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Paulin Hountondji and the Science Question in Africa

2025· book· en· 0 citations· W6986356256 on OpenAlex

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stratum: fund_new · design weight: 1678.90 (the sample is stratified; any rate computed without the weight is wrong)
Claude Opus 4.8T2
genre: conceptual
about Canada: no
confidence: medium

Philosophy/STS book reconstructing Hountondji's account of modern science in Africa, its entanglement with colonialism and the social organization of scientific knowledge; science as a social system is the object.

GPT-5.6 (high)T2
genre: conceptual
about Canada: no
confidence: high

The book examines modern science as a social and historical system in relation to colonialism.

Grok 4.5T2
genre: conceptual
about Canada: no
confidence: high

Philosophy/STS reconstruction of Hountondji on modern science, colonialism, and science in Africa.

Abstract

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.

Stored with the screening record, where it is evidence for the labels above.

The record

Venue
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
Topic
African cultural and philosophical studies
Field
Social Sciences
Canadian institutions
Funders
Mario Einaudi Center for International StudiesYork University
Keywords
MaterialismRelativismPhilosophy of scienceScience studiesColonialismHistory of science
Has abstract in OpenAlex
yes