the ability of its inhabitants to philosophize, however, can hardly be called into question.

South of the Sahara

So there is at least one sure example of a premodern philosopher from southern Africa in the Omoregbeian sense: Anton Wilhelm Amo was abducted as a slave from the African Awukenu ( e.g. present-day Ghana ) to Europe, grew up there and received one Sound education: He acquired academic degrees in law and philosophy and eventually became a professor at the universities in Halle and Jena .

In addition, Zär'a Yaqob (1599–1693) can be mentioned, which although not received any further, provides an example of Ethiopian philosophy in the 17th century.

Northern Africa

The philosophy in North Africa can look back on a rich and eventful history: starting in pre-dynastic Egypt, and then driven forward by the birth of Christianity and Islam. A central theme in ancient Egypt was the term “ ma'at ”, which can be roughly expressed as “ justice ”, “ truth ” or simply “what is right”. One of the earliest works of political philosophy are the maxims of Ptah-Hotep , which formed the learning basis for generations of Egyptian school children. Hermetic philosophers such as Giordano Bruno saw their intellectual roots in ancient Egyptian philosophy, and indeed there are many references in his work to Greek philosophers who studied in Egypt. Some commentators, e.g. B. George James are of the opinion that large parts of Greek philosophy originally come from Egypt, and Martin Bernall in his book Black Athena even suggests that a pre-Enlightenment approach from Egyptian philosophy later had to give way to a Eurocentric view, which the rejected findings obtained there.

Within the Christian tradition, the African philosopher Augustine of Hippo can be regarded as one of the most important exponents of early Christian philosophy and theology. He lived from 354 to 430 AD and wrote, among other things, his perhaps best-known work “ De civitate dei ” (“The State of God”) in Hippo Regius (today Annaba in Algeria ). In it he attacks a number of other Christian doctrines such as Arianism and introduces concepts and theorems such as original sin and grace doctrine into Christian theology, which were of decisive importance for its further course.

In the Islamic tradition there are philosophers like Ibn Baja , who lived in the 12th century and took his philosophical starting point in Neoplatonism . According to Baja, the purpose of human life is the attainment of true bliss. This can be achieved through the vision of universals . Thereby make reason and philosophy as required for this conditions established religions whereas a minor role to play.

Ibn Ruschd ( Averroes , founder of Averroism ) developed a philosophy that was more Aristotelian- inspired. He took the view that there does not have to be a real conflict between religion and philosophy, that both represent different but equally permissible paths to God . While the philosopher, as a friend of thought, can freely choose the path of reason, the majority of ordinary people are unable to do so and therefore choose the path of faith .

Ibn Sab'in attacked this doctrine, arguing that Aristotelian philosophy was useless for understanding the universe because it failed to reflect the world's fundamental unity with itself and God. Hence, a true understanding would require an entirely different method of thinking.

Four possible candidates for modern African philosophy

The Kenyan philosopher Henry Odera Oruka named four different varieties of modern African philosophy: ethnophilosophy , philosophical wisdom , nationalistic or ideological philosophy and academic philosophy . It may also be possible to view them as “applicants” for a particular direction in African philosophy, with the possibility that more than one can meet its requirements.

Ethnophilosophy and Philosophical Wisdom

Ethnophilosophy includes the inclusion of beliefs represented in African cultures. Such an approach treats African philosophy as a set of commonly shared presuppositions, values, categories and assumptions that are implicit in the language, thought and action of all African cultures; In short, it tries to describe a specifically African worldview . It is thus understood more as an object of common ownership than as an activity that emanates from an individual.

A proponent of this school of thought, Placide Tempels , tried to show in his book Bantu Philosophy that the metaphysical categories of the Bantu people are reflected in their linguistic categories. According to this view, African philosophy can best be understood as a reflection of the fundamental assumptions about reality as it is reflected in the African languages.

An example of this approach is the work of EJ Alagoa from the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria , who, in his essay An African Philosophy of History in the Oral Tradition, advocates a specifically African history of philosophy , which is based on traditional wisdom and tradition Proverbs of the peoples of the Niger Delta developed. According to this, age is given a high priority in African philosophy in terms of the acquisition of wisdom and the interpretation of the past. As evidence of this view, he quotes some of the old wisdom, such as "More days, more wisdom", or "What an old man sees while sitting, a young man does not even see standing". Truth is understood as eternal and unchangeable (“Truth does not pass”), but people are prone to error (“Even a four-legged horse stumbles and falls”). It is dangerous to judge solely on the basis of what appears (“A large eye does not lead to sharp vision”), although first personal observations can generally be trusted (“He who sees is not wrong”). The past is not viewed as fundamentally different from the present , but history is always present history (“A storyteller does not tell of another season”). The future remains beyond any knowledge (“Even a bird with a long neck cannot foresee the future”). Yet it is said that God "endures forever". Great importance is attached to history ("Someone who is ignorant of his origins will not be a real person") and historians (who are called "sons of the earth") have a high reputation ("The son of the earth has the sharp Eyes of a python ”).

