JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY

WAKHULUNYA WESONGA JUSTO

ABS221-0087/2019

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

ASSIGNMENT ONE

1.IDENTIFY 5 CONCEPTS OF THE EASTERN PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS AND ITS IMPLICATION TO

LIFE TODAY

EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

Eastern philosophical traditions, which sprang from the Middle East, India, and China, among
other places, have become increasingly influential in the west, challenging many of the
assumptions Western Philosophy.

Islamic Philosophy
Islamic philosophy refers to the philosophical traditions practiced in the primarily Islamic countries
of the Middle East and North Africa. Not all Islamic philosophy is derived from Islam, however. In
fact, the role of religion in society and philosophical inquiry is one of the questions often tackled,
while Islamic philosophy also often deals with issues not related to religion at all.

Islamic philosophy is the Eastern tradition most closely connected to Western philosophy due to a
shared Greek philosophical heritage. Muslim conquests put them into contact with cultures
influenced by Greek philosophy and the Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle were
translated into Arabic. Much of Islamic philosophy is in the school of Neoplatonism, which follows
Plato in arguing that this material world is a pale reflection of a perfect ideal world. Important
Neoplatonic Islamic philosophers include Al-Kindi. Al-Farabi, meanwhile, followed Aristotle in
arguing that the universe is eternal, which would seem to contradict Muslim belief that Allah created
the universe out of nothing.

Islamic philosophy also has a long tradition of mystical philosophy. These schools of thought, which
include Sufism, the most well-known Islamic mystical philosophy, developed new ways of
approaching philosophical questions that incorporated mystical elements. Generally speaking,
mystical philosophy advocates for going beyond the intellect, the normal realm of philosophy, and
incorporating sensual, emotional, and supernatural

Indian Philosophy
Indian philosophy is a general term for the philosophical schools of thought that developed on the
Indian subcontinent. Due to the subcontinent's ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity, it is no
surprise that the term incorporates a wide range of philosophical perspectives. The three most
notable are Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jain philosophy, each associated with a
major religion of the subcontinent.

Hindu philosophy is divided into two broad groups: orthodox and heterodox. Orthodox Hindu
philosophy take the Vedas, the oldest and most important sacred texts of Hinduism, as their starting
point and do not question their authority. Though orthodox schools vary, they are all founded on the
idea that the point of philosophy is to analyze and interpret the sacred texts, a philosophical
approach known as Scholasticism.

The heterodox schools of Hindu philosophy do not accept the Vedas as authoritative. Many of these
schools are materialist in nature, meaning they do not accept questions relating to the spirit or
supernatural as valid. Others are more explicitly atheistic, either ignoring or outright denying the
existence of the Hindu gods

Chinese philosophy
The thought of Chinese culture, from earliest times to the present. The keynote in
Chinese philosophy is humanism: man and his society have occupied, if not monopolized, the
attention of Chinese philosophers throughout the ages. Ethical and political discussions have
overshadowed any metaphysical speculation. It must quickly be added, however, that this
humanism does not imply any indifference to a supreme power or to Nature. Instead, the general
conclusion represented in Chinese philosophy is that of the unity of man and heaven. This spirit
of synthesis has characterized the entire history of Chinese philosophy.
2.IDENTIFY 5 CONCEPTS OF AFRICAN PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS AND ITS IMPLICATION TO LIFE
TODAY

AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY
Is the philosophical discourse produced by indigenous Africans and their descendants, including
African/Americans. African philosophers may be found in the various academic fields of philosophy,
such as metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy. One particular
subject that many African philosophers have written about is that on the Pre-modern

North Africa
In North Africa, arguably central to the development of the ancient Egyptian philosophical tradition
of Egypt and Sudan was the conception of "ma'at", which roughly translated refers to "justice",
"truth", or simply "that which is right". One of the earliest works of political philosophy was The
Maxims of Ptahhotep, which were taught to Egyptian schoolboys for centuries.

Ancient Egypt have several philosophical texts that have been treated by scholars in recent years. In
the 2018 podcast "Africana Philosophy", the philosophers Peter Adamson and Chike Jeffers devoted
the first eight episodes to Egyptian philosophy. The American Philosophical Association (APA) has
published a text on the classical text "The Immortality of Writers" ("Be A Writer"), ca. 1200 BCE. The
Blog of the APA article also covers “The Dispute Between a Man and His Ba” of 19th century BCE;
“The Teaching of Ani”, 13th century BCE, which gives advice to the ordinary man; “The Satire of the
Trades” by Khety; and the text of Amennakht (active in 1170–1140 BCE) from Deir El-Medina, whose
teaching states that “it is good to finish school, better than the smell of lotus blossoms in summer.”

