Theoretical Underpinnings of Wiredu’s Empiricalism

Abstract Wiredu uses the term ‘empiricalism’ to characterise a mode of thinking that is essentially empirical in orientation but admits non-transcendental metaphysical categories and existents into its systems of thought. Wiredu finds evidence of this mode of thinking in the Akan language, characterising the main linguistic community in Ghana, West Africa. The central question addressed in this essay is this: is empiricalism a plausible system in the sense that it carries universal validity and intelligibility? I argue that the plausibility and universality of empiricalism is evident in Wiredu’s logical syntactic and semantic principles which he recruits to investigate the contrast between basic categories of discursive thought such as signification and reference, concept and object, and the notion of ‘existence’. These analyses underpin the central theses of his empiricalism. Such detailed investigations demonstrate that the attractiveness of empiricalism is dependent upon theoretical principles other than, and in addition to, the linguistic evidence that Akan everyday usage provides. Thus the essay demonstrates a basic contrast between Wiredu’s philosophical investigation of language versus many standard works of African philosophy that constitute essentially in-depth studies in sociolinguistics.