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African Epistemology

Past, Present and Future

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of African Philosophy

Part of the book series: Handbooks in Philosophy ((HP))

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Abstract

The chapter explores African epistemology by taking a historical approach to examining its nature and character. By doing so, it seeks to explain some distinctive features of African epistemology, such as the focus on cultural beliefs and practices in the attempt to describe the nature of African epistemology and the need to debate the question of method in African epistemology. To be sure, while the former is traced to attempts to respond to colonial subjugation of the African’s capacity for rational deliberation, the latter arises from the task of authentically construing what passes as ‘African’ in relation to epistemology. Aside from its explanatory engagement, the chapter elucidates pertinent future concerns for scholars of the discipline. Worthy of note is the task of construing African epistemology in the light of philosophy (and by extension, epistemology) as a normative discipline. The chapter, therefore, notes that epistemic normativity is a key challenge if African epistemology is to take its place in the global discourse of knowledge in epistemology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Peter Aloysius Ikhane

  2. African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Peter Aloysius Ikhane

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  1. Peter Aloysius Ikhane
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Correspondence to Peter Aloysius Ikhane .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Director of the Centre for Global and Comparative Philosophies, School of History, Religions and Philosophies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK

    Elvis Imafidon

  2. Department of Philosophy, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Mpho Tshivhase

  3. Visiting Assistant Professor in Philosophy, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, USA

    Björn Freter

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Ikhane, P.A. (2023). African Epistemology. In: Imafidon, E., Tshivhase, M., Freter, B. (eds) Handbook of African Philosophy. Handbooks in Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77898-9_11-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77898-9_11-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-77898-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-77898-9

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