Leadership and Epistemological Responsibility 175societal and global development needs to be identified and
accredited as necessary.- It further enables us to realize that it is this recovery of
indigenous knowledges, and the systems intricately woven
around them that will enable the move towards a critical but
resolute re-appropriation of the practical and cognitive heritage
of millions of people around the continent and elsewhere in the
world.
Not all discomforts can however, be easily erased. For instance: How
do we handle the ambiguous situation of Pavlov and his dog, when the
dog previously electrocuted without qualms in the name of “science”
and “progress” has come out of the cage, and is demanding a
discussion on the nature of science? But that is a question for each of us
to contemplate.
10.5 Facing the Public Policy and the Academic System
10.5.1 New Paradigms of Thought
In facing the public policy system, IKS brings to bear on discourse,
the interface between cognitive justice, democracy, epistemology and
sustainable human development. It questions the knowledge base
informing policy, the knowledge legitimation and accreditation culture
and procedures; the shortfalls in disciplinary arrangements in
universities in their responsiveness to diversity (including
cosmological); the issue of introducing legislation on intellectual
property in a context of cultural diversity on the one hand, and the forces
of globalization on the other; and the issue of human rights and identity
(i.e the right to “be”).