pls.doc

Introduction Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.3 million km (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. Was there an African philosophy or not was largely born out of the popular western portrayal of Africa in books by ethnologists and historians. They popularized the face of Africa that was brutal, the people that could not do anything, develop nothing or create anything, even historical. They debased the image of Africa and raised questions as to how could we develop a philosophy of our own. The term Philosophy is derived from the Greek language, the word Philosophy means the love of wisdom. What is African Philosophy? The quest to attain reliable knowledge and to act out such knowledge in relevant situations of practical life is vital importance when doing philosophy. African philosophy is the philosophical discourse produced by indigenous Africans and their descendants, including African Americans and it is the philosophical thought of Africans as could be sifted from their various world views, myths, and proverbs. It is the philosophy untainted by foreign ideas. African philosophers may be found in the various academic fields of philosophy, such as metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy. One particular subject that many African philosophers have written about is that on the subject of freedom and what it means to be free or to experience wholeness. Africanity The quality or state of being African or of having African origins, Africanity of African Philosophy is a set of characteristics that distinguish African philosophy from Western or India or Chinese philosophies. Africa provides the locus or locale for doing the philosophy called African. It is in this regard that the analysis of the concept Africa is of great importance. If philosophy is a universal enterprise, what then makes a philosophy African? What makes philosophy African is Africanity. Every culture makes a contribution from it is house of experience to the universal themes of philosophy, and this makes philosophy relevant to the reality of life. Each culture traces the unity of these themes, synthesizes and organizes them into a totality, based on each cultures concept of life, namely, the relationships between objects and persons and between persons and person themselves. However much this may sound repulsive, this cultural contribution to philosophizing is what particularizes philosophy as European, Indian, Chinese or African. They are variety of factors which refer Africanity as a set of members: to people, place, time event or actions, culture, language, doctrine and methods involved in the philosophic enterprise. The four factors 1) The ethno-African: identifies an African author or authors by origin or nature, by birth, ancestry, tribe, physiology, colour, and culture. 2) The geo-temporal African: qualifies the African space and time within which African philosophy is typically occurring. The African geo-temporality is by immediate physical placement within the African continent or by remote spatial presence anywhere else where the African finds himself or itself. 3) The lego-African: qualifies and expatriate author or issue which becomes African by virtue of a civil, an ecclesiastical or academic law which empowers or mandates him or it. 4) The techno-African: identifies an expatriate African who becomes an African philosopher by interest or preoccupation, enterprise, research, literature, doctrine undertaken or produced. It clearly identifies any work produced as African philosophy (ibid: 30–31). Conclusion It is important to recognise that to be genuine lover of wisdom we must pay attention to and question every experience. Is there an African philosophy, my answer is Yes, there is an African philosophy, and it is an established fact. African philosophy is post-colonial, but this does not mean that in the pre-colonial period there was no philosophising taking place in the African continent. Africans also have a philosophy which tries to explain reality from an African perspective. It arises from the special problem and unique experience of the African people. We live in a welcoming continent with different race and we have four types of Africans which are, Africans of the soil, Africans of the blood, Africans of both soil and blood and Africans of the soil by adoption. This explains why we have Indian philosophy, western Philosophy or Chinese philosophy in our continent. Reference list UNISA Introduction to African Philosophy study guide PLS1502 Declaration I declare that this is Realeboga Seimela's own work and that all sources have been acknowledged by appropriate references.