_Return to the Kingdom of Childhood: Re-envisioning the Legacy and Philosophical Relevance of Negritude_ examines the philosophy of Negritude through an innovative analysis of Léopold Sédar Senghor’s oeuvre. In the first book-length study of Senghorian philosophy, Cheikh Thiam argues that Senghor’s work expresses an Afri-centered conception of the human while simultaneously offering a critique of the Western universalization of “man.” Senghor’s corrective, descriptive, and prescriptive theory of humanness is developed through a conception of race as a cultural manifestation (...) of being. Thiam contends that Senghor’s conception of race entails an innovative Afri-centered epistemology and ontology. For Senghor, races are the effects of particular groups’ relations to the world. The so-called “Negroes,” for example, are determined by their epistemology based on their fluid understanding of the ontological manifestations of being. The examination of this ontology and its ensuing epistemology, which is constitutive of the foundation of Senghor’s entire oeuvre, indicates that Negritude is a postcolonial philosophy that stands on its own. The hermeneutics of Senghor’s race theory show that the Senegalese thinker’s pioneering postcolonial philosophy remains relevant in the postcolonial era. In fact, it questions and expands the works of major contemporary African-descended scholars such as Paul Gilroy, Edouard Glissant, and Molefi Asante. Thiam’s approach is thoroughly interdisciplinary, combining perspectives from philosophy, literary analysis, anthropology, and postcolonial, African, and cultural studies. (shrink)

Abel Botelho, escreveu um conjunto de cinco romances naturalistas, incluindo Patologia Social. Nas suas obras, a cidade de Lisboa é representada através dos seus aspectos sociais, históricos e políticos. Nesse sentido, este artigo analisa as descrições da cidade de Londres, enfatizando seus aspectos decadentes revelados pelas caminhadas noturnas de Elvira, Mário e Isabel, personagens do O Barão de Lavos, O Livro de Alda e Fatal dilema. Em seguida, focará nos aspectos inovadores ou nas formas afirmativas dos personagens tirados em uma (...) avenida chamada Avenida. Abel Botelho wrote a set of five naturalistic novels, among them Patologia Social. In his works, the city of Lisbon is represented through its social, historical, and political aspects. In that sense, this article analyses the descriptions of the city of Lisbon by emphasizing its decadent aspects revealed through the nocturnal walks of Elvira, Mário, and Isabel, who are characters from O barão de Lavos, O Livro de Alda, Fatal dilema. Then, he will focus on the innovative aspects of the affirmative forms of the characters taken in a boulevard called Avenida. (shrink)

Cheikh Moctar Ba avait, dans un précédent traité, défini et constitué un parallèle entre les cosmogonies et les cosmologies grecques et africaines. Il entreprend ici une analyse de la fonction et de la place qu'elles occupent dans la vie des sociétés, et comment elles sont à l'origine de l'établissement d'un certain ordre. Face à ces problématiques qui regroupent en grande partie les questionnements du mouvement existentiel, il s'attèle à construire cet essai autour deux axes principaux: une étude de la (...) question de la centralité, et un examen du rapport entretenu par les cosmologies et les cosmogonies avec les différentes formes d'organisation sociale. (shrink)

Résumé Il est question de voir, à travers l’étude de certaines positions philosophiques de Marcien Towa en quoi l’activité philosophique est une expérience de liberté, une conscience active, en mouvement. En effet, chez Marcien Towa, la liberté est le résultat d’un processus de redécouverte de soi qui anime le sujet conscient de son être-là dans le monde. Le dévoilement de l’essence du moi est une nécessité voire un impératif dont l’effectivité est le résultat d’une remise en question de l’essence du (...) moi qui renaît de sa déchirure comme un moi objectif, comme une conscience de liberté. C’est en cela qu’il y a réconciliation du moi avec lui-même, l’avènement d’un sujet nouveau capable de se prendre en charge comme entité libre et autonome qui s’assume et qui prend en charge sa destinée. (shrink)

