Uchenna Okeja: Conceptual creativity

HUMA African Epistemologies Advanced Seminar Series

Speaker: Uchenna Okeja (Rhodes University, South Africa)

Introduction: As individuals and societies develop, their conceptual outlooks expand and sometimes undergo radical changes. Kwasi Wiredu proposed the notion of conceptual decolonization as a response to “historical ruptures in African experience”. He argued that conceptual decolonization is a precondition of doing “good African philosophy”. In this talk, I consider the implications of this response to the experience of “historical ruptures”. I argue that everyday experience and the movement of history suggest that conceptual creativity is a better designation of the viable philosophical response to the experience of “historical rupture”. 

About the speaker: Uchenna Okeja is a professor of philosophy at Rhodes University, South Africa. His research interests are in moral and political philosophy. His book Deliberative Agency was published in March 2022 by Indiana University Press.