Author: Alex Masangu
St. Augustine University of Tanzania,
P.O. Box 307, Mwanza – Tanzania
Email: masanguag@hotmail.com
Abstract
Any expectation of Africans’ active participation in philosophical learning, teaching and research is strongly opposed to Hegel’s understanding of Africans. The German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is namely the architect of what I call the Hegelian contempt. That refers to the Eurocentric denial of Africans’ ability to philosophise. Reasonably, therefore, as a response to Hegel, arguing for (rational defence of) the possibility of African philosophical agency should be integral to any rigorous attempt to advocate philosophy in Africa. This article examined a view that a reasonable advancement of the response to the Hegelian contempt should initially work towards the exposition of necessary conditions for Africans to acknowledge the unique role of philosophy in human self-realisation. Accordingly, four sections constitute the article’s argumentation. The introduction is a consideration of the Hegelian contempt as a real problem. The second section discloses contempt’s substance. The third section attempts to propose a desirable beginning of the advancement of the response to Hegelian contempt. Central to article’s conclusion is that the future of African philosophical agency continually presupposes Africans’ receptiveness to philosophy. And foundationally that is excellently achievable by identification of Africans’ philosophical neediness, and advocacy of philosophical education in Africa.
Keywords: Philosophical education, Philosophical agency, African philosophy, Introduction to philosophy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Suggested Citation
Masangu,A. (2020). Arguing for the possibility of African philosophical agency: A response to Hegelian contempt. African Research Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 7(3), 21-33. Available online at http://arjess.org/social-sciences-research/arguing-for-the-possibility-of-african-philosophical-agency-a-response-to-hegelian-contempt.pdf
