Overview

Ifeanyi Menkiti’s articulation of an African conception of personhood—especially in “Person and Community in African Traditional Thought” —has become very influential in African philosophy. Menkiti on Community and Becoming a Person contributes to the debate in African philosophy on personhood by engaging with various aspects of Menkiti’s account of person and community. The contributors examine this account in relation to themes such as individualism, communalism, rights, individual liberty, moral agency, communal ethics, education, state and nation building, elderhood and ancestorhood. Through these themes, this book, edited by Edwin Etieyibo and Polycarp Ikuenobe, shows that Menkiti’s account of personhood in the context of community is both fundamental and foundational to epistemological, metaphysical, logical, ethical, legal, social and political issues in African thought systems.

Full Product Details

Author:   Edwin Etieyibo ,  Polycarp Ikuenobe ,  Dismas A. Masolo ,  Barry Hallen, Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College and Associate in, Barry Hallen, Professor of Philosophy at Morehouse College and Associate in
Publisher:   Lexington Books
Imprint:   Lexington Books
Dimensions:   Width: 16.20cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 24.10cm
Weight:   0.612kg
ISBN:  

9781498583657

ISBN 10:   1498583652
Pages:   286
Publication Date:   24 July 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction Edwin Etieyibo and Polycarp Ikuenobe Chapter 1: Caught Between Two Manifestos: Menkiti and an Attempt at a Mediation Dismas A. Masolo Chapter 2: Discussions of African Communitarianism with Specific Reference to Menkiti and Rawls Barry Hallen Chapter 3: Persons and Citizens Katrin Flikschuh Chapter 4: The Sociality of Persons Edwin Etieyibo Chapter 5: Personal Persistence and Narrative Unity: The Case of Ancestral Persons Oritsegbubemi Anthony Oyowe Chapter 6: Menkiti’s Account of the Social Ontology of African Community and Persons Polycarp Ikuenobe Chapter 7: African Communitarianism and the Imperative for Moral Education Michael Onyebuchi Eze Chapter 8: Community, Individuality, and Reciprocity in Menkiti Thaddeus Metz Chapter 9: Elderhood and Ancestorhood: Exemplar of a Person in African Community Polycarp Ikuenobe and Edwin Etieyibo Chapter 10: An Outline of Menkiti’s Metaphysical Commitment Bernard Matolino Chapter 11: Personhood and State Building in Africa Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani Chapter 12: I Can’t Unless You Can Helen Lauer Chapter 13: Before a Common Soil: Personhood, Community and the Duty to Bear Witness Uchenna Okeja Chapter 14: Who Gets a Place in Person-Space? Simon Beck and Oritsegbubemi Anthony Oyowe Chapter 15: Menkiti as a Man of Community Edwin Etieyibo Afterword About the Contributors

Reviews

"""This collection of essays constitute testaments to the depth of a foremost contemporary African philosopher's reflections on one of the most important issues which determine the direction/quality of human existence as a gregarious being. Are human beings atoms and individuals, with no connections or obligations to any other, but the self? Or, are human beings the products of families, communities, and societies and, therefore, beings that bear responsibility for the well-being of others as well as of self? As humanity navigates the 21st century, coming from the declining fortunes of destructively dominant Western traditions which privilege violence, inequality, and bigotry of all forms, centering African understanding of personhood as a social, community-based being--local and global--is a project which harkens back to the role Africa has placed in birthing human civilization and which has ensured the survival of post-apartheid South Africa grounded in Ubuntu philosophy. The essays in this volume will continue to serve as reference markers for scholarship and research into African/global humanity in the years and decades to come."" The authors of this text must be appreciated for their analytical acumen in dissecting the concept of personhood. The dynamism of their thoughts and the dexterity of their espousals are second to none. This text will remain for a long time to come one of the profoundest, clearest, ambitious, critical and rigorous text on the concept of personhood."

