Sophie Bosede Oluwole
1935-2018 · African Philosophy · Little-known
Sophie Oluwole was a Nigerian philosopher and the first woman in Nigeria awarded a doctorate in philosophy. She used it to argue that the Yoruba Ifa corpus, a body of divination poetry carried in memory rather than in writing, is philosophy on the same footing as Greece. Speech and memory carry knowledge as well as books do. Yoruba thought pairs opposites as partners, she held, each one needing the other.
Signature
The position Oluwole is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence
- Paradox
- Coincidentia Oppositorum
Positions on the 4 axes the sources answer
- Society
- leans Collectivism (20 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (70 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (80 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Conviction
- leans Uncertain (30 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
16 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Oluwole refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Henotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Wisdom / Virtue
What is the highest good? - Knowledge
- Tradition / Pure Reason
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Virtue / Relational
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Compatibilism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Authority
- Wisdom
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Paradox
- Coincidentia Oppositorum
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Reincarnation
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Innate Good / Socially Constructed
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Family / Ancestors
What is your primary bond and loyalty?