The Cognitive Significance of African Traditional Metaphysics

Year 2017, Issue: 28 , 43 - 54 , 30.04.2017

Onos Godwin Idjakpo

https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.307939

https://izlik.org/JA83EM98AF

Abstract

The paper examines the issue of African metaphysics which revolves round the conception of a vital force which the Africans take as the primary unifying stuff of the universe permeating all existing being, physical, quasi-physical or spiritual. The paper finds that this unifying force is significant or dynamic. The method of analysis is conceptual. The paper concludes that in African traditional metaphysics lies a fertile source of knowledge and values exploration that are essential in a changing world.

Keywords

Metaphysics , African , Vital Force , Cognitive Significance , Spirits , Tolerance and Ethics

References

• Appiah, K. A. (1992). In My father’s House: African in the Philosophy of Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Asouzu, I. I. (2005). “Science and African Metaphysics: A Search for Direction”, Philosophy in Africa, Boston: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy Aug. 1998, www.Paideia.com, accessed Sep. 15, 2005.
• Brown, M. L. (2004). “Understanding and Ontology in African Traditional Thought” in Lee M. Brown (ed), African Philosophy: New and Traditional Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ekanola, A. B. (2006). “Metaphysical Issues in African Philosophy,” in Olusegun Oladipo (ed), Core Issues in African Philosophy, Ibadan-Nigeria: Hope Publications.
• Epictetus, (1942). The Handbook, trans. Nicholas P. White, Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
• Gyekye, K. (1996). African Cultural Values: An Introduction, Accra: Sankafa Publishing Company.
• Horton, R. (1974). “African Traditional Thought and Western Science”, in Bryan R. Wilson (ed), Rationality., Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Hospers, J. (1973). An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
• Houtondji, P (1983). African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, London: Hutchinson University Library for Africa.
• Jarvie, I. C. (1974). “Explaining Cargo Cults” in Bryan R. Wilson (ed), Rationality, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Masolo, D. A. (1995). African Philosophy in Search of Identity, Nairobi: East Africa: Educational Publishers.
• Mosley, A. (2004). “Witchcraft, Science and the Paranormal in Contemporary African Philosophy” in Lee M. Brown (ed), African Philosophy: New and Traditional Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Omoregbe, J. (1999). A Simplified History of Western Philosophy: Contemporary Philosophy (Vol. 3), Lagos: Joja Press Ltd.
• Opoka, A. (1978). West African Traditional Religions, Accra: FEP International Ltd.
• Oyeshile, O. A. (2006). “The Physical and Non-Physical in Yoruba Concept of the Person,” Philosophia De Sellentt, Vol. 35, 2.
• Ozumba, G. 0. (2004). “{African Traditional Metaphysics,” Quodlibet Online Journal of Christian Theology and Philosophy, Vol. 6, No. 3, July-September, Retrieved Jun. 15, 2005, from http://www.Quodlibet.net.
• Russell, B. (1980). History of Western Philosophy, London: George Alien and Unwin.
• Sogolo, G. (1993). Foundations of African Philosophy: A Definitive Analysis of Conceptual Issues in African Thought, Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
• Unah, J. I. [2004 (A)]. “Metaphysics as the Foundation of Knowledge,” in Jim I. Unah (ed), Metaphysics, Phenomenology and African Philosophy, Lagos: FADEC Publishers.
• Unah, J. I. [2004 (B)]. “The Nature of African Metaphysics” in Jim I. Unah (ed), Metaphysics, Phenomenology and African Philosophy, Lagos: FADEC Publishers.
• Unah, J. I. (2006). Even Nothing is Something (Inaugural Lecture Series), Lagos: University of Lagos Press.
• Wiredu, K. (1995). Conceptual Decolonisation in African Philosophy with Introduction by Olusegun Oladipo, Ibadan: Hope Publication.