African Philosophy As Cultural Inquiry

This book assesses the direction and impact of African philosophy as well as its future role.

What is the intellectual, social, cultural, and political territory of African philosophy? What directions will African philosophy take in the future? What problems will it face? In 10 probing essays by distinguished African, European, and American scholars, African Philosophy as Cultural Inquiry examines the role of African philosophy at the opening of the new millennium. Here philosophy cuts across disciplinary boundaries to embrace ideas taken from history, literary studies, anthropology, and art. Addressing topics such as the progress of philosophical discourse, knowledge and modes of thought, the relevance of philosophy for cultures that are still largely based on traditional values, and the meaning of philosophy to cultures and individuals in the process of modernization, this volume presents today’s best thinking about the concerns and practices that constitute African experience. New views about personhood, freedom, responsibility, progress, development, the role of the state, and life in civil society emerge from these broad-based considerations of the crisis of the postcolonial African state. In a lively fashion this diverse book shows how philosophical questions can be applied to interpretations of culture and reveals the multifaceted nature of philosophical discourse in the multiple and variable settings that exist in contemporary Africa.

Ivan Karp is National Endowment for the Humanities Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Public Scholarship at Emory University. He is author of Fields of Change among the Iteso of Kenya.

D. A. Masolo is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisville. He is author of African Philosophy in Search of Identity (published by Indiana University Press).