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Unary Complementarity Two Patron Saints of B 5310 Classical Philosophy 0486 2014 kr >hie Bosede Oluwole S o c ra te s O rU n m ila and l Two Patron Saints of Classical Philosophy Third Edition Sophie B. Oluwole All rights reserved. © 2017 Sophie B. Oluwolb No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN. 978-978-929-525-8 Crafted by Xcel Multimedia Xcel House. GRA Zone Ogba Ijaiye Housing Estate, Ogba, Lagos, Nigeria Ark Publishers Plot 533, WEMPCO Road,Lagos, Nigeria. 08035874876. 08033753630 lll> llll III III 245566990392 ------------DEDICATION------------ To all who prefer FACT to Fiction Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 101 PREFACE 105 INTRODUCTION 121 CHAPTER ONE Three Characterizations of Socrates 131 CHAPTERTWO Three Characterizations of Qrunmila 143 CHAPTERTHREE What They Said They Said 153 CHAPTER FOUR Some Existing Canons of Distinguishing Between Western and African Philosophy 183 CHAPTER FIVE Traditions of Philosophy as Conceptual Frameworks 1117 CHAPTER SIX Distinctive Intellectual Features of Western and African Philosophy 1131 POSTSCRIPT Binary Complementarity and the Search for a New World Social Order | 157 Socrates and Orunmila Two Patron Saints of Classical Philosophy BIBLIOGRAPHY 1189 APPENDIX 1 1207 APPENDIX II 1217 |221 APPENDIX III 1223 APPENDIX IV 1225 INDEX - vi - Acknowledgements The conventional view is that oral tradition is folk thouaht This means it is a common possession of members of the society in which it exists. The logic is that any use of its texts needs neither acknowledgment nor reference since there are no named authors. The case of the quotes in this book is however, different. Although neither Socrates nor Orunmil^ wrote anything, some views have been recorded in their names This is why the quoted verses are treated as evidence of their respective thought processes. My first acknowledgment is of the "bravest and noblest" Yoruha ancestors who ensured that their intellectual culture did not di by meticulously memorizing, from generation to generation the innumerable verses in Ifa literary corpus. Two years before I finished my Ph.D. programme at the University of Ibadan, I accidentally came across the book On- Odu MdrddndmlOgun by Professor Wande Abimbdla It was th verse on page two of the work that convinced me that Ifa literal corpus is a documentation of YorOba thought and classical philosophy. I, therefore, acknowledge Abimbdla as a mentn, who, inadvertently, initiated me into the study of Ifa I owe an inestimable debt to Abimbdla and all others who have transcribed and translated Ifa into the written form I can mention only a few: Rev. E.M. LijadO, Patriarch Olarinwa Epega, William Bascom, Feia Sdbanda, Fagbdnrd Bdyidkii, S. Pdpdoia -01 - Socrates and Orunmila Two Patron Saints of Classical Philosophy Soiagbade Otunba Sir Joshua Olumuyiwd AwOpdju, Faslna Faiad6. Ayd Salami, Chief Fas'ma Agbooia Dr. Abds6d6 Emanuel, Chief AwOr'inde Agbooia and Dr. Christoph Staewen. To the numerous individuals whose contributions to the production of this work cannot be quantified in monetary terms, I say a big Thank you’. The list includes such names as Dr. Joseph Akin Sdfoluwe of the Adebdia Adegunwa School of Communication, Lagos State University and Professor Heinz Kimmerle of the Institute of Intercultural Philosophy, Leiden, Netherlands. The contributions of my good friend, the late Dr. Addrdmi Emmanuel Babalola remain indelible in my mind It was he who. as a result of his deep knowledge of Greek, Latin French and English languages, took me through details of the fundamental difference between literal and conceptual translation. Ironically this was exactly the theme of my M A thesis: Transformational Grammar and Philosophical Analysis (1974). My former student, who later became my great teacher, friend and supplier of many rare books and unpublished works on Ifa , Mr. Dimdji Ajikdbi, of the Department of Linguistics, African and Asian Studies, University of Lagos, deserves my utmost appreciation, which he earned in different ways. His profound knowledge of Yorubd social history differs substantially from the records of most professional historians. A well-known, yet often neglected fact is that the enormous amount of research that goes into the writing of this type of book could not have been carried out by a single author. This work is a joint product of three people engaged in the identification of an authentic philosophy in African thought. It is in this sense that I confess and appreciate the immense contributions of two young members of staff of the Centre for African Culture and Development (CEFACAD). The first is Mr.TdlwO (Idris) Oldbpde. His load of biting criticisms, often made in feigned ignorance, is Socratic in style. They saved me from several linguistic, semantic and conceptual errors as -02- Acknowledgements well as professional idiosyncrasies that would have caused me considerable embarrassment. He worked hand in hand with Mr. Ahmed (Fatahi) Ajlbbyd to draw my attention to the inadequacies of some philosophical explanations and theories. Both of them joined my noble nephew, Mr. Akin U. Albba, in consistently drumming into my ears that it is unrealistic to produce a perfect work, which, they insisit, does not exist anywhere. The next acknowledgment goes to my niece, Mrs. OlbsGmbd Olddipp, who, despite her Christian convictions, carried out a critical, dispassionate, and intellectually demanding editing of the manuscript. Mr. Kazeem AdbrnPia Fdyeml, a budding philosopher, also did a fantastic job, identifying some conceptual and philosophical terms that need further clarification. Three other people read the final draft. They are Mr.Olcilbkan AdbwOsI, the publisher of Ivory Magazine; Rabbi Addblsl Tijdnl, a Christian theologian; and my daughter-in-law, Mrs. MbpblPlci Fdpohundb. Each of them identified errors which I did not believe were still there. I thank them all. I cannot adequately express my appreciation of the encouragement I have received from my academic colleagues before and after my retirement from the University of Lagos over one and a half decades ago. I want to thank, especially, Dr. Oldmuyiwd Asciolu, who made his Lingual Software Package available to me free of charge. And to my numerous friends in The Press, both local and international, I owe a big load of gratitude. Sophie Bdsede Oluwole. January, 2017 -03- Preface A study in comparative philosophy is based on two basic presuppositions. The first is a definition of philosophy, at least, as a working hypothesis. The second is the existence of the two philosophies being compared. Two books, almost entirely devoted to the conceptual analysis of the question “What is philosophy?" have appeared in publication within the last decade. The first is by Timothy Williamson, in 2007. It is titled: Philosophy of Philosophy. The author explains: The primary task of the philosophy of science is to understand science, not to give scientists advice. Likewise, the primary task of the philosophy of philosophy is to understand philosophy, not to give philosophers advice - although I have not rigorously abstained from the latter, (ix) He continues: I also rejected the word 'metaphilosophy.' The philosophy of philosophy is automatically part of philosophy, just as the philosophy of anything else is, whereas metaphilosophy sounds as though it might try to look down on philosophy from above, or beyond, (ix) ... And like the philosophy of science, it can only be done well by those with some respect for what they are studying, (ibid) Siren Overgaard, Paul Gilbert and Stephen Burwood, published An Introduction to Metaphilosophy, five years later, they, -0 5 -