A recent essay by Fasil Merawi about Ethiopian philosophy set me to thinking (and to ordering a copy of the Hatatas). According to Merawi, there are two opposing philosophical camps in Ethiopia:
The universalist camp charges the Africanists with blurring the distinction between the study of culture and the study of philosophy by trying to reduce philosophy into an ethnophilosophy (that is, the body of beliefs of a particular culture, usually indigenous, which is regarded as the expression of the collected beliefs of all the members of a given community and can be applied to the present moment without any change). In response, the Africanists see the universalists as worshipping the Eurocentric metaphysical structure and thereby losing sight of what it means to practise philosophy from a specifically African, Ethiopian and intercultural vantage point.
The universalists seek insights that apply to all people and the "groupists" seek insights that apply to some people. However, both camps are missing a third alternative: the personalist seeks insights that apply to one person, i.e., the self.
Naturally, there is something universal about the quest for self-knowledge, since it figures prominently in most philosophical traditions (Greek, Chinese, Indian, etc.). And, because every person can be seen as a member of many groups (ethnic, national, generational, professional, etc.), understanding those group identities — and understand the identities of other people, too — is a significant aspect of knowing oneself. Yet ultimately it is you as an individual who must sift through universal and group insights in order to (as Plato put it in the Laches) formulate an account of your own life. The unit of greatness in philosophy is a life.
A great essay and a great aphorism: “ The unit of greatness in philosophy is a life.” Keep developing this idea.