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There is a rich and written history of ancient African philosophy - for example from ancient Egypt, Ethiopia, and Mali (Timbuktutu, Djenne). [1] [11] In general, the ancient Greeks acknowledged their Egyptian forebears, [1] and in the fifth century BCE, the philosopher Isocrates declared that the earliest Greek thinkers traveled to Egypt to seek knowledge; one of them Pythagoras of Samos, who ...
He held visiting professorships at universities across the world and published extensively on philosophy, theology and African oral traditions. [6] Mbiti's seminal book, African Religions and Philosophy (1969), was the first work to challenge Christian assumption that traditional African religious ideas were "demonic and anti-Christian". [7]
From 1974 he taught philosophy at Wellesley College in the US with a particular focus on personhood and African philosophy. [1] Menkiti sought to emphasise the social nature of personhood, expressed in the notion "I am, because we are". [1] In doing so he attempted to build on traditional African ideas of personhood.
Traditional African religions also have elements of totemism, shamanism and veneration of relics. [20] Traditional Vodun dancer enchanting gods and spirits, in Ganvie, Benin. Traditional African religion, like most other ancient traditions around the world, were based on oral traditions. These traditions are not religious principles, but a ...
Ethiopian philosophy or Abyssinian philosophy is the philosophical corpus of the territories of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. Besides via oral tradition, it was preserved early in written form through Ge'ez manuscripts. This philosophy occupies a unique position within African philosophy.
This view has been criticised by a number of scholars and philosophers who argue that traditional African philosophy and ethnophilosophy are not genuine philosophy. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Etieyibo is a professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand , Johannesburg, South Africa. [ 3 ]
African philosophy is philosophy produced by African people, philosophy that presents African worldviews, or philosophy that uses distinct African philosophical methods. African philosophers may be found in the various academic fields of philosophy, such as metaphysics , epistemology , moral philosophy , and political philosophy .
One of Wiredu's concerns when defining "African Philosophy" was keeping colonialised African philosophy in a separate category from precolonised Africa. [8] Wiredu (1998) proposes that the African philosopher has a unique opportunity to re-examine many of the assumptions of Western philosophers by subjecting them to an interrogation based on African languages.