Abstract
As a response to the question posed in the title, this article presents a critical assessment of how the works of the nationalist–ideological philosophers can be seen as evidence against David Hume’s and Immanuel Kant’s ideas of race. Hume and Kant have certain ideas about race; if these ideas are true, then there is—and indeed, can be—no African philosophy. But there is African philosophy—that of nationalist–ideological philosophy; therefore, Hume’s and Kant’s ideas about race are incorrect.
Highlights
According to David Hume, nature has made some people have higher levels of mental capacities than others
According to Mbonjo (1998, p. 183), the hallmark of nationalist–ideological philosophers is their ardent zeal and clarion call for all Africans to return to their values and shun everything Western that is not in conformity with this noble goal
According to Appiah (1992), for the generation that theorized the decolonization of Africa, “race” was a central organizing principle. Since these Africans largely inherited their conception of “race” from their New precursors, we shall understand Pan-Africanism’s profound entanglement with that conception best if we look first at how it is handled in the work of the African-American intellectuals who forged the links between race and Pan-Africanism. (p. 10)
Summary
According to David Hume, nature has made some people have higher levels of mental capacities than others. In response to Hume and Kant, my aim in this article is to show that the works of nationalist–ideological philosophers are evidence that Africans are not irrational or inferior Whites. I will discuss the works of the nationalist–ideological philosophers as evidence of the existence of African philosophy, and as a refutation of Hume’s and Kant’s
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