Q0609

“So for us African philosophy is a body of literature whose existence…” — Paulin Hountondji (African Philosophy: Myth and Reality)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: African Philosophy: Myth and Reality. Theme: language.

English

So for us African philosophy is a body of literature whose existence is undeniable, a bibliography which has grown constantly.
Thinker Paulin Hountondji
School Africana Philosophy
Source African Philosophy: Myth and Reality
Theme Language
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to African Philosophy: Myth and Reality 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 Ludwig Wittgenstein and Kwasi Wiredu), language is framed through Analytic Philosophy and Africana Philosophy. Some passages define language; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through language, knowledge.

Concepts in this quote

Language
Language appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat language as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Knowledge
Knowledge is the philosophical study of what we can justifiably claim to know—and where certainty ends.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Paulin Hountondji. (n.d.). So for us African philosophy is a body of literature whose existence is undeniable, a bibliography which has grown constantly. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0609

MLA: Paulin Hountondji. “So for us African philosophy is a body….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0609.

Chicago: Paulin Hountondji. “So for us African philosophy is a body….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0609.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “So for us African philosophy is a body…”?

The passage is attributed to Paulin Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality. The archive attributes this English wording to African Philosophy: Myth and Reality 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 language?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Ludwig Wittgenstein and Kwasi Wiredu), language is framed through Analytic Philosophy and Africana Philosophy. Some passages define language; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through language, knowledge.

Same thinker

More from Paulin Hountondji

  1. 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.
  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 language

  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 language theme