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Ubuntu and harmony : an African approach to morality and ethics

In Ronald Nicolson (ed.), Persons in community: African ethics in a global culture. Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press (2008)

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  1. Deliberative epistemology: Towards an ubuntu-based epistemology that accounts for a priori knowledge and objective truth.Leyla Tavernaro-Haidarian - 2018 - South African Journal of Philosophy 37 (2):229-242.
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  • Humility and the African Ethic of Ubuntu.Thaddeus Metz - 2020 - In Mark Alfano, Michael Patrick Lynch & Alessandra Tanesini (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Humility. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 257-267.
    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, the chapter contends that, although the concept (...)
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  • (1 other version)Communication Strategies in the Light of Indigenous African and Chinese Values: How to Harmonize.Thaddeus Metz - 2020 - Philosophia Africana 19 (2):176-194.
    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 Confucian and African conceptions of (...)
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  • An African Theory of Moral Status: A Relational Alternative to Individualism and Holism (repr.).Thaddeus Metz - 2019 - In Munamato Chemhuru (ed.), African Environmental Ethics: A Critical Reader. Springer Verlag. pp. 9-27.
    Reprint of an article that initially appeared in _Ethical Theory and Moral Practice_ (2012).
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  • Ubuntu, Cosmopolitanism, and Distribution of Natural Resources.Edwin Etieyibo - 2017 - Philosophical Papers 46 (1):139-162.
    In this paper, I argue that Ubuntu can be construed as a strict form of cosmopolitan moral and political theory. The implication of this is that the duty or obligation that humans owe other humans arises in virtue of humanity or the notion of human-ness. That is, one is a person insofar as he or she forms humane relations and it is this particular way of beingness that makes every person both an object and subject of duty. On this cosmopolitan (...)
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  • A Life of Struggle as Ubuntu.Thaddeus Metz - 2016 - In Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni & Busani Ngcaweni (eds.), Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: Decolonial Ethics of Liberation and Servant Leadership. Africa World Press. pp. 97-111.
    In this chapter I aim to provide a moral-philosophical grounding for much of Nelson Rolihlaha Mandela’s life. I spell out a principled interpretation of ubuntu that focuses on its moral import, and then apply it to salient facets of Mandela’s 50+ struggle years, contending that they exemplify it in many ways. Specifically, I first address Mandela’s decisions to fight apartheid in the 1940s, to use violence in response to it in the 1950s and ‘60s, and to refuse to renounce the (...)
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  • An African Theory of Moral Status: A Relational Alternative to Individualism and Holism.Thaddeus Metz - 2012 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 15 (3):387-402.
    The dominant conceptions of moral status in the English-speaking literature are either holist or individualist, neither of which accounts well for widespread judgments that: animals and humans both have moral status that is of the same kind but different in degree; even a severely mentally incapacitated human being has a greater moral status than an animal with identical internal properties; and a newborn infant has a greater moral status than a mid-to-late stage foetus. Holists accord no moral status to any (...)
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  • What Africa Can Bring to the World.Thaddeus Metz - forthcoming - In Tayeb Chenntouf (ed.), General History of Africa, Volume 9: Global Africa. UNESCO. pp. ch. 22.
    This chapter expounds relational values characteristic of indigenous Africa and considers how they might usefully be adopted when contemporary societies interact with each other. Specifically, it notes respects in which genuinely human or communal relationship has been missing in the two contexts of globalization and international relations, and suggests what a greater appreciation of this good by the rest of the world would mean for them.
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  • Making Sense of Survivor’s Guilt: How to Justify It with an African Ethic.Thaddeus Metz - 2018 - In George Hull (ed.), Debating African Philosophy: Perspectives on Identity, Decolonial Ethics and Comparative Philosophy. New York: Routledge. pp. 149-163.
    The default position in Western ethics is that survivor’s guilt is either irrational or not rational, i.e., that while survivor’s guilt might be understandable, it is not justified in the sense of there being good reason for a person to exhibit it. From a widely held perspective, for example, one ought to feel guilty only for having done wrong, and in a culpable way, which, by hypothesis, a mere survivor has not done. Typical is the following: ‘Strictly speaking, survivor guilt (...)
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  • African Ethics and Journalism Ethics: News and Opinion in Light of Ubuntu.Thaddeus Metz - 2015 - Journal of Media Ethics 30 (2):74-90.
