Handbook of African Philosophy of Difference [electronic resource] /
Imafidon, Elvis.editor.
This handbook explores essential philosophical questions about the experience of difference and the other in African traditional and modern societies. The contributions go beyond a simple discussion of empirical manifestations. They offer a critical analysis of, among other things, the very nature and essence of difference that makes such manifestations possible. Coverage examines the philosophical basis for the African contexts of gender differences, bodily differences and disability; racial, religious, and cultural differences; xenophobia and xenophilia; and issues of the otherings of non-human beings from human beings. This insightful analysis details the ontological, epistemological, and moral foundations of difference and alterity in African societies, both traditional and modern. Readers will gain a deeper understanding into such questions as: What value is placed on the other in African societies? What is the ethics and burden of care for those considered different in African societies? What role does language play in the othering of the other in African societies? This exploration offers an vital contribution to the philosophy of difference. It not only shows the importance of place in such theorization. It also contributes significantly to African philosophical discourse. This handbook will interest both undergraduate, postgraduate students, and researchers in such fields as African studies/philosophy, identity and alterity studies in sociology, and feminist and LGBT studies.
Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- PART 1: Conceptualising Difference in African Philosophical Thought -- Chapter 1. Exploring African Philosophy of Difference (Elvis Imafidon) -- Chapter 2. Does the African Value of Communion Occlude Difference? (Thaddeus Metz) -- Chapter 3. Against Tolerance: The African Attitude Toward the Other as Recognition and Acceptance (Polycarp Ikuenobe). - PART 2: Questions of Race and Western Othering of Africa -- Chapter 4. The Burden of Being a Black Philosopher in a White World: How to Respond to Anti- Black Racism (Joseph Osei) -- Chapter 5. Desuperiorization of Thought: Rethinking the Violent Othering of African Philosophy by Western Philosophy (Bjόrn Freter) -- Chapter 6. Hegel and African Alterity (Rafael Winkler) -- Chapter 7. Critical Comments on Mmudimbe’s Archaeological Reading of Africa’s Difference (Asma Agzenay) -- Chapter 8. Toward a Postcolonial Social Ontology: Notes on the Thoughts of Achille Mbembe (Josias Tembo and Schalk Gerber) -- PART 3: Epistemological, Ethical, Linguistic and Aestethic Issues -- Chapter 9. Enriching the Knowledge of the Other through an Epistemology of Intercourse (Isaac E. Ukpokolo) -- Chapter 10. African Arts and Difference: Aesthetic Signs and Symbols and the Separation of the Self from the Other (Matthew A. Izibili) -- Chapter 11. Why must my Worth be Earned? Intrinsic versus Earned Value in African Conception of Personhood (Elvis Imafidon) -- Chapter 12. Justice and the Othered Minority: Lessons from African Communalism (Jimoh Anselm). – Chapter 13. To Be is not to Be Alone: A Critique of Exclusivism from an African Context (Victor C.A. Nweke and L. Uchenna Ugbonnaya) -- Chapter 14. Suffering and the Encounter with the Other in African Spaces (Austin E. Iyare) -- Chapter 15. Language and Difference in African Traditions (Jacob Aleonote Aigbodioh and Kenneth U. Abudu) -- PART 4: Disability, Gender and Non-Human Othering -- Chapter 16. The Animal Other in African Ethics (Filip Maj) -- Chapter 17. Personhood and Moral Status: Implication for the Uniqueness of Women (Mpho Tshivhase) -- Chapter 18. The Othering of Disabled Persons in Africa: Ontological and Ethical Issues (Elvis Imafidon) -- Chapter 19. The Othering of Persons with Severe Cognitive Disability in Alexis Kagame Conceptualisation of Personhood (Nompumelelo Zimhle Manzini) -- PART 5: Conceptualising Othering in Specific African Spaces -- Chapter 20. Othering, Re-othering and Dis-othering: Interrogating the Rich-Poor Dichotomy in Africa’s Urban Centres (Jonathan O. Chimakonam) -- Chapter 21. ‘Mother, Can’t you see I’m Burning?’: A Psychoanalysis of the Violent, Emotional Othering in Today’s South Africa (Benda Hofmeyr) -- Chapter 22. Linguistic Cultural Capital Class, Xenophobia and Xenophilia in South Africa’s Diverse Cultural Time Zones (Melissa Tandiwe Myambo) -- Chapter 23. The Other in South Africa: Enemy or Ally (Lindsay Kelland) -- Chapter 24. Moral Good, the Self and the M/Other: A Conversation with a Zulu Man (Rob Baum) -- Chapter 25. Creating the Other through the Zimbabwean Fast Track Land Distribution: The Paradox of Decolonisation and Common Good (Erasmus Masitera) -- Conclusion -- Selected Bibliography -- Index.
This handbook explores essential philosophical questions about the experience of difference and the other in African traditional and modern societies. The contributions go beyond a simple discussion of empirical manifestations. They offer a critical analysis of, among other things, the very nature and essence of difference that makes such manifestations possible. Coverage examines the philosophical basis for the African contexts of gender differences, bodily differences and disability; racial, religious, and cultural differences; xenophobia and xenophilia; and issues of the otherings of non-human beings from human beings. This insightful analysis details the ontological, epistemological, and moral foundations of difference and alterity in African societies, both traditional and modern. Readers will gain a deeper understanding into such questions as: What value is placed on the other in African societies? What is the ethics and burden of care for those considered different in African societies? What role does language play in the othering of the other in African societies? This exploration offers an vital contribution to the philosophy of difference. It not only shows the importance of place in such theorization. It also contributes significantly to African philosophical discourse. This handbook will interest both undergraduate, postgraduate students, and researchers in such fields as African studies/philosophy, identity and alterity studies in sociology, and feminist and LGBT studies.
Genetic epistemology.
Religion and sociology.
Ethnology-Africa.
Epistemology.
Religion and Society.
African Culture.