The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica: UWI Journals
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Okolo on African Personality
Full text linkVarious conceptions of African personality abound in African philosophy, ranging from ontological, metaphysical, normative and epistemological positions, while some others embrace communalistic considerations regarding the question of the African personality. Okolo, being categorised under the communalistic point of view with socio-ontological underpinnings, maintains that the attitude of ‘being-with’ characteristically defines and symbolically stands for that by which ‘the African’ is identified. For him, ‘the African’ is characterized by his ‘communality,’ a socio-ontological viewpoint. However, his position is not without flaws, ranging from the question of individual and private-life-interference, the subsuming of the individual freedom and volition into a community consciousness, imposing of the title, ‘African,’ to even non-Africans, among other issues. To ensure an adequate understanding of the views of Okolo in this research, we will critically employ analytic and evaluative methods. This essay concludes on the premise that emphasis on, community-lifestyle remains an inherent feature of the African personality
Making a Case for Yoruba Inverted Supervenience on the Nature of the Mind
Full text linkThe problem of the nature of mind centres on the question whether what is called mind has independent existence or it is nothing over and above bodily events and processes. Whereas Descartes opts for the former by providing the first systematic outline for dualism, wherein mind and body are affirmed to possess distinct ontological statuses, the physicalists, especially of the contemporary order, have continued, vigorously, to affirm the latter with the aim of providing a naturalistic basis for resolving the problem of the nature of mind. The growth of physicalism in contemporary philosophy could be traced to the historical evidence of the diverse irresolvable problems engendered by dualism. However, physicalism has not fared better, as it too has incurred quite a number of issues militating against its plausibility as an explanatory thesis. The many identified inadequacies of the physicalist account of mind necessitates that attempts to address the question should be sought elsewhere. This paper explores Yoruba metaphysical view on the nature of the mind as an alternative account. The paper finds out that the Yoruba metaphysical perspective on the subject matter resembles one of the physicalist theories called supervenience, although in its metaphysical structure, it inverts the order of the orthodox supervenience. Coined “inverted supervenience”, the thesis holds that the physical world supervenes on the spiritual world for its existence. It, thus, becomes futile to seek rational justification for the spiritual world, as doing so appears tantamount to seeking a mental justification for the physical events in the orthodox supervenience hypothesis
Knowledge, Beliefs and Values
Full text linkThe remarkable elements that reveal a distinctive nature of humans from all other beings are basically knowledge, beliefs and values. The three constituent elements, knowledge, beliefs and values, are epistemologically and ethically integrated into human creative activities, which form the basis of human culture. While this is so, the ability to preserve culture although it is not static, yet it has instrumental, intrinsic, and enduring appreciation that is embedded in values. It is my interest in this paper to engage in the epistemic discourse of knowledge, beliefs and values as power inherent in human creative activities. The ability of humans to exhibit this is also manifested and demonstrated in the work of art that understands knowledge in terms of acquaintance and competence which has contributed to human understanding of African beliefs and values as treasures of African genius. In this regard, this paper further examines the notion of African work of art as power of invocation and power of virtuousity which by its very nature constitutes positive values. Let me say from the onset that knowledge and beliefs as explicated in this paper are creative values that nurture and guide human actions. My primary or original objective in this paper was to limit my concentration on knowledge as acquaintance and competence as related to African work of art but some remarkable events that will be explained later made me to expand the scope of the paper to include other cognitive and scientific aspects of human beliefs and values. This must not be taken as a paper that dwells on scientific knowledge. That is beyond the scope of my focus in this paper. Now let me begin with the analysis of my focus on the three concepts of this paper namely, knowledge, beliefs and values
National Character and the Narrative of Self-Image in Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom and Obasanjo’s My Watch
Full text linkBuilding on the view of biographical writing as a cultural practice and expression, this article adopts identity and narrative theories to discuss the interconnection between national character and identity construction in political autobiographies. It used Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom [LWF] (1994) and Obasanjo’s My Watch [MW] (2014) as primary texts. It identifies prejudice against black South Africans as the national character in LWF and postcolonial political disillusionment in Nigeria as that of MW. It further demonstrates how the personalities of Mandela and Obasanjo are rooted in role-based identity and the respective saliences that activate this identity type. Additionally, it discusses the modes of narration in the two texts. The article concludes that national character is a socio-cultural and psychological indicator that influences identity construction in political autobiographies