Consciousness, Selfhood, and the Afterlife in Yoruba Metaphysics: An Original Philosophical Reconstruction and Global Dialogue

This dissertation develops an original philosophical reconstruction of Yoruba metaphysics of consciousness, selfhood, and the afterlife, systematically engaging Yoruba oral philosophical traditions with global consciousness studies, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics of personal identity to establish Yoruba metaphysics as a philosophically rigorous contributor to the international philosophical conversation. Yoruba philosophical anthropology contains sophisticated accounts of the components of personhood, the nature of consciousness, and the metaphysics of death and ancestral existence that have been studied ethnographically but not subjected to rigorous philosophical reconstruction adequate for engagement with global philosophy of mind. A four-phase methodology is employed, combining systematic ethnophilosophical reconstruction of Yoruba metaphysical concepts through 85 interviews with Yoruba traditional philosophers, Ifa priests, and philosophy academics in Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, and Lagos States; philosophical analysis and systematisation using conceptual and analytic philosophical tools; critical dialogue with Western consciousness theories from Chalmers, Dennett, and Nagel; and constructive development of the original Yoruba Consciousness Model. The dissertation proposes the Yoruba Consciousness Model as an original contribution, specifying consciousness as irreducibly relational, constituted by the interaction of emi (spirit-breath), ori (personal essence), and communal recognition, and demonstrating its philosophical implications for debates on hard problem of consciousness, personal identity over time, and the metaphysics of post-mortem existence. Keywords: Yoruba metaphysics, consciousness, selfhood, philosophy of mind, African philosophy.