    In this article, I address some central issues in journalism ethics from a fresh perspective, namely, one that is theoretical and informed by values salient in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on a foundational moral theory with an African pedigree, which is intended to rival Western theories such as Kantianism and utilitarianism, I provide a unified account of an array of duties of various agents with respect to the news/opinion media. I maintain that the ability of the African moral theory to plausibly (...)
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  • Values in China as Compared to Africa: Two Conceptions of Harmony.Thaddeus Metz - 2017 - Philosophy East and West 67 (2):441-465.
    Given a 21st century context of sophisticated market economies and other Western influences such as Christianity, what similarities and differences are there between characteristic indigenous values of sub-Saharan Africa and China, and how do they continue to influence everyday life in these societies? Establishing that central to both non-Western, indigenous value systems are ideals of harmonious relationships, I compare and contrast traditional African and Chinese conceptions of harmony and analyze a number of respects in which an appeal to this value (...)
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  • The end of ubuntu.Bernard Matolino & Wenceslaus Kwindingwi - 2013 - South African Journal of Philosophy 32 (2):197-205.
    Since the advent of democracy in South Africa, there has been a concerted effort at reviving the notion of ubuntu. Variously conceived, it is seen as the authentic African ethical concept, a way of life, an authentic mode of being African, an individual ideal, the appropriate public spirit, a definition of life itself and the preferred manner of conducting public and private business. Thus, among other public displays of the spirit of ubuntu, the government of the day has deliberately chosen (...)
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  • Managerialism as Anti-Social: Some Implications of Ubuntu for Knowledge Production.Thaddeus Metz - 2017 - In Michael Cross & Amasa Ndofirepi (eds.), Knowledge and Change in the African University: Challenges and Opportunities. Sense Publishers. pp. 139-154.
    Given the myriad ways in which managerialism in higher education, and especially research undertaken there, is undesirable, is there a moral theory that plausibly explains why they all are and prescribes some realistic alternatives? In this contribution, I answer ‘yes’ to this overarching question. Specifically, I argue that the various respects in which managerialism is unjustified, particularly with regard to knowledge production, are well captured by an ethical philosophy grounded on salient ideas about communal relationship associated with the southern African (...)
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  • African Philosophy and the Decolonisation of Education in Africa: Some critical reflections.Philip Higgs - 2012 - Educational Philosophy and Theory 44 (s2):37-55.
    The liberation of Africa and its peoples from centuries of racially discriminatory colonial rule and domination has far-reaching implications for educational thought and practice. The transformation of educational discourse in Africa requires a philosophical framework that respects diversity, acknowledges lived experience and challenges the hegemony of Western forms of universal knowledge. In this article I reflect critically on whether African philosophy, as a system of African knowledge(s), can provide a useful philosophical framework for the construction of empowering knowledge that will (...)
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  • African Conceptions of Human Dignity: Vitality and Community as the Ground of Human Rights.Thaddeus Metz - 2012 - Human Rights Review 13 (1):19-37.
    I seek to advance enquiry into the philosophical question of in virtue of what human beings have a dignity of the sort that grounds human rights. I first draw on values salient in sub-Saharan African moral thought to construct two theoretically promising conceptions of human dignity, one grounded on vitality, or liveliness, and the other on our communal nature. I then argue that the vitality conception cannot account for several human rights that we intuitively have, while the community conception can (...)
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  • Exactly Why Are Slurs Wrong?Thaddeus Metz - 2021 - Daimon: Revista Internacional de Filosofía 84:13-29.
    This article, part of a special issue on 'Expressing Hatred', seeks to provide a comprehensive and fundamental account of why racial epithets and similar slurs are immoral, whenever they are. It considers three major theories, roughly according to which they are immoral because they are harmful (welfarism), because they undermine autonomy (Kantianism), or because they are unfriendly (an under-considered, relational approach informed by ideas from the Global South). This article presents new objections to the former two theories, and concludes in (...)
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  • Deconstructing African Development from Neo-Liberalism, Ubuntu Ethics and African Socialism to Dignified Humanness.Kizito Michael George - 2021 - International Journal of Science, Technology and Society 9 (2):43-54.
    This paper argues that there is a need to reconstruct a new paradigm for poverty policy planning in Africa because Neo-liberalism, Ubuntu ethics and African Socialism as proposed paradigms for Africa’s development are untenable. This is so because the above trio are sexist, androcentric and oblivious to structural injustices that feminize poverty in Africa. The paper further argues that even in the Western world, the neo-liberal GDP metric has been challenged and the search for alternative development indicators and paradigms is (...)
