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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. forthcoming.An abridged version of an article published in 2011 focusing on its discussion of the ubuntu ethics of land reform.
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2Koheleth and the Meaning of Life (repr.)In معنای زندگی و فیلسوفا نبزرگ, Qoqnoos Publishing Group. 2024.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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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.Reprint of an article first published in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2012).
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42Review 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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A Dilemma Regarding Academic Freedom and Public Accountability in Higher Education (repr.)In Yamikani Ndasauka (ed.), The Quest for Academic Freedom in Africa, Routledge. forthcoming.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 critics of _A Relational Moral Theory_ whose critical discussions have appeared in a special issue of _Ethical Theory and Moral Practice_.
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3Defending a Relational Account of Moral StatusIn Mbih Jerome Tosam & Erasmus Masitera (eds.), African Agrarian Philosophy, Springer Verlag. pp. 105-124. 2023.For the more than a decade, I have advanced an account of what makes persons, animals, and other beings entitled to moral treatment for their own sake that is informed by characteristically African ideas about dignity, a great chain of being, and community. Roughly according to this account, a being has a greater moral status, the more it is capable of communing (as a subject) or of us communing with it (as an object). I have mainly argued that this characteristically African and relational appr…Read more
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"一种关系化的道德理论——从本土走向世界的非洲伦理学"The Commercial Press/商务印书馆. forthcoming.Chinese (simplified character) translation of _A Relational Moral Theory_ by Nan Zhang.
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1Jurisprudence in an African Context, 2nd edn (2nd ed.)Oxford University Press. forthcoming.Revised and expanded discussions of especially natural law theory, legal realism, postmodernism, critical legal studies, critical race theory, feminism, and the philosophy of punishment, along with new lists of additional readings and of web resources.
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Making Philosophical DiscoveriesIn Jonathan Jansen (ed.), On the Question of Discovery: How New Knowledge Is Created in Academic Research, . forthcoming.An autobiographical reflection on some kinds of intellectual moves that tend to be revealing in philosophy. Written for emerging researchers.
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1Unexplored Issues in the Ethics of Nudges (edited book)Journal of Applied Philosophy. forthcoming.A guest edited volume of the Journal of Applied Philosophy devoted to topics regarding the ethics of nudges, particularly those that have received little or no treatment up to now. Since the publication of Nudge in 2008, nudges have become widely used tools in policymakers' toolbox. Concurrently, ethicists have discussed which conditions, if any, ensure the fair and ethically legitimate implementation of such untraditional policy techniques. The debates have focused primarily on the alleged intr…Read more
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11African Theories of Meaning in Life: A Critical Assessment (Repr.)In Aribiah Attoe (ed.), African Perspectives on the Question of Life’s Meaning, Routledge. pp. 21-34. 2023.Reprint of an article that first appeared in a special issue of the South African Journal of Philosophy devoted to life's meaning in the African tradition.
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119Para Uma Teoria Moral AfricanaFilosofia Africana. 2023.Portuguese translation by Igor Bessa dos Reis and Jordana Naves Ripoll Craveiro of ‘Toward an African Moral Theory’.
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129Vitality, Community, and Human Dignity in Africa (rev. edn)In Filomena Maggino (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research, 2nd edn, Springer. 2023.Mildly revised reprint of material extracted from an article appearing in Human Rights Review (2012).
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1226 Das Sinnvolle und das LebenswerteIn Matthias Hoesch, Sebastian Muders & Markus Rüther (eds.), Glück - Werte - Sinn: Metaethische, ethische und theologische Zugänge zur Frage nach dem guten Leben, Walter De Gruyter. pp. 109-126. 2013.Zur Klärung ihrer Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede
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Duties to Oneself in the Light of African Values: Two New Theoretical ApproachesThe Monist. forthcoming.I draw on ideas salient in contemporary literate African philosophy to construct two new theoretical ways of capturing the essence of duties to oneself. According to one theory, a person has a foundational duty to “relate” to herself in ways similar to how the African field has often thought that a person should relate with others, viz., harmoniously. According to the second, one has a foundational duty to produce liveliness in oneself. In addition to articulating these novel attempts to capture…Read more
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77Hayatin AnlamiÖncül. 2023.Translation of 'The Meaning of Life' (second revised edition for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) into Turkish by Beyza Nur Dogan.
