Q0608

“By 'African philosophy' I mean a set of texts, specifically, the set…” — Paulin Hountondji (African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (Eng.…)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (Eng. 1983; Fr. 1976). Theme: method.

English

By 'African philosophy' I mean a set of texts, specifically, the set of texts written by Africans and described as philosophical by their authors themselves.
Thinker Paulin Hountondji
School Africana Philosophy
Source African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (Eng. 1983; Fr. 1976)
Theme Method
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (Eng. 1983; Fr. 1976) and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Paulin Hountondji

Paulin J. Hountondji (1942–2024) was a Beninese philosopher educated in Paris (including under Althusser) and long associated with the National University of Benin.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably William of Ockham and Kwasi Wiredu), method is framed through Africana Philosophy and Scholasticism. Some passages define method; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through method, critique.

Concepts in this quote

Method
Method appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat method as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Critique
Critique appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat critique as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Paulin Hountondji. (n.d.). By 'African philosophy' I mean a set of texts, specifically, the set of texts written by Africans and described as philosophical by their authors themselves. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0608

MLA: Paulin Hountondji. “By 'African philosophy' I mean a set of….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0608.

Chicago: Paulin Hountondji. “By 'African philosophy' I mean a set of….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0608.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “By 'African philosophy' I mean a set of…”?

The passage is attributed to Paulin Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (Eng. 1983; Fr. 1976). The archive attributes this English wording to African Philosophy: Myth and Reality (Eng. 1983; Fr. 1976) and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Paulin Hountondji mean by method?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably William of Ockham and Kwasi Wiredu), method is framed through Africana Philosophy and Scholasticism. Some passages define method; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through method, critique.

Same thinker

More from Paulin Hountondji

  1. So for us African philosophy is a body of literature whose existence is undeniable, a bibliography which has grown constantly.
  2. In fact, it is an ethnological work with philosophical pretensions, or more simply, if I may coin the word, a work of 'ethnophilosophy'.
  3. I observe that it does exist, by the same right and in the same mode as all the philosophies of the world: in the form of a literature.
  4. Contemporary African philosophy, inasmuch as it remains an ethnophilosophy, has been built up essentially for a European public. The African ethnophilosopher's discourse is not intended for Africans.
  5. The thought of an African sage, even if he purports to be the spokesman for a group, is not necessarily that of all the individuals in that group, and still less that of all Africans in general.

All quotations by Paulin Hountondji

Same theme

More on method

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the method theme