Abstract

In 'African philosophy and modernity' Peter Amato presents a two-part thesis. First, the European concept of modernity has been used to bad effect by western philosophers to subsume the intellectual discourses of those cultures they have considered to be their 'other' under a modern/traditional dichotomy which appropriates knowledge and science for themselves, leaving only dogma, mysticism and mythology for the 'other'. The second part is perhaps best captured by Amato's thought that the 'modern' in European modernity defines 'the universal horizan for humanity'. Any 'other' not moving along the path of this horizon of development must be persuaded 'to adopt Western ways' or be left to 'die to itself, or die completely'. I attempt first to to show that this thesis is a recurring theme in the work of many African philosophers, Janz, Amato, Masolo, Serequeberhan, Outlaw and others, and then attempt to spell out alternative conceptions of 'the universal horizon for humanity' as these thinkers conceive of it in their African terms.