Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics: Investigating the Nexus between Culture and African Philosophy

Abstract

This article attempts to uncover a foundational drive in Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and its importance in steeping the tension of the philosophical link of culture and African Philosophy. In his work Gadamer presents culture as the foundation of philosophy. Okere rising from the latter posits that hermeneutics is the mediator between culture and African philosophy. The polemical argument of the rationality of African philosophy though interwoven with skeptical epistemological assumptions which increasingly emphasizes in the ethno decade-long debate is aggregated in mediating stance of hermeneutics as adduced by Okere and other notable African scholars. This article shows that in his most popularity oriented epistemological work, Gadamer did not mute the obstacles that epistemic uncertainty poses to the quest for mere ethno dimension in the light of critical ratiocination in order to avoid acceptance of views without examination .This article pursues this mediating strategy not just for rhetorical but also for a substantive reason on the rational foundation of African Philosophy against the nauseating position that African philosophy is mere cultural beliefs.

Keywords: Hermeneutics, Culture and Mediation