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2019 | Book

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Paulin Hountondji

African Philosophy as Critical Universalism

Authors: Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Global Political Thinkers

Part of: Springer Professional "Business + Economics & Engineering + Technology" , Springer Professional "Business + Economics"

Table of Contents

About this book

Paulin J. Hountondji is one of the most important and controversial figures in contemporary African philosophy. His critique of ethnophilosophy as a colonial, exoticising and racialized undertaking provoked contentious debates among African intellectuals on the proper methods and scope of philosophy and science in an African and global context since the 1970s. His radical pledge for scientific autonomy from the global system of knowledge production made him turn to endogenous forms of practising science in academia. The horizon of his philosophy is the quest for critical universality from a historical, and situated perspective. Finally, his call for a notion of culture that is antithetical to political movements focused on a single identitarian doctrine or exclusionary norms shows how timely his political thought remains to this day. This book gives a comprehensive overview of Hountondji’s philosophical arguments and provides detailed information on the historical and political background of his intellectual oeuvre. It situates Hountondji in the dialogue with his African colleagues and explores links to current debates in philosophy, cultural studies, postcolonialism and the social sciences.

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Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

Approaching African philosophy from the perspective of the Beninese philosopher Paulin Hountondji has the advantage of elucidating the internal debates of what constitutes African philosophy and of transcending these local debates towards a critical universalism. Hountondji’s focus on philosophy as a form of a responsible, individual and rigorous critique offers to keep a distance from homogenising culturalist assumptions that influenced earlier as well as contemporary philosophical debates and political arguments. His rich work invites us to reassess the debate on ethnophilosophy, to re-appropriate marginalised local knowledge, to thereby critically assess global scientific production, to discuss identity politics and cultural relativism, and hence to contribute to a shared horizon of understanding the globally entangled world.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Critique of Ethnophilosophy, the Debate with Contemporaries and Hountondji’s Turn to Endogenous Knowledges

Frontmatter

Chapter 2. Hountondji’s Critique of Ethnophilosophy and His Notion of African Philosophy

Abstract

Paulin Hountondji became famous for his rigorous critique of ethnophilosophy. This chapter presents the historical context of the emergence of ethnophilosophy, portrays the most important writings of this genre and discusses Hountondji’s methodological objections to the ethnophilosophical approach. In his account, Hountondji defends a strict notion of what philosophy should consists of in distinction to other disciplines, spells out what African philosophy must aim at and how it should be set in opposition to mythological thinking. Based on these standards, he critically assesses both Négritude and African socialism as influential intellectual currents on the African continent. By way of conclusion, the chapter illustrates Hountondji’s notion of African philosophy by presenting the oeuvre of the eighteens century philosopher of African descent, Anton Wilhelm Amo, and Hountondji’s reception thereof.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Chapter 3. The Debate on Ethnophilosophy Between Hountondji and His Contemporary Critics

Abstract

Hountondji’s contemporaries reacted to his critique of ethnophilosophy and his vision of how African philosophy should be properly done and fostered a vibrant discussion on the methods, scope, and standing of philosophy in the African context. The chapter resumes the main elements of this debate, including the topic of who philosophises (the individual or a collective), of the question of orality versus textuality of philosophical praxis, the nature of science, and the role of popular knowledge in academia. The chapter concludes by considering the ambivalent character of ethnophilosophy in the time of its emergence and in contemporary scholarship.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Chapter 4. Path-Clearing: Philosophy and History, Scientific Dependency, and Hountondji’s Turn to Endogenous Knowledge

Abstract

Following up on the later developments of Paulin Hountondji’s work, this chapter attends to the concept of endogenous knowledge as a key to doing science and philosophy at African universities. Endogenous knowledge as a self-reflexive praxis of re-appropriating marginalised local knowledge can partly be regarded as a response to Hountondji’s critics as well as a consistent development within his own work. To fully understand the turn to endogenous knowledge, the chapter first draws on Hountondji’s concept of science and philosophy as a rigorously critical endeavour derived from his studies of the history of philosophy. In what follows, we present his quest for more scientific autonomy and especially focus on his critique of extraversion as the forced tendency of African researchers to satisfy the theoretical and methodological demands of the former metropoles. Finally, the chapter discusses the particular features of endogenous knowledge as a response to scientific dependency.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Hountondji’s Political Oeuvre

