An Exploration of the Parallels between African and Process Metaphysics
Description
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.
Reviews / Votes
"Deductive argumentation has long been enshrined as the gold standard in philosophical analysis. In this timely book, Emannuel Ofuasia's lucid and rigorous exposition of Ezumezu Logic shows us otherwise: non-deductive argumentations not only exist and have their own coherence but are the preferred methods when working with processual metaphysics. This in-depth research into Ezumezu logic opens up a new field where scholars could identify and demonstrate cross-cultural applications and resonances of Ezumezu logic in Chinese, Indigenous, and Buddhist processual philosophies. All these existing non-deductive argumentations and diffractive analysis invited further studies of other process-/relation-centred reasoning systems." (Jessica Zu, University of Southern California, author of Just Awakening: Yogacara Social Philosophy in Modern China)
"In this book, Ofuasia opens a new perspective to our understanding of metaphysics, brilliantly bringing the subject into conversation with logic, language and history. It raises issues that will no doubt engage the attention of scholars interested in metaphysics, African history, its philosophy, as well as intercultural studies." (Adeolu Oyekan, PhD, Research Associate, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa)
"From his early engagements with process philosophy and its intersection with African thought systems, Ofuasia has sustained his conviction that what makes African ideas unique and to differ from traditional metaphysics is the element of processism. 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 process metaphysics." (Babajide Olugbenga Dasaolu, Professor of African philosophy and ethics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria)
"With this piece, Emmanuel Ofuasia has opened a new vista in knowledge production as the history of African metaphysics has been rendered its long overdue affinity with processism. The twelve chapters treat our intellectual curiosity to a proper grasp of the parallels between African and Process Metaphysics. This book is highly recommended for whoever wishes to engage African thought system outside the derisory but influential framework of substance metaphysics." (Sunday Layi Oladipupo, Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria)
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Person
Emmanuel Ofuasia is a Decoloniality Research Associate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Content
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.