This book offers a concise overview of the development of intercultural philosophy since the early 1990s, focusing on one of its key pioneers Heinz Kimmerle (1930– 2016). Building on influences from Gadamer, Heidegger, Derrida and Ramose, Kimmerle’s approach to intercultural philosophy is radical and fosters epistemic justice. Kimmerle critically reflected on his own western philosophical tradition, highlighting the problems of a discourse based on a dominant concept of rationality, and of excluding different approaches and participants. Instead, Kimmerle developed an alternative way of thinking, emphasizing the importance Of recognizing philosophies of different cultures. He focused particularly on African philosophies in academic discourse. In the book, the many layers of Kimmerle’s intercultural philosophy are revealed, exploring how dialectics, hermeneutics, deconstruction and decolonization can contribute to epistemic justice. The author goes beyond Kimmerle and demonstrates how Kimmerle’s approach can be further enhanced by using an intersectional approach and by engaging in dialogue with female philosophers and artists. This new study, which also introduces unpublished and untranslated texts from Kimmerle’s work in German and Dutch, will be of considerable interest to researchers of continental philosophy, intercultural and African philosophy, political philosophy, decolonial and feminist studies.

"This book offers a concise overview of the development of intercultural philosophy since the early 1990s, focusing on one of its key pioneers Heinz Kimmerle (1930-2016). Building on influences from Gadamer, Heidegger and Derrida, Kimmerle's approach to intercultural philosophy is radical and fosters epistemic justice. Kimmerle critically reflected on his own western philosophical tradition, highlighting the problems of a discourse based on a dominant concept of rationality, and of excluding different approaches and participants. Instead, Kimmerle developed an alternative way of thinking, emphasising the importance of recognising philosophies of different cultures. He focused particularly on African philosophies in academic discourse. In the book, the many layers of Kimmerle's intercultural philosophy are revealed, exploring how dialectics, hermeneutics, deconstruction and decolonization can contribute to epistemic justice. The author goes beyond Kimmerle and demonstrates how Kimmerle's approach can be further enhanced by using an intersectional approach and by engaging in dialogue with female philosophers and artists. This new study, which also introduces unpublished and untranslated texts from Kimmerle's work in German and Dutch, will be of considerable interest to researchers of continental philosophy, intercultural and African philosophy, political philosophy, decolonial and feminist studies"--

This book sets up a rich intercultural dialogue between the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault, and that of key African thinkers such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe, Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, Tsenay Serequeberhahn, and Henry Odera Oruka. The book challenges western-centric visions of an African future by demonstrating the richness of thought that can be found in African and Afrodiasporic philosophy. The book shows how thinkers such as Serequeberhan have criticised the inconsistencies in Kant’s work, whereas others such as Wiredu, Gyekye, Appiah and Mbembe have referenced his work more positively and developed progressive political concepts such as the metanational state; partial cosmopolitanism and Afropolitanism. The book goes on to consider how Mbembe and Mudimbe have responded to Foucault’s ideas in deciphering the various Western, African and Afrodiasporic discourses of knowledge on Africa. The book concludes by considering various theories of intercultural exchange, from Gyekye’s cultural borrowing, to Appiah’s conversation across boundaries, Wiredu’s cross cultural dialogue, Mbembe’s thinking outside the frame, Serequeberhan’s dialogue at a distance, and Oruka’s call for global re-distribution and a new ecophilosophical attitude to safeguard human existence on the planet. This book invites us all to engage in intercultural dialogue and mutual respect for different cultural creations. It will be an important read for researchers in Philosophy wherever they are in the world.

Professor Heinz Kimmerle encountered African philosophy at a time when his specialisation in the philosophy of Hegel had attained world recognition. For Hegel, African philosophy did not exist in Sub-Saharan Africa, exactly the area in which Kimmerle made his first contact with African philosophy. Hegel’s philosophy was not a stranger to Sub-Saharan Africa. This was because the Western educational paradigm was imposed upon the conquered, colonized peoples during the period of colonisation. Unlike Hegel, Kimmerle took African philosophy seriously and engaged, initially, in dialogues with African philosophy. Out of the unfolding dialogues grew intercultural philosophy spearheaded by Kimmerle’s penetrating, insightful and incisive critique of some of the fundamental presuppositions of Hegel’s philosophy. The essays contained in this book focus on the evolution of Kimmerle’s conception and meaning of intercultural philosophy. Underlying this are recognition and respect for other modes of doing philosophy as manifestations of intercultural philosophy. To deny dialogues, if you prefer, polylogue among world philosophies, is to reject the very basis of philosophy. Thus a crucial dimension of philosophy would be precluded, which can be found in this book, namely, the critical evaluation of Kimmerle’s conception and meaning of intercultural philosophy.

