The “Demise” of Philosophical Universalism and the Rise of Conversational Thinking in Contemporary African Philosophy

Abstract

While it is a fact that the universalist school of African philosophy charged up the discourse in their time, while it cannot be disputed that their approach was argumentative, questions have re-emerged as to the relevance of the school in contemporary African philosophy. There are now two requirements to which actors in African philosophy agree on these days, to wit: (a) the need to find new conversations within and beyond African philosophy and (b) the need to ensure that the new conversations are substantive and speak to the conditions of life in the African place. Obviously, the agitations of philosophical universalism are on the metaphilosophical level, chief among which are the conditions that African philosophy has to meet before it will become philosophy. Evidently, the campaign of the universalist school still comes short of meeting the two requirements above. My aims in this work include: (1) To critique the universalist school as the choice mode of inquiry in African philosophy, (2) To unveil conversational thinking both as a mode of thought and a theory of African philosophy, and (3) to redefine the concern of African philosophy in the contemporary time using the themes of conversational thinking.