ABSTRACT
The central subject matter of this essay which is causality, that is, the relationship between the cause and effect of things, has been discussed, although not exhaustively, from both the Western and African perspectives. The scope of this work examines causality in Akan culture as portrayed by Kwame Gyekye. This work which is divided into four chapters addressed different issues pertaining to the idea of causality in each of the chapters.
The general notion of causality with particular reference to the western idea or conception of causality, Prominent philosophers who represent different epochs were discussed, given that their works on causality cannot be overlooked while discussing the notion of causality in the domain of philosophy. The western notion of causality argues that, for something to be called the cause or effect of another, there must be a constant relation between them, they must be spatially contiguous, they must be temporally related, they must have an asymmetrical relation and until the time of David Hume, must be necessarily connected. Also examined in this chapter, is David Hume who being a staunch empiricist, jettisoned the idea of necessary connection in the cause and effect of things.
The study concerned itself basically with espousing the notion of causality in Africa. Here, Africans reject causality by chance and this suggests that the concept of chance has no place in traditional African ontology. For the average African, every event in nature has a cause or a tentative cause. The fact that an event is not explicable at the first instance does not mean it is without a cause, it only means that its cause is yet to be known. One distinguishing factor between the western and African notions of causality is that unlike the westerners, Africans do not just speak of mechanical, chemical and psychological interactions between causes and effects, they rather speak of a metaphysical aspect of causality. Thus, for Godwin Sogolo whose view was examined in the course of this chapter, every event in nature has a cause, even though the cause could either be through natural or supernatural means. Nothing happens by chance in nature.
