A Relational Moral Theory: African Ethics in and beyond the Continent

Abstract

Much of what is taught in the discipline of philosophy in most universities in African countries is European philosophy. This is the reality that Thaddeus Metz met when he moved to South Africa in 1999. The moral philosophy that was taught to students at the University of Witwatersrand did not stem from the local intellectual tradition. Metz took it upon himself to read and engage with scholars about indigenous Africa with a view to seeing what contributions sub-Saharan cultures could make to contemporary debates on the study of moral philosophy. His concern was that sub-Saharan ethical philosophy had been unjustly neglected around the world. In the text, he outlines the sub-Saharan communal ethic and goes on to make the claim that African tradition grounds a moral theory that is actually more attractive than the dominant modern Western moral theories. A Relational Moral Theory consists of parts of Metz’s previously published journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries that he has reviewed and revised, and put together as a monograph. Most texts which normally consist of revised and updated pieces previously published usually come out as a patchwork of edited pieces lacking a seamless unity. In his text, Metz carefully puts together the revised previously published pieces into a coherent thesis with a smooth flow. The book consists of an introductory chapter and twelve other chapters. It is divided into three broad parts, reflecting the three branches of the arm of knowledge that deals with moral principles—ethics. Part I is located within the branch of meta-ethics and is subtitled ‘African Ethics Without a Metaphysical Gound’. Part II finds grounding in the domain of normative ethics and is subtitled ‘Communality as the Ground of African Morality’. Part III is situated within the branch of applied ethics and is subtitled ‘Communality as the Ground of Morality Simpliciter’. Part I of the book is largely methodological and consists of two chapters, Chapters 2 and 3. In these, the author outlines the method he uses; this method is important in that it runs through the rest of the book. Chapter 2 justifies the author’s favored moral theory. In the chapter, the author outlines and then dismisses the moral claims of some renowned Philosophical Papers