African Personhood and Applied Ethics

African Personhood and Applied Ethics
Author: Molefe, Motsamai
Publisher: NISC (Pty) Ltd
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2020-02-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1920033696

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Recently, the salient idea of personhood in the tradition of African philosophy has been objected to on various grounds. Two such objections stand out – the book deals with a lot more. The first criticism is that the idea of personhood is patriarchal insofar as it elevates the status of men and marginalises women in society. The second criticism observes that the idea of personhood is characterised by speciesism. The essence of these concerns is that personhood fails to embody a robust moral-political view. African Personhood and Applied Ethics offers a philosophical explication of the ethics of personhood to give reasons why we should take it seriously as an African moral perspective that can contribute to global moral-political issues. The book points to the two facets that constitute the ethics of personhood – an account of (1) moral perfection and (2) dignity. It then draws on the under-explored view of dignity qua the capacity for sympathy inherent in the moral idea of personhood to offer a unified account of selected themes in applied ethics, specifically women, animal and development.

Human Dignity in African Philosophy

Human Dignity in African Philosophy
Author: Motsamai Molefe
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 85
Release: 2022-03-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030932176

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This book throws a spotlight on the under-explored African perspective on the mercurial concept of human dignity. To do so, it employs two strategies. In the first instance, it considers African theories of human dignity: (1) vitality; (2) community; (3) Personhood. Secondly, it explores the plausibility of these theories by applying them to select applied ethics themes, specifically: animal ethics, disability ethics and euthanasia. The aim of this book is not to argue for the plausibility of these African theories, but to familiarize the global audience of philosophy, ethics and related disciplines (legal studies, sociology, bioethics and so on) with a neglected African perspective on this vital concept. The books is aimed at scholars of philosophy interested in non-European and specifically African perspective.

An African Philosophy of Personhood, Morality, and Politics

An African Philosophy of Personhood, Morality, and Politics
Author: Motsamai Molefe
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030155617

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This book explores the salient ethical idea of personhood in African philosophy. It is a philosophical exposition that pursues the ethical and political consequences of the normative idea of personhood as a robust or even foundational ethical category. Personhood refers to the moral achievements of the moral agent usually captured in terms of a virtuous character, which have consequences for both morality and politics. The aim is not to argue for the plausibility of the ethical and political consequences of the idea of personhood. Rather, the book showcases some of the moral-political content and consequences of the account it presents.

An African Ethics of Personhood and Bioethics

An African Ethics of Personhood and Bioethics
Author: Motsamai Molefe
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2020-05-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030465195

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This book articulates an African conception of dignity in light of the salient axiological category of personhood in African cultures. The idea of personhood embodies a moral system for evaluating human lives exuding with virtue or ones that are morally excellent. This book argues that this idea of personhood embodies an under-explored conception of dignity, which accounts for it in terms of our capacity for the virtue of sympathy. It then proceeds to apply this personhood-based conception of dignity to bioethical questions, specifically, those of abortion and euthanasia. Regarding abortion, it concludes that it is impermissible since foetuses possess partial moral status. Regarding euthanasia, it argues that it is permissible for reasons revolving around avoiding the reversing of personhood. It also, though, minimally, touches on the questions regarding the mentally disabled and animals, to which it assigns lower moral status.

A Relational Moral Theory

A Relational Moral Theory
Author: Thaddeus Metz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2021-12-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198748965

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A Relational Moral Theory draws on neglected resources from the Global South and especially the African philosophical tradition to provide a new answer to a perennial philosophical question: what do all morally right actions have in common as distinct from wrong ones? Metz points out that the principles of utility and of respect for autonomy, the two rivals that have dominated western moral theory for the last two centuries, share an individualist premise. Once that common assumption is replaced by a relational perspective given prominence in African ethical thought, a different comprehensive principle, one focused on harmony or friendliness, emerges. Metz argues that this principle corrects the blind spots of the western moral principles, and has implications for a wide array of controversies in applied ethics that an international audience of moral philosophers, professional ethicists, and similar thinkers will find compelling.