Résumé Il est question de voir, à travers l’étude de certaines positions philosophiques de Marcien Towa en quoi l’activité philosophique est une expérience de liberté, une conscience active, en mouvement. En effet, chez Marcien Towa, la liberté est le résultat d’un processus de redécouverte de soi qui anime le sujet conscient de son être-là dans le monde. Le dévoilement de l’essence du moi est une nécessité voire un impératif dont l’effectivité est le résultat d’une remise en question de l’essence du (...) moi qui renaît de sa déchirure comme un moi objectif, comme une conscience de liberté. C’est en cela qu’il y a réconciliation du moi avec lui-même, l’avènement d’un sujet nouveau capable de se prendre en charge comme entité libre et autonome qui s’assume et qui prend en charge sa destinée. (shrink)

I argue that political activity needs philosophical insights in order to keep pace with some exigencies of the human person, and of the nature of the body of any human community. More specifically, I argue that some ethical and moral principles should be the genuine foundations of the performed acts emanating from the political leader. Drawing mainly from philosophy, I argue that the issue of political leadership is an expressive example in which we encounter the necessity of bringing ethics into (...) the sphere of politics, in order to provide the latter with strong, unshakable, and objective foundations. This also gives me an opportunity to rise against Machiavellianism and its correlates. (shrink)

Ethical Personalism proposes to reflect on the person from at least three levels: ontology, epistemology, and ethics. Articulating the ontological and inalienable value of the human person, i.e., her dignity, from various philosophical and religious angles and traditions, the contributors show not just what it means to be a human person, but also what it takes to live accordingly. Hence, beyond the purely theoretical elaboration on ethical personalism that reposes the crucial debates between relativism and realism on the one hand, (...) and consequentialism and deontology on the other, this volume offers a range of insights useful for addressing concrete and practical matters that we, as humans, are confronted by in our everyday life. Ethical Personalism unequivocally affirms the necessity of (re)placing the person in the centre of our project of society, economic plans, political settings, and environment policies. (shrink)

Der Ausdruck Phänomenologie ist heute höchst vieldeutig geworden. Husserl hat seit 1905 eine immer stärkere Wendung zum Idealismus kantischer Prägung hin vollzogen, durch die er den Boden der Phänomenologie, wie er sie begründet hatte, verlassen hat. Eine ähnliche Abweichung von der ursprünglichen Idee der Phänomenologie findet sich bei vielen anderen "Phänomenologen." Die "realistische Phänomenologie", deren Vorläufer von Platon an und Klassiker von Husserl bis Schwarz in dieser ersten umfangreichen deutschsprachigen Anthologie zu Wort kommen, ist kein System, sondern eine Anwendung der (...) philosophischen Urmethoden, wie sie alle großen Philosophen tatsächlich anwandten, wenn sie ihre entscheidenden Entdeckungen machten. Mögen auch von Philosophen generell andere Methoden bewußt zugrunde gelegt werden, in dem Moment, in dem diese Einsichten gewonnen werden, liegt tatsächlich zu allen Zeiten jener letzte, fruchtbare Kontakt mit "den Sachen selbst" vor, der den Sinn der phänomenologischen Methode ausmacht, wie sie von den Meistern der realistischen Phänomenologie nur bewußter und systematischer angewandt wird als von vielen früheren Denkern. Nichts wäre darum irriger als in der phänomenologischen Betrachtungsweise eine Reduktion der Welt auf bloße "Phänomene" zu erblicken oder gar eine bloße Deskription der "Erscheinung" der Dinge. Zwischen phänomenologischer Betrachtungsweise und metaphysischer Wesensanalyse besteht kein Unterschied oder gar Gegensatz. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es mostrar que el escrito medieval no posee el mismo estatuto ni los mismos valores que hoy en día y, a partir de ahí, reaccionar ante la oposición entre lo oral y lo escrito que se utiliza a propósito de la literatura árabe en sus comienzos. La tesis propuesta defiende que, hasta la segunda mitad, si no hasta el final del siglo III de la Hégira, los textos de adab, aunque compuestos y producidos por escrito, (...) lo habían sido en la idea de que su circulación, su comunicación y recepción se haría, en la mayor parte de los casos, oralmente. Es este fenómeno el que define el estatus del adab de sus «autores», y de la naturaleza de las obras que lo constituyen. (shrink)

