African Philosophy and Enactivist Cognition

The Space of Thought

Bruce B. Janz

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781350292222
• eBook ISBN: 9781350292208
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Epistemology in Philosophy

Using classic texts in African philosophy, Bruce B. Janz applies the strand of cognitive science known as enactivism to realise new connections and intersections between both fields. The idea that cognition is embodied and embedded in a social world neatly maps onto specifically African epistemologies to outline a new direction of study on what philosophy is. By working through a rich range of texts and thinkers, Janz provides a fruitful new interpretation of African philosophy and provides close readings of seminal and sidelined thinkers to provide an invaluable resource for students and scholars. Janz's study takes in the creative humanism of Sylvia Wynter, Placide Tempels's Bantu Philosophy, Mbiti's theory of time, Oruka's last work on sage philosophy, Mogobe Ramose's own version of Ubuntu, Sophie Oluwole's active literature of philosophy, Achille Mbembe's excoriating attack on the effects of colonialism on life in Africa, and Suzanne Césaire writings on négritude. This book reorients African philosophy towards an active and creative future informed by enactivist thinking.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Spaces of Thought in African Philosophy
• 1 The Ceremony Found and a New Human Problematic: Sylvia Wynter after Humanism
• 2 Vitalism and Bantu Philosophy: Placide Tempels and Jamaa
• 3 Sasa, Zamani, and Myths of the Future: John Mbiti, Memory, and Time
• 4 Oginga Odinga as Sage Philosopher: H. Odera Oruka and Historicity
• 5 Ubuntu as Enactivism: Mogobe Ramose and Be-ing
• 6 A Literary Tradition of Thought: Sophie Olúwọlé, Euphrase Kezilahabi, and a Literature of Philosophy
• 7 How Do We Speak of Our Place? Achille Mbembe’s World
• 8 “The Poet Becomes a Prophet”: Suzanne Roussi Césaire’s Négritude
• Conclusion: Future Events?
• References
• Further Reading
• Index
• Copyright Page