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  • Philosophical racism and ubuntu: In dialogue with Mogobe Ramose.C. W. Maris - 2020 - South African Journal of Philosophy 39 (3):308-326.
    This article discusses two complementary themes that play an important role in contemporary South African political philosophy: (1) the racist tradition in Western philosophy; and (2) the role of ubuntu in regaining an authentic African identity, which was systematically suppressed during the colonial past and apartheid. These are also leading themes in Mogobe Ramose’s African Philosophy Through Ubuntu. The first part concentrates on John Locke. It discusses the thesis that the reprehensible racism of many founders of liberal political philosophy has (...)
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  • The Need for Others in Public Policy: An African Approach.Thaddeus Metz - 2021 - In Motsamai Molefe & Chris Allsobrook (eds.), Towards an African Political Philosophy of Needs. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 21-37.
    When reflecting on human need as a moral-political category, it is natural to include some intersubjective conditions. Surely, children need to be socialized, adults need to be recognized, and the poor need to be given certain resources. I point out that there are two different respects in which such intersubjective factors could be considered needs. On the one hand, they might be needed roughly for their own sake, that is, for exemplifying relational values such as caring for others and sharing (...)
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  • Ubuntu: The Good Life (rev. edn).Thaddeus Metz - 2023 - In Filomena Maggino (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research, 2nd edn. Springer. pp. 7333-7337.
    Moderately updated version of this encyclopaedia entry.
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  • Public health policy in resource allocation: the role of ubuntu ethics in redressing resource disparity between public and private healthcare in South Africa.Nosisa Cynthia Madaka - 2019 - Dissertation, University of Stellenbosch
    This thesis under the title “Public Health Policy in Resource Allocation: the Role of Ubuntu Ethics in Redressing Resource Disparity between Public and Private Healthcare in South Africa” explores health care disparities pertaining to resource allocation between public and private sector. It is of relevance and importance in South Africa where 54% of the population live on less than US$3 per day. Although the government has instituted certain changes aimed at transforming the public health care system, the resource allocation gap (...)
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  • Moral education, ubuntu and ubuntu-inspired communities.Edwin Etieyibo - 2017 - South African Journal of Philosophy 36 (3):311-325.
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  • Ubuntu and Business Ethics: Problems, Perspectives and Prospects.Andrew West - 2014 - Journal of Business Ethics 121 (1):47-61.
    The African philosophy of Ubuntu is typically characterised as a communitarian philosophy that emphasises virtues such as compassion, tolerance and harmony. In recent years there has been growing interest in this philosophy, and in how it can be applied to a variety of disciplines and issues. Several authors have provided useful introductions of Ubuntu in the field of business ethics and suggested theoretical ways in which it could be applied. The purpose of this paper is to extend this discussion by (...)
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  • Beyond the “Third Wave of Positive Psychology”: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research.Marié P. Wissing - 2022 - Frontiers in Psychology 12.
    The positive psychology landscape is changing, and its initial identity is being challenged. Moving beyond the “third wave of PP,” two roads for future research and practice in well-being studies are discerned: The first is the state of the art PP trajectory that will continue as a scientific discipline in/next to psychology. The second trajectory links to pointers described as part of the so-called third wave of PP, which will be argued as actually being the beginning of a new domain (...)
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  • Is and Ought? How the (Social) Ontological Circumscribes the Normative.Dorothea Gädeke - 2020 - The Journal of Ethics 24 (4):509-525.
    Is normative theory grounded in ontology and if so, how? Taking a debate between Kwame Gyekye and Thaddeus Metz as my point of departure, my aim in this article is to show that something normative does indeed follow from ontological views: The social ontological, I maintain, circumscribes the normative without, however, fully determining its content. My argument proceeds in two steps: First, I argue that our social ontological position constrains what kind of normative theory we may plausibly defend. A relational (...)
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  • The African Ethic of Ubuntu.Thaddeus Metz - 2019 - 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology.
    Online reprint of part of an encyclopedia entry (from the Encyclopaedia of Quality of Life and Well-being Research 2014).
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  • COVID-19: Africa’s relation with epidemics and some imperative ethics considerations of the moment.Godfrey B. Tangwa & Nchangwi Syntia Munung - 2020 - Research Ethics 16 (3-4):1-11.