Frontmatter

Chapter 5. Hountondji as a Public Intellectual and His Political Career

Abstract

Part II introduces the reader to the biographical, political and historical context of Hountondji’s philosophy by giving an account of his years in Paris, in Zaire and subsequently his work as an academic in Benin as well as internationally. Situating Hountondji as a public intellectual allows for tracing his interventions in framing the Benin revolution of 1972 based on his earlier philosophical critique. The intellectual involvement shows, how Hountondji navigated in a Marxist framework between the critique of neo-imperialism and the call to develop unorthodox answers to the endogenous development of Benin. The second half of this part traces Hountondji’s political involvement in the context of the widely acclaimed Beninese national conference of 1990 and his subsequent work as a Minister of Education and as Minister of Culture and Communication. Part II concludes by briefly discussing, language policy in Benin as a prerequisite of appropriating African knowledge and the international debate about the content and form of teaching African philosophy across the continent.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Hountondji as a Global Thinker

Frontmatter

Chapter 6. New Approaches to Scientific Dependency and Extraversion: Southern Theory, Epistemic Justice and the Quest to Decolonise Academia

Abstract

Several research fields have developed during the last decades that align with Hountondji’s calls for scientific independence and thus enable expanding his analysis and critique of scientific dependency and the call for the re-appropriation of endogenous knowledge. This chapter gives an overview of contemporary discussions in the social studies of sciences that connect to the indicators that Hountondji developed in his observations of scientific dependency. Furthermore, we link his work with recent debates under the umbrella notion of “Southern theories”, normative concepts such as epistemic and cognitive justice and discuss the calls for pluralizing sources of knowledges or de-linking from the global system of knowledge production as possible remedies. The chapter concludes by delineating the meaning of decolonization of academic spaces in Africa and beyond with reference to the RhodesMustFall-movement, that started in South Africa in March 2015. This example helps to illustrate many of Hountondji’s concerns.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Chapter 7. Hountondji’s Notion of Culture and His Critique of Identitarian Politics

Abstract

Throughout his oeuvre, Hountondji develops a prescriptive notion of culture that is marked by internal difference and constant change. This notion stands in opposition to a static and essentialist understanding of culture, that is prevalent in many contemporary nationalist and identitarian movements and that leads to a society’s stagnation and enclosure. Hountondji develops the analytic category of “culturalism”, designating the strategy by politicians of using cultural topics to divert attention from important economic and political issues. This chapter further highlights the implications of Hountondji’s call for cultural pluralism on a political, normative, and theoretical level. In addition, it elucidates his critique of culturalism by discussing practical examples in the African context and delineates contemporary trajectories of this critique.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Chapter 8. Debating the Universal as an Unfinished Project and Regulative Ideal

Abstract

Hountondji calls for a transcultural debate on universal norms as opposed both to moral relativism and to Western monolingualism in the discussion on global values. This chapter reconstructs his early critique of African particularism in the context of his engagement with ethnophilosophy and connects this to his later pledge for the universal scope of a transculturally oriented philosophy. Following on from this, we bring Hountondji’s position into dialogue with other theoretical positions on particularism and universalism within contemporary African philosophy. An excursus to the idea of human rights serves an example to illustrate this debate. As a final step, this chapter discusses the implications of a critical universalism for normative theorising in general.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Chapter 9. A Preliminary Conclusion

Abstract

In this chapter the authors resume the major themes of this book, including the discussion of ethnophilosophy, endogenous research as well as Hountondji’s political activism. The conclusion of this book is preliminary in the sense that any philosophical inquiry, in the spirit of Hountondji, is a never-ending process that cannot lead to ultimate conclusions. Second, philosophy should always remain open to new voices and literatures, such as additional scholarship on Hountondji that the authors were not, due to technical reasons, able to cover. To end with, readers are invited to continue discussing Hountondji’s contribution to contemporary debates on the nature of African philosophy, on global academic injustices, on exclusionary definitions of culture and identity as well as on the scope and methods of transcultural philosophising.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Chapter 10. Appendix: Interview with Paulin J. Hountondji

Abstract

This chapter contains an interview by Franziska Dübgen and Stefan Skupien with Paulin Hountondji, held in 2018. Therein, Hountondji reconsiders his early critical stance towards ethnophilosophy, arguing for a sociology of collective representations as a means to adequately study collective thought. He recounts the period of democratisation in Benin during the 1980s and his involvement in this process as a university professor. Recognising the need for a decolonisation of the educational system in the postcolonies, Hountondji demands ending extroversion by producing scholarship for an African readership, through the critical reappropriation of African and non-African knowledge and the use of African languages for scholarly activity.

Franziska Dübgen, Stefan Skupien

Backmatter

Title: Paulin Hountondji
Authors: Franziska Dübgen
Stefan Skupien
Copyright Year: 2019
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-01995-2
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01994-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01995-2

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