Motsamai Molefe – författare

The Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are typically recognized as the world's major monotheistic religions. However, African Traditional Religion is, despite often including lesser spirits and gods, a monotheistic religion with numerous adherents in sub-Saharan Africa; it includes the idea of a single most powerful God responsible for the creation and sustenance of everything else. This Element focuses on drawing attention to this major world religion that has been much neglected by scholars around the globe, particularly those working in the West or Northern Hemisphere. It accomplishes this primarily by bringing it into conversation with topics in the Anglo-American philosophy of religion.

The Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are typically recognized as the world's major monotheistic religions. However, African Traditional Religion is, despite often including lesser spirits and gods, a monotheistic religion with numerous adherents in sub-Saharan Africa; it includes the idea of a single most powerful God responsible for the creation and sustenance of everything else. This Element focuses on drawing attention to this major world religion that has been much neglected by scholars around the globe, particularly those working in the West or Northern Hemisphere. It accomplishes this primarily by bringing it into conversation with topics in the Anglo-American philosophy of religion.

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.

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.

This book provides a philosophical exposition of Ubuntu ethics, which it does by explaining the saying ‘a person is a person through other persons’. Written by one of the world’s leading scholars of African philosophy, the book first argues that the focus on umuntu (or, a person) in Ubuntu ethics as intrinsically valuable makes ethical humanism and human dignity vitally important. The book then goes on to consider the role of virtue ethics in driving an ideal of moral perfectionism. This, in turn, provides the basis for what a good society should be: a needs-based political theory. Providing an important guide through Ubuntu ethics as a moral system constructed in terms of moral perfectionism, it will be an important read for researchers of African philosophy, and of the philosophy of virtue ethics and moral perfectionism more generally.

This book provides a philosophical exposition of Ubuntu ethics, which it does by explaining the saying ‘a person is a person through other persons’. Written by one of the world’s leading scholars of African philosophy, the book first argues that the focus on umuntu (or, a person) in Ubuntu ethics as intrinsically valuable makes ethical humanism and human dignity vitally important. The book then goes on to consider the role of virtue ethics in driving an ideal of moral perfectionism. This, in turn, provides the basis for what a good society should be: a needs-based political theory. Providing an important guide through Ubuntu ethics as a moral system constructed in terms of moral perfectionism, it will be an important read for researchers of African philosophy, and of the philosophy of virtue ethics and moral perfectionism more generally.

This book considers how the African philosophy of Ubuntu can contribute to the study of the youth in Africa.Reports from the United Nations indicate that by 2050, more than a third of young people in the world will be in or from Africa. However, most existing youth studies remain framed by Global North paradigms, creating a risk of generalising or globally universalizing the stage of life between childhood and adulthood. This book challenges this imbalance by proposing an approach to youth studies that is grounded in Ubuntu, the philosophy that a person is a person through other persons. The book proposes an Ubuntu conception of youth as becoming: a relational and self-realizing approach to the stage of transition from childhood to morally fit personhood or adulthood. Moreover, the book seeks to imagine and engage issues affecting young people in Africa, covering topics ranging from education, development, migration, work, crime, politics, leadership, gangs, wars, technology, entrepreneurship, among many others.This incisive and expansive African perspective on youth studies expands our metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological understanding of the field. It will be an important read for researchers across the fields of philosophy, youth studies, sociology, and African studies.

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.

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 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 focuses on the domains of moral philosophy, political philosophy, and political theory within African philosophy.

This book focuses on the domains of moral philosophy, political philosophy, and political theory within African philosophy.

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.

This book is a contribution to African philosophy, by philosophers focusing specifically on the concept of human dignity in ethical theory. 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 book is a contribution to African philosophy, by philosophers focusing specifically on the concept of human dignity in ethical theory. 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.