The "Paranormal": African Philosophy Questions Science

Modern science and its underlying philosophical doctrine, physicalism, have persistently denied reality to a set of phenomena they refer to as "paranormal". However, belief in the occurrence of these events is common to many non-Western cultures. This essay addresses the question of the reality of these events and advance the view that science, on its own methodology, can neither sustain the denial of their reality nor justify its rejection of the "paranormal" as sources of knowledge

Trans-modernism and a Legon tradition of African philosophy

Philosophic strands certainly underlie the characteristic claims of modernism, the creed whose foundational assumptions postmodern philosophy repudiates. This paper defends the thesis that three Ghanaian philosophers, who have been affiliated to the University of Ghana, Legon, have successfully created and defended a systematic and humanistic approach to philosophy in the African context that merits the status of a tradition of philosophy; and that these pioneers of a Legon tradition of philosophy espouse an eclectic, “trans-modernist” outlook that appropriates aspects of modernism and rejects some post-modernist features

Africa's development : the imperatives of indigenous knowledge and values

In post-colonial Africa, conceptions of the nature and purposes of development as well as the theories and strategies for achieving them have remained a territory traversed predominantly by non-African social scientists. In this context, social scientists studying Africa's development proclaimed, at the dawn of the 1990s, a "paradigmatic crisis" and embarked on a quest for new paradigms . In advancing this quest, a number of "homegrown" development strategies have emerged. This work argues that these are mere adaptations and reconstructions of dominant Eurocentic paradigms that exaggerate the value of economic goods and wealth creation founded on a competitive marketplace by making them immutable features of development. Yet the ethic of competition theoretically condones a trajectory of killing in the quest for wealth accumulation. In this way, internalist epistemologies perpetuate epistemicide and valuecide in Africa's strides towards development. The stranglehold of internalist epistemologies has resulted in the impasse of rationality. By this we mean that Reason, apotheosized since the Enlightenment, has advanced humanity out of barbarism to "civilization" but has now placed humanity on the brink of unredeemable barbarism. Reason, through its manifestations in the philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction and global warming, has condemned humanity to willful but avoidable suicide. Since the subjects and objects of development must be one and the same, development is necessarily culture-derived and culture-driven, with the preservation and improvement of human dignity and welfare as its ultimate aims. Accordingly, we defend the thesis that it is necessary for a framework meant for Africa's development to be founded on indigenous knowledge and values, if it is to succeed. And at this moment of impasse reached by Reason, an African ethics-based development paradigm, predicated on humaneness and "life is mutual aid", can restore Reason to sober rationality and liberate Africa's development efforts from the intoxicating prison of profit making. Hence the institutions and frameworks devoted to Africa's development, such as the Constitution and Strategic Plan of the African Union as well as NEPAD, must incorporate salient features of the philosophic ethic emanating from the knowledge and ontological systems of indigenous Africa into visions of the African future.Philosophy, Practical and Systematic TheologyD. Phil. (Philosophy

From 'man is the measure of all things' to money is the measure of all things : a dialogue between Protagoras and African philosophy

Protagoras’ declaration that “man is the measure of all things” is conventionally discussed in the context of epistemology. There was, however, a communal or social dimension to this even in ancient Greece. In the unfolding process of time, this latter dimension assumed greater intensity and expanded systematically into all aspects of human relations. The centrality of money in these relations speaks to the transition from “man is the measure of all things” to money is the measure of all things. It is precisely this thesis that the present essay proposes to defend

Kantian ethics and African philosophy: receptivity and disputations

African philosophers have long engaged with Kant’s practical philosophy. Since the 1980s, much of this engagement has been with Kant’s anthropology of race and its role in the theoretical foundations of racism and European colonization. Our paper departs from this latter orientation by examining Ghanaian philosophical reflections on the Categorical Imperative, which Kant sets out as the supreme principle of practical reason. We assess this critique, and conclude that while the Ghanaian philosophers accept several aspects of Kantian ethics, they depart from Kant’s idealist metaphysics and associated dualistic conception of human nature. More specifically, while the Ghanaian philosophers accept Kant’s universalizability demands in relation to moral judgement, they also make a sustained case, contra Kant, in favour of the role of the emotions in moral motivation. The paper thus contributes to broader efforts underway to enrich the discourse on the reception of Kant’s philosophy in the global south