Ancient Egyptian philosophers also made important contributions to Hellenistic

philosophy and Christian philosophy. According to Busiris by the ancient Greek
philosopher Isocrates, the senior of Plato, “all men agree the Egyptians are the healthiest and most
long of life among men; and then for the soul they introduced philosophy’s training…”

Isocrates declared that Greek writers traveled to Egypt to seek knowledge; one of
them Pythagoras of Samos who “was first to bring to the Greeks all philosophy.”

In the Hellenistic tradition, the influential philosophical school of Neoplatonism was founded by
the Egyptian philosopher Plotinus in the 3rd century CE.

West Africa
The most prominent of West Africa's pre-modern philosophical traditions has been identified as that
of the Yoruba philosophical tradition and the distinctive worldview that emerged from it over the
thousands of years of its development. Philosophical concepts such as Omoluabi were integral to
this system, and the totality of its elements are contained in what is known amongst the Yoruba as
the Itan. The cosmologies and philosophies of the Akan, Dogon, Serer and Dahomey were also
significant.
In pre-colonial Senegambia (modern Gambia and Senegal), the 17th-century philosopher Kocc Barma
Fall stood out as one of the renowned philosophers in Senegambian history. His proverbs are still
recited by Senegalese and Gambians alike, including in Senegambian popular culture - for example
in Ousmane Sembene's films such as Guelwaar Other notable philosophical thinkers include the
Gambian historian Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof, and the Malian ethnologist Amadou Hampâté Bâ.

Horn of Africa
In the Horn of Africa, there are a number of sources documenting the development of a
distinct Ethiopian philosophy from the first millennium onwards. Among the most notable examples
from this tradition emerge from the work of the 17th-century philosopher Zera Yacob, and that of
his disciple Walda Heywat. Yacob in his writings discusses religion, morality, and existence. He comes
to the belief that every person will believe their faith to be the right one and that all men are created
equal.

Southern Africa
In Southern Africa and Southeast Africa the development of a distinctive Bantu
philosophy addressing the nature of existence, the cosmos and humankind's relation to the world
following the Bantu migration has had the most significant impact on the philosophical
developments of the said regions, with the development of the philosophy of Ubuntu as one notable
example emerging from this worldview.

Central Africa
Many Central African philosophical traditions before the Bantu migration into southern Central
Africa have been identified as a uniting characteristic of many Nilotic and Sudanic peoples,
ultimately giving rise to the distinctive worldviews identified in the conceptions of time, the creation
of the world, human nature, and the proper relationship between mankind and nature prevalent
in Dinka mythology, Maasai mythology and similar traditions.

African Diaspora
Some pre-Modern African diasporic philosophical traditions have also been identified, mostly
produced by descendants of Africans in Europe and the Americas. One notable pre-modern diasporic
African philosopher was Anthony William Amo, who was taken as a slave from Awukenu in what is
now Ghana, and was brought up and educated in Europe where he gained doctorates in medicine
and philosophy, and subsequently became a professor of philosophy at the universities
of Halle and Jena in Germany.

Modern
Kenyan philosopher Henry Odera Oruka has distinguished what he calls four trends in modern
African philosophy: ethnophilosophy, philosophical sagacity, nationalistic–ideological philosophy,
and professional philosophy. In fact it would be more realistic to call them candidates for the
position of African philosophy, with the understanding that more than one of them might fit the bill.
(Oruka later added two additional categories: literary/artistic philosophy, such as the work of literary
figures such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Okot p'Bitek, and Taban Lo Liyong,
and hermeneutic philosophy, the analysis of African languages in order to find philosophical
content.) In the African diaspora, American philosopher Maulana Karenga has also been notable in
presenting varied definitions for understanding modern African philosophy, especially as it relates to
its earliest sources.

One notable contributor to professional philosophy is Achille Mbembe. He interacts with a multitude
of modern subjects, including thoughts on statehood, death, capital, racism, and colonialism. His
invokes attention to moral and political arguments through a tone of morality in his works.

Many recent pieces from Mbembe, including Critique of Black Reason, suggest that understanding
Europe as a force not at the center of the universe is a point from which philosophy and society
should view the world. Mbembe asserts that he positions himself in multiple worlds of existence at
one time. This method creates an empathetic point from which the world can be viewed

of freedom and what it means to be free or to experience wholeness. Philosophy in Africa has a rich
and varied history, some of which has been lost over time.