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77Meaning (Atheism)In Graham Oppy (ed.), A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy, Blackwell. 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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Teaching African Philosophy alongside Western Philosophy: Some Advice about Topics and TextsIn S. H. Kumalo & Reddy Vasu (eds.), Curriculum Conversations – Power, Legitimacy and Injustice in Higher Education, University of Kwazulu-natal Press. 2018.Reprint of an article that initially appeared in the South African Journal of Philosophy (2016).
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31MeaningIn Graham Oppy (ed.), A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy, Blackwell. 2019.A critical exploration of recent philosophical work on the relationship between atheism and meaning in life. In addition to considering views that God is not necessary for our lives to have meaning, it focuses particularly on bolder claims that the existence of God would make meaning in our lives impossible or at least very difficult.
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7Replacing Development: An Afro-communal Approach to Global JusticeIn Benedict Okeja (ed.), African Philosophy and Global Justice, Routledge. 2019.Reprint of an article that first appeared in Philosophical Papers (2017).
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19Teaching African Philosophy alongside Western Philosophy: Some Advice about Topics and TextsIn S. H. Kumalo & Reddy Vasu (eds.), Curriculum Conversations – Power, Legitimacy and Injustice in Higher Education, University of Kwazulu-natal Press. pp. 173-183. 2018.Reprint of an article that initially appeared in the South African Journal of Philosophy (2016).
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32How to Ground Animal Rights on African Values: A Constructive ApproachIn Edwin E. Etieyibo (ed.), Method, Substance, and the Future of African Philosophy, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 30-41. 2018.Reprint of a mildly revised article that initially appeared in the Journal of Animal Ethics (2017).
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2Questioning African Attempts to Ground Ethics on MetaphysicsIn Elvis Imafidon & John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji (eds.), Ontologized Ethics: New Essays in African Meta-Ethics, Lexington Books. pp. 189-204. 2013.In the literature on African moral philosophy, it is common to find normative conclusions about the way we ought to act directly drawn from purported metaphysical facts about the nature of ourselves and the world. For example, Kwame Gyekye, the most influential sub-Saharan political philosopher, attempts to defend moderate communitarianism, roughly the view that agents have strong duties to support others in ways that do not violate human rights, by contending that it follows from the dual natur…Read more
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1Communitarian Ethics and Work-Based Education: Some African PerspectivesIn Paul Gibbs (ed.), Thinking about Work Based Learning, Springer. 2012.seek to answer questions about work-based education (WBE) that have been rarely posed, ethical ones such as: Is there reason to believe that WBE would tend to make better people (as opposed to make people better off)? That is, can we reasonably expect characteristic WBE learners to exhibit good character to a greater degree relative to non-WBE ones? On a social level, would systematic use of WBE noticeably promote justice, say, by effecting the right sort of reparation to those who have suffered…Read more
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A Theory of National Reconciliation: Some Insights from AfricaIn Aleksandar Fatic & Klaus Bachmann (eds.), Transition without Justice (tentative title), Tba. 2015.Reprint of mildly revised version of a chapter that initially appeared in _Theorizing Transitional Justice_ (2015).
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9African Moral Theory and Public Governance: Nepotism, Preferential Hiring and Other PartialityIn Paul Omoyefa (ed.), Basic Applied Ethics, Vdm. 2010.Reprint of a chapter that initially appeared in the anthology African Ethics (2009).
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2The Meaning of LifeIn Duncan Pritchard (ed.), What is This Thing Called Philosophy?, Routledge. pp. 319-358. 2015.A three chapter part of a textbook for undergraduate philosophy majors.
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36Africanising Institutional Culture: What is Possible and PlausibleIn Pedro Tabensky & Sally Matthews (eds.), Being at Home: Race, Institutional Culture and Transformation at South African Higher Education Institutions, University of Kwazulu-natal Press. pp. 242-272. 2015.Since the transition to a constitutional order, in what respects have cultures in higher education institutions in South Africa become Africanised, and, going forward, how should they be? In this chapter I provide an overview of the major different forms that Africanisation of institutional culture could take, and I then indicate the respects in which South African universities have or have not taken them on board over the past 20 years. In addition, I provide the first comprehensive critical di…Read more
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7Good GovernanceIn Ilona Boniwell & Dasho Karma Ura (eds.), Report on Wellbeing & Happiness, Centre For Bhutan Studies. pp. 329-346. 2013.An analysis and critical discussion of the concept of good governance as it figures into the Royal Government of Bhutan's policy of Gross National Happiness.
