AFRICAN ETHICS AND PARTIALITY

Authors

  • Motsamai Molefe

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/1988

Keywords:

African ethics, partiality, impartiality, personhood

Abstract

This article explores the question whether African ethics is best captured in terms of partiality or impartiality. I take one influential instance of a defence of impartiality in the African tradition, sympathetic impartiality, by Kwasi Wiredu, and I use it as a foil to represent African ethics. I argue that impartiality, as represented by Wiredu, fails to cohere with moral intuitions characteristic of African moral thought, namely: the high prize usually accorded to the family, veneration of ancestors and the notion of personhood. I merely touch on the first two intuitions; I base my argument largely on the normative concept of personhood that is considered to be definitive of African moral thought.

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Author Biography

Motsamai Molefe

Department of Philosophy, Lecturer

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Published

2016-12-01

How to Cite

Molefe, Motsamai. 2016. “AFRICAN ETHICS AND PARTIALITY”. Phronimon 17 (1):104-22. https://doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/1988.

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Section

Research Articles