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661Humility and the African Ethic of UbuntuIn Mark Alfano, Michael Patrick Lynch & Alessandra Tanesini (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Humility, Routledge. pp. 257-267. 2021.This chapter explores prominent respects in which humility figures into ubuntu, the southern African (and specifically Nguni) term for humanness often used to capture moral philosophies and cultures indigenous to the sub-Saharan region. The chapter considers respects in which humility is prescribed by ubuntu, understood not just as a relational normative ethic, but also as a moral epistemology. Focusing specifically on philosophical ideas published in academic fora over the past 50 years or so, …Read more
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286Meaning and Medicine: An Underexplored Bioethical ValueEthik in der Medizin 33 (4): 439-453. 2021.In this article, part of a special issue on meaning in life and medical ethics, I argue that several issues encountered in a bioethical context are not adequately addressed only with values such as morality and welfare. I maintain, more specifically, that the value of what makes a life meaningful is essential to being able to provide conclusive judgements about which decisions to make. After briefly indicating how meaningfulness differs from rightness and happiness, I point out how it is plausib…Read more
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348A Relational Theory of Mental Illness: Lacking Identity and SolidaritySynthesis Philosophica 71 (1): 65-81. 2021.In this article I aim to make progress towards the philosophical goal of ascertaining what, if anything, all mental illnesses have in common, attempting to unify a large sub-set of them that have a relational or interpersonal dimension. One major claim is that, if we want a promising theory of mental illness, we must go beyond the dominant western accounts of mental illness/health, which focus on traits intrinsic to a person such as pain/pleasure, lethargy/liveliness, fragmentation/integration, …Read more
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1031African Reasons Why Artificial Intelligence Should Not Maximize UtilityIn Beatrice Dedaa Okyere-Manu (ed.), African Values, Ethics, and Technology: Questions, Issues, and Approaches, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 55-72. 2021.Insofar as artificial intelligence is to be used to guide automated systems in their interactions with humans, the dominant view is probably that it would be appropriate to programme them to maximize (expected) utility. According to utilitarianism, which is a characteristically western conception of moral reason, machines should be programmed to do whatever they could in a given circumstance to produce in the long run the highest net balance of what is good for human beings minus what is bad for…Read more
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379Comparing the Meaningfulness of Finite and Infinite Lives: Can We Reap What We Sow if We Are Immortal?Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 90 105-123. 2021.On the rise over the past 20 years has been ‘moderate supernaturalism’, the view that while a meaningful life is possible in a world without God or a soul, a much greater meaning would be possible only in a world with them. William Lane Craig can be read as providing an important argument for a version of this view, according to which only with God and a soul could our lives have an eternal, as opposed to temporally limited, significance, by virtue of our moral choices then making an ultimate di…Read more
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304An African Theory of Just Causes for WarIn Heleana Theixos (ed.), Comparative Just War Theory, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 131-155. 2020.In this chapter, I add to the new body of philosophical literature that addresses African approaches to just war by reflecting on some topics that have yet to be considered and by advancing different perspectives. My approach is two-fold. First, I spell out a foundational African ethic, according to which one must treat people’s capacity to relate communally with respect. Second, I derive principles from it to govern the use of force and violence, and compare and contrast their implications for …Read more
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3The Final Ends of Higher Education in the Light of an African Moral Theory (Repr.)Inqaba Magazine 2 41-46. 2020.Partial reprint of an article first appearing in the Journal of Philosophy of Education (2009).
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35An African Theory of Good Leadership (Repr.)International Journal of Ethical Leadership 7 41-56. 2020.Shortened version of an article first appearing in the African Journal of Business Ethics (2018).
