Before you accept a philosophical concept that came through a colonial language, state it in your own and see whether it still makes sense.
Kwasi Wiredu · African analytic philosophy
knowledgemind
Summary
Philosopher
Last reviewed:
Kwasi Wiredu
1931–2022 · African analytic philosophy · Modern
Kwasi Wiredu was a Ghanaian philosopher trained at Legon and Oxford, where he studied with Gilbert Ryle. He called for conceptual decolonisation: African thinkers should test the concepts they inherited through colonial languages, and ask whether a claim even makes sense when stated in their own language, such as Akan. He was equally firm that tradition is not true because it is old, and criticised anachronistic and authoritarian customs.
Read more
In politics he defended consensus democracy, drawing on Akan practice, against winner-takes-all party systems. He held that truth is opinion, carefully qualified: a considered view from a point of view, which drew strong objections.
Summary cards only until a checked page reference for a short sentence is available.
Start here
Philosophy and an African Culture, the essay 'How not to compare African thought with Western thought'.
It shows both edges of his method at once.
Quotations
Key ideas
Conceptual decolonisation
Do not take a framework for granted because it came in English. Try it in your own language and see if it survives.
Against unexamined tradition
Old and local is no more a guarantee of truth than new and foreign.
Consensus democracy
Decisions reached by talking to agreement, not by a majority silencing a minority.
Major works
Philosophy and an African Culture (1980)
Tradition, truth, and the critique of folk thought.
Cultural Universals and Particulars (1996)
Consensus, universals, and language.
Influences
- Gilbert Ryle
- John Dewey
Influenced
None listed in this library.
Common misreadings
- Decolonisation is not rejecting Western philosophy. It is testing it, as one would test anything.
- He did not romanticise tradition; he criticised it in the same breath.
Famous lines Kwasi Wiredu never said
None of the lines this library files for Kwasi Wiredu is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Philosophy and an African Culture, the essay 'How not to compare African thought with Western thought'. It shows both edges of his method at once.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Kwasi Wiredu that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Before you accept a philosophical concept that came through a colonial language, state it in your own and see whether it still makes sense.” (Cultural Universals and Particulars (1996), 'Conceptual decolonization', summary, Summary).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Kwasi Wiredu is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Conceptual decolonisation: Do not take a framework for granted because it came in English. Try it in your own language and see if it survives.