Kwasi Wiredu
Biographic Data
| ID | 209917 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kwasi Wiredu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kwasi |
| FAMILY NAME | Wiredu |
| SIGNATURE | WIREDU K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Florida |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
An African Religions Perspective
An Oral Philosophy of Personhood
An oral tradition is a transmission of thought over generations by the spoken word and techniques of communication other than writing. Under this definition, such items as poems, lyrics, proverbs, and maxims, of course, qualify as elements of our oral traditions. So too do drum texts and art motifs. But languages do have embedded in their syntax and semantics various notions about reality and human experience. Through these, our habits of speech …
Social Philosophy in Postcolonial Africa
There is one thing about some of the first crop of post independence rulers of Africa that I admire greatly. It is their keen sense of the practical importance of philosophy. Preeminent among them were leaders like Nkrumah, Senghor, Nyerere, Awolowo, Kaunda, and Sekou Toure. Amidst the awesome exigencies of postcolonial reconstruction they still devoted considerable attention to the philosophical bases of their programs. It can be debated whether…
Companion to African Philosophy
Democracy by Consensus
Democracy as a political system entailing multi-party competition for power is only one form of democracy. Given that democracy is government by consent, the question is whether a less adversarial system than the party system, which is bound up with majoritarian decision-making, cannot be devised. This paper contends that a system based on consensus as a decision procedure would be a democracy of just such a description. It is important to note t…
A Companion to African Philosophy
Several West-African intellectuals obtained great fame in the second half of the nineteenth century and are of lasting importance for African philosophy. Their work covered a range of fields, such as religion, culture, race, science, technology and politics, and addressed pressing issues related to the rapid rise of European domination. Such issues came up first in Liberia and in European colonial settlements along the West African coast, while b…
On the idea of a global ethic
Two different kinds of rules are needed in the regulation of human conduct in the sphere of global interaction. There is a need for global ethics and also a need for a global ethic. The first exists but needs reinforcement. The second also exists but not sufficiently widely and therefore needs a fashioning out in some contexts. Because ethics and an ethic are grammatically cognate and are both concerned with behavior, it is easy to conflate the t…
Reflections on Cultural Diversity
By popular definition, a human being is a rational biped. What this means is not that all human beings are actually rational all the time. That would be false, since many human beings are demonstrably irrational some of the time. What it means is only that a human being has the capacity to be rational. This minimal qualification, however, has tremendous implications. It implies, for example, that we (human beings) are capable of learning from our…
L'empiricalisme
Réflexions sur la diversité culturelle
Il existe une interaction dialectique entre l’unité culturelle et la diversité. Ces deux facteurs peuvent agir en bien ou en mal. Pour favoriser l’aspect positif et limiter l’impact négatif, il est important d’avoir une bonne compréhension conceptuelle des bases de cette unité, ainsi que de la diversité des cultures et de leur statut moral. Une telle compréhension devrait faciliter l’usage, dans les relations interculturelles, du dialogue, qui es…
Conceptual decolonization as an imperative in contemporary African philosophy
The controversy about how best to do African philosophy has now gone at least three decades. That controversy is sometimes misconstrued to be about whether there is such a thing as philosophical thinking among Africans as a people. The absurdity of this latter question should be apparent at least to Africans. Ignorance, due perhaps to geographical distance or racist conceits, may have engendered such questioning in some foreign minds. But any Afr…
Democracy by Consensus
Democracy as a political system entailing multi-party competition for power is only one form of democracy. Given that democracy is government by consent, the question is whether a less adversarial system than the party system, which is bound up with majoritarian decision-making, cannot be devised. This paper contends that a system based on consensus as a decision procedure would be a democracy of just such a description. It is important to note t…
Society and Democracy in Africa
One way in which colonialism injured Africa was through the rupture it caused in the integration of the civil with the political aspect of her social life. That integration was one of the strong points of traditional society. Indeed, in traditional life the distinction between the state and civil society was largely inoperative. This seamlessness was, however, not complete. It was still possible in traditional times to distinguish between societi…
Can Philosophy Be Intercultural
As we push closer to the twenty-first century, it is relevant to speculate whether the different peoples of the world can have any prospect of a more peaceful coexistence in the coming millennium than hitherto. It seems reasonable to suppose that intercultural dialogue in philosophy can be of service in the pursuit of this ideal and ought therefore to be promoted or, at least, cherished by all philosophers of goodwill. In this way they would be p…
Cultural Universals and Particulars
The eminent Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu confronts the paradox that while Western cultures recoil from claims of universality, previously colonized peoples, seeking to redefine their identities, insist on cultural particularities. Wiredu's exposition of the principles of African traditional philosophy is not purely theoretical; he shows how certain aspects of African political thought may be applied to the practical resolution of some of Afr…
Philosophy and an African culture
Social Philosophy in Postcolonial Africa
There is one thing about some of the first crop of post independence rulers of Africa that I admire greatly. It is their keen sense of the practical importance of philosophy. Preeminent among them were leaders like Nkrumah, Senghor, Nyerere, Awolowo, Kaunda, and Sekou Toure. Amidst the awesome exigencies of postcolonial reconstruction they still devoted considerable attention to the philosophical bases of their programs. It can be debated whether…
Philosophy and an African culture
Society and Democracy in Africa
One way in which colonialism injured Africa was through the rupture it caused in the integration of the civil with the political aspect of her social life. That integration was one of the strong points of traditional society. Indeed, in traditional life the distinction between the state and civil society was largely inoperative. This seamlessness was, however, not complete. It was still possible in traditional times to distinguish between societi…
Democracy by Consensus
