Therapeutic African Philosophy

By:  Pedro A. Tabensky (Rhodes)

Taking Masolo’s survey of African philosophy in his Self and Community in a Changing World as my starting point, I will argue that at times there are good non-epistemic reasons for holding falsehoods which trump standard epistemic reasons for holding true beliefs. My views take their lead from Nietzsche, who thinks that the value of true belief, knowledge or understanding is tied up with the roles these play in promoting the non-epistemic value of health (understood as flourishing), such that, if they posed a threat to health, they shouldn’t be pursued. Some general conclusions about the aims of philosophy and, more generally, intellectual work, will drawn from this discussion.