Title

Reason and Rationality in Eze's On Reason

Authors

Authors

B. B. Janz

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

South Afr. J. Philos.

Keywords

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL THOUGHT; SOCIOLOGICAL THESIS; WESTERN SCIENCE; PHILOSOPHY; PEARCE; Philosophy

Abstract

The title of Emmanuel Eze's final, posthumously published book uses the words "reason" and "rationality" in a manner that might suggest they are interchangeable. I would like to suggest that we not treat them as the same, but rather tease out a difference in emphasis and reference between the two. In African philosophy, the problem of reason is really two separate problems, the first of which I will call the "problem of reason" (that is, the question of whether there are diverse forms of reason or only one universal form) and the second the "problem of rationality" (that is, the question of whether everyone has the capacity to deploy reason past what mimicry or programming makes possible). Both of these problems are addressed by Eze's schema for forms of reason. He identifies several forms, but focuses on "ordinary reason", which allows all the other forms to operate. Ordinary reason also makes rationality possible, that is, the culturally specific yet emergent way of navigating forms of reason. Reason is necessarily diverse, because its multiple forms are deployed differently by different rationalities.

Journal Title

South African Journal of Philosophy

Volume

27

Issue/Number

4

Publication Date

1-1-2008

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

296

Last Page

309

WOS Identifier

WOS:000262753900004

ISSN

0258-0136

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