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(2019) Paulin Hountondji, Dordrecht, Springer.

Debating the universal as an unfinished project and regulative ideal

Franziska Dübgen , Stefan Skupien

pp. 147-159

Hountondji calls for a transcultural debate on universal norms as opposed both to moral relativism and to Western monolingualism in the discussion on global values. This chapter reconstructs his early critique of African particularism in the context of his engagement with ethnophilosophy and connects this to his later pledge for the universal scope of a transculturally oriented philosophy. Following on from this, we bring Hountondji's position into dialogue with other theoretical positions on particularism and universalism within contemporary African philosophy. An excursus to the idea of human rights serves an example to illustrate this debate. As a final step, this chapter discusses the implications of a critical universalism for normative theorising in general.

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-01995-2_8

Full citation:

Dübgen, F. , Skupien, S. (2019). Debating the universal as an unfinished project and regulative ideal, in Paulin Hountondji, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 147-159.

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