Another, more controversial application of this approach is in the notion of negation . Leopold Senghor , a Négritude representative, argued that the specifically African view of reality is based more on emotion than logic ; its elaboration takes place more in individual participation than in scientific analysis , which is why it is expressed more in works of art than in scientific writings. Voted against Cheikh Anta Diop Although the Leopold'schen thesis, according to which the African culture is unique, but also made it to point out that the identified him characteristics are untenable, at least in the recognized width: For example, was the ancient Egypt with His achievements in the fields of science , mathematics , architecture and philosophy formed the basis of Greek (and thus Western) civilization .

Critics have accused this approach that real philosophical work is essentially characterized by the establishment of a coherent philosophical position by an academically trained philosopher, whereas the collection of wisdom and sentences of a culture can be represented and interpreted in different ways, which can also contradict one another. It is easy to imagine the different possibilities that would arise if someone were to try to establish a theory of memory based solely on proverbs and idioms, such as: B. "She has a memory like a sieve", "He has a memory like an elephant" etc.

In a first approximation, philosophical wisdom can be imagined as an individual variant of ethnophilosophy: In it, the collection of the fundamental convictions of a culture is shifted from the overall social to the elitist level: In the background is the idea that most societies are supported by their members expect some participation in the beliefs and practices they advocate, but only a small percentage of them achieve a higher level of understanding of the worldview of their culture; these people are then considered wise. In some cases, however, the wise move from merely knowing and understanding this worldview to criticizing it; this represents the actual goal of Philosophical Wisdom.

The pioneer of this approach is the Kenyan philosopher Henry Odera Oruka . In the 1970s he developed his project of Sage-Philosophy ( wisdom philosophy ) in strict delimitation to ethnophilosophy. As part of his project, he tried to document the individual thinking of African wise men and women ( sages ) on the basis of a modern concept of philosophy linked to argumentative criticism and subjective concept formation , and thus to make the knowledge of African wise men philosophically usable.

Critics of this approach emphasize that not every questioning and every criticism is "philosophical in nature"; furthermore, it prevents the thoughts of the wise men from being regarded as part of African philosophy, since "African philosophy" is only defined as the collection of them. In addition, with this view, there is hardly any difference between non-African anthropology or ethnology and African philosophy; Rather, this seems to be based only on the scientist's cultural affiliation.

In general, the biggest problem with the two approaches presented so far is seen in their delimitation: There still seems to be a clear difference between the presentation of a philosophy and the elaboration of a history of ideas . No matter how original or interesting the assumptions and beliefs of groups like the Akan or the Yorùbá , they are still assumptions and are not philosophy. If they are nevertheless occasionally referred to as such, then in a secondary sense of the word, as an outlook on life, as it is e.g. B. in "My philosophy is to live and to let live" is expressed.

Academic philosophy

In African philosophy, academic philosophy is the traditional Western understanding of philosophy (including both continental and analytical philosophy ), according to which it represents a specific way of dealing with the world and about it ponder. According to the advocates of this approach, this is a comparatively new conception of philosophy for most of Africa, so that they see their subject as still growing rapidly, both in terms of the quantity of contributions made by African philosophers and the quality of the form the introduction of new topics and approaches specifically oriented towards African issues.

The ethnophilosophers try to show the peculiarity of African philosophy by emphasizing what is specifically African in it and thereby almost losing sight of philosophy. In contrast, the academic philosophers, conversely, rely entirely on the generally shared Western definition of philosophy, which threatens to lose sight of the specifically African. This dilemma is not inevitable, however, and many African philosophers have met it successfully, including Kwame Anthony Appiah , Kwame Gyekye , Kwasi Wiredu , Oshita O. Oshita , Lansana Keita , Peter Bodunrin and Chukwudum B. Okolo .

Philosophical and theological renaissance of Africa

Difficult to classify is the new academic trend represented by the Congolese philosopher Mubabinge Bilolo . This tendency criticizes the distraction of African philosophers with a sterile argument about the reception of the Western definition of philosophy in Africa. African philosophy is not an "African Occidentology or Europeanology" (Bilolo), but a tradition that can only be understood and explained from African history and African texts. As far as the definition of philosophy is concerned, Bilolo starts out from the African languages ​​and defines them as Mrwt n M3at (Merut-en- Maât ) "Love of Truth - Justice - Solidarity and Order". Bilolo, who is also an Egyptologist and historian of African philosophy, shows in his numerous publications that African philosophy has always been part of the history of philosophy since the 16th century. Starting from ancient Egypt, Bilolo reconstructs the basic tendencies, the secondary schools and the core themes of African philosophy and religions. The result of this approach is a renaissance of African spirituality, Bantu theology and philosophical Afrocentricity throughout the African diaspora.

This renaissance tendency is neither anglophone nor francophone. It bears the stamp of the "Germanophone" Africans. In addition to Mubabinge Bilolo, this group of Germanophones includes philosophers such as Duala M'Bedy , Tshiamalenga Ntumba , Claude Onzakom and Jacob Mabe .

Nationalist-ideological philosophy

Nationalist-ideological philosophy can be viewed as a special case of philosophical wisdom, the subject of which, however, is not the utterances of the wise, but those of the ideologues. Alternatively, it is also included in the field of academic political philosophy. In both cases a precise demarcation between ideology and philosophy remains to be made, so that a distinction can be made between a mere set of ideas and the specifically philosophical way of thinking.

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Hountondji, 1983, p. 106; quoted from Kwame, 1995, introduction, p. xx
  2. ↑ Omoregbe, 1998, p. 4

literature

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