To the Cape of Good Hope and Back: Three Questions on African Philosophy

Abstract

African philosophy has arisen relatively late in the course of the history of philosophy. Our first question deals with its role within the framework of comparative and intercultural philosophy. Their methods enable us critically to re-examine various ethnophilosophical reconstructions within African philosophy – as they are presented in the arguments of their leading proponent (Oruka), as well as in the thought of their main critic (Hountondji). In our opinion the ethnophilosophical field can contribute to the re-evaluation of the various criteria regarding the essence and role of philosophy from its very beginnings in Ancient Greece to the contemporary issues of African philosophy. In the final section we apply our ethnophilosophical investigations to political ethics. With contemporary analyses in the field of political and ethical theories on one side (Th. Pogge), and with African communitarian theories and ‘ubuntu ethics’ on the other (Gyekye, Ramose), we apply the basic principles of intercultural philosophy to practical philosophical aspects and focus on social hope as the common political-ethical task of African and non-African philosophies.