Este artículo estudia la sección de la recopilación de adab del 'Iqd al-farid de Ibn 'Abd Rabbih llamada "El Libro de Lamentaciones, Condolencias y Elegías". Se analiza la función ideológica del 'Iqd, concretamente la manera en que se organiza el género con ocasión de la muerte. Localiza lo que parece haberse «reprimido» en el texto en un intento por determinar el material que fue pasado por alto, enterrado o alterado, y estudia la organización de sus prioridades. El artículo sostiene que (...) el 'Iqd, en su función de texto ejemplar, no se limita a reflejar una ideología dominante sino que hace una contribución al discurso dominante por su manera de dar forma a la vida intelectual y social. (shrink)

Il s¿agit de poursuivre le travail de relecture du Kiláó al-Buhalá' consmencé dans larticle paru dans le Bulleíin dÉludes Orientales de Damas (LI 1999:"Avarice ou sophistique? Une lecture du Livre des ovares d'al-Gdisig"), travail qui pose que le propos du célébre polygraphe nesí pas tant la critique de lavarice, nu de la gueuserie (lmdya) dans le cas de Halib b. Yazid, que celle du détnumement des discours de leura fnnctions supposées nobles. Dans le récit "autobiographique" el le testament spirituel de (...) Ijálawayh al~MukaddI, ce qui se trouve mimé, parodié pnur étre dénigré, cesí, semble-t-il, la pratique des sermonnaires populaire> (Qu~sás), el, plus généralemení, celle des 'ulamá' qui prétendent éduquer les fonles. Larticle s'attache á analyser les procédés stylistiques et rhétoriques utilisés par al-Óálii~ pour vilipender ces usages dévoyés du discours. (shrink)

Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines in Islamic History, 661–1257. By Taef El-Azhari. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. Pp. xix + 449. $140, £90.

After the seminal work of Kraus, Lehmann and Magidor (formally known as the KLM approach) on conditionals and preferential models, many aspects of defeasibility in more complex formalisms have been studied in recent years. Examples of these aspects are the notion of typicality in description logic and defeasible necessity in modal logic. We discuss a new aspect of defeasibility that can be expressed in the case of temporal logic, which is the normality in an execution. In this contribution, we take (...) Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) as case study for this defeasible aspect. LTL has found extensive applications in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, notably as a formal framework for representing and verifying computer systems that vary over time. However, some systems may presents exceptions at some innocuous time points where they can be tolerated, or conversely, exceptions at other crucial time points where they need to be addressed. In order to ensure the reliability of such systems, we study a preferential extension of LTL, called defeasible linear temporal logic (LTL ~ ). In the first part of this paper, we show how semantics of KLM's preferential models can be integrated with LTL. We also discuss the addition of non-monotonic temporal operators as a way to formalise defeasible properties of these systems. The second part of this paper is a study of the satisfiability problem of LTL ~ sentences. Based on Sistla and Clarke's work on the complexity of the classical LTL language, we show the bounded-model property of two fragments of LTL ~ language. Moreover, we provide a procedure to check the satisfiability of sentences in both of these fragments. (shrink)

