The Question of the Rationality of African Traditional Thought: An Introduction

The Question of the Rationality of African Traditional Thought provides an introductory analysis of the primary concerns of the debate on the rationality of African traditional thought viewed through science’s conceptual lenses. It shows that there is a fundamental problem with the manner in which the discussion on the rationality issue has ensued in the last six decades or so. Among other things, there is the fundamentally wrong assumption that the Western model is strictly scientific and the African model paranormal. Elvis Imafidon shows, however, that both Western and African societies are permeated with both the scientific and transcendental models. The difference however, lies in the fact that a particular model gains more ground than the other in a place, often to the detriment of the other model. In the West, the scientific model gains more grounds to the detriment of the transcendental model. This accounts for scientific and technological advancements in the West more than in Africa but radical depreciation in value systems, moral, cultural, religious and the like. On the other hand, in Africa, the transcendental model is more popular than the scientific model resulting in a completely opposite effect from that of the West.

Elvis Imafidon teaches Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria. He has published a number of essays on African philosophy, ethics, metaphysics and the philosophy of science. He is the editor of the book Ontologized Ethics: New Essays in African Meta-Ethics (2014). He is also the founding editor of the journal, Critical Essays: A Graduate Journal of Philosophy