Partiality and Impartiality in African Philosophy

Partiality and Impartiality in African Philosophy
Author: M. Molefe
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2021-11-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1498599443

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Partiality and Impartiality in African Philosophy fills the lacuna in African philosophy literature on the inherent tension between requirements of partiality (favoritism) and impartiality (equality). Motsamai Molefe deploys two strategies to philosophically resolve the tension between partiality and impartiality. The first strategy involves applying the moral theories of Kwasi Wiredu, Thaddeus Metz, and Kwame Gyekye to the problem. Finding their views useful in some ways and seriously limited in others, Molefe turns to the second strategy in which he invokes the salient normative concept of personhood in African cultures. Molefe argues that the concept of personhood adjoins theories of human dignity and moral perfection (virtue). The major insight that emerges is a robust ethical theory qua personhood that accommodates both partiality and impartiality. He grounds requirements of impartiality on human dignity, which operates largely as a macro-ethical concept that normatively informs the character of our social institutions (politics). Politics is characterized by fairness, equality, and impartiality. Partiality (the agent-and-other-centred forms of it) is directly connected with the agent’s chief moral duty to achieve her own virtue (moral perfection), which operates as a micro-ethical concept. These two kinds of moral partialism, self-favoritism and close ties such as family, are justified by appeal to the project's view, instead of the individuals-and-relationships view typically invoked to justify moral partiality in the literature.

Human Dignity in an African Context

Human Dignity in an African Context
Author: Motsamai Molefe
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2023-11-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3031373413

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This book is a contribution to African philosophy, by philosophers focusing specifically on the concept of human dignity in ethical theory. The concept of ‘human dignity’ denotes the intrinsic and superlative worth associated with human beings in virtue of which we owe them utmost moral regard. Although dignity is a foundational concept for African philosophy, there remains scant literature in African philosophy dedicated to critical and systematic reflection on the concept of human dignity. This volume responds to this lacuna by bringing together chapters that offer philosophical exposition, defense (or even rejection) and application of the concept of human dignity in light of intellectual resources in African cultures, such as ubuntu, personhood, and serithi.

African Ethics

African Ethics
Author: Jonathan O. Chimakonam
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2022-08-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1350191795

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This is the first comprehensive exploration of African ethics covering everything from normative ethics and applied ethics, to meta-ethics and methodology, as well as the history of its evolution. African Ethics provides an in-depth exploration of Ubuntu ethics which is defined as a set of values based on concepts such as reciprocity, mutual respect, and working towards the common good. Ubuntu ethics also strongly emphasize the place of human dignity. The book engages with both theory and practice and how these ethical ideas impact upon the actual lived experience of Africans. It also includes important political considerations such as the impact of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism on African ethics as well as the negative impact of apartheid and the renaissance made possible by the 'The Truth and Reconciliation Commission' whose work was premised heavily on African ethical ideas. This book is not just a wide-ranging and incisive introduction but also a reformulation of key concepts and current debates in African ethics. Crucially, African Ethics is an inclusive text, one that speaks from an African perspective and contributes to the decolonizing of contemporary ethics.

Personhood in African Philosophy

Personhood in African Philosophy
Author: Alloy Ihuah
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3346493873

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Wissenschaftlicher Aufsatz aus dem Jahr 2020 im Fachbereich Philosophie - Sonstiges, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: This study is concerned with the question of personhood in African Philosophy. Studies in Intercultural Philosophies have shown that communal intimate belongingness is mostly limited to a micro community more than the totality of a larger African community. Within the context of this communal living, some African scholars have argued that an individual owns no personality, and only becomes a person through social and ritual incorporation. These scholars have argued from this premise that personhood is a quality acquired as one gets older. This mode of thinking not only ignores the essentials of personhood, namely, self-determination and the rights of the individual, it exposes the overbearing mode of the community and scuttles the inherent freedom and primacy of the individual thought and his right to question communal ideas. We may agree that a youth has a different point of view from that of an older individual, though we affirm on the contrary that both are defined by the quality of personhood. African wisdom literature upholds that life in its existential meaning is human fellowship and solidarity among individuals though, the rights of individual persons and freedom of self-expression within the communities are not in doubt. We argue the conclusion that while communal ethos matures the individual in the community, such conclusion does not have ontological and epistemological precedence over individual persons. In his lone level, the individual experiences varying modes of competing epistemologies that activates his moral arsenals to evaluate, protest, distance and effect reform on some features of the community to ingratiate his widely varying needs and interests.

African Ethics and Death

African Ethics and Death
Author: Motsamai Molefe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2023-12-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1003835597

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This book analyzes the concepts of moral status and human dignity in African philosophy and applies them to the moral problems associated with death. The book first challenges the criticism and rejection of moral status in African philosophy and then continues to consider how moral personhood is defined in African ethical theories, investigating which entities have full moral status or moral personhood and are therefore worthy of full ethical consideration. It then applies this theory to the problems associated with death. In the medical context, will an African theory of moral status permit or forbid euthanasia? Do we have moral obligations towards dead human bodies? Overall, the book provides an important African axiological contribution to debates on global ethics and moral philosophy. Providing an important overview of the ethical problems associated with the biological fact of death, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of philosophy and African studies.