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168Beyond Legislative Post-Secularism in the West: Custom and Constitution in an African ContextIn Uchenna Benedict Okeja (ed.), Postsecularism in a Global Context: New Perspectives on the Role of Religion in Postsecular Societies (tentative title), Routledge. pp. 41-63. 2020.Much of the debate about post-secularism has presumed a background of Western countries and the sort of statutory law that legislatures should make, and how they should make it, in the light of residents’ religious attitudes and practices. In this chapter I address a fresh context, namely, that of South Africa and the way that courts have interpreted, and should interpret, law in the face of African traditional religions. Specifically, I explicate the fact that, by South Africa's famously progre…Read more
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675Popper’s Politics and Law in the Light of African ValuesJus Cogens 2 185-204. 2020.Karl Popper is famous for favoring an open society, one in which the individual is treated as an end in himself and social arrangements are subjected to critical evaluation, which he defends largely by appeal to a Kantian ethic of respecting the dignity of rational beings. In this essay, I consider for the first time what the implications of a characteristically African ethic, instead prescribing respect for our capacity to relate communally, are for how the state should operate in an open socie…Read more
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343Must Land Reform Benefit the Victims of Colonialism?Philosophia Africana 19 (2): 122-137. 2020.Appealing to African values associated with ubuntu such as communion and reconciliation, elsewhere I have argued that they require compensating those who have been wronged in ways that are likely to improve their lives. In the context of land reform, I further contended that this principle probably entails not transferring unjustly acquired land en masse and immediately to dispossessed populations since doing so would foreseeably lead to such things as capital flight and food shortages, which wo…Read more
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241Community, Individuality, and Reciprocity in MenkitiIn Polycarp A. Ikuenobe & Edwin Etieyibo (eds.), Menkiti on Community and Becoming a Person, Lexington Books. pp. 131-145. 2020.For four decades Ifeanyi Menkiti has addressed the question of which sort of community constitutes personhood from a characteristically African perspective. In this chapter, I critically discuss the conceptions of how one acquires personhood through community that Menkiti has advanced, in search of the one that would most enable him to avoid prominent moral objections made to his views over the years. In particular, his account of personhood has been criticized for insufficiently accommodating i…Read more
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1289African Communitarianism and DifferenceIn Elvis Imafidon (ed.), Handbook of the African Philosophy of Difference, Springer. pp. 31-51. 2020.There has been the recurrent suspicion that community, harmony, cohesion, and similar relational goods as understood in the African ethical tradition threaten to occlude difference. Often, it has been Western defenders of liberty who have raised the concern that these characteristically sub-Saharan values fail to account adequately for individuality, although some contemporary African thinkers have expressed the same concern. In this chapter, I provide a certain understanding of the sub-Saharan …Read more
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584Relational Normative Economics: An African Approach to JusticeEthical Perspectives 27 (1): 35-68. 2020.Recent work by comparative philosophers, global ethicists, and cross-cultural value theorists indicates that, unlike most Western thinkers, those in many other parts of the globe, such as indigenous Africa, East Asia, and Latin America, tend to prize relationality. These relational values include enjoying a sense of togetherness, participating cooperatively, creating something new together, engaging in mutual aid, and being compassionate. Global economic practices and internationally influential…Read more
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28Must Land Reform Benefit the Victims of Colonialism? (repr.)In Erasmus Masitera (ed.), Philosophical Approaches to Land Reform in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 145-160. 2020.Reprint of an article that first appeared in the journal Philosophia Africana (2020).
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22Communication Strategies in the Context of Indigenous African and Chinese Values: How to Harmonize (Repr.)In Paul Tembe & Vusi Gumede (eds.), Africa-China Cross-cultural Communication, Africa World Press. pp. 35-53. 2020.Reprint of an article first appearing in Philosophia Africana (2020).
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20Ends and Means of Transitional Justice (Repr.)In Eric Palmer & Krushil Watene (eds.), Reconciliation, Transitional and Indigenous Justice, Routledge. pp. 27-36. 2020.Reprint of an article first appearing in the Journal of Global Ethics (2018).
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452How Philosophy Bears on Covid-19South African Journal of Science 116 (7/8): 1. 2020.A short reflection on respects in which philosophers are particularly, if not uniquely, well positioned to address certain ethical and epistemological controversies pertaining to the coronavirus.
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346Communication Strategies in the Light of Indigenous African and Chinese Values: How to HarmonizePhilosophia Africana 19 (2): 176-194. 2020.Many values originating in Africa and in China, and ones that continue to influence much of everyday communication in those societies, are aptly placed under the common heading of 'harmony'. After first spelling out what harmony involves in substantially Confucian China, and then in Africa, this article notes respects in which the Confucian and African conceptions of harmony are similar, an awareness of which could facilitate smooth communication. The article then indicates respects in which the…Read more
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Replacing Development: An Afro-Communal Approach to Global Justice (repr.)In Mahmoud Masaeli & Rico Sneller (eds.), The Return of Ethics and Spirituality in Global Development, Gompel & Svacina. pp. 187-210. 2020.Reprint of an article that initially appeared in Philosophical Papers (2017).
