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How are the ëoldí and the ënew' expressed in the field of knowledge and know-how? What did we know yesterday, and what do we know today? What was, yesterday, and what is, today, the mythical part in what we believe we know? And how do we define, in each case, the core of concrete and universally valid knowledges? What rights and duties do we acclaim as human beings, as women, as children, as peoples or nations, and what understanding do we today have of these rights and duties? What is the impact, of what we today call globalisation, on the evolution of knowledge, know-how, and the awareness o

Reason is not the monopoly of any particular group or culture. It is a universal human quality. Nevertheless, it should be recognised that reason manifests itself differently from one culture to another. Do we therefore admit that these forms are distinctly plural or should we, on the contrary, recognise the possibility of a meeting and, if need be, of an ordered confrontation that would guarantee, beyond this obvious diversity, a unity of human reason? This book with contributions in both English and French is the result of a debate on this question, during a conference co-organised by UNESCO

Intro -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Translator's Acknowledgments -- Part I: Discovering Husserl -- 1 Landmarks -- 1. From Porto-Novo to Rue d'Ulm -- 2. Rationality as a Problem -- 2 The Idea of Science -- 1. An African Concern -- 2. The Scientific Demand -- 3. Truth and the Good -- 4. The Interconnection of Truths -- 5. The Language of Things -- 6. The Impossible Closure -- Part II: Critique of Ethnophilosophy -- 3 Anger -- 1. From Husserl to Tempels -- 2. An Exceptional Crucible: Présence Africaine -- 3. The Copenhagen Presentation -- 4. A "Set of Texts" -- 5. Developments -- 4 The Issues at Stake -- 1. Political Anchoring -- 2. Theoretical Stakes -- 3. Some Readings -- Part III: Positions -- 5 A Polluted Debate -- 1. The Elegance of the Elders -- 2. Muddying the Issues -- 3. The Nationalist Reaction -- 4. Marxists and Anti-Marxists -- 5. Initial Responses -- 6 Rootedness and Freedom -- 1. The Time for Rereadings -- 2. Linguistic Relativity and Philosophy -- 3. The Particular and the Universal -- 4. The Field of the Thinkable -- 7 Reappropriation -- 2. A Rampant Pragmatism -- 3. Variation on "Distance" -- 4. The Impossible De-linking -- 5. The Appropriation of Knowledge -- 6. Reappropriation -- Afterword -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

La decouverte de la richesse du savoir et des techniques endogenes africains a une implication directe sur le developpement futur du continent. Ce qui est tragique c'est que la plupart des Africains ignorent profondement les reussites du passe, davantage encore les traditions qui sont toujours vivaces. Cet ouvrages contient des resultats de recherche sur le terrain tres originaux et tres detailles. Il embrasse des sujets aussi divers que la theorie de probabilites sur les cauris divinatoires, l'hydrologie, le faiseur de pluie ainsi que les rapports entre la sorcellerie et la medecine psychosomatique. D'autres chapitres portent sur l'usage du systeme numerique, les ingredients utilises dans la pharmacopee africaine traditionelle ainsi que sur les phenomenes mysterieux des objets etrangers introduits dans le corps humain. (DÜI-Hff)

Abstract

African languages have been suppressed during the colonial times, and even after independence, English, French and Portuguese are still considered as essential in linking the continent with the rest of the world. But the insistence on foreign languages as a medium of instruction is an obstacle to the development of Africa's culture. This article calls for a new policy to give more scope to indigenous traditions. (D+C/DÜI)