Paulin J. Hountondji Explained

Paulin Hountondji
Birth Name:Paulin Jidenu Hountondji
Birth Date:11 April 1942
Birth Place:Abidjan, Colony of Côte d'Ivoire, French West Africa
Death Place:Cotonou, Benin
Nationality:Beninese

Paulin Jidenu Hountondji (11 April 1942 – 2 February 2024) was a Beninese philosopher, politician and academic considered one of the most important figures in the history of African philosophy.[1] From the 1970s onwards, he taught at the Université Nationale du Bénin in Cotonou, where he was Professor of Philosophy. In the early 1990s he briefly served as Minister of Education and Minister for Culture and Communications in the Government of Benin.

Education and career

Paulin J. Hountondji was educated at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, graduating in 1966, and taking his doctorate in 1970 (his thesis was on Edmund Husserl). After two years teaching in Besançon (France), Kinshasa and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of the Congo), he accepted a post at the Université Nationale du Bénin in Cotonou, where he long taught as Professor of Philosophy.

His academic career was interrupted, however, by a period spent in politics. Having been a prominent critic of the military dictatorship that had ruled his country, Hountondji became involved in Benin's return to democracy (in 1992), and served in the government as Minister of Education and Minister for Culture and Communications until his resignation and return to the University in 1994.

Hountondji was until his death director of the African Centre for Advanced Studies in Porto-Novo, Benin, and served as the Bingham Professor of Humanities from 1 August 2008 to 31 December 2008 at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.[2]

In 1999, Hountondji was honoured with a Prince Claus Award from the Prince Claus Fund, an international culture and development organisation based in Amsterdam.

Philosophical work

Hountondji's philosophical influences include two of his teachers in Paris, Louis Althusser and Jacques Derrida. His reputation rests primarily on his critical work concerning the nature of African philosophy. His main target was the ethnophilosophy of writers such as Placide Tempels and Alexis Kagame. He argued that such an approach confuses the methods of anthropology with those of philosophy, producing "a hybrid discipline without a recognizable status in the world of theory" ([1997], p. 52). Part of the problem stems from the fact that ethnophilosophy is in large part a response to Western views of African thought; this polemical role works against its philosophical validity.

His approach widened somewhat in later work; he still rejected ethnophilosophy as a genuine philosophical discipline, but he had moved towards more of a synthesis of traditional African thought and rigorous philosophical method. He defended that thesis until his last days.[3]

Death

Hountondji died in Cotonou on 2 February 2024, at the age of 81.[4] [5]

Bibliography

Secondary literature

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Verharen on Hountondji, 'The Struggle for Meaning: Reflections on Philosophy, Culture, and Democracy in Africa' H-Africa H-Net . 20 March 2021 . networks.h-net.org.
  2. Web site: University of Louisville. Department of Philosophy . 21 September 2023 . louisville.edu . University of Louisville.
  3. Web site: 2024-02-07 . A final, joyful and philosophical encounter with Paulin Hountondji : Pr. Erwan Dianteill pays tribute to a great thinker . 2024-02-07 . NaGuEzÉ INFO .
  4. https://beninwebtv.com/benin-deces-du-professeur-paulin-hountondji/ Bénin: décès du professeur Paulin Hountondji
  5. Web site: Paulin Hountondji, Revolutionary African Philosopher, Dies at 81. 19 March 2024. Nossiter. Adam. The New York Times. 19 March 2024.
  6. Web site: Africa's 100 best books of the 20th Century . 21 September 2023 . ascleiden.nl . African Studies Centre Leiden . 3 March 2020.

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