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In Search of Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob: On the History, Philosophy, and Authorship of the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät
Get PDFThe Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät are enigmatic and controversial works. Respectively an autobiography and a companion treatise by a disciple, they are composed in the Gǝʿǝz language and set in the highlands of Ethiopia during the seventeenth century. Expressed in prose of great power and beauty, they bear witness to pivotal events in Ethiopian history and develop a philosophical system of considerable depth. However, they have also been condemned by some as a forgery, an elaborate mystification successful in deceiving generations of European and Ethiopian scholars.This volume breaks new ground for the study of these texts, presenting a clear account of the most up-to-date scholarship the ways they works are being investigated by contemporary philosophers, philologists, and historians.While the authorship question is addressed in the volume, it is not the sole locus of discussion. The near-exclusive focus on this question over the last century has obscured scholarly interest in the texts’ philosophical and literary qualities in their own right. Accordingly, this volume begins to fill this gap, exploring the texts' implications for the global history of philosophy and transnational intellectual history of the 17th century
In Search of Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob
Get PDFThe Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät are enigmatic and controversial works set in 17th-century Ethiopia. Expressed in powerful prose, they bear witness to pivotal events in Ethiopian history and develop a philosophical system of considerable depth. This volume breaks new ground, exploring the philosophical system and historical context and engaging with the debate concerning the authorship of these texts
Claude Sumner and the Quest for an Ethiopian Philosophy
No full textAfrican philosophy emerged out of the rationality debates and the need to affirm the existence of a unique African intellectual tradition that primarily reflects on the legacies of colonialism. Such a debate also centered on whether there is a unique philosophical tradition rooted on African traditional practices. In such a context, Ethiopian philosophy represents a unique approach in defying the colonial bias which is founded on the idea that philosophy is exclusively a western mode of thinking. It is also unique in being available among others in a written form which is absent in other philosophical traditions in Africa. In this paper, I will develop a critical exposition of Sumner’s studies into the written, oral and sapiential sources of Ethiopian philosophy. I will discuss the contributions of Claude Sumner in light of questioning Eurocentric bias that undermined the existence of non-western philosophies, escaping the charge of ethno-philosophy, and situating Ethiopian philosophy on different modalities of Ethiopian experience. To attain such an undertaking, Sumner’s investigations on Ethiopian philosophy and their major contributions to the attempt to introduce a unique philosophical tradition in Ethiopia will be discussed. Through a discussion of Sumner’s works on Ethiopian philosophy, this paper attempts to situate the place of Ethiopian philosophy within the need to reflect on our existential predicaments. I will start my discussion by situating the forces that motivated Sumner’s pursuits, and also elaborating on Sumner’s explorations into the classical, oral and written sources of Ethiopian philosoph
Intercultural Discourse, Critique, Emancipation and the Inclusion of the Other
No full textThis paper critically engages contemporary discussions in intercultural philosophy and critical theory in light of achieving a profound critique of grand ideological schemes, propounding a model for an emancipatory praxis and the inclusion of the other in the dominant discourse. Intercultural philosophy tries to deconstruct the Eurocentrism of the philosophical tradition and in return introduces a reconstructive project centered on the embedded nature of cognition and the culturally oriented nature of philosophy. Critical social theory constitutes a critique of grand metaphysical systems that divorce theory from praxis and the transcendent from the transient. In return it tries to introduce an emancipatory praxis inspired by Hegelian-Marxism, is dialectical, reflexive, analyzes the contradictions of modernity and is interdisciplinary. Intercultural philosophy and critical social theory share a common interest in standing against grand metaphysical systems and centering on everyday centers of learning. Through such a critical exposition of the confines of intercultural philosophy and critical social theory, this paper argues that both approaches, (1) fail to go beyond the Eurocentric grand narrative of modernity that legitimizes Western ideology and is antithetical to the lived experiences of the other, (2) both approaches ultimately run into the problem of value incommensurability and (3) both approaches fail to introduce a quasi-transcendental foundation that both translate contending worldviews while simultaneously affirming the place of the other. Finally I will introduce an alternative model founded on the idea of multiple modernities which situates modernity as being situated in diverse cultural backgrounds
