Western-biased criteria define what counts as philosophy worldwide

Evidence

There is yet another dimension to the history of philosophy in Africa – the virtual mountain of historical texts, still incompletely catalogued, that have been indiscriminately labelled African “oral literature” [what waThiongo prefers to call orature]. For it certainly is the case that academic philosophers were for long predisposed to turn up their noses at the suggestion that an anonymous corpus of writings that included myths, legends, poetry, song, and proverbs was truly worthy of the title “philosophy.” … One thing upon which Africana scholars [referring to Africa and the Diaspora] and intellectuals largely agree is that the criteria used to define what is and what is not philosophy in the world today are unfairly biased by and for “philosophy” as presently construed by Western culture. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 380

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to wider discourse on epistemic decolonization and canon formation in philosophy.