This book provides answers to the following questions: How could visual art support us in reflecting about interculturality critically? When we look at, engage with and experience art, what is it that we can learn, unlearn and relearn about interculturality? The book adds to the multifaceted and multidisciplinary field of intercultural communication education by urging those working on the notion of interculturality (researchers, scholars and students) to give art a place in exploring its complexities. No knowledge background about art (theory) is needed to work through the chapters. The book helps us reflect on ourselves and on our engagement with the world and with others, and learn to ask questions about these elements. The authors draw on anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and sociology to enrich their discussions of critical interculturality.

The book argues that women's perspectives and gender issues must be mainstreamed across African philosophy in order for the discipline to truly represent the thoughts of Africans across the continent. African philosophy as an academic discipline emerged as a direct challenge to Western and Eurocentric hegemonies. It sought to actualize the project of decolonization and to contribute African perspectives to global discourses. There has, however, been a dominance of male perspectives in this field of human knowledge. This book argues that African philosophy cannot claim to have liberated people of African descent from marginalization until the androcentric nature of African philosophy is addressed. Key concepts such as Ujamaa, Negritude, Ubuntu, Consciencism, and African Socialism are explored as they relate to African women's lives or as models of inclusion or exclusion from politics. In addition to offering a feminist critique of African philosophy, the book also discusses topics that have been consistently overlooked in African philosophy. These topics include sex, sexuality, rape, motherhood, prostitution, and the low participation of women in politics. By highlighting the work of women feminist scholars such as Oyeronke Oyewumi, Nkiru Nzegwu, Ifi Amadiume, Amina Mama, and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, the book engages with African philosophy from an African feminist viewpoint. This book will be an essential resource for students and researchers of African philosophy and gender studies.

This book presents an innovative African philosophical response to coloniality and the attendant epistemicide of Africa’s knowledge systems, drawing on Igbo thinking. This book argues that theorizing modernity requires a critical conversation between African and Western scholarship, in order to unpack its links with coloniality and the subjugation of Africa’s indigenous knowledges. In setting out this discussion, the book also connects with Latin American scholarship, demonstrating how the modern world is structured to marginalize and destroy knowledges from across the Global South. This book draws on Igbo epistemic resources of solidarity thinking, positioned in contrast to capitalist knowledge-patterns, thereby providing an important Africa-driven response to modernity and coloniality. This book concludes by arguing that the Igbo sense of solidarity is useful and relevant to modern contexts and thus constitutes a vital resource for a less disruptive, more balanced, and more wholesome modernity. At a time of considerable global crises, this book makes an important contribution to philosophy both within Africa and beyond.

This book provides a philosophical exposition of Ubuntu ethics, which it does by explaining the saying ‘a person is a person through other persons’. Written by one of the world’s leading scholars of African philosophy, the book first argues that the focus on umuntu (or, a person) in Ubuntu ethics as intrinsically valuable makes ethical humanism and human dignity vitally important. The book then goes on to consider the role of virtue ethics in driving an ideal of moral perfectionism. This, in turn, provides the basis for what a good society should be: a needs-based political theory. Providing an important guide through Ubuntu ethics as a moral system constructed in terms of moral perfectionism, it will be an important read for researchers of African philosophy, and of the philosophy of virtue ethics and moral perfectionism more generally.

This book analyzes the concepts of moral status and human dignity in African philosophy and applies them to the moral problems associated with death. The book first challenges the criticism and rejection of moral status in African philosophy and then continues to consider how moral personhood is defined in African ethical theories, investigating which entities have full moral status or moral personhood and are therefore worthy of full ethical consideration. It then applies this theory to the problems associated with death. In the medical context, will an African theory of moral status permit or forbid euthanasia? Do we have moral obligations towards dead human bodies? Overall, the book provides an important African axiological contribution to debates on global ethics and moral philosophy. Providing an important overview of the ethical problems associated with the biological fact of death, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of philosophy and African studies.