The Mediterranean region is facing major challenges for soil conservation and sustainable agriculture. Conservation agriculture (CA), including reduced soil disturbance, can help conserve soils and improve soil fertility, but its adoption in the Mediterranean region is limited. Examining farmers’ perceptions of soil and underlying sociocultural factors can help shed light on adoption of soil management practices. In this paper, we conducted a survey with 590 farmers across Morocco, Spain and Tunisia to explore concepts that are cognitively associated with soil and (...) perceptions of tillage. We also evaluated differences in perceptions of innovation, community, adaptive capacity, and responsibility for soil. We found that farmers’ cognitive associations with soil show awareness of soil as a living resource, go beyond agriculture and livelihoods to reveal cultural ties, and link to multiple levels of human needs. Beliefs about the benefits of tillage for water availability and yield persist among the surveyed farmers. We found that openness towards innovation, perceived adaptive capacity and responsibility for soil were associated with minimum tillage, whereas community integration was not. Education, age and farm lifestyle were also associated with differences in these perceptions. CA promotion in the Mediterranean should emphasize the multiple values of soil, should demonstrate how sufficient yields may be achieved alongside resilience to drought, and be tailored to differing levels of environmental awareness and economic needs across north and south. (shrink)

Afrosofian Knowledge and Cheikh Anta Diop wrestles with the cultural, epistemological, ethical, and geopolitical conundrums of our contemporary world. It argues that sofia is a psychological, discursive, social, and civilizational sickle constantly sharpened to weed imperial-colonial, mental, linguistic, racist, and barbaric alienation.

A study of the relationship between African political theory and the politics of liberation. It elucidates the dialectical inter-relationship between the political philosophical views of these thinkers and the political, social and economic contexts of their respective countries.

Ambiguous Adventure, one of the most iconic novels in Senegalese history, recounts the plight of a traditional African society in the face of an encroaching western modernity, with its main character, Samba Diallo, as the face of this momentous struggle. The captivating story inspired numerous critiques that address the text from sociological, religious, and philosophical perspectives. Not surprisingly, most of the interpretations are based on the textual connection to Islam, the religion embraced and practiced by the Diallobé community in the (...) novel, and deal with universal topics such as death, identity, colonialism, initiation, tradition, and modernity. Building on the work done before me on Samba’s own search for identity within the Muslim context, I look to pre-Islamic Fulani traditions articulated by Amadou Hampaté Bâ, which better illuminate the process of initiation that leads the human being to transform into a self-realized person. I argue, based on this Fulani metaphysical context, that from the very beginning, Samba Diallo’s journey is initiatic in itself, in the traditional Fulani conception of the term, one that is connected to the sacred dimension. In this sense, the Fulani indigenous traditions anticipate Samba’s journey toward a sacred identity, highlight a clear roadmap to that very process, and, contrary to many critics, lead the initiate to success. (shrink)

This essay proposes African-based ethical solutions to profound human problems and a working African model to address those problems. The model promotes sustainability through advanced agroecological and information communication technologies. The essay’s first section reviews the ethical ground of that model in the work of the Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop. The essay’s second section examines an applied African model for translating African ethical speculation into practice. Deeply immersed in European and African ethics, Godfrey Nzamujo developed the Songhaï Centers (...) to solve the problem of rural poverty in seventeen African countries. Harnessing advanced technologies within a holistic agroecological ecosystem, Nzamujo’s villages furnish education spanning the fields of ethics, information communication technology, microbiology, international development, and mechanical, electrical, civil and biological engineering in a community-based and centered development enterprise. The essay proposes a global consortium of ecovillages based on Nzamujo’s model. The final section explores funding methods for the consortium. The conclusion contemplates a return to Africa to supplement environmental ethics that enhance life’s future on earth. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta uma investigação sobre as produções científicas e tecnológicas ocorridas naantiguidade africana. Discute as várias realizações da ciência e tecnologia nas antigas civilizações doNorte da África e da África subsaariana, como também a cultura e os costumes. Desmistifica a falsaideia de que a África não teve uma história nem teria produzido conhecimento nenhum relevante, alémde ter sido injustamente considerada como civilização obscura e atrasada. Através de pesquisasrelevantes de filósofos europeus, estadunidenses e africanos como Cheikh Anta Diop, Molefi (...) KateAsante e Theophille Obenga abordadas neste trabalho, aponta-se aqui as contribuiçõesepistemológicas, científicas, filosóficas e culturais do antigo Egito e da África subsaariana. Assimsendo, este trabalho explora a África real que existiu na antiguidade onde ocorreu desenvolvimento emdiversas áreas do conhecimento. (shrink)