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20Much more than just an anthology, this survey of humanity's search for the meaning of life includes the latest contributions to the debate, a judicious selection of key canonical essays, and insightful commentary by internationally respected philosophers.
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Ancillary care obligations in the light of an African bioethicIn Yaw A. Frimpong-Mansoh & Caesar A. Atuire (eds.), Bioethics in Africa: theories and praxis, Vernon Press. 2019.
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42Replacing Development: An Afro-Communal Approach to Distributive JusticeIn Bolaji Bateye, Mahmoud Masaeli, Louise Müller & Angela Roothaan (eds.), Beauty in African Thought: Critical Perspectives on the Western Idea of Development, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 133-151. 2023.Shortened version of an article that first appeared in Philosophical Papers (2017).
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Philosophy as a Source of Meaning in LifeIn Lydia Amir (ed.), Handbook of Transformative Philosophy, Springer. forthcoming.There are two ways that philosophy could transform a life to make it substantially more meaningful: on the one hand, philosophical enquiry might reveal other activities that would make life meaningful, enabling a philosopher (or others) to live meaningfully as a result of the enquiry, while, on the other hand, it might be that doing philosophy is in itself one way to make the philosopher's life notably meaningful. I explore the latter path. I argue against views of meaning in life entailing that…Read more
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How Global Philosophers Could Learn from Intercultural Exchanges with AfricaIn Hamza R'boul (ed.), African Perspectives on Interculturality: Decolonialities, Epistemologies and Human Relations, Routledge. forthcoming.What can African sources teach philosophers and related thinkers around the world? In some real ways, both Western philosophers and non-Western advocates of decolonization have failed to appreciate that there is probably a lot to learn from Africa. In my contribution, I explain why neither camp has given African intellectual sources their due and sketch what that would plausibly involve.
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11Ubuntu as a Moral Theory and Human Rights in South Africa (Repr.)Revista Culturas Jurídicas (Legal Cultures Journal) 3 (5): 24-53. 2016.Reprint of an article first published in the _African Human Rights Law Journal_ (2011).
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Why Personhood Is Not So Social: Reflections on Oyowe’s MenkitiPhilosophia Africana. forthcoming.In Menkiti’s Moral Man, Oritsegbubemi Oyowe aims to provide a sympathetic interpretation of the works of Ifeanyi Menkiti as they address personhood, community, and other facets of morality. In my contribution I maintain that, while Oyowe’s Menkiti is more plausible than the way Menkiti has often been read, there are still respects in which the account of personhood advanced invites criticism. One criticism is that it is implausible to think that personhood is constituted by others recognizing on…Read more
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The Meaning of Life (2nd ed.)In Duncan Pritchard (ed.), What Is This Thing Called Philosophy? 2nd edn, Routledge. forthcoming.Three chapters on the meaning of life composed for undergraduate philosophy majors, now revised and updated for a second edition.
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A Relational Theory of Dignity and Human Rights: An Alternative to AutonomyThe Monist. forthcoming.In this article I draw on resources from the African philosophical tradition to construct a theory of human rights grounded on dignity that presents a challenge to the globally dominant, autonomy-based approach. Whereas the latter conceives of human rights violations as degradations of our rational nature, the former does so in terms of degradations of our relational nature, specifically, our capacity to be party to harmonious or friendly relationships. Although I have in the past presented the …Read more
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113Understanding a Thing's Nature: Comparing Afro-Relational and Western-Individualist Ontologies (Repr.)In Peter Aloysius Ikhane & Isaac E. Ukpokolo (eds.), African Epistemology: Essays on Being and Knowledge, Routledge. pp. 63-78. 2023.Slightly modified reprint of an article first appearing in the journal _Synthesis Philosophica_ (2018)
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 |