A

Quest for An Integral Understanding of Being

Through Classical Yoruba Philosophy

Explorations of the Nature of Being

and of Beings
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

Philosophies Deployed Presented

in Terms of Explanatory Primacy

Classical Yoruba Philosophy

Iwa
Existence or Being

Iwa lEwa
[Inward] Being is Beauty

Mo Iwa Fun Oniwa
I Grant to the Existent
their Own [Unique]
Existence

Aiku Pari Iwa

Immortality is the
End, Conclusion or
Consummation of
Existence

Method
The Cultivation of
Oju Inu
The Inner Eye
in terms of
Oju Okan
The Inward Mind
Cognitive Continuum

Senses -Sight

Interpretive processing of
stimuli including-
imagination
ratiocination
intuition
extra-sensory
extra-physical and
mystical perception

The role or essence (iwa) of art in Yoruba culture is to create beauty by activating and making
sensible the noumenal solidarity of various facets and dimensions of the world, the individual, the
society, and the supernatural, which are and must be made to be seen/sensed/heard as tributaries of
the same big river-Olabiyi Babalola Yai

African, Western and Asian Philosophies on Exploring the Nature of Being through Sensate Cognition
Western
Classical Esotericism,
Indian Tantra,
Romantic
Igbo
Platonic
Heideggerean
particularly Aristotelian
particularly
Aesthetics Metaphysics
philosophy Dion
Metaphysics
Metaphysics
Yantra and
and
-John
and
and
Fortunes
Trika
Anenechuk Aesthetics, Epistemology
Epistemology Epistemology
Metaphysics,
wu Umeh Metaphysics
Kantian Metaphysics and Epistemology
Aesthetics and
and Demas and
Epistemology
Nwoko
Epistemology
Embodiment in Western thought-George Lakoff
and Mark Johnson
Embodiment in African Thought -John Drewal

Correlating Scientific, Western and Asian thought-Ornella Corazza