School
Ubuntu philosophy
Ubuntu philosophy is the southern African ethic of shared humanity, summed up in the saying that a person is a person through other persons.
The word comes from the Nguni languages, and the saying umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu expresses the idea in isiZulu. Since the late twentieth century writers such as Mogobe Ramose and Thaddeus Metz have developed it as a philosophy of personhood, community and moral value. Desmond Tutu drew on it to describe restorative justice at South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Critics ask how well it protects individual rights. On this site it answers questions on normative ethics, care and relational approaches (3.2.5), social ontology, rights and disagreement.
Thinkers of this school
Guide: Schools of Philosophy: The Main -isms and the Questions They Answer
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Wiredu’s consensus politics and the epistemology of disagreement: is agreement evidence?
Kwasi Wiredu argued that traditional Akan political decision-making aimed at consensus rather than majority rule. Councils of elders would talk, sometimes for a long time, until they reached a decision everyone could accept. He proposed that modern African states might learn from…
Started by Kwame Asante5 replies -
Watsuji’s betweenness, Akan personhood and Confucian roles: is the relation more basic than the person?
When I retired after forty years designing bridges, I was surprised by how much of “me” went with the job. I did not lose a role; I seemed to lose a person. A friend at the temple handed me Watsuji's Ethics and…
Started by Aiko Tanabe5 replies -
Watsuji’s betweenness, ubuntu and relational autonomy: one discovery made three times, or three ideas?
I've been reading Watsuji Tetsurō's Ethics (Rinrigaku) slowly, with a friend from the temple who reads more Japanese philosophy than I do. Watsuji's starting point is that the Japanese word for a human being, ningen, is written with characters meaning "person" and…
Started by Aiko Tanabe5 replies