Paulin Hountondji Critical of Metaphysics

Résumé 0

A great reader of both Kant and Hegel, Paulin Hountondji has led a critical interrogation of metaphysics and politics, notions that are closely interwoven in his philosophical work. This text endeavors to do justice to his essential contribution, namely the clarification of metaphysical questions where the future of Africa is at stake, notably democracy and the quest for material power. He achieves this by asserting the insoluble and indemonstrable nature of Africa’s social, political and metaphysical problems. The philosopher, for his part, defends a radical, open and rational way of thinking, deploring the retreat into a religious ideology synonymous with superstition, close-mindedness and, in short, the instrumentalization of God for totalitarian ends.