Paulin Hountondji and the Science Question in Africa

This book offers a systematic reconstruction of Paulin Hountondji's contributions to the debate about the place of modern science on the African continent. The book shows that Hountondji develops an account of modern science that is sociologically sensitive to the entanglement between modern science and colonialism on the African continent without falling into epistemic relativism about the claims of modern science. It is argued that Hountondji's views on modern science express a strong historical materialist influence, and that he develops a theory of science that draws both on the Hessen-Grossmann hypothesis and dependency theory. Thus, this book brings together two strands of historical materialist thought about science that have hitherto been isolated from one another. This book is of interest to scholars who specialize in African philosophy, history and philosophy of science, global philosophy, and African studies.

The first book to provide a systematic reconstruction of Paulin Hountondji's theory of science The only book length treatment of the significance of the concept of modern science in contemporary African philosophy Applies the Hessen-Grossmann thesis to a colonial context

Autorentext

Zeyad el Nabolsy earned his B. Eng (Chemical Engineering) and M.A. (Philosophy) from McMaster University, and a PhD in Africana Studies (with a specialization in African philosophy) from Cornell University. He specializes in the history of Africana philosophy with a focus on modern African philosophy. He has previously published on Amílcar Cabral's philosophy of culture, methodological debates about racism and ideology in the historiography of philosophy, Olaudah Equiano as a philosopher, classical German philosophy (especially Kant and Hegel), Paulin Hountondji's philosophy of science, modern African political and social philosophy (with a focus on African Marxism), African philosophy and its relationship to African literature, and ancient Egyptian philosophy. He is currently working on a comparative intellectual history of nineteenth African philosophy with a focus on James Africanus Beale Horton (in West Africa) and Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (in Egypt).

Inhalt

Introduction.- 1 Hountondji between Husserl and Althusser.- 2 Towards a Synthesis between the Hessen-Grossman Thesis and Dependency Theory.- 3 Colonialism and Systematic Under-Education.- 4 Hountondji on the Relationship between Endogenous Knowledge and Modern Science.- 5 Modern Science and the Demarcation Problem in African Philosophy.- 6 Concluding Remarks on Hountondji's Framework for the Study of Scientific Dependency.