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as Hallen argues, its certainty). Crucially, not only a statement, but moreimportantly a person has 06t6, and it is this feature of Yo rub a thought thatlinks epistemology and moral philosophy.

Once he has established the importance of epistemology, Hallen turns to

the nature of the self. In 'Me, Myself, and My Destiny', he argues that theway in which one is aware ofthe self - both one's own self and the selves ofothers - is crucial to the moral world. The Yoruba have a complex sense ofpersonal destiny as both chosen and as pre-conscious guide through life.According to Hallen, the Yoruba recognize the tension between destiny'sdeterminism and freedom to choose (or mis-choose) a path. Hallen, however,argues against the implication that a private or inner self exists. Indeed,Yoruba thought approaches Western behaviouristic empiricism, inasmuchas empirical evidence - and not a product of a private inner self - estab

lishes character (GBB 41m.Mter surveying Yoruba epistemology and its theory of the person, Hallendeals with axiological matters. In the fourth chapter, 'The Good and the Bad',Hallen argues that the issue for the Yoruba is no t so much the nature of thegood, but the nature (and identifying characteristics) ofthe good person. Hedoes not ignore the place of the supernatural in al l this, but rather relatesthe supernatural to the reason and interpretive skill ofthe onisegiin. Knowing good and bad requires that the Yoruba operate within an intricate moralstructure and know how to properly 'read' people. 'The Beautiful', Hallen's

examination of Yo ru b a art, builds on this interpretive ability by arguing fora close relationship between aesthetic and moral value. I t is no t that thebeautiful is necessarily good, but that the good is what is truly beautiful.

Approaches like Hallen's have been criticized within Mrican philosophy.Detractors point ou t that investigating commonly-held beliefs is not the sameas investigating philosophy, since a philosophy is held by an individual, heldcritically, and has a textual basis - an approach derided as 'ethnophilosophy'. Others, less familiar with Mrican philosophy, resist the idea thatanything truly philosophical can be linked to a particular origin. I f forinstance

theYoruba have nothing to

sa yto the

body ofliterature

thatWestern philosophers have developed on ' truth', then Yoruba philosophy ismerely ethnography, interesting to anthropologists but not to philosophers.

I t is important to distinguish the legitimate grounds of critique of Hallen'sproject from illegitimate ones. Strictly speaking, Hallen is not doing ethnophilosophy. His task is to translate into terms accessible to Western scholarsa system that has critical (if not textual) elements, not to either establish theexistence of an indigenous system of thought to a sceptical audience or toromanticize a Weltanschauung. He does not argue that a philosophy existsbut presumes it does, and sets out to open its corridors and closets tonon-Yoruba, both Mricans and non-Mricans. He might be criticized on thegrounds that he treats the fifteen onisegiin as one voice, but not on thegrounds that he is doing ethnophilosophy.

To Hallen's credit, he recognizes that philosophy is not diminished byacknowledging its contingent origins. He recognizes that elaborating the

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ceiving of the interactions between organism and environment 'not

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intricacies of a particular philosophy both enriches the wider philosophicalconversation and effectively addresses the attitude, still far too prevalent,that African thought is by definition inferior or derivative. Those whostrongly believe that philosophy and ethnography are mutually exclusive willno t likely be convinced by this book; for others, however, Hallen arguespersuasively that philosophy comes from specific places, and that Yorubaphilosophy is cogent and coherent.

Bruce B. JanzAugustana University College

John C. HauglandHaving Thought: Essays in the Metaphysics ofMindCambridge, MA: Harvard University Press1999. Pp. 390.US$32.50 (cloth: ISBN 0-674-38233-1);US$18.95 (paper: ISBN 0-674-00415-9),

The star attraction in this collection of essays is the celebrated 'The Intentionality All-Stars', an All-Star Team for the intentionality league, featuring

Richard Rorty and Jacques Derrida in left field, defending the positionthat intentionality can 'slip quietly into the social-history curriculum,

alongside transubstantiation, noumenal selves, and the divine right ofkings'. John Searle in right field, maintaining that there really are mental

brain states possessed of 'some mysterious causal property whichbiochemists are going to have to unravel'.

'Finally, way out on the warning track in center field, B.F. Skinner isup against the wall defending the view that science can explain behavior without reference to intentionality.'

At first base, just infield from Searle, are right-wing phenomenologists

such as Jerry Fodor, Hartry Field, and Zenon Pylyshyn, who hold thatoriginal intentionality is the province exclusively of contentful internal(mental) states.

At second base, just infield from Skinner, are the neo-behaviouristssuch as Quine, Daniel Dennett, an d Robert Stalnaker, who, 'unlikepaleo-behaviourists, take intentional ascription very seriously,' con