An Exploration of the Parallels between African and Process Metaphysics

This book articulates how African metaphysics (characterized by force) and process metaphysics (characterized by becoming) are similar on several fronts. On the one hand, the vitalist and relational characters of African metaphysics have engrossed researchers as unique and original to Africa, but they have yet to articulate where this leads processism. On the other hand, the becoming or event underpinning of process metaphysics which has been the focus of Anglo-American processism, has not courted deserving academic attention, due chiefly to the influence wielded by substance metaphysics. This is the primary research gap which the present book magnifies, and then addresses, while contending for intellectual exchange(s) among specialists in processism, irrespective of the philosophic tradition. To accomplish this, this book admits intercultural philosophy for assessing the principal claims of some African and process philosophers and to bring them into a conversation, with an alternative system of logic in Ezumezu, to mediate thought, theory, and method. This effort assists in addressing the history of misrepresentation and distortion which process metaphysics, as an under-explored tradition, has suffered and endured.

Reveals why processism in philosophical history endures low patronage from researchers Discusses how vitalism, relationality, and becoming are central in process thought Makes a strong case for process philosophy in contemporary research in metaphysics

Autorentext

Emmanuel Ofuasia is a Decoloniality Research Associate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

Klappentext

In this timely book, Emannuel Ofuasia's lucid and rigorous exposition of Ezumezu Logic shows how non-deductive argumentations not only exist and have their own coherence but are the preferred methods when working with processual metaphysics in Chinese, Indigenous, and Buddhist processual philosophies.

Jessica Zu, University of Southern California, US; Author of Just Awakening: Yogcra Social Philosophy in Modern China

By amplifying becoming, relationality, and vitalism three primary ideas that are central to African metaphysics, Ofuasia has succeeded in showing how African metaphysics is inherently processual.

Babajide Olugbenga Dasaolu, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria

This book articulates how African metaphysics (characterized by force) and process metaphysics (characterized by becoming) are similar on several fronts. On the one hand, the vitalist and relational characters of African metaphysics have engrossed researchers as unique and original to Africa, but they have yet to articulate where this leads processism. On the other hand, the becoming or event underpinning of process metaphysics which has been the focus of Anglo-American processism, has not courted deserving academic attention, due chiefly to the influence wielded by substance metaphysics. This is the primary research gap which the present book magnifies, and then addresses, while contending for intellectual exchange(s) among specialists in processism, irrespective of the philosophic tradition. To accomplish this, this book admits intercultural philosophy for assessing the principal claims of some African and process philosophers and to bring them into a conversation, with an alternative system of logic in Ezumezu, to mediate thought, theory, and method. This effort assists in addressing the history of misrepresentation and distortion which process metaphysics, as an under-explored tradition, has suffered and endured.

Emmanuel Ofuasia is a Decoloniality Research Associate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

Inhalt

1 Introduction.- Part I: Logic and the History of Distortion of Force and Becoming in African and Western Contexts.- 2 A History of the Discourse on Being in Traditional (Western) Metaphysics.- 3 Substance Metaphysics and the Misrepresentation of African Metaphysics.- 4 Traces of Process Metaphysics in the History of Western Philosophy.- 5 Ontology and the limitations of Classical Logic.- 6 The Quest for an Alternative Logic System for Force and Becoming.- Part II: The Promises of the Metaphysics of Force and Becoming.- 7 Metaphysics of Force and an Alternative Logic System.- 8 Becoming Metaphysics and an Alternative Logic System.- 9 A Fusion of Force and Becoming in African and Process Metaphysics.- 10 Spatialization of Time in Special Relativity: Implications for African and Process Conceptions of Time.- 11 Process-Relational Philosophy: An Argument for its Contemporary Relevance with Two Illustrations.- 12 General Conclusion.