Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective

There has been a strong impetus to set the definitional parameters of study in African political philosophy and theory. Many scholars advance the idea of a discipline intended to provide lessons that stem from “original” African moral, ideological, and political traditions. Often, these traditions a...

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Main Author: Ṣóyẹmí, EÀ
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022
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author Ṣóyẹmí, EÀ
author_facet Ṣóyẹmí, EÀ
author_sort Ṣóyẹmí, EÀ
collection OXFORD
description There has been a strong impetus to set the definitional parameters of study in African political philosophy and theory. Many scholars advance the idea of a discipline intended to provide lessons that stem from “original” African moral, ideological, and political traditions. Often, these traditions and their ideas are presented as holding categorical moral substance in so far as they are seen to be specific to a culturally essentialist understanding of “Africa.” In turn, an influential part of the literature estimates the normative value of the intellectual ideas and arguments afforded by a varied historical, socio-cultural and economic African geography by the degree to which, in being tethered to a seemingly homogenous, “culturally African” influence, these ideas can be opposed to a “Western” equivalent. In this article, I argue that the effects on the discipline of attending to, and being defined by, this cultural essentialism are at best unclear, at worst detrimental. I aim to contribute to the side of those who advocate a universalist perspective to the study of African political philosophy and thought, and who argue for jettisoning an unhelpful dichotomy between “West” and “African,” in favour of a methodological, conceptual and historical specificity that allows the discipline to be truly useful to itself and to others.
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spelling oxford-uuid:3ad35134-1738-4e39-9159-1c21ae35991f2023-04-25T10:12:47ZDoing African political philosophy from a universalist perspectiveJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:3ad35134-1738-4e39-9159-1c21ae35991fEnglishSymplectic ElementsWiley2022Ṣóyẹmí, EÀThere has been a strong impetus to set the definitional parameters of study in African political philosophy and theory. Many scholars advance the idea of a discipline intended to provide lessons that stem from “original” African moral, ideological, and political traditions. Often, these traditions and their ideas are presented as holding categorical moral substance in so far as they are seen to be specific to a culturally essentialist understanding of “Africa.” In turn, an influential part of the literature estimates the normative value of the intellectual ideas and arguments afforded by a varied historical, socio-cultural and economic African geography by the degree to which, in being tethered to a seemingly homogenous, “culturally African” influence, these ideas can be opposed to a “Western” equivalent. In this article, I argue that the effects on the discipline of attending to, and being defined by, this cultural essentialism are at best unclear, at worst detrimental. I aim to contribute to the side of those who advocate a universalist perspective to the study of African political philosophy and thought, and who argue for jettisoning an unhelpful dichotomy between “West” and “African,” in favour of a methodological, conceptual and historical specificity that allows the discipline to be truly useful to itself and to others.
spellingShingle Ṣóyẹmí, EÀ
Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective
title Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective
title_full Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective
title_fullStr Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective
title_full_unstemmed Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective
title_short Doing African political philosophy from a universalist perspective
title_sort doing african political philosophy from a universalist perspective
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