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284African Values and Capital PunishmentIn Gerard Walmsley (ed.), African Philosophy and the Future of Africa, Council For Research in Values and Philosophy. pp. 83-90. 2011.What is the strongest argument grounded in African values, i.e., those salient among indigenous peoples below the Sahara desert, for abolishing capital punishment? I defend a particular answer to this question, one that invokes an under-theorized conception of human dignity. Roughly, I maintain that the death penalty is nearly always morally unjustified, and should therefore be abolished, because it degrades people’s special capacity for communal relationships. To defend this claim, I proceed by…Read more
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71The Meaning of LifeIn Duncan Pritchard (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2010.An annotated bibliography of the most important recent English-speaking philosophical work on meaning in life.
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321African Moral Theory and Public Governance: Nepotism, Preferential Hiring and Other PartialityIn Paul Omoyefa (ed.), Basic Applied Ethics, Vdm. 2010.Reprint of a chapter that initially appeared in the anthology African Ethics (2009).
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281The Meaning of LifeIn Ed Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2012.A 3,500 word overview of 21st century Anglo-American philosophical books devoted to the question of what, if anything, would make life meaningful.
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156The Meaning of LifeIn Ed Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2012.Many major historical figures in philosophy have provided an answer to the question of what, if anything, makes life meaningful, although they typically have not put it in these terms. Consider, for instance, Aristotle on the human function, Aquinas on the beatific vision, and Kant on the highest good. While these concepts have some bearing on happiness and morality, they are straightforwardly construed as accounts of which final ends a person ought to realize in order to have a significant exis…Read more
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45The Meaning of LifeIn Duncan Pritchard (ed.), What is This Thing Called Philosophy?, Routledge. pp. 319-358. 2015.A lengthy introduction to the issue of meaning in life, aimed at undergraduates and generally educated readers. It includes summary 'bullet' points, lists of recommended reading, questions for the class, and short excerpts from philosophers such as William James, Leo Tolstoy, John Cottingham, Susan Wolf and Robert Nozick.
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The Collected Works at the Symposium on Chinese Studies 2017 (edited book)China Social Sciences Press. 2018.
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Ubuntu as a Moral Theory and Human Rights in South Africa (repr.)In David Bilchitz, Thaddeus Metz & Oritsegbubemi Anthony Oyowe (eds.), Jurisprudence in an African Context, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press. pp. 361-363. 2024.An abridged version of an article published in 2011 focusing on its discussion of the ubuntu ethics of land reform.
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8Koheleth and the Meaning of Life (repr.)In خدا،روح و معنای زندگی, Negahehandisheh. 2021.Persian translation of _The Meaning of Life and the Great Philosophers_, with this piece on Koheleth a chapter therein.
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Relational Theories of Moral Status (tentative title)Journal of Medical Ethics. forthcoming.Critical notice of Nancy Jecker and Caesar Atuire's _What Is a Person?_, with some focus on their relational account of moral status as compared to my own.
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According to a normative-theoretic interpretation of the African moral-political tradition that I have advanced, an agent is at bottom obligated to respect individuals in virtue of their ability to be party to communal (or harmonious) relationships. In practice that means that a moral agent is typically obligated to relate communally with innocents, that is, to share a way of life with them and to care for their quality of life. I have argued that this relational principle of right action provid…Read more
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An African Theory of Moral Status: A Relational Alternative to Individualism and Holism (repr.)In Kenneth Abudu, Kevin Behrens & Elvis Imafidon (eds.), African Philosophy and Deep Ecology, Routledge. forthcoming.An abridged and slightly modified version of an article first published in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2012).
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44Review of Polycarp Ikuenobe, Philosophical Perspectives on Communalism and Morality in African Traditions (review)Journal of Contemporary African Studies 26 (2): 236-238. 2008.
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1Introduction: Engacing with the Philosophy of D.A. MasoloQuest - and African Journal of Philosophy 25 (1-2): 7-16. 2011.
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12A Dilemma Regarding Academic Freedom and Public Accountability in Higher Education (repr.)In Yamikani Ndasauka & Garton Kamchedzera (eds.), Academic Freedom in Africa, Routledge. 2024.Reprint of an article published in the Journal of Philosophy of Education (2010) about the tension between a right to academic freedom and a responsibility to promote public goods, discussed largely in the African context.
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Title TBA: Reply to CriticsEthical Theory and Moral Practice. forthcoming.Reply to six critical discussions of _A Relational Moral Theory_ as part of a special issue of _Ethical Theory and Moral Practice_. Theoretical issues include the individualism/relationalism distinction, including as it bears on Confucian theory in comparison to African thought. Applied topics include the implications of a communal principle of right action for issues pertaining to business, biotechnological enhancements, environmentalism, and corrective justice.
APA Central Division
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 |