Kwasi Wiredu - Biography

Biography

Wiredu was born in Kumasi, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), in 1931, and attended Adisadel College from 1948 to 1952. It was during this period that he discovered philosophy, through Plato (which weaned him from his interest in Practical Psychology) and Bertrand Russell, and he gained a place at the University of Ghana, Legon. After graduating in 1958, he went to University College, Oxford to read for the B.Phil..

At Oxford Wiredu was taught by Gilbert Ryle (his thesis supervisor), Peter Strawson (his College tutor), and Stuart Hampshire (his special tutor), and wrote a thesis on "Knowledge, Truth, and Reason". Upon graduating in 1960 he was appointed to a teaching post at the University College of North Staffordshire (now the University of Keele), where he stayed for a year. He then returned to Ghana, where he accepted a post teaching philosophy for his old university. He remained at the University of Ghana for twenty-three years, during which time he became first Head of Department and then Professor. Since 1987 he holds a professorship at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Wiredu has held a number of visiting professorships:

• University of California, Los Angeles, California (1979–1980)
• University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1984)
• University of Richmond, Virginia (1985)
• Carleton College, Minnesota (1986)
• Duke University, North Carolina (1994–95; 1999–2001)

He was a member of the Committee of Directors of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies from 1983 to 1998. He has also been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1985) and the National Humanities Center, North Carolina (1986).

He is Vice-President of the Inter-African Council for Philosophy.