African Philosophy and Enactivist Cognition: The Space of Thought

by Bruce B. Janz

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350292208
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/20/2022
Series:	Bloomsbury Studies in World Philosophies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	689 KB

About the Author

Bruce B. Janz is Professor of Humanities in the Department of Philosophy and co-director of the Center for Humanities and Digital Research at the University of Central Florida, USA.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Souleymane Bachir Diagne

Acknowledgements

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 Olúw?lé, 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 Cesaire's Négritude
9. Future Events?

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Brilliant, creative and a compelling guide for new encounters with African Philosophy.” —Michael Onyebuchi Eze, Associate Professor of Global and Comparative Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, Leiden University, The Netherlands

“Bruce Janz's reckoning with key figures in African philosophy is absolutely groundbreaking. Placing his readings of African philosophy inside critical and persistent theoretical questions, Janz is able to draw out the force of African thought and mark its vital place in the future of philosophical thinking. This is genuinely urgent work.” —John E. Drabinski, Professor of African American Studies, University of Maryland, USA

From the Publisher