A Short History of African Philosophy - Softcover

Hallen, Barry; Hallen, B

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253215315 ISBN 13: 9780253215314

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2002

Synopsis

In this accessible book, Barry Hallen discusses the major ideas, figures, and schools of thought in African philosophy. While drawing out critical issues in the formation of African philosophy, Hallen focuses on the recent scholarship, current issues, and relevant debates that have made African philosophy an important key to understanding the rich and complex cultural heritage of Africa. Hallen builds upon Africa's connections with Western philosophical traditions and explores African contributions to cultural universalism, cultural relativism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and Marxism. Hallen also examines African challenges to Western conceptions of philosophy by taking on questions such as whether philosophy can exist in cultures that are significantly based in oral traditions and what may or may not constitute philosophical texts. Among the figures whose work is discussed are Ptah-hotep (Egypt, 3rd millennium BCE), Zar'a Ya'aqob (Abyssinia, 17th century), Anton Wilhelm Amo (Ghana, 18th century), Paulin Hountondji, V. Y. Mudimbe, Oyeronke Oyewumi, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Kwasi Wiredu.This clearly written, highly readable, and concise work will be essential for students and scholars of African philosophy as well as readers with a wide range of interests in African studies.

About this title

About the Author:

Barry Hallen is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy and Religion Department at Morehouse College. He is Associate in the W. E. B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University. He is author of The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful: Discourse About Values in Yoruba Culture (Indiana University Press) and coauthor (with J. Olubi Sodipo) of Knowledge, Belief, and Witchcraft: Analytic Experiments in African Philosophy.

Review:

"Condensed from a much longer work, this book offers a survey of the many perspectives from which we may construct a knowledge base of African philosophy. While avowedly a short conspectus, the book as a whole is dynamized by a number of recurring debates which make their appearance in most of the chapters, giving the work an internal coherence belying its brevity and simplicity. And it is more than just a history of its subject.; on more than two occasions there is brief, but precise, demonstrational argument." - Leeds African Studies Bulletin, No. 66 2004

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0253215315
• ISBN 13: 9780253215314
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 144