Negotiating and Overturning the Othering of Indigenous Epistemologies

Main Article Content

Mbih Jerome Tosam

Abstract

This book persuasively shows that modern philosophical ways of knowing are not the only valid forms of knowledge that exist. Angela Roothaan argues for a critical reappraisal of indigenous ways of knowing and a need to overturn the politics of epistemology that sustain the modern system of knowledge with regard to its othering of indigenous outlooks of nature. According to Roothaan, this can be achieved by broadening our epistemological and moral vistas beyond the thin modern scientific view that circumscribes valid knowledge merely to the empirical aspects of reality. Such broadening will make an intercultural environmental dialogue possible.

Article Details

How to Cite
Tosam, M. J. (2020). Negotiating and Overturning the Othering of Indigenous Epistemologies. Journal of World Philosophies, 5(1), 282–286. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jwp/article/view/3616
Section
Book Reviews
Author Biography

Mbih Jerome Tosam, University of Bamenda

Mbih Jerome Tosam is senior lecturer and chair of philosophy at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon. He obtained his PhD in philosophy from the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon, in 2011. His research interests are in the areas of bioethics, environmental ethics, philosophy of medicine, and African philosophy. Some of his recent publications include: “The Moral Status of the Human Embryo: a Critique of Peter Singer’s Conception of the Potentiality of the Embryo,” International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 3, no. 2, (2015): 39-47; Philosophy in Culture: Perspectives from Western and African Culture, co-edited with Peter Takov (Mankon, Bamenda: Langaa 2016); and “Global Emerging Pathogens, Poverty, and Vulnerability: An Ethical Analysis” in ed. Godfrey B. Tangwa et al., Socio-cultural Dimensions of Emerging Infectious Diseases in Africa: An Indigenous Response to Deadly Epidemics (Springer, 2019).