Adeshina afolayan
Abstract
This essay is an attempt to critically understand the utility of the concept of postmodernism in African philosophy, and by extension the analysis of the postcolonial African predicament. Its urgency derives from the growing literature on the interpretation of the postmodern in African studies. For those ...
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This essay is an attempt to critically understand the utility of the concept of postmodernism in African philosophy, and by extension the analysis of the postcolonial African predicament. Its urgency derives from the growing literature on the interpretation of the postmodern in African studies. For those I will call the “detractors”, there is a certain conceptual absurdity in the idea of postmodernism in a continent that is just grappling with the exigencies of modernity. Thus, Africa cannot be postmodern before being modern. For the “champions” of the necessity of postmodern theorizing in Africa, postmodernism offer an avenue to escape out of the cul de sac of intellectual nativism that has precluded Africa from the benefits of global open space of ideas. The essay argues that these critical interpretations emanate from an attempt to read too much into what I will call the postmodern minima. This strategy has the advantage, I contend, of giving African philosophers a leeway—beyond the mere critique of Eurocentrism—for confronting the twin problem of African identity and African development.
amer gheyturi; hamid taheri; jafar mirzaee
Abstract
This article aims to bring the French philosopher Jacques Derrida into conversation with the Persian mystic poet Mowlavi. What might link the two thinkers is their critical approach toward philosophers' claim as to the authority of reason upon the truth. According to both, reason should acknowledge its ...
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This article aims to bring the French philosopher Jacques Derrida into conversation with the Persian mystic poet Mowlavi. What might link the two thinkers is their critical approach toward philosophers' claim as to the authority of reason upon the truth. According to both, reason should acknowledge its limits. However, by so criticizing the material reason, Mowlavi opens the way to Love, the Heart, or revelation as an alternative to get to the truth-a tool that Derida, as a philosopher, does not seem to resort to. Hence, he remains a philosopher to the end. It is, nevertheless, in acknowledging the limitations of the philosophical approach that he kneels down before truth and faith, speaking to his God with swollen eyes full of tears.
