Hermeneutic Rationality and Heuristicity in African Philosophy

This article explores how Jean Kinyongo Jeki contributes to the development of an intrinsic heuristic dimension within African philosophy, viewed through the lens of hermeneutic rationality. Faced with the challenge of articulating a rigorous and methodologically grounded African philosophical discourse, Kinyongo undertakes a hermeneutic detour that ultimately becomes an epistemological necessity. This turn leads him to identify "elements of philosophical discursivity"—core components of the intelligible form of African philosophical discourse—and to assert that their articulation requires a hermeneutic paradigm. Hermeneutic rationality thus emerges as a driving force for the authentic realization of African philosophy, anchored in a "philosophy of philosophical elements" pursued through a "discursive pathway." Through his effort to philosophically translate the concept of discursivity, framed within a hermeneutic epistemology, Kinyongo succeeds in rendering African philosophical thought heuristic—expressive of its internal dynamics of meaning.