This collection of essays constitute testaments to the depth of a foremost contemporary African philosopher's reflections on one of the most important issues which determine the direction/quality of human existence as a gregarious being. Are human beings atoms and individuals, with no connections or obligations to any other, but the self? Or, are human beings the products of families, communities, and societies and, therefore, beings that bear responsibility for the well-being of others as well as of self? As humanity navigates the 21st century, coming from the declining fortunes of destructively dominant Western traditions which privilege violence, inequality, and bigotry of all forms, centering African understanding of personhood as a social, community-based being--local and global--is a project which harkens back to the role Africa has placed in birthing human civilization and which has ensured the survival of post-apartheid South Africa grounded in Ubuntu philosophy. The essays in this volume will continue to serve as reference markers for scholarship and research into African/global humanity in the years and decades to come.--John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji, University of the West Indies The authors of this text must be appreciated for their analytical acumen in dissecting the concept of personhood. The dynamism of their thoughts and the dexterity of their espousals are second to none. This text will remain for a long time to come one of the profoundest, clearest, ambitious, critical and rigorous text on the concept of personhood.--G. O. Ozumba, University of Calabar, Nigeria

"The authors of this text must be appreciated for their analytical acumen in dissecting the concept of personhood. The dynamism of their thoughts and the dexterity of their espousals are second to none. This text will remain for a long time to come one of the profoundest, clearest, ambitious, critical and rigorous text on the concept of personhood. ""This collection of essays constitute testaments to the depth of a foremost contemporary African philosopher's reflections on one of the most important issues which determine the direction/quality of human existence as a gregarious being. Are human beings atoms and individuals, with no connections or obligations to any other, but the self? Or, are human beings the products of families, communities, and societies and, therefore, beings that bear responsibility for the well-being of others as well as of self? As humanity navigates the 21st century, coming from the declining fortunes of destructively dominant Western traditions which privilege violence, inequality, and bigotry of all forms, centering African understanding of personhood as a social, community-based being--local and global--is a project which harkens back to the role Africa has placed in birthing human civilization and which has ensured the survival of post-apartheid South Africa grounded in Ubuntu philosophy. The essays in this volume will continue to serve as reference markers for scholarship and research into African/global humanity in the years and decades to come."""

"""This collection of essays constitute testaments to the depth of a foremost contemporary African philosopher's reflections on one of the most important issues which determine the direction/quality of human existence as a gregarious being. Are human beings atoms and individuals, with no connections or obligations to any other, but the self? Or, are human beings the products of families, communities, and societies and, therefore, beings that bear responsibility for the well-being of others as well as of self? As humanity navigates the 21st century, coming from the declining fortunes of destructively dominant Western traditions which privilege violence, inequality, and bigotry of all forms, centering African understanding of personhood as a social, community-based being--local and global--is a project which harkens back to the role Africa has placed in birthing human civilization and which has ensured the survival of post-apartheid South Africa grounded in Ubuntu philosophy. The essays in this volume will continue to serve as reference markers for scholarship and research into African/global humanity in the years and decades to come.""--John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji, University of the West Indies The authors of this text must be appreciated for their analytical acumen in dissecting the concept of personhood. The dynamism of their thoughts and the dexterity of their espousals are second to none. This text will remain for a long time to come one of the profoundest, clearest, ambitious, critical and rigorous text on the concept of personhood.--G. O. Ozumba, University of Calabar, Nigeria"

The authors of this text must be appreciated for their analytical acumen in dissecting the concept of personhood. The dynamism of their thoughts and the dexterity of their espousals are second to none. This text will remain for a long time to come one of the profoundest, clearest, ambitious, critical and rigorous text on the concept of personhood.--G. O. Ozumba, University of Calabar, Nigeria This collection of essays constitute testaments to the depth of a foremost contemporary African philosopher's reflections on one of the most important issues which determine the direction/quality of human existence as a gregarious being. Are human beings atoms and individuals, with no connections or obligations to any other, but the self? Or, are human beings the products of families, communities, and societies and, therefore, beings that bear responsibility for the well-being of others as well as of self? As humanity navigates the 21st century, coming from the declining fortunes of destructively dominant Western traditions which privilege violence, inequality, and bigotry of all forms, centering African understanding of personhood as a social, community-based being--local and global--is a project which harkens back to the role Africa has placed in birthing human civilization and which has ensured the survival of post-apartheid South Africa grounded in Ubuntu philosophy. The essays in this volume will continue to serve as reference markers for scholarship and research into African/global humanity in the years and decades to come. --John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji, University of the West Indies

Author Information

Edwin Etieyibo is professor of philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand. Polycarp Ikuenobe is professor of philosophy at Kent State University.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions