The major problem of philosophy is that of its nature. Is it a universal discourse or a
cultural phenomenon? This question in Western philosophy has been approached from two
dimensions. The universalists and the pragmatists. Most analytical philosophers think that
philosophy is universal. The pragmatists oppose them and posit that every philosophy has a
cultural origin and is ethnocentric. In African Philosophy the debate about the nature of
philosophy is between the universalists and the traditionalists. The universalists conceive
philosophy as a theoretical discipline with universal character. The traditionalists on their
own are made up of professional philosophers and as well as some other African intellectuals.
The argument of the traditionalists is that African Philosophy can be extracted from African
peoples' morality oral tradition ethics religion folklore in short from their collective
world views or metaphysics. Within the context of this debate this book outlines the challenge
of African Philosophy to the universality of Western philosophy. It is anchored on Rorty's
anti-universalist conception of philosophy which deconstructs the notion of general theory of
representation and instead postulates cultural genre and social practice as modes of
philosophical investigation.
