African SAGE Philosophy PDF

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Lecture notes on sage philosophy...

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AFRICAN SAGE PHILOSOPHY -

No writings

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Northern Sfrican Kingdoms developed in parallel and in constant interation with Egypt eg. Kush, difficult to seprate (but there are notable exceptions like Dogan in West Africa)

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African Sage Philosophy refers to the philosophical viewpoint of African sages spread across the continent – ancient oral traditions which are impossible to date

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No physical documents that can be dated

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Sage = someone who is considered wise in their community

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Sage Philosophy is then finding out what these sages mean in philosophical terms

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Key figure = Henry Odera Oruka : “Sage philosophy consists of the expressed thoughts of wise men and women in any given community and is a way of thinking and explaining the world that fluctuates between popular wisdom.. and didactic wisdom”

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Basesd on his research – theses sages. Go between popular and didactic wisdom

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Popular wisdom : communal customs and “common sense truths” – often conformist (folk sages) – they don’t deviate from their customs _ ethno philosophers focused on these

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Didactic wisdom : rational thought – often critical (philosophical sages) – critically reflecting on their traditions and having a more involved thinking

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Oruka aims to show that critical reflection on certain fundamental issues has always been part of philosophizing in Africa – he wants to show that its always been indemic to africa

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Scholars like Dismas Masolo - does not view sage philosophy as philosophy because they have a commitment to ethno philosophy and believe that traditional thought is not based on sufficient reasoning to qualify as properly philosophical

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Oruka says that all cultures develop philosophical thinking, we just haven’t looked for it properly – so his project is to go find that

philosophical thinking and to show that it has always been a part of African philosophy -

Oruka opposed (alongside philosophers such as Houtondji and Wiredu) the blurring of religion and philosophy by commentators such as Tempel and Mbiti (folf-philosophies and ethno-philosophy)

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Oruka saw it as an important part of African philosophy to looks for the arguments and reasoning behind traditional beliefs and thought systems so as to identify the philosophy in traditional thought

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Ethno, Professional, political, sage, liberation philosophy – wants to expand the basis of African phulosphy n=and believs that sage philosophy is the way to do this...