Rethinking the Role of the Hatata of Zera Yaecob and the Hatata of Welda Heywat in Ethiopian Philosophy: A Critique of the Cartesian, Indigenous and Modernising Conceptions
Get PDFThe attempt to situate the Hatata as a foundation of Ethiopian philosophy is part and parcel of a politicised debate that is more informed by nationalism and decolonial efforts rather than a quest to find the existence of a philosophical form of criticism in the Ethiopian soil. A critical examination of the different attempts that were made so far to position the treatises as a foundation of Ethiopian philosophy shows that there are three interrelated schools that see the Hatata of Zera Yaecob and the Hatata of Welda Heywat as the cornerstone of Ethiopian philosophy. These schools are represented by those who see the texts as hosting a Cartesian form of subjectivity, the ones who situate the texts as a foundation of an indigenous Ethiopian philosophy, and others who see the authors of the texts as laying the foundations for an Ethiopian modernization. Through a critical engagement with these three defences of the treatises, the paper argues that such three articulations of the texts failed to properly examine the colonial world of knowledge production and religious reformation that animated the texts in the first place. With such recognition, a new foundation of Ethiopian philosophy that is founded on the nation’s complex historical and cultural heritage needs to be pursued
Claude Sumner and the Quest for an Ethiopian Philosophy
Get PDFAfrican philosophy emerged out of the rationality debates and the need to affirm the existence of a unique African intellectual tradition that primarily reflects on the legacies of colonialism. Such a debate also centered on whether there is a unique philosophical tradition rooted on African traditional practices. In such a context, Ethiopian philosophy represents a unique approach in defying the colonial bias which is founded on the idea that philosophy is exclusively a western mode of thinking. It is also unique in being available among others in a written form which is absent in other philosophical traditions in Africa. In this paper, I will develop a critical exposition of Sumner’s studies into the written, oral and sapiential sources of Ethiopian philosophy. I will discuss the contributions of Claude Sumner in light of questioning Eurocentric bias that undermined the existence of non-western philosophies, escaping the charge of ethno-philosophy, and situating Ethiopian philosophy on different modalities of Ethiopian experience. To attain such an undertaking, Sumner’s investigations on Ethiopian philosophy and their major contributions to the attempt to introduce a unique philosophical tradition in Ethiopia will be discussed. Through a discussion of Sumner’s works on Ethiopian philosophy, this paper attempts to situate the place of Ethiopian philosophy within the need to reflect on our existential predicaments. I will start my discussion by situating the forces that motivated Sumner’s pursuits, and also elaborating on Sumner’s explorations into the classical, oral and written sources of Ethiopian philosoph
Golden Rule Ethics and Complementary Learning Process with the Other: from Confucius’ and Christian Approaches to Hatatas’ Approach
Get PDFThrough the development of a comparative analysis that explores the conceptions of the Golden Rule that are expressed in the teachings of Confucius, Christianity and the Hatatas, the article shows that the combined insights that emerge from these three teachings have a contemporary significance in the attempt to develop a complementary learning process with the Other. Throughout its variations, the Golden Rule is grounded on the need to treat others as how we want to be treated. Such a moral vision occupies a central importance in Confucius’s ren, Christianity’s Gospel of Matthew and the commandments, and the Hatatas’ principle of harmony. The comparative exercise in contending conceptions of the Golden Rule that are found in Confucius’, the Christian and the Hatatas’ approaches leads into the emergence of a learning process that goes beyond the mere tolerance of the Other. In a globalized world, where there is a search for a moral guideline that can serve as a common source of motivation, the Golden Rule can serve as a foundation of a process of learning that is mutually supportive, supplementary and is hence complementary