    COVID-19 is a very complex pandemic. It has affected individuals, different countries and regions of the world equally in some senses and differently in other senses. While sub-Saharan Africa has weathered a range of outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, the manner in which the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved necessitates some observations, remarks and conclusions from our own situated observation point. Compared to previous epidemics/pandemics, many African countries have displayed a sense of solidarity in the face of COVID-19 that (...)
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  • Ubuntu and Freedom of Expression: Considering Children and Broadcast News Violence in a Violent Society.Colin Chasi - 2015 - Journal of Media Ethics 30 (2):91-108.
    Ubuntu has been described as an African moral philosophy that finds actions grounded on good will to be right if they promote shared identity. I contend that freedom of expression is consistent with ubuntu. Freedom of expression enables people to be the most they can be, enabling the establishment of communities in which people can live together harmoniously. With reference to the violent South African society, the study examines broadcast media violence that may harm children to draw new insights concerning (...)
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  • A Dilemma Regarding Academic Freedom and Public Accountability in Higher Education.Thaddeus Metz - 2010 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 44 (4):529-549.
    The aim of this article is to establish that current thought about the point of a publicly funded university faces a dilemma. On the one hand, influential and attractive ‘macro’-level principles about how state resources ought to be accountably used entail that academic freedom should be utilised solely for the sake of social justice or some other concrete public good. Standard theories of public morality entail that an academic’s responsibility is entirely to be ‘responsive’ or ‘relevant’ to her social context (...)
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  • Genomics governance: advancing justice, fairness and equity through the lens of the African communitarian ethic of Ubuntu.Nchangwi Syntia Munung, Jantina de Vries & Bridget Pratt - 2021 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 24 (3):377-388.
    There is growing interest for a communitarian approach to the governance of genomics, and for such governance to be grounded in principles of justice, equity and solidarity. However, there is a near absence of conceptual studies on how communitarian-based principles, or values, may inform, support or guide the governance of genomics research. Given that solidarity is a key principle in Ubuntu, an African communitarian ethic and theory of justice, there is emerging interest about the extent to which Ubuntu could offer (...)
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  • The Ubuntu Challenge to Business: From Stakeholders to Relationholders.Minka Woermann & Schalk Engelbrecht - 2019 - Journal of Business Ethics 157 (1):27-44.
    This paper addresses whether, and to what extent, the African ethic of Ubuntu can contribute to ethical thinking in general and provide an alternative to stakeholder theory specifically. The conception of Ubuntu that is employed to further the analysis is Thaddeus Metz’s Ubuntu principle of right action, which focuses on promoting harmonious social relations premised on a shared identity and solidarity amongst people. This principle is used to develop an Ubuntu heuristic for organisational decision-making, which serves as the basis for (...)
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  • Interrupting separateness, disrupting comfort: An autoethnographic account of lived religion, ubuntu and spatial justice.John Eliastam - 2016 - HTS Theological Studies 72 (1).
    This article uses a fictionalised encounter as the basis for an autoethnographic exploration of the intersections between the South African social value of ubuntu and the notion of spatial justice. Ubuntu describes the interconnectedness of human lives. It asserts that a person is only a person through other people, a recognition that calls for deep respect, empathy and kindness. Ubuntu is expressed in selfless generosity and sharing. The spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities has resulted in a concern (...)
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  • Ubuntu philosophy for ecological education and environmental policy formulation.David Kyei-Nuamah & Zhengmei Peng - forthcoming - Journal of Philosophy of Education.
    A world faced with global climate change needs actionable ways to curb its effects. We suggest that Ubuntu philosophy is a way to achieve peaceful coexistence between humans and the ecosystem. From an African perspective, we use Ubuntu philosophy’s concepts to understand how humans can create environmental policies and environmental education pedagogy. We use historical ecology and document review to explore the connections between humans, ecology, and Ubuntu philosophy. An understanding of how philosophy and ecology relate is proposed to fill (...)
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  • Ubuntu as a Metaphysical Concept.Symphorien Ntibagirirwa - 2018 - Journal of Value Inquiry 52 (1):113-133.
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  • Towards equitable genomics governance in Africa: Guiding principles from theories of global health governance and the African moral theory of Ubuntu.Nchangwi Syntia Munung, Jantina Vries & Bridget Pratt - 2022 - Bioethics 36 (4):411-422.
    Bioethics, Volume 36, Issue 4, Page 411-422, May 2022.
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