Democracy as a political system entailing multi-party competition for power is only one form of democracy. Given that democracy is government by consent, the question is whether a less adversarial system than the party system, which is bound up with majoritarian decision-making, cannot be devised. This paper contends that a system based on consensus as a decision procedure would be a democracy of just such a description. It is important to note t…
Can Philosophy Be Intercultural
As we push closer to the twenty-first century, it is relevant to speculate whether the different peoples of the world can have any prospect of a more peaceful coexistence in the coming millennium than hitherto. It seems reasonable to suppose that intercultural dialogue in philosophy can be of service in the pursuit of this ideal and ought therefore to be promoted or, at least, cherished by all philosophers of goodwill. In this way they would be p…
On the idea of a global ethic
Two different kinds of rules are needed in the regulation of human conduct in the sphere of global interaction. There is a need for global ethics and also a need for a global ethic. The first exists but needs reinforcement. The second also exists but not sufficiently widely and therefore needs a fashioning out in some contexts. Because ethics and an ethic are grammatically cognate and are both concerned with behavior, it is easy to conflate the t…
Philosophy and an African culture
Cultural Universals and Particulars
The eminent Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu confronts the paradox that while Western cultures recoil from claims of universality, previously colonized peoples, seeking to redefine their identities, insist on cultural particularities. Wiredu's exposition of the principles of African traditional philosophy is not purely theoretical; he shows how certain aspects of African political thought may be applied to the practical resolution of some of Afr…
Can Philosophy Be Intercultural
As we push closer to the twenty-first century, it is relevant to speculate whether the different peoples of the world can have any prospect of a more peaceful coexistence in the coming millennium than hitherto. It seems reasonable to suppose that intercultural dialogue in philosophy can be of service in the pursuit of this ideal and ought therefore to be promoted or, at least, cherished by all philosophers of goodwill. In this way they would be p…
Society and Democracy in Africa
One way in which colonialism injured Africa was through the rupture it caused in the integration of the civil with the political aspect of her social life. That integration was one of the strong points of traditional society. Indeed, in traditional life the distinction between the state and civil society was largely inoperative. This seamlessness was, however, not complete. It was still possible in traditional times to distinguish between societi…
Democracy by Consensus
Democracy as a political system entailing multi-party competition for power is only one form of democracy. Given that democracy is government by consent, the question is whether a less adversarial system than the party system, which is bound up with majoritarian decision-making, cannot be devised. This paper contends that a system based on consensus as a decision procedure would be a democracy of just such a description. It is important to note t…
Conceptual decolonization as an imperative in contemporary African philosophy
The controversy about how best to do African philosophy has now gone at least three decades. That controversy is sometimes misconstrued to be about whether there is such a thing as philosophical thinking among Africans as a people. The absurdity of this latter question should be apparent at least to Africans. Ignorance, due perhaps to geographical distance or racist conceits, may have engendered such questioning in some foreign minds. But any Afr…
L'empiricalisme
Réflexions sur la diversité culturelle
Il existe une interaction dialectique entre l’unité culturelle et la diversité. Ces deux facteurs peuvent agir en bien ou en mal. Pour favoriser l’aspect positif et limiter l’impact négatif, il est important d’avoir une bonne compréhension conceptuelle des bases de cette unité, ainsi que de la diversité des cultures et de leur statut moral. Une telle compréhension devrait faciliter l’usage, dans les relations interculturelles, du dialogue, qui es…
A Companion to African Philosophy
Several West-African intellectuals obtained great fame in the second half of the nineteenth century and are of lasting importance for African philosophy. Their work covered a range of fields, such as religion, culture, race, science, technology and politics, and addressed pressing issues related to the rapid rise of European domination. Such issues came up first in Liberia and in European colonial settlements along the West African coast, while b…
On the idea of a global ethic
Two different kinds of rules are needed in the regulation of human conduct in the sphere of global interaction. There is a need for global ethics and also a need for a global ethic. The first exists but needs reinforcement. The second also exists but not sufficiently widely and therefore needs a fashioning out in some contexts. Because ethics and an ethic are grammatically cognate and are both concerned with behavior, it is easy to conflate the t…
Reflections on Cultural Diversity
By popular definition, a human being is a rational biped. What this means is not that all human beings are actually rational all the time. That would be false, since many human beings are demonstrably irrational some of the time. What it means is only that a human being has the capacity to be rational. This minimal qualification, however, has tremendous implications. It implies, for example, that we (human beings) are capable of learning from our…
Companion to African Philosophy
Democracy by Consensus
Democracy as a political system entailing multi-party competition for power is only one form of democracy. Given that democracy is government by consent, the question is whether a less adversarial system than the party system, which is bound up with majoritarian decision-making, cannot be devised. This paper contends that a system based on consensus as a decision procedure would be a democracy of just such a description. It is important to note t…
Social Philosophy in Postcolonial Africa
There is one thing about some of the first crop of post independence rulers of Africa that I admire greatly. It is their keen sense of the practical importance of philosophy. Preeminent among them were leaders like Nkrumah, Senghor, Nyerere, Awolowo, Kaunda, and Sekou Toure. Amidst the awesome exigencies of postcolonial reconstruction they still devoted considerable attention to the philosophical bases of their programs. It can be debated whether…
An Oral Philosophy of Personhood
An oral tradition is a transmission of thought over generations by the spoken word and techniques of communication other than writing. Under this definition, such items as poems, lyrics, proverbs, and maxims, of course, qualify as elements of our oral traditions. So too do drum texts and art motifs. But languages do have embedded in their syntax and semantics various notions about reality and human experience. Through these, our habits of speech …
An African Religions Perspective
Philosophy (12 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · African cultural and philosophical studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · African (3 works)