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19An African Theory of the Point of Higher Education: Communion as an Alternative to Autonomy, Truth, and Citizenship (repr.)In Amasa Ndofirepi & Ephraim Gwaravanda (eds.), African Higher Education in the 21st Century: Some Philosophical Dimensions, Sense Publishers. pp. 122-145. 2020.Reprint of a chapter that first appeared in Contemporary Philosophical Proposals for the University: Toward a Philosophy of Higher Education (Palgrave 2018).
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762African Theories of Meaning in Life: A Critical AssessmentSouth African Journal of Philosophy 39 (2): 113-126. 2020.In this article, I expound and assess two theories of meaning in life informed by the indigenous sub-Saharan African philosophical tradition. According to one principle, a life is more meaningful, the more it promotes community with other human persons. According to the other principle, a life is more meaningful, the more it promotes vitality in oneself and others. I argue that, at least upon some refinement, both of these African conceptions of meaning merit global consideration from philosophe…Read more
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194Distributive Justice as a Matter of Love: A Relational Approach to Liberty and PropertyIn Ingolf Dalferth (ed.), Love and Justice (Claremont Studies in Philosophy of Religion), . pp. 339-352. 2019.Usually a relational approach, such as one appealing to care or love, is contrasted with an account of justice. In this chapter, however, I argue that distributive justice is well conceived as itself a matter of honouring people in virtue of their capacity to love and to be loved. After spelling out a familiar conception of love, I explain how treating people with respect in light of this capacity provides a plausible basis for human rights, one that rivals influential individualist foundations …Read more
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112Meaning (Atheism)In Graham Oppy & Joseph W. Koterski (eds.), Theism and Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy, 1st Edition, Gale. pp. 507-521. 2019.A critical exploration of the position that God is necessary for meaning in life for mainly undergraduate and postgraduate readers, with some defence of the view that He is not.
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45人生は創造する価値がありますか?Gendai-Shiso 47 (14): 94-113. 2019.Translation of 'Are Lives Worth Creating?' into Japanese by Sho Yamaguchi. A critical discussion of Benatar's anti-natalism that originally appeared in Philosophical Papers (2011).
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409God, Soul and the Meaning of LifeCambridge University Press. 2019.Part of the Elements Philosophy of Religion series, this short book focuses on the spiritual dimensions of life’s meaning as they have been discussed in the recent English and mainly analytic philosophical literature. The overarching philosophical question that this literature has addressed is about the extent to which, and respects in which, spiritual realities such as God or a soul would confer meaning on our lives. There have been four broad answers to the question, namely: God or a soul is n…Read more
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4An Ubuntu-Based Evaluation of the South African State's Responses to Marikana (repr.)In Mia Swart (ed.), Marikana––Some Years on (tentative title), University of Cape Town Press. pp. 141-160. 2019.Reprint of an article first appearing in Politikon (2017).
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422Reconciliation as the Aim of a Criminal Trial: Ubuntu’s Implications for SentencingConstitutional Court Review 9 113-134. 2019.In this article, I seek to answer the following cluster of questions: What would a characteristically African, and specifically relational, conception of a criminal trial’s final end look like? What would the Afro-relational approach prescribe for sentencing? Would its implications for this matter forcefully rival the kinds of penalties that judges in South Africa and similar jurisdictions typically mete out? After pointing out how the southern African ethic of ubuntu is well understood as a rel…Read more
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263Addiction in the Light of African Values: Undermining Vitality and Community (repr.)In Yamikani Ndasauka & Grivas Kayange (eds.), Addiction in East and Southern Africa, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 9-31. 2019.Reprint of an article that first appeared in Monash Bioethics Review (2018).
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23MeaningIn Graham Oppy (ed.), A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy, Blackwell. pp. 355-366. 2019.This chapter critically discusses philosophical literature bearing on the question of what the implications of atheism – roughly the nonexistence of God as conceived in the monotheist tradition – might be for whether and how our lives are meaningful, with a major focus on what has been published in English in the twenty‐first century. Its aim is to acquaint the reader with the major contemporary debates and to indicate some points where they call for contributions.
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Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Areas of Specialization
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The Meaning of Life |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
African Philosophy |
Philosophy of Law |
Applied Ethics |
Value Theory |