Knowledge, Belief and Justification of the African Conception of Reincarnation

Abstract

The study examines the epistemic justification of reincarnation in African Philosophy. It is also an attempt to investigate the problem of reincarnation and the belief in the ancestral world. It deploys the critical tool of epistemic justification to determine the conditions that render the African conception of reincarnation defensible. Epistemic justification is a philosophical theory aimed at investigating the extent to which a person’s beliefs are knowledge-based and therefore worth holding. The paper defends the thesis that African idea of reincarnation is justifiable and that belief in reincarnation can coexist with the belief in the ancestral world without contradiction. Humans are reborn and come back into this world several times until they have sufficiently paid for all their past misdeeds and purified themselves, before their souls are released to go to the ancestral world. A person’s destiny is never fulfilled in the first trip; hence a rebirth or reincarnation takes place to give the individual a succeeding chance or chances to fulfill his or her original destiny.