Explores overlapping concerns and themes in African(a) and continental philosophy.In Existence and Heritage, Tsenay Serequeberhan examines what the European philosophical tradition has to offer when encountered from the outsider perspective of postcolonial African thought. He reads Kant in the context of contemporary international relations, finds in Gadamer's work a way of conceiving relations among differing traditions, and explores Heidegger's analysis of existence as it converges with Marx's critique of alienation. In the confluence of these different assessments, Serequeberhan articulates both a need and example of responding to Fanon's call for a new kind of thinking in philosophy. He demonstrates both how continental philosophy can be a useful resource for theorizing Africa's postcolonial condition and how postcolonial thought and African philosophy can provide a new way of approaching and understanding the Western tradition.
Tsenay Serequeberhan is Professor of Philosophy at Morgan State University and the author of several books, including Contested Memory: The Icons of the Occidental Tradition and The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy: Horizon and Discourse.
AcknowledgmentsPreface: The Possible in PhilosophyIntroduction: Reflections and EncountersI. Reflections 1. Decolonization and Philosophy2. Continental and African Philosophy: Dialogue at a DistanceII. Encounters 3. Post-9/11, Perpetual Peace? A Reading of Immanuel Kant4. Hermeneutics and Differing Traditions: A Reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer5. Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, and Postcolonial AfricaConclusion: Frantz Fanon, Thinking as OpennessNotesBibliographyIndex
