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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A new analysis of Mbiti's 'The concept of time'
Author:Kalumba, Kibujjo M.
Year:2005
Periodical:Philosophia Africana: Analysis of Philosophy and Issues in Africa and the Black Diaspora
Volume:8
Issue:1
Pages:11-19
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:philosophy
time
Abstract:In the third chapter of his 'African religions and philosophy' - entitled 'The concept of time - John S. Mbiti (1990, [1969]) argues that the Western three-dimensional view of time comprising an indefinite past, a present and an infinite future is alien to traditional Africans. To the latter, Mbiti attributes a two-dimensional view. Parker English and the author of the present paper developed critical/analytical reflections on this claim (1996), but further reflection on Mbiti's essay has convinced the present author that his and English's reactions on it are flawed in some ways. In the present essay, the author reconstructs Mbiti's argument for the two-dimensional view of actual time and articulates five of Mbiti's major theses that are not involved in the derivation of the two-dimensional view of actual time, showing how they are grounded on either the ontological thesis or the two-dimensional view of actual time. He also relates some of these theses to one another. Furthermore, he not only spells out the distinction between actual time and potential time, he also underscores a major implication of the distinction. Notes, ref. (See also: Philosophia Africana, vol. 9, no. 1 (2006), p. 53-56 and vol. 11, no. 2 (2008), p. 171-175 for a reaction by English and a rejoinder by Kalumba.) [ASC Leiden abstract]
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