1st Edition

The African Other Philosophy, Justice and the Self

Edited By Abraham Olivier Copyright 2020
    160 Pages
    by Routledge

    158 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book provides a much-needed philosophical response to the recurrent postcolonial call to uproot the prevalent workings of the colonial regime, with a close focus on the African context.



    The work addresses a range of questions concerning the othering of Africans in the postcolonial context, specifically by focusing on the philosophical analysis of problems of justice, the effect of injustice on the formation of the self, and strategies of resistance against the injustice of othering. Questions raised in this collection include: who or what is "the other"? Who is the "African other"? In what ways are Africans othered? What is the effect of unjust conditions on the formation of the self? In what sense is othering an injustice? How can justice concern itself with the problem of othering? What are the strategies to resist the injustice of othering? Can one ever do justice to the experience of the subaltern other in abstract terms of philosophical analysis?



    In considering these questions, this book will be of interest to all those studying the intersectional ways in which colonial injustice is manifested in the postcolony, as well as those seeking greater philosophical reflection on postcolonial justice. This book was originally published as a special issue of Angelaki.

    Foreword

    Abraham Olivier

    Introduction – The African Other: Philosophy, Justice and The Self

    Abraham Olivier

    Part I: Problems of Justice

    1. Justice Through Deliberation and The Problem of Otherness

    Uchenna Okeja

    2. Consensual Recognition of Universal Rights in African Custom

    Christopher Allsobrook

    3. Implicitly Racist Epistemology: Recent Philosophical Appeals to The Neurophysiology of Tacit Prejudice

    Helen Lauer

    Part II: Formations of The Self

    4. Breaking the Gridlock of The African Postcolonial Self-Imagination: Marx against Mbembe

    M. John Lamola

    5. Ressentiment In the Postcolony: A Nietzschean Analysis of Self and Otherness

    Veeran Naicker

    6. Can I Choose to Be Who I Am Not? On (African) Subjectivity

    Katrin Flikschuh

    Part III: Strategies Against Othering

    7. A Most Dangerous Error: The Boasian Myth of a Knock-Down Argument against Racism

    Robert Bernasconi

    8. Steve Biko: Black Consciousness and The African Other – The Struggle for The Political

    Michael Cloete

    9. Rebellion and Revolution

    Pedro Tabensky

    10. The African Animal Other: Decolonizing Nature

    Louise Du Toit

    Biography

    Abraham Olivier is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa. He is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Centre for Phenomenology in South Africa and former Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Philosophy. He has published extensively on topics relating to phenomenology, philosophy of mind, place and pain, and African philosophy.