African philosophy and the quest for autonomy : : a philosophical investigation / / Leonhard Praeg.

• Superior document: Studien zur interkulturellen Philosophie
• VerfasserIn: Praeg, Leonhard,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Editions Rodopi B.V.,, [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Studien zur interkulturellen Philosophie.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (368 pages)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

As academic subject African philosophy is predominantly concerned with epistemology. It aims at re-presenting a lost body of authentic African thought. This apparently austere a-historical concern is framed by a grand narrative of liberation that cannot but politicise the quest for epistemological a...

Table of Contents

• Chapter I: The Social Contract - a Meta-Narrative
• A. The Four Narratives
• 1. The State of Nature
• 2. The In(ter)vention of Reason
• 3. The Founding Narrative
• 4. The Narrative of Return
• B. Linguistic Conventions as Social Contract
• 1. Leviathan and the Right to Self-Defense
• 2. Speaking Precisely
• 3. The Representational Contract
• Chapter II: The Discursive Invention of Africa
• A. Missionary Orthodox Speech
• 1. The Classification of Missionary Speech
• 2. The Order of Missionary Speech
• B. The Leviathan : A Politics of Return
• 1. The "return" of Christianity
• 2. The "return" of New-racism
• 3. The "return" of Ethnophilosophy
• C. Speaking Precisely
• 1. The Representational Contract
• 2. Embracing the Difference
• Chapter III: African Philosophy
• A. A Political Undecidability
• 1 Leviathan : In(ter)vention in the State of Nature
• 2 Nation as Narration
• 3 Ethnophilosophy Revisited
• B. An Epistemological Undecidability
• .1 Similarities that are Different
• .2 The Currency of Anthropology
• C. A Representational Undecidability.
• .1 The Universalist Dream
• .2 The Use of Useless Knowledge
• .3 Ethnophilosophy as Cargo-cult
• .4 The Autonomy of African Philosophy
• Chapter IV: Truth and Reconciliation: A Social Contract
• A. Narrating the Social Contract
• 1. A State of Apart-heid
• 2. Narrative: Commodification or Etical Imperative?
• B. Nationalism: Narrating the Social Bond
• 1. A Calculus of Exchange
• 2. Calculating the True and the Just
• 3. The "Useless" as Surplus Value
• C. Christianity: Koinonia as Social Bond
• 1. On Liberation and Redemption
• 2. De-liberating Redemption
• D. Africa: Ubu(ntu) and the Truth Commission.
• 1. Another Forgiveness
• 2. The Narrative of Knowledge-Liberation
• 3. Post-coloniality and Justice
• Conclusion.