Paulin J. Hountondji

Paulin Jidenu Hountondji (An haife shi a ranar 11 ga Afrilu, 1942 – ya rasu a ranar 2 ga Fabrairu, 2024) masanin falsafa ne ɗan ƙasar Benin, ɗan siyasa, kuma malami wanda ake ɗauka a matsayin ɗaya daga cikin manyan mutane a tarihin falsafar Afirka. Tun daga shekarun 1970s, ya yi koyarwa a Jami'ar Kasa ta Benin a Cotonou, inda ya zama Farfesa na Falsafa. A farkon shekarun 1990s, ya taɓa zama Ministan Ilimi da kuma Ministan Al'adu da Sadarwa a Gwamnatin Benin.

Karatu
Paulin J. Hountondji ya yi karatu a École Normale Supérieure da ke Paris, inda ya kammala a 1966, sannan ya samu digirinsa na uku (doctorate) a 1970 (kundin karatunsa na ƙarshe ya kasance kan Edmund Husserl). Bayan shekaru biyu yana koyarwa a Besançon (Faransa), Kinshasa da Lubumbashi (Jamhuriyar Dimokuraɗiyyar Kwango), ya karɓi aiki a Jami'ar Kasa ta Benin a Cotonou, inda ya daɗe yana koyarwa a matsayin Farfesa na Falsafa..

Duk da haka, wani lokaci da ya yi a siyasa ya katse aikinsa na ilimi. Kasancewarsa fitaccen mai suka ga mulkin kama-karya na soja da ya yi mulki a ƙasarsa, Hountondji ya shiga cikin dawowar Benin zuwa dimokuraɗiyya (a 1992), kuma ya yi aiki a gwamnati a matsayin Ministan Ilimi da kuma Ministan Al'adu da Sadarwa har sai da ya yi murabus ya koma Jami'a a 1994.

Hountondji ya kasance har zuwa rasuwarsa darekta ne na Cibiyar Nazarin Falsafa ta Afirka a Porto-Novo, Benin, kuma ya yi aiki a matsayin Farfesa na Fannin Kimiyya na Bingham daga 1 ga Agusta, 2008 zuwa 31 ga Disamba, 2008 a Jami'ar Louisville da ke Louisville, Kentucky.

A shekarar 1999, an karrama Hountondji da lambar yabo ta Prince Claus daga Prince Claus Fund, wata ƙungiyar al'adu da ci gaba ta duniya da ke Amsterdam.

Aikin Falsafa da Ilimi
Masanan falsafa da suka yi tasiri ga Hountondji sun haɗa da malamansa guda biyu a Paris, Louis Althusser da Jacques Derrida. Darajarsa ta ta'allaka ne a kan aikinsa mai mahimmanci game da yanayin falsafar Afirka. Babban abin da ya fi mayar da hankali a kai shi ne falsafar kabilanci (ethnophilosophy) na marubuta kamar Placide Tempels da Alexis Kagame. Ya bayar da hujjar cewa irin wannan salon yana haɗa hanyoyin ilimin halin ɗan Adam (anthropology) da na falsafa, wanda hakan ke haifar da "wani nau'in ilimi mai gauraya wanda ba shi da matsayi a cikin duniyar ka'idoji" ([1997], shafi na 52). Wani ɓangare na matsalar ya fito ne daga gaskiyar cewa falsafar kabilanci a wani babban ɓangare martani ne ga ra'ayoyin Yammacin duniya game da tunanin Afirka; wannan rawar jayayya tana aiki a kan sahihancin falsafarta.

Salon karatunsa ya faɗaɗa a cikin ayyukansa na gaba; har yanzu yana watsi da falsafar kabilanci a matsayin ingantaccen fanni na falsafa, amma ya koma wajen haɗa tunanin gargajiya na Afirka da kuma tsarin falsafa mai zurfi. Ya kare wannan ra'ayin har zuwa ranakunsa na ƙarshe.

Mutuwa
Hountondji ya rasu a Cotonou a ranar 2 ga Fabrairu, 2024, yana da shekaru 81 a duniya.

Bibiliography
Hountondji, Paulin J. (1973). "True and False Pluralism", in 
Hountondji, Paulin J. (1976). Sur la "philosophie Africaine" : critique de l'ethnophilosophie, Paris: Maspéro, 1976. Featured on the list of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century.
published in English (transl. H. Evans & J. Rée) as African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1983. 
second edition of the English version with an introduction by Abiola Irele, 1996. 









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