Library \ Book \ ISBN - 0195112261 \ Call# 960.301 GYE

Tradition and modernity : philosophical reflections on the African experience

English / Authors- Gyekye, Kwame: (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)

Keywords - {Sub-Saharan Civilization, Moral Philosophy, Africa} Status - Checkshelf

Series - {}

Record Number - {08694}

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1 / Philosophy and Human Affairs 3
1. The Nature and Purpose of Philosophy 5
2. Philosophy; Not a System of Beliefs? 8
3. Philosophy as a Conceptual Response to Human
Situations 16
4. Philosophy and the African Experience 24
5. Conclusion 33

CHAPTER 2 / Person and Community: In Defense
of Moderate Communitarianism 35
1. Communitarianism in African Moral and Political
Theory: Moderate or Radical? 36
2. Community, Social Relationships, and the Common
Good 41
3. Communal Structure and Personhood 47
4. Rights, Responsibilities, and the Communal
Structure 61
5. Communitarianism and Supererogationism 70
6. Conclusion 75

CHAPTER 3 / Ethnicity, Identity and Nationhood 77
1. Nation as an Ethnocultural Community 78
2. Nation as a Multinational State 81
3. Beyond N₂ : Towards Nationhood 87
4. National Culture and Identity 106
5. Conclusion 114

CHAPTER 4 / Traditional Political Ideas, Values, and
Practices: Their Status in the Modern Setting 115
1. Observations on the Democratic Character of the
Traditional African Political System 116
2. Chiefship and Political Authority 120
3. Democratic Elements in the Traditional Akan
Political Practice 124
4. Creating Modern Democratic Institutions 133
5. The Need for a Comprehensive Conception of
Democracy 140
6. Conclusion 143

CHAPTER 5 / The Socialist Interlude 144
1. The Alleged Traditional Matrix of African
Socialism 146
2. Private Enterprise in the Traditional African
System 149
3. Socialism or Humanism? 158
4. The Pursuit of Marxian Socialism in Postcolonial
Africa 162
5. On the Concept of Ideology 163
6. Conclusion 170

CHAPTER 6 / Quandaries in the Legitimation of
Political Power 171
1. The Meaning of the Concept 173
2. Losing Legitimacy 186
3. Conclusion 189

CHAPTER 7 / Political Corruption: A Moral Pollution 192
1. Political Corruption: What Is It? 193
2. Political Corruption in the Politics of Traditional
Africa 201
3. The Moral Circumstances of Political Corruption 203
4. Conclusion 215

CHAPTER 8 / Tradition and Modernity 217
1. On the Notion of Tradition 219
2. Attitudes toward a Cultural Past 232
3. Normative Consideration of Our African Cultural
Products 242
4. The Legacy of the Past in the Present 260
5. On the Notion of Modernity 263
6. Conclusion 271

CHAPTER 9 / Epilogue: Which Modernity? Whose
Tradition? 273

Notes 299
Bibliography 317
Index of Names 327
Index of Subjects 330

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