Certains chercheurs occidentaux et musulmans remettent en question la légitimité du mouridisme, cette tradition islamique lancée par Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba au Sénégal au tournant du xixe siècle. Par la théorie de la réception développée par Robert Jauss pour la littérature, le présent article formule l’hypothèse que le mouridisme en tant que réception de l’islam en Afrique noire est aussi valable que toute autre tradition islamique qui s’est développée depuis la mort du prophète Muhammad en 632 de notre ère. Grâce (...) au charisme et au génie d’Ahmadou Bamba, l’islam est devenu la religion populaire qu’il était appelé à être parmi les populations noires d’Afrique. Se basant sur le potentiel idéologique de l’islam, A. Bamba a réalisé l’émancipation culturelle, religieuse, politique et économique du peuple wolof et, par extension, de tous les Sénégalais, qui sont fiers de sa contribution à la lutte pour l’indépendance de leur pays. La richesse de l’enseignement et de l’action de Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba est encore à découvrir par quiconque est intéressé par la recherche des moyens pour développer le continent africain. Some Western academics and Muslim scholars often question Mouridism, this Islamic tradition initiated by Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba in Senegal at the turn of the 19th century. Through the theory of reception developed by Robert Jauss for literature, this paper argues that Mouridism as a reception of Islam in Black Africa is as true as other Islamic traditions that developed after the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 c.e. Thanks to Ahmadou Bamba’s charisma and genius, Islam became a popular religion that it was called to be among Black Africans as well. Using the ideological potential of this religion, Ahmadou Bamba brought about the cultural, religious, political and economic emancipation of Wolof people and by extension of all Senegalese that are proud of his contribution to the struggle for the independence of their country. The wealth of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba’s teaching and action is still to be unfolded to Africans and all those interested in seeking ways to develop the African continent. (shrink)

This collection demonstrates the strong influence that humanism and freethought had in developing the history and ideals of black intellectualism. Most people are quick to note the profound influence that religion has played in African-American history: consoling the downtrodden slave or inspiring the abolitionists, the underground railroad, and the civil rights movement. But few are aware of the role humanism played in shaping the black experience: developing the thought and motivating the actions of powerful African-American intellectuals. Section One of this (...) book offers biographical sketches of such prominent black humanists as Frederick Douglass, Cheikh Anta Diop, W.E.B. DuBois, Hubert H. Harrison, and Richard Wright. Section Two features essays by black humanists: Douglass, DuBois, Charles W. Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Ishmael Jaffree, Claude McKay, Melvin B. Tolson, and Bruce Wright. Section Three offers the views of contemporary black African humanists: Freda Amakye Ansah, Emmanuel Kofi Mensah, Nkeonye Otakpor, Franz Vanderpuye, and Kwasi Wiredu. Section Four contains interviews conducted by Allen on the subjects of black humanist activism, the Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization, and the Harlem Renaissance with: Martin G. Bernal, Charles Faulkner, Leonard Harris, Norman Hill, and Alaine Locke. (shrink)

Among the intellectuals who have significantly contributed to the discussion of Africa's place in the concert and/or shock of civilizations, Kwane Nkrumah, Cheikh Anta Diop, Samir Amin, Ali Mazrui, Amilcar Cabral could be found in a pertinent sampling. These different personalities indicate the linguistic and geographic diversity of a multidisciplinary and critical production.

