Ethnophilosophy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ethnophilosophy is an approach to the study of philosophy.
Most of the philosophical work in modern western university philosophy departments centers around the work of western philosophers from Europe and North America. University philosophy departments work primarily with written texts and the written texts come mostly from these same western countries.
An Ethnophilosophical approach seeks to unearth the philosophies of non-western cultures through the study of oral traditions, analysis of linguistic categories[1], social structures[2] and religion. Ethnophilosophy also adds new perspectives to the body of knowledge in philosophy by considering the philosophical meanings in texts from non-western cultures that have been traditionally excluded from the philosophical canon.
An Ethnophilosopher holds that all people practice philosophy, and believes that the study of philosophy is incomplete if limited to the western tradition.
An Ethnophilosophical approach may also be used to study western culture, though the approach becomes necessary when war and colonialism as well as differences in the way that cultures record their traditions, systems of belief and cosmology create a gap between the western tradition and the knowledge these cultures contain.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- ^ http://www.smith.edu/philosophy/african.html
- ^ Precolonial Black Africa: A Comparative Study of the Political and Social Systems of Europe and Black Africa from Antiquity to the Formation of Modern States. by Cheik Anta Diop (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press Edition, 1987)
