In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

45 Dani W Nabudere 4. Research, Method 4. Research, Method And Methodology And Methodology A. The building blocks The purpose of transcending academic disciplines is to advance the world of knowledge for human advancement through learning and action. Research is essential to this process for there can be no improvement in people’s lives unless knowledge is perpetually renewed with new experiences and applied to meet those new and old needs. But a fragmented researched-knowledge can only result in fragmented thought and knowledge as well as fragmented action. One of the principle achievements that came out of the hermeneutic discourse was the recognition that all knowledge is a product of culture and languages through which it is generated as a shared community human experience. An essential element of this development is that learning of such knowledge in the process of its production and use. It is only through learning and action that a person can become self-improved into what the Baganda call obugunjjufu or being ‘civilised’ or what the German romantics called Bildung. According to the Buganda culture, a person is self-cultivated when he is self-controlled and is able to act according to the philosophy of obuntu bulaamu or ubuntu in the South African context. Omuntu mulaamu is someone with character and one who listens and takes into account what others say. He is one who acts ‘correctly,’ according to the philosophy of obuntu bulaamu. He is not necessarily someone who is ‘learnt’ and ‘educated,’ but obugunjjufu means someone who is well behaved and well informed. The German concept Bildung carries somewhat similar connotations. Bildung originally referred to ‘culture.’ Herder defined it as ‘rising up to humanity through culture.’ It also came to mean developing one’s natural talents and capacities. Later philosophers used it in their philosophical discourse and moved the concept a way from culture to ‘educating and cultivating oneself.’ Humboldt referred to it as ‘something higher and more inward; a disposition of mind which, from the knowledge and the 46 Africa Institute of South Africa Afrikology and Transdisciplinarity: A restorative epistemology feeling of the total intellectual and moral endeavour, flows harmoniously into sensibility and character’. Gadamer observes that the concept by this time no longer meant ‘culture’ or developing one’s talents or capacities: ‘Rather, the rise of the world Bildung evokes the ancient mythical tradition according to which man carries in his soul the image of God, after whom it is fashioned, and which man must cultivate in himself’ [1975: 10-12]. With Hegel, Bildung had come to mean ‘rising to universality’ through intellectual development to human rationality as a whole- a universal intellectual being.’ Bildung also came to mean sacrificing particularity in favour of the universal in measure and proportion. This was associated with ‘theoretical Bildung.’ In terms of ‘practical Bildung,’ the concept came to mean to fulfil one’s profession wholly, in all its aspects. This was said to include overcoming the element in it that was alien to the particularity which is oneself, and making it wholly one’s own. Therefore giving oneself to universality and profession was at the same time seen as knowing how to limit oneself by making one’s profession wholly one’s concern, in which case it was no longer a limitation. In the Hegelian dialectical system of the historical spirit, Bildung meant that in order to reconcile with itself, the spirit must recognise itself in the other being. Hence practical Bildung meant keeping oneself open to what is other-to other, more universal points of view. It embraced a sense of proportion and distance in relation to itself, and hence it consisted in rising above itself to universality. This was a cultivated consciousness of a cultivated man, which is active in all directions and such a consciousness was regarded as surpassing all the natural sciences. It became a universal sense [Gadamer 1975: 17]. It is interesting to note that all these conversations took place within the hermeneutics discourse which is implied in the Kiganda understanding of obugujjufu. In the hermeneutic discourse, the issue was whether human sciences were adequately covered by a hermeneutic approach. The Italian Giambattisa Vico had raised the issue as to whether education could pursue the path of critical research, which touched on Aristotle’s practical and theoretical knowledge, and if so in what way? Vico had argued in opposition to Descartes’ scientific method that it was common sense (sensus communis) that was capable of capturing the sense that was...

Share