2 - Is There One Science, Western Science?

Abstract

All humans by nature desire to know and humans are distinguished from the rest of creation by the miracle of knowledge. If all cultures have developed their own forms of knowledge, the spectacular success of a certain form of knowledge, science, notably in the west, has frequently led to its being exclusively attributed to the west. Yet science remains only one of many forms of knowledge and the west only one of its producers. The success of the west has tended to marginalize other forms of knowledge and other contributions to knowledge and, thus to impoverish an otherwise potentially rich and complex world knowledge landscape. It has tended to inhibit or even prevent the development of a really universal, human-knowledge project. Its very success, due essentially to its sustained application to technology, has enabled the development of a false superiority over other forms of knowledge and a real power hegemony of the west over other peoples. The future of lasting peaceful co-existence in the world may depend, in part, on the emancipation of other knowledge modes and forms.

Conceptualising personhood, agency, and morality for African psychology

“…Epistemology describes “the cultural beingness, practices and existential experiences” (Baloyi, 2008, p. 5) of people within a given sociocultural context. People in most societies have the desire to know, and thus have some form of knowledge which is defined by its own cultural structuring and “according to the specificities of its own environment” (Okere, 2005, p. 25). Psychological knowledge has always been an embedded part of the African existential, cultural, and historical experiences.…”

The living-dead (ancestors) among the Igbo-African people: An interpretation of Catholic sainthood

“…Then in the anthropological sense, culture "signifies that totality of customs, techniques, and values that distinguish a social group, a tribe, a people, a nation". Okere (2005) gives an elaborate description of culture as that which is specifically human, and which starts from the natural but culminates in man's free activity and creation. He puts it thus: "culture in contradistinction from nature is that part of his milieu which man has himself created".…”

NGOs, Management and Development: Harnessing Counter-Hegemonic Possibilities

“…The third level of interpretation related to the 'lenses' I borrowed from different theories and perspectives to interpret my data, paying special attention to whether they were broadly oriented toward sustaining or questioning the status quo, and to their assumptions regarding western scientific universalism and its legitimacy in theorizing on behalf of the entire world (Mir, Mir, & Upadhyaya, 2003, p. 53;Okere, 2005;Prasad, 2003). Gramsci's political thought, especially his conceptions of hegemony, ideology and civil society, also played a key role.…”

“…I use 'first world', 'west' and 'north' mainly with reference to Europe and North America, yet all these terms are highly contested, so a caveat is needed. First, these terms do not necessarily refer to a geographical location and do not necessarily include the citizens of those countries (Okere, 2005). As Banerjee puts it, 'there are first worlds within third worlds and third worlds within first worlds ' (2003, p. 144): economic and political elites in former colonies can be easily placed ideologically and materially alongside northern elites, while simultaneously 'poor' or/and 'underdeveloped' communities are to be found everywhere, not least in the 'civilised West' (Sheppard & Nagar, 2004).…”