Este livro poderia de facto definir-se também "Razão e Lógicas da Totalidade do Real na filosofia africana contemporânea". Quatro objectivos, por assim dizer, se vislumbram logo duma leitura atenta deste texto: antes de mais a preocupação dos autores de propor nos nossos dias, uma leitura transversal da filosofia africana moderna e contemporânea a partir, diríamos, do conceito da "razão". Trata-se, neste caso, de introduzir os leitores não na história da filosofia africana como tal, mas somente, como especifica Ezio Bono, de (...) delinear "algumas questões principais que consideram ser mais significativas e recorrentes no actual debate" da filosofia africana moderna e contemporânea e a sua "traversée" (Bidima), por assim dizer, no âmbito moçambicano (José Castiano). Este texto, cuja vocação principal é transformar-se, "grosso modo", numa espécie de "Humanidades Clássicas Africanas" (Cheikh Anta Diop), se quer sintético e ao mesmo tempo panorâmico. Ele é sintético, pois os autores partem duma leitura temática (a razão). Ele é também panorâmico, já que partindo deste focus temático, eles oferecem uma visão global desta matéria, do ponto de vista histórico, teorético, epistemológico, cultural, panafricano (Procesi) e particular moçambicano (Bono e Castiano). (shrink)

Un “philosophe des cultures” appelé Louis Gardet est devenu un “islamologue catholique” de renommée mondiale après avoir vécu, de 1933 à 1945, dans la “khalwa” des Petits Frères de Jésus à El-Abiodh Sidi Cheikh, en Algérie. Frère André “en religion”, disciple du bienheureux Charles de Foucauld et ami fidèle de Jacques Maritain, s'est employé, par ses ouvrages, à faire connaître l'islam aux chrétiens. En thomiste convaincu, il s'est interrogé sur les relations de la philosophie avec les diverses formes de (...) la mystique de l'Inde, du judaïsme, du christianisme et de l'islam : comment y apprécier la “mystique du Soi” et la “mystique de l'Autre”? Personnellement engagé dans le dialogue islamo-chrétien, il a ouvert la voie à une meilleure compréhension entre les disciples du Christ et les fidèles du Coran. Ardent défenseur d'un monothéisme personnaliste, commun aux uns et aux autres, il demeure, pour tous, un modèle d'humanisme œcuménique qui s'enracine dans la transcendance du Dieu d'Abraham. (shrink)

This article summarizes the Afro-centric ‘Copernican Revolution’ of Cheikh Anta Diop between 1960 and 1974, the dates on which he defended his thesis on the African identity of Egypt and argued his thesis, with Théophile Obenga, before the UNESCO Cairo Conference on the “General History of Africa.” I discuss both the unhappy reception, by European Egyptologists and others, of Diop’s ground-breaking, multidisciplinary research, as well as its gradual spread, among others, to Diasporic thinkers. One such thinker, Marimba Ani took (...) a further step by rethinking, in Africanist terms, the philosophical bases underlying the unfolding of what she probatively shows is the European Asili, as exemplified in its patterns of thought and affective-ideological patterns. I attempt to show, here, how Ani inherits and prolongs Diop’s “Copernican” displacement. (shrink)

A discussão sobre a existência ou não da Filosofia Africana, associada à negação do direito à Filosofia caracterizou seis décadas: 1940-2000. A necessidade de apagar o espectro que as representações ocidentais (europeias) atribuem à África foi, de certa forma, respondida com várias publicações. O presente artigo pretende mostrar que existiram, também, pensadores individuais, preciamente no antigo Kôngo.

"Le concept, principal ressort de l'abstraction philosophique, est aujourd'hui, paradoxalement, inadéquate pour exprimer les arguments philosophiques qui font débat en Afrique noire. Trop aride, trop étroit, trop univoque, le concept réduit ce qui est vécu comme un 'conflit de cultures' à un simple 'conflit intellectuel'. Pour éviter cet appauvrissement, le concept exige le détour par la fiction romanesque. En témoignent deux romans L'aventure ambiguë de Cheikh H. Kane et Entre les eaux de V.Y. Mudimbe. À travers eux, le romancier (...) se fait philosophe, et le philosophe pleinement écrivain. Autant dire que le discours philosophique exige un 'dehors', une extériorité radicale capable de l'éclairer. 'Philosopher en Afrique noire' relève autant du faire voir que du penser, tous deux inséparables l'un de l'autre."--Page 4 de la couverture. (shrink)