Abstract

MOLEFE, Motsamai. African ethics and partiality. Phronimon [online]. 2016, vol.17, n.2, pp.1-19. ISSN 2413-3086.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2413-3086/2016/142.

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.

Keywords : African ethics; partiality; impartiality; personhood.

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