Perancangan Aplikasi Augmented Reality Buku Koleksi Benda Bersejarah Sebagai Media Informasi Interaktif dan Media Promosi (Studi Kasus: Museum Negeri Bengkulu)

Pemanfaatan teknologi dapat membantu museum dalam upaya pelestarian koleksi benda bersejarah serta memudahkan museum dalam penyampaian informasi. Museum Negeri Bengkulu merupakan bangunan yang telah menyimpan dan melestarikan 6.150 koleksi bersejarah di provinsi Bengkulu yang memiliki banyak nilai-nilai sejarah dan budaya. Teknologi augmented reality merupakan sebuah teknologi yang dapat digunakan dalam membantu museum untuk memperkenalkan, melestarikan dan memamerkan benda bersejarah. Metode marker-based tracking merupakan salah satu metode dalam teknologi augmented reality. Metode ini, memanfaatkan sebuah barcode/pattern atau marker yang selanjutnya akan di deteksi oleh kamera untuk kemudian sistem akan melakukan tracking terhadap posisi benda digital berdasarkan posisi marker. Pemanfaatan teknologi augmented reality pada museum dilihat dapat membantu upaya memperkenalkan, melestarikan dan memamerkan warisan benda bersejarah secara interaktif. Pada penelitian ini telah dihasilkan sebuah aplikasi augmented reality museum bengkulu dengan menggunakan metode marker-based tracking sebagai media informasi interaktif. Aplikasi ini dapat menampilkan informasi secara interaktif dengan adanya media-media visual seperti objek 3D, audio, video, gambar dan text. Aplikasi ini juga dapat digunakan sebagai media promosi Museum Negeri Bengkulu dan koleksi benda bersejarah berdasarkan hasil pengujian efektifitas media promosi dengan menggunakan pendekatan EPIC model dalam sebuah kuisioner pada 45 responden. Aplikasi yang dibangun telah di uji dan dinyatakan layak berdasarkan hasil pengujian dengan metode black-box testing dan white-box testing.Kata kunci : Augmented Reality, AR Museum Bengkulu, Android, Media Informasi Interaktif, Media Promosi, Museum Negeri Provinsi Bengkul

Two Steps Forward: An African Relational Account of Moral Standing

This paper replies to a commentary by John-Stewart Gordon on our paper, “The Moral Standing of Social Robots: Untapped Insights from Africa.” In the original paper, we set forth an African relational view of personhood and show its implica- tions for the moral standing of social robots. This reply clarifies our position and answers three objections. The objections concern (1) the ethical significance of intelligence, (2) the meaning of ‘pro-social,’ and (3) the justification for prioritizing humans over pro-social robots

Concert/C: A language for distributed programming

Concert/C is a new language for distributed C programming that extends ANSI C to support distribution and process dynamics. Concert/C provides the ability to create and terminate processes, connect them together, and communicate among them. It supports transparent remote function calls (RPC) and asynchronous messages. Interprocess communications interfaces are typed in Concert/C, and type correctness is checked at compile time wherever possible, otherwise at runtime. All C data types, including complex data structures containing pointers and aliases, can be transmitted in RPCs. Concert/C programs run on a heterogeneous set of machine architectures and operating systems and communicate over multiple RPC and messaging protocols. The current Concert/C implementation runs on AIX 3.2 1, SunOS 4.1, Solaris 2.2 and OS/2 2.1, and communicates over Sun RPC, OSF/DCE and UDP multicast. Several groups inside and outside IBM are actively using Concert/C, and it is available via anonymous ftp from software.watson.ibm.com:/pub/concert.