ESTONIAN ACADEMY
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TRAMES cover
TRAMES. A Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences
ISSN 1736-7514 (Electronic)
ISSN 1406-0922 (Print)
Impact Factor (2022): 0.2
A CRITIQUE OF CULTURAL UNIVERSALS AND PARTICULARS IN KWASI WIREDU’S PHILOSOPHY; pp. 259–276
PDF | DOI: 10.3176/tr.2011.3.03

Author
Ademola Kazeem Fayemi
Abstract

The paper is an attempt to revisit and examine the recondite issue of cultural universals and particulars, taking into consideration Wireduan philosophical account. The paper strengthens further the basic tenets of Kwasi Wiredu’s philosophical defense of the compatibility of cultural universals and particulars. Through critical exposition, the paper appraises some of the inconsistencies and contradictory notions implicit in Wiredu’s position on cultural universals and particulars. It discusses the relevance of the scholarship of Wiredu to an understanding of the dichotomy between universalism in philosophical discourse, and within African philosophy in particular. Beyond Wiredu’s submissions on biological identity, inter/intra cultural communication, epistemic and moral universals, and language as cultural universals, the paper, in its contribution to knowledge, extends the frontiers of this realm of universals by establishing the plausibility of ‘causality’ as another instance of a conceptual universal, transcending all cultural particularities.

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