Paulin Hountondji

Paulin Hountondji studied at Paris Nanterre University and École Normale Supérieure. The recorded working language is French. Employment is recorded with Marie and Louis Pasteur University, University of Kinshasa and Université de Lubumbashi. Positions recorded include minister. Works named in the authority record are African Philosophy: Myth and Reality. Distinctions recorded are Prince Claus Award and ASA Best Book Prize.

• Name — Paulin Hountondji • Birth Name — Paulin Jidenu Hountondji • Born — 11 April 1942 • Birthplace — Abidjan, Colony of Côte d'Ivoire, French West Africa • Died — 2 February 2024 • Place of death — Cotonou, Benin

Paulin J. Hountondji was educated at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, graduating in 1966, and taking his doctorate in 1970 (his thesis was on Edmund Husserl). After two years teaching in Besançon (France), Kinshasa and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of the Congo), he accepted a post at the Université Nationale du Bénin in Cotonou, where he long taught as Professor of Philosophy. His academic career was interrupted, however, by a period spent in politics. Having been a prominent critic of the military dictatorship that had ruled his country, Hountondji became involved in Benin's return to democracy (in 1992), and served in the government as Minister of Education and Minister for Culture and Communications until his resignation and return to the University in 1994. Hountondji was until his death director of the African Centre for Advanced Studies in Porto-Novo, Benin, and served as the Bingham Professor of Humanities from 1 August 2008 to 31 December 2008 at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1999, Hountondji was honoured with a Prince Claus Award from the Prince Claus Fund, an international culture and development organisation based in Amsterdam.

Hountondji died in Cotonou on 2 February 2024, at the age of 81.

Paulin Hountondji is recorded as politician, philosopher, university teacher, writer and docent.

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