Public Lecture: Redefining a Philosophical Tradition from the African Experience - Elvis Imafidon - February 17, 2025

Redefining a Philosophical Tradition from the African Experience

Summary
Textuality and individual authorship are major defining features that dominate the idea of a philosophical tradition. These features have been used to deny the existence of African philosophy before the postcolonial phase. The claim on these grounds is that a legitimate African philosophy began in the mid-20th century with the existence of African philosophy texts and individual African philosophers. African philosophers have also attempted to model African philosophy to mirror this Western narrative of a philosophical tradition through such paradigms as professional philosophy and sage philosophy. Prof Imafidon questions these features of a philosophical tradition and shows the dangers of relying solely on them, including the erasure and denial of non-textual forms of knowledge production, such as oral and symbolic forms and the epistemic injustice done to other traditions of philosophy, Relying heavily on the African experience of knowledge production, he redefines a philosophical tradition as a coherent heritage that has stayed true to the etymology of philosophy – the fondness, quest and search for wisdom – and show how this has been achieved through individual and group agencies resulting in the production of textual and non-textual repositories of philosophical knowledge. This approach, he argues, is liberating of African knowledge forms and guarantees epistemic justice for African peoples.

Presenter: Prof. Elvis Imafidon, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Prof. Imafidon is a Reader (Associate Professor) in African Philosophy and Chair of the Centre for Global and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS University of London. He is also a Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and the Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg. His research interests include African Philosophy, the philosophy of difference, the philosophy of corporeality, the philosophy of healthcare, ethics, and ontology, primarily from African philosophical perspectives. He is the author and editor of several books, including Ontologized Ethics: New Essays in African Meta-ethics (Lexington Books 2014), and Ethics of Subjectivity: Perspectives since the Dawn of Modernity.

Date: Monday, 17th February 2025
Time: 12.00 noon
Physical Venue: Kwabena Nketia Conference Hall, Institute of African Studies
Virtual Link (Zoom): https://bit.ly/40b8Df6
Meeting ID: 839 0922 2825
Passcode: 493495