Problems in the Further Implementation of Sage Philosophy :: Philosophical Africa Essays

Problems in the Further Implementation of perspicacious PhilosophyABSTRACT With the recent death of Prof. H. Odera Oruka, founder of the sage doctrine school of re seem based at the University of Nairobi, at that place is a use up to look at some now-problematic issues. I call down that the original movement for starting the sage doctrine project-the defense against Euro-American skeptics who panorama Africans incapable of philosophizing-has been outgr consume. The contribute need for studies of African sages is to benefit from their wisdom, both in Africa and around the world. I also suggest that the title sage has to be problematized. While there were good reasons to focus earlier on rural elders as overlooked wise philosophers, the emphasis now should be on admiring philosophical thought wherever it may be foundin women, youth, and urban Africans as well. In such a focusing, philosophy testament be merely relevant to peoples lives, and further light will be shed and sh ared regarding the lived experience in Africa.Odera Orukas Own lit crit of Sage PhilosophyDespite his pride in launching what many an(prenominal) consider an important project in African philosophy, the writings of Odera Oruka himself declaim some doubts about the project. For example, in his essay Philosophy in eastmost Africa and the Future of Philosophical Research in Africa, he seems to refer to his own project as one of passing historical significance. There, after criticizing Tempels and otherwise ethnophilosophers, he admits that he himself indulge(s) in some kind of anthropological-cum-philosophical research. He verbalise projects like his own sage philosophy and Sumners researches into historical texts of Ethiopian philosophy were necessary at that historical point, but would soon give way to nationalist-ideological and master copy-technical philosophy, trends he saw as more central to the future of African philosophy. In Sage Philosophy Revisited, he states that sag e philosophy started as a reaction to a position which Europeans had adopted about Africa that Africans are not capable of philosophy. So, does this imply that once Europeans change their perceptions of Africans, there will no longer be a need for professional philosophers to search out the ideas of wise rural sages? Even in this late essay, OderaOruka continues to suggest that his work merely serves as a base for other forms of philosophy which will emerge in the future, but which he cant imagine repair now. By base he seems to mean a collection of texts to which professional academic philosophers can turn, instead of always consulting European ones Odera Oruka (1996, Ch.