Asouzu’s Ibuanyidanda Ontology and Heidegger’s Ontology of “Dasein-with-Others”

Abstract

This paper examines Asouzu’s ibuanyidanda ontology and Heidegger’s ontology of Dasein-with-Others, with a view to showing how convergence and divergence of thought in the Asouzuan and Heideggerian philosophies can inform transcultural philosophizing. Asouzu’s ibuanyidanda ontology conceptualizes reality from the perspective of missing links, mutual interdependency, and complementarity, while Heidegger’s Dasein-with-Others constructs an ontology of mutual and interdependent existence as he interprets our Being-in-the-world as already a Being-together-with Others. The paper highlights the dynamics of Asouzu’s ibuanyidanda ontology and articulates the basic principles of Heidegger’s ontology of Dasein-with-Others in a fruitful encounter between the Igbo tradition of thought to which Asouzu belongs and the German tradition of thought to which Heidegger belongs. These two traditions will be critically examined to show their implications for transcultural philosophy.