African Culture and the Quest for Truth

Abstract

In most African cultures, there is a definite and clear quest for truth through a critical method. Truth is a key value. It has moral, philosophical and social significance. One can subject an interlocutor's statements to methodic doubt and questioning. However, in some African cultures, the human intellect alone is not capable of understanding certain truth data thereby permitting the practice of divination. Nevertheless, most African cultures distinguish opinion (doxa) from (alatheia); emphasis is on objectivity rather than subjectivity. The methods of arriving at the truth by most African cultures correspond basically to the correspondence and pragmatic theories of truth.