Near Fine; see scans and description. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970. Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization, by Kwame Nkrumah. ISBN 0853451362. Octavo, printed perfect-bound wraps, 122 pp. Near Fine, with no salient flaws whatsoever; some light cover rubbing and touch edgewear. Sharp, handsome. Nkrumah's effort to translate parts of traditional European socialist philosophy into terms relevant to circumstances in Africa at the time. LT18
In the Theory of Philosophical Consciencism, Professor Dompere establishes how Nkrumah used the theory of categorical conversion housing the necessary conditions of transformation to design strategies for creating the sufficient conditions for socio-political transformations. The theory of Philosophical Consciencism is about the institutionally destruction-creation process for socio-political transformation. The theory shows the scientific contributions of Nkrumah's thinking to the solution of the transformation problem in science and its application to social systemicity, where Nkrumah's analytical weapons were drawn from African conceptual system. The theory is developed as logico-mathematical foundations that guide the internal management of the command-control decision-choice systems for creative destruction of socio-political varieties in transformations through the development of qualitative mathematics making possible the construct of qualitative equations of motion for connecting varieties in qualitative transfers. The qualitative equations of motion through the Philosophical Consciencism constitute the sufficient conditions for transformations. The theory links rationality, intentionality, experiential information structure, defective-deceptive information structures in the control-dynamic games of power and dominance by the duals and poles under the principle of opposites with relational continua and unity relative to decision-choice systems that induce negation-negation transformations, where paths are established by the history of success-failure outcomes in the socially control-dynamic zero-sum games between the duals in any duality and between the poles of any actual-potential polarity. The main premise of the monograph is that there exists a set of sufficient conditions in support of the necessary conditions for internal transformation of socio-natural varieties. The theory is useful in understanding developmental processes and multi-polar-power zero-sum games for global dominance. The necessary conditions constitute the natural necessity that constrains cognitive freedom. The sufficient conditions constitute cognitive freedom that must overcome the necessity in socio-natural systems dynamics. Had this conceptual system been familiar to African leaders, the African transformation from colonialism to complete emancipation, rather than neocolonialism, would have been increasingly successful. This holds for those seeking triumph over injustices, oppression, imperialism and social change in all systems.
Kwame Nkrumah is globally recognized as a foremost pan-Africanist strategist and statesman. He is less widely acknowledged as a philosopher, in spite of his considerable philosophical training, seminal contribution to African political theory, and incisive critique of the ethics of international relations. Consciencism has the distinctive status of being the only published book that Nkrumah consciously meant to be a work of his philosophy, yet it has failed to attract the focused attention of philosophers. The chapters in Disentangling Consciencism: Essays on Kwame Nkrumah’s Philosophy critically explore the metaphysical, ethical and political thought expressed in Consciencism. In doing so, they broaden our understanding of his philosophical ideas and their relevance for effective African contribution to thought in a contemporary world in which Africa increasingly totters on the margins of international affairs. In much of current moral and political thinking, there is a tendency to universalize liberal values and neglect non-Western philosophical perspectives. At the same time, global normative thinking is overwhelmingly applied in non-Western contexts. Writing from across three continents, the contributors to this volume establish greater intellectual connection among African, Asian and Western academics, and their chapters offer explicit perspectives on the value of Nkrumah’s philosophy, and on the conceptual basis of early post-colonial public policy options in Africa. A valuable appendix provides the text of speeches delivered at the 1964 launch of Consciencism. With insights into numerous dimensions of Nkrumah’s philosophy, this volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars of philosophy—especially of non-Western metaphysical, moral and political thought—and to anyone working in the history of African political theory.
This, the first book-length study devoted exclusively to Marx’s perspectives on gender and the family, offers a fresh look at this topic in light of twenty-first century concerns.
Increased flows of people, capital, and ideas across geographic borders raise urgent challenges to the existing terms and practices of politics. Comparative political theory seeks to devise new intellectual frames for addressing these challenges by questioning the canonical (that is, Euro-American) categories that have historically shaped inquiry in political theory and other disciplines. It does this byanalyzing normative claims, discursive structures, and formations of power in and from all parts of the world. By looking to alternative bodies of thought and experience, as well as the terms we might use to critically examine them, comparative political theory encourages self-reflexivity about the premises of normative ideas and articulates new possibilities for political theory and practice. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory provides an entry point into this burgeoning field by both synthesizing and challenging the terms which motivate it. Over the course of five thematic sections and thirty-three chapters, this volume surveys the field and archives of comparative political theory, bringing the many approaches to the field into conversation for the first time. Sections address geographic location as a subject of political theorizing; how the past becomes a key site for staking political claims; the politics of translation and appropriation; the justification of political authority; and questions of disciplinary commitment and rules of knowledge. Ultimately, the handbook demonstrates how mainstream political theory can and must be enriched through attention to genuinely global, rather than parochially Euro-American, contributions to political thinking.
