Zeyad el Nabolsy – författare

Can modernity be severed from its historical association with colonialism and racism?Zeyad El Nabolsy examines the writings of two nineteenth-century African philosophers, Rifa?a al-Tahtawi and James Africanus Beale Horton, to answer this question. El Nabolsy focuses on their reception of modern science as it developed in Europe from the early modern period onwards, as well as their understanding of progress in human history. El Nabolsy argues that, far from being mentally colonized, both Rifa?a al-Tahtawi and James Africanus Beale Horton had good reasons for believing in the universal validity of modern scientific knowledge and in the possibility of a truly universal philosophy of history centred on the belief in progress. The book shows that al-Tahtawi and Horton successfully severed philosophies of history centred on progress from their historical association with justifications of racism and colonialism.This book rejects exoticizing discourses on African philosophy in favour of a historical contextualist approach to the study of African philosophy. By integrating West and North African philosophy into our histories of modern philosophy, this study illuminates how African philosophy can contribute to discussions of key questions in philosophy of history, philosophy of science, and philosophy of

This book offers a systematic reconstruction of Paulin Hountondji’s contributions to the debate about the place of modern science on the African continent. The book shows that Hountondji develops an account of modern science that is sociologically sensitive to the entanglement between modern science and colonialism on the African continent without falling into epistemic relativism about the claims of modern science. It is argued that Hountondji’s views on modern science express a strong historical materialist influence, and that he develops a theory of science that draws both on the Hessen-Grossmann hypothesis and dependency theory. Thus, this book brings together two strands of historical materialist thought about science that have hitherto been isolated from one another. This book is of interest to scholars who specialize in African philosophy, history and philosophy of science, global philosophy, and African studies.