Katrin Flikschuh on Philosophy in Africa

卡特琳·弗利克舒赫谈非洲哲学

Philosophy Bites

社会与文化

2015-12-16

17 分钟
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单集简介 ...

In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Katrin Flikschuh addresses the question 'What sort of philosophy is going on in Africa?'
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  • When I studied philosophy, I don't remember there being a single african philosopher on the syllabus.

  • Katrine Flickschoo from the London School of Economics thinks the curriculum needs updating.

  • She believes that there are developments in african philosophy which are intrinsically interesting and which cast new light on old philosophical problems.

  • Catherine Flickshew, welcome to philosophy Bites.

  • Well, thanks for having me.

  • The topic we're going to focus on is philosophy in Africa.

  • Now, Africa is a big place.

  • You'd expect there to be quite a lot of philosophy going on there.

  • So is there something distinctive about african philosophy?

  • Well, I mean, I think that's a good question and one that's actually debated hotly in african philosophy itself.

  • And different african philosophers take quite a different perspective on it, with some of them saying that there's nothing distinctive other than that it is philosophy that happens to come out of this particular geographical location and others taking the extreme opposite view, saying that african thinking is in itself very, very different from any other form of human thinking.

  • That is, it is african thinking.

  • And presumably the postcolonial pan african movement has been an important influence on this.

  • That's been the case in more senses than one, I think.

  • I think one very important aspect of this is that, of course, a lot of the first generation post independent african leaders, such as Nkrumah Nyeres, Leopold Senghor, were also all philosophers in some sense or other, either trained philosophers or thought of themselves in this way.