Utilizarea filozofiei în Etiopia: cultivarea formării identății și impulsului emancipator
Get PDFThrough a discussion of the historical trajectory within which modern philosophy in Ethiopia developed, the article situates the discussions of the spirit of cultural coexistence, the reflections on modernity, the process of state building, religion and modernity and the validity of indigenous traditions as the objects of analysis upon which social philosophizing in Ethiopia could take place within. Through such a discussion, it will be shown that the social function of philosophy in Ethiopia needs to be situated in the two-fold task of identity formation and the emergence of an emancipatory impulse. Concrete strategies for realizing such a function in terms of the development of curriculums, the cultivation of an interdisciplinary engagement between philosophy and other disciplines, community engagement, knowledge dissemination and the need to engage in an ethical and political reflection are identified.Printr-o discuție asupra traiectoriei istorice în cadrul căreia s-a dezvoltat filosofia modernă în Etiopia, articolul situează discuțiile despre spiritul coexistenței culturale, reflecțiile asupra modernității, procesul de construire a statului, religie, modernitate și validitatea tradițiilor indigene ca obiecte de analiză, pe baza cărora s-ar putea manifesta filosofia socială în Etiopia. Printr-o astfel de discuție se evidențiază, că funcția socială a filosofiei în Etiopia trebuie să includă dubla sarcină a formării identității și a apariției unui impuls emancipator. Sunt identificate strategii concrete pentru realizarea unei astfel de funcții în ceea ce privește dezvoltarea curriculum-urilor, cultivarea unui angajament interdisciplinar între filozofie și alte discipline, implicarea comunității, diseminarea cunoștințelor și nevoia de a se angaja într-o reflecție etică și politică
Habermas and the Other Side of Modernity
No full textThis essay tries to critique the concept of modernity through a discussion of Jürgen Habermas’ communicative rationality and modernity as an unfinished project. Habermas tried to defend modernity conceived as communicative rationality by strengthening everyday communicative action against the instrumental rationality of the economy and the state. After considering the insights of transmodernist, African, feminist and intercultural thinkers on modernity, I will try to show how the conventional understanding of modernity as progressive and reflective fails to fully address issues of otherness and domination
Mutual Coexistence and Stewardship to Nature: Exploring the Philosophical Foundations of an Indigenous Environmental Ethics in Ethiopia
Get PDFThis paper uses environmental ethics to identify the role of indigenous ethical values for the protection of the environment in Ethiopia. Currently attempts are made to find sustainable ways of relating to the environment. Such a quest emerged with the recognition that dominant models of development and modernization in the world of globalization are founded in an ethical orientation that sees development as only being materialistic and instrumental and in the process treats nature as a thing and an object to be dominated through the latest achievements in science and technology. Recognizing that such anthropocentric or human centered ethical orientation is causing environmental destruction, attempts are being made to find alternative strategies that are more holistic and sustainable in their nature. Anthropocentric environmental ethics gives primacy to human values over other parts of the environment. One solution is found in exploring the role of indigenous environmental ethics in the protection of the natural world. In Africa, the moral ideals of ubuntu are being studied with an aim of showing how such a vision extends moral responsibility beyond human boundaries and sees life as a sphere of interdependence. Just like other developing nations, the environmental policy of Ethiopia sees the environment as an integral aspect of sustainable development, and is also aimed at formulating an environmentally friendly green economy. Despite such efforts, the environment policy of Ethiopia also needs to integrate insights from indigenous environmental ethics into the discussion of environment. There are traditional and indigenous ethical systems in Ethiopia among the Oromo and Gedeo people that emphasize oneness with nature, avoiding deliberately harming nature and the relationship of solidarity between humans and other parts of the environment. Furthermore, the inherent value of nature, protection of animal life and justice towards non-humans are major themes in indigenous Ethiopian environmental ethics. The paper as such demonstrates the vitality of such ethical values in comparison with modern ethical systems that are narrowly focused on the instrumental control over the environment
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