What is African philosophy for Wiredu?

Wiredu began his reflections of the nature, legitimate aims, and possible orientations in contemporary African thought not as a result of any particular awareness of the trauma or violence of colonialism or imperialism but by a confrontation with the dilemma of modernity by the reflective (post)colonial African …

What is traditional African philosophy?

Like Western philosophy, African philosophy contemplates the perceptions of time, personhood, space and other subjects. Africana philosophy can be formally defined as a critical thinking by Africans and people of African descent on their experiences of reality.

What is Kwasi Wiredu position on decolonization?

In the negative sense, Wiredu’s conceptual decolonization is the process that seeks to avoid and reverse “through a critical self-awareness the unexamined assimilation” in the thoughts of contemporary African philosophers those conceptual frameworks that are found in western or other philosophical cultures that have …

What does ramose mean by the struggle for reason in Africa?

In his essay ‘The struggle for reason in Africa,’ published in 1998, Ramose argued for the importance of opening up Western philosophy to the range of philosophical traditions originating outside of Europe. Another notable work is African Philosophy through Ubuntu, published in 1999.

What is philosophy Kwame gyekye?

Philosophical work Gyekye challenges the view that in African thought, community confers personhood on the individual and thus the individual’s identity is merely derivative of the community. This intrinsic value, it is argued, makes nonsense of the view that the individual’s value stems solely from the community.

What does the struggle for reason have to do with African philosophy?

‘The struggle for reason in Africa’ picks up the point of letting Africans speak for themselves in their own right. Africans do not wish to entertain any doubt about their being human. The humanity of the African is second to none.

What is the philosophy of awuwatwo Wiredu?

Wiredu like any other African thinkers tailor his thoughts towards addressing the lacuna in the schemata of things as it affects the general existential lives of her people. African philosophy has its orientation in communalism, as contradistinguished from Western philosophy which is individualistic in outlook.

Who is Kwasi Wiredu and what did he do?

Kwasi Wiredu (1931—) Kwasi Wiredu is a philosopher from Ghana, who has for decades been involved with a project he terms “conceptual decolonization” in contemporary African systems of thought. By conceptual decolonization, Wiredu advocates a re-examination of current African epistemic formations in order to accomplish two aims.

What does Wiredu mean by conceptual decolonization?

By conceptual decolonization, Wiredu advocates a re-examination of current African epistemic formations in order to accomplish two aims. First, he wishes to subvert unsavory aspects of tribal culture embedded in modern African thought so as to make that thought more viable.

What is Wiredu’s corpus for?

Furthermore, a study of Wiredu’s corpus (Osha, 2005) identifies—if only obliquely—the necessity to re-assess the importance of other discourses such as colonialist anthropology and various philosophies of black subjectivity in the formation of the modern African subject.