About

Dr. Richmond Kwesi is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Classics, and the Head of the Office of University of Ghana Related Courses (UGRCs) and the University of Ghana. He obtained his PhD in 2017 from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests are in analytic philosophy, the philosophy of language, and traditional African philosophical thought. His publications in philosophy of language are on metaphor, truth, and assertion; and in African philosophy he has published on consensual democracy, Kwasi Wiredu’s empiricalism and Kwame Nkrumah’s Consciencism. He was the recipient of the 2017 COH Provost’s Publication Awards (Early Career), and the Winner of the Kwasi Wiredu Essay Prize on African Epistemology and Metaphysics funded by the Carnegie Corporation at the University of Dar es Salaam in 2019. For his research on consensual democracy, he was awarded a 2-year Andrew Mellon Foundation grant (2018-2020) through the College of Humanities’ REHURE project. He was also awarded the Bechs-Africa Post-doctoral Fellowship which he held at the American University in Cairo, February-July 2020. In May 2023, he presented papers at Utrecht University through the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Program. He is currently working on conceptual engineering and has recently edited a Special Issue on African consensual democracy for the journal, The Philosophical Forum, published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Selected Awards

1. Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Program at Utrecht University, May 7-21, 2023
2. BECHS-Africa Fellowship held at the American University in Cairo, Feb – July 2020
3. Kwasi Wiredu Essay Prize on African Epistemology and Metaphysics, Oct 2019
4. A $20,000 Andrew Mellon Foundation Grant for a two-year Research Project on Consensual Democracy, 2018
5. College of Humanities Provost’s Publication Award Winner – Early Career, 2017
6. Young Scholar Prize. Awarded by Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy (SIFA), Sept 2015
7. Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETfund) Sponsorship for PhD Studies, 2013 – 2015
8. University of Cape Town International Scholarship, 2013 – 2015
9. University of Rochester Scholarship for a year research at Rochester, 2010 – 2011
10. University of Ghana Faculty of Arts Dean’s Thesis Grant, 2011

Education

1. PHD in Philosophy, University of Cape Town, South Africa
2. MPHIL in Philosophy, University of Ghana, Legon & University of Rochester, NY (Year II)
3. BA HONS in Linguistics and Philosophy University of Ghana, Legon & Brock University (Exchange)

Research Interest

My research interests are in African Philosophical Thought, Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Language,
Philosophy of Law, Logic and Critical Thinking

Publications

Selected Publications:
1. Kwesi, R. (2024). The Will to Consensus. Philosophical Forum, 55(2), 173-188. DOI: 10.1111/phil.12359
2. Kwesi, R. (2024). Africa in Search of Democracy: Contemporary Perspectives. Philosophical Forum, 55(2), 131-135. DOI: 10.1111/phil.12361
3. Kwesi, R. (2021). People and Power in an African Consensual Democracy. South African Journal of Philosophy, 40 (4), 362-383. DOI: 10.1080/02580136.2021.1996142
4. Kwesi, R. (2020). Theoretical Underpinnings of Wiredu’s Empiricalism. UTAFITI: Journal of African Perspectives 15, 333-347. DOI:10.1163/26836408-15020037
5. Kwesi, R. (2019). Semantic Meaning and Content: The Intractability of Metaphor. Studia Semiotyczne, 33(1), 105-134. DOI: 10.26333/sts.xxxiii1.07
6. Kwesi, R. (2019). Davidson’s Phenomenological Argument Against the Cognitive Claims of Metaphor. Axiomathes, 1-24. DOI: 10.1007/s10516-019-09461-y
7. Kwesi, R. (2019). An Inferential Articulation of Metaphorical Assertions. Italian Journal of Philosophy of Language - RIFL, 13(1), 116-132. DOI: 10.4396/09201905
8. Kwesi, R. (2019). William Abraham: Mind of Africa. Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 6 (1), 158-162.
9. Kwesi, R. (2018). Metaphor, Truth, and Representation. In Objects of Inquiry in Philosophy of Language and Linguistics, edited by Piotr Stalmaszczyk, 117–146. Berlin: Peter Lang.
10. Kwesi, R. (2018). Resemblance and Identity in Wallace Stevens’ Conception of Metaphor. In Wallace Stevens: Poetry, Philosophy, and Figurative Language, edited by Kacper Bartczak, and Jakub Macha, 113–137. Berlin: Peter Lang.
11. Ajei, M., & Kwesi, R. (2018). Consciencism, Ubuntu, and Justice. Nigerian Journal of Philosophy, 26, 61-90.
12. Kwesi, R. (2017). The Logic of Consciencism. In Disentangling Consciencism: Essays on Kwame Nkrumah's Philosophy, edited by Martin Ajei, 185–198. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.