Compare and Contrast the Different Perspective on the Self

Comp atomic number 18 and contrast the different perspective on the self in Kaphagawanis article African conceptions of a mortal. Reflect on some of the challenges. control board of Content Table of Content1 Introduction2 Nature2 Principle of life2 Personhood3 Human being3 end point3 References4 IntroductionIn this essay I will compare and contrast the different perspectives of self, person and personhood from various agricultures across Africa, answering the old-fashioned questions within metaphysics as well as philosophy What is a person? What elements constitute being a person? and Could one be a person without personhood? Nature The Akan philosophers Wiredu and Gyekye agree the gumbo soil (soul) is the innermost self of the person, but disagree whether the nature of the okra is a material or immaterial substance.Wiredu insist the okra is different from the Western philosophys perceived soul, because to the West the term soul refers to a purely immaterial entity that some how inhabits the body. The okra, by contrast, is quasi-physical. (1) The okra for Gyekye has the selfsame(prenominal) concept of a soul as in other metaphysical systems and proclaims that a crucial aspect of Akan metaphysics is the existence of the world of spirits (2a). Gyekye insists the okra and sunsum are immaterial substances and they survive death as a spiritual unity(2b) where Wiredu suggests sunsum is not an entity but a manner of being, which perishes at death.Principle of life The sunsum as the activate principle and okra as the principle of life is unclear. The Yorubas ori, like the okra, is the determinant of personality, where the emi is the spry principal of life. The Akans perception of okra is regarded as the active life principle supplied by the deity, as well as the bearer of destiny, where the Yorubas emi, which is the equivalent of okra, is not the bearer of destiny. PersonhoodThe words of John F. Kennedy, Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what yo u can do for your country (3) sums up the road to personhood. Mbiti (4) argues that in traditional life, the individual does not and cannot exist but except corporately. He is simply part of the whole, and describes a social-centric view of personhood in which society creates the individual. Tempels agrees that this concept of separate beings, of substance hich find themselves side by side, entirely independent one of another, is foreign to Bantu thought. (5) Human being Kagame claims that homosexuals beings are complete animals from the moment he exist in his mothers womb, when a name has been given or from the moment he puts reason to good use (6) but for Wiredu everyone is born a person. However personhood is something you may pass making some more person than others on fulfilment of ones obligations to self, household and to community. 7) For Geykye a human person is a being who has a moral awareness and is capable of making moral judgements (8a) and does not agree with t he personhood debate because what the individual would be striving for in all his/her exertions is some social status, not personhood. (8b) Conclusion After colonialism Africa provided descriptions on what a person is in the African context but the authentic descriptions were lost in order to compensate for Aristotles man is a rational animal.It unified African educated philosophers and created a second tier by adding the word hood to person. The English words creates definition issues because it is unable to effectively define African concepts as passed down amongst generations. The words of John F. Kennedys inauguration speech stress the essence of African culture as it emphasises the role which the community plays in order for a person to be able to define him-/herself. References (1) Kwasi WireduThe concept of mind with particular reference to the language and thought of the Akan Contemporary Philosophy A new survey. Vol 5 African Philosophy, ed G. Floistad (Dordrecht Nijhoff, 1987) pg. 161 (2a) Kwame Gyekye Concept of a person An essay on African philosophic thought, revise,d edition, ed Kwane Gyekye (Temple university press, Philadelphia, 1995) pg. 86,87 (2b) Kwame Gyekye Concept of a person An essay on African philosophical thought, revise,d edition, ed Kwane Gyekye (Temple university press, Philadelphia, 1995) pg. 98 (3) John F.Kennedy This speech was delivered by John F Kennedy at his inauguration in Washington on January 20 1961. (4) John S. Mbiti Ethnic Groups, Kinship the Individual African Religions and Philosophy, 2nd edition, ed. John S Mbiti (Oxford Heineman, 1989), pg. 106. (5) start out Placide Temples Bantu Philosophy La Philosophie Bantoue, ed. Dr. A. Rubbens (Elizabethville Lovania, 1945), pg. 58. (6) Alex Kagame The Shadow Thesis Reading in contemporary African Philosophy, ed Dr P Mungwini, Dr MLJ Koeane, Mr ESN Mkhwanazi (UNISA Pretoria, 2012) pg. 91 (7) Kwasi Wiredu An Akan perspective on human rights The African Philosophy Reader, Second Edition, ed PH Coetzee and APJ Roux (Routledge Londen, 2003), pg 315 (8a) Kwame Gyekye Person and community in African thought Reading in contemporary African Philosophy, ed Dr P Mungwini, Dr MLJ Koeane, Mr ESN Mkhwanazi (UNISA Pretoria, 2012) pg. 29 (8b) Kwame Gyekye Person and community in African thought Reading in contemporary African Philosophy, ed Dr P Mungwini, Dr MLJ Koeane, Mr ESN Mkhwanazi (UNISA Pretoria, 2012) pg. 30