Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy

This volume provides the key to a deepened discourse on philosophy in Africa. Available literature and academic practice in African philosophy since the 1960s have largely featured discourses in the areas of origin, general meaning and nature of the discipline, with little attention given to specialized areas. By contrast, this book examines a noticeable shifting focus from such general concerns to more specific subject-matter, in such areas as epistemology, moral philosophy, metaphysics, aesthetics, and social and political philosophy in the light of the African experience. The volume includes specific discourses from expert contributors on the nature, history and scope of African ethics and metaphysics, while also discussing particular themes in African epistemology, philosophy of education, existentialism and political philosophy.  Researchers seeking for new perspective on African philosophy will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.

Acknowledgements.- Notes on Contributors.- 1. Introduction: The Shifting Focus of Philosophy in Africa.- 2. 1. Revisiting the Terms of African Philosophy. C.B.N. Ogbogbo.- 3. 2. Metaphysics in Africa: Traditional and Modern Discussions. Wilfred Lajul.- 4. 3. Critical Notes on the Metaphysics of Metallurgy in an African Culture. Omotade Adegbindin.- 5. 4. An Overview of African Ethics. Thaddeus Metz.- 6. 5. Transnational Ethics, Justice and Anyiam-Osigwe’s Philosophy of the Family. Ronald Olufemi Badru.- 7. 6. Towards an African Moral Theory. Thaddeus Metz.- 8. 7. An African Theory of Knowledge. Anselm K. Jimoh.- 9. 8. Epistemic Insight from an African Way of Knowing. Peter A. Ikhane.- 10. 9. The Imperative of Epistemic Decolonization in Contemporary Africa. Abosede Priscilla Ipadeola.- 11. 10. A Gendered Interrogationof Virtue Ascription in an African Thought System. Isaac E. Ukpokolo.- 12. 11. Women Agency and the Re-negotiation of Gender Depiction in an African Media Space. Benjamin Timi Olujohungbe.- 13. 12. The Imperative of Developing African Eco-philosophy. Kevin Behrens.- 14. 13. The Nature of African Aesthetics. Mathew A. Izibili.- 15. 14. Philosophy and Existence in an African Condition. Anthony Akinwale.- 16. 15.Human Life and the Question of Meaning in African Existentialism. Monday Lewis Igbafen.- 17. 16. Western Specifications, African Approximations: Time, Color and Existential Attitudes. Elvis Imafidon.- 18. 17. Probable Limits of Particularism in African Existential Discourse. Wale Olajide.- 19. 18. Philosophy in Africa and the Challenge of Development. Peter A. Ikhane.- 20. 19. Political Philosophy and the African Experience. Joseph Osei.- 21. 20. Concepts of Justice in Africa: Past and Present. Anke Graness.- 22. 21. African Worldview and the Question of Democratic Substance. Christopher O. Agulanna & Peter Osimiri.- 23. 22. Philosophy: Interrogating the Public Space and Culture. O. B. Lawuyi.- Selected Bibliography.- Index.

Isaac E. Ukpokolo is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He specialises in Epistemology, Metaphysics and Philosophy of Culture. He is the author of several essays published in learned journals including the Journal of Black Studies, and Cultura: International Journal of the Philosophy of Culture and Axiology.