Ada Agada received his doctor of philosophy degree in philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is the major proponent of consolationism in African philosophy and has worked over the years to ground consolationism in traditional and contemporary African forms of thought, notably ethno-philosophy, complementarism, and Ezumezu logic. His provocative and groundbreaking work Existence and Consolation: Reinventing Ontology, Gnosis and Values in African Philosophy was named an Outstanding Academic Title (OAT) winner in 2015 by Choice/American Association of College and Research Libraries in recognition of its originality, excellence, and academic merit. Dr Agada’s articles have appeared in reputable national and international journals. He has published book chapters in notable publications released by reputable international publishers. Dr Agada is the beneficiary of fellowship awards from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study. He is currently a guest-researcher at the Forum Scientiarum, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, where he is working on a book and a series of articles that seek to more clearly locate consolation philosophy in African and intercultural philosophy. He specialises in African philosophy, metaphysics, existentialism, and the philosophy of religion.

 

ORCID ID

0000-0002-3616-3608.

Google Scholar and Academia.edu Links

http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=84_i-00AAAAJ&hl=en.

https://unical-ng.academia.edu/AdaAgada.

 

Publications

Books/Monographs

Existence and Consolation: Reinventing Ontology, Gnosis and Values in African Philosophy (St Paul, Minnesota: Paragon House, 2015). 368 pages.

Journal Articles

  1. “Rethinking the Metaphysical Questions of Mind, Matter, Freedom, Determinism, Purpose, and the Mind-Body Problem within the Panpsychist Framework of Consolationism.” South African Journal of Philosophy. Vol. 38, No. 1 (2019): 1-16. doi: 10.1080/02580136.2018.1560589.
  2. “Kant and the Classical Metaphysical Proofs of God’s Existence: How the Proofs can Play a Regulative Function in the Sphere of Pure/Speculative Reason.” Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development 2, No. 2 (2019): 88-106.
  3. “Language, Thought and Interpersonal Communication: A Cross-cultural Conversation on the Question of Individuality and Community.” Special edition of Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions on the theme Individual and Community in Post-colonial Africa: Gyekye vs Menkiti, edited by Michael Onyebuchi Eze. Vol. 7, No. 2 (2018): 141-162. doi: 10.4314/ft.v7i2.9.
  4. “Democratic Culture and Respect for Human Rights as Catalysts for Nation-Building: The Nigerian Predicament.” (Co-authored with Akogwu Agada). Kaduna Journal of Humanities. Vol. 2, No. 3 (2018): 1-17.
  5. “The Apparent Conflict of Transcendentalism and Immanentism in Kwame Gyekye and Kwasi Wiredu’s Interpretation of the Akan Concept of God.” Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religion. Vol. 6, No. 1 (2017): 23-38. doi: 10.4314/ft.v6i1.2.
  6. “The Limited Universality of Senghor’s Epistemology.” Ogbon: A Journal of Philosophy. Vol. 1, No. 1 (2017): 11–24.
  7. “African Philosophy and the Challenge of Innovative Thinking.” Thought and Practice: A Journal of the Philosophical Association of Kenya. Vol. 5, No. 1 (2013): 41-67.
  8. “Is African Philosophy Progressing?” Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religion. Vol. 2, No. 1 (2013): 239-273.
  9. “Sartre’s Phenomenologico-Existentialist Solution to the Problem of the Existence of the Other.” International Journal of Philosophy and Religion. 3, No. 1 (2011): 57-64.

Book Chapters

  1. “Catalyzing Climate Change Action in Nigeria: Moderate Anthropocentrism and the African Perspective of the Cosmos,” in African Philosophy and Environmental Conservation, ed. J.O. Chimakonam, 177-195 (London and New York: Routledge, 2018).
  2. “Consolationism: A Postmodern Exposition,” in Ka Osi Sọ Onye: African Philosophy in the Postmodern Era, edited by J.O. Chimakonam and Edwin Etieyibo, 231-252 (Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press, 2018).
  3. “The Future Question in African Philosophy,” in Atuolu Omalu: Some Unanswered Questions in Contemporary African Philosophy, ed. Jonathan O. Chimakonam, 241-267. (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2015).
  4. “The Afro-communitarian Framework for Tackling Financial Corruption in Nigeria,” in Combating the Menace of Corruption in Nigeria: A Multi-disciplinary Conversation, ed. Akogwu Agada, 286-305. (Awka, Nigeria: Black Towers, 2019).

Conversational Philosophy Research Theme

My broader philosophical project seeks to bring African, Western, and Asian philosophies into a fruitful conversation in the context of intercultural and comparative philosophy. I am working to demonstrate how conversational thinking demarcates continuities and discontinuities within the African philosophical tradition and how it highlights the necessity of system-building in a philosophical tradition that holds out enormous promise for world philosophy in the 21st century.