Personal Identity and “Life-Here-After Poetics”: A Critique of Maduabuchi Dukor’s Metaphysics

Francis Offor

doi:10.4236/ojpp.2013.31a024

Abstract

This essay examines Maduabuchi Dukor’s perspective on the African conception of man, personal identity and“life-here-after”. This is with a view to showing that although, Dukor’s views represent what obtain among some ethnic nationalities in Africa, this nevertheless does not provide a basis for generalising across the whole of Africa, as there are countless number of ethnic groups in Africa to which Dukor’s general claims may not be applicable. Given the varieties of metaphysical conceptions of man and destiny in Africa which we are yet to fully explore, and given also the inherent contradictions in some of these conceptions, which calls into questioning, the veracity of claims made therein, it will amount to a major logical error to make sweeping generalisations that would be representative of the whole of Africa. Such generalisations would remain a non-holistic, but partial representation of the African conception of man and human destiny.

Highlights

In his Theistic humanism of African philosophy (Dukor, 2010a) and African philosophy in the global village (Dukor, 2010b), Maduabuchi Dukor takes a swoop at two fundamental aspects of African metaphysics
These have to do with the African conception of man and of personal identity, as well as the issue of “life-here-after”, otherwise known as “destiny”
This essay attempts to respond to this “Dukorian” perspective on the African conception of man and of the problem of personal identity and “life-here-after”. This is with a view to showing that Dukor’s findings corroborate what obtain among some ethnic nationalities in Africa, this does not provide a basis for generalising across the whole of Africa, as there are countless number of ethnic groups in Africa to whom some of these claims may not be applicable

Summary

Francis Offor

Received September 24th, 2012; revised October 24th, 2012; accepted November 9th, 2012. Given the varieties of metaphysical conceptions of man and destiny in Africa which we are yet to fully explore, and given the inherent contradictions in some of these conceptions, which calls into questioning, the veracity of claims made therein, it will amount to a major logical error to make sweeping generalisations that would be representative of the whole of Africa. Such generalisations would remain a non-holistic, but partial representation of the African conception of man and human destiny

Introduction

Conceptions of Person

Conclusion