Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani
Biographic Data
| ID | 232670 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ani |
| GIVEN NAMES | Emmanuel Ifeanyi |
| FAMILY NAME | Ani |
| SIGNATURE | ANI E I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ghana |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5526-1126 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Where Communitarianism Stops and Liberalism Begins
Bernard Matolino argues that Kwame Gyekye’s moderate communitarianism is not different from the radical communitarianism of earlier communitarians. But I show that in many other places, Matolino acknowledges that Gyekye’s version is indeed different. I also show that Matolino has the penchant to not only praise Gyekye for positions he (Matolino) has previously criticized, but also to take over such positions by making them central arguments in hi…
Considering escaping hell
Adams argues that the traditional doctrine of eternal hellish experience stretches the Problem of Evil beyond any reasonable solution, as hell is stubbornly incompatible with God's omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness. Buckareff and Plug argue that people could leave hell. Matheson responds that if people could leave hell, people could leave heaven. But Matheson provides reasons to think that this is not possible. Luck attempts to refut…
Africa Beyond Liberal Democracy
What Exactly is Voting to Consensual Deliberation
There have been two parallel views regarding the role of voting in deliberation. The first is that deliberation before the fabrication of balloting was completely devoid of voting. The second is that voting is not just part of deliberation, but is standard to deliberation. I argue in this article that neither of these views is correct. Implicit voting has always existed across time and space but only as a last resort in the event of a failure of …
Consensus and majoritarian democracies
I argue that when conceiving or assessing normative ideas about how we should organize society into the kind of ecosystem we desire, it is unwise to completely ignore empirical conditions. I also demonstrate that when evaluating empirical difficulties attending a social system, it is also unwise to do so in total oblivion to the normative idea or objective informing the establishment of such a system. Each of these assessments I call an under inf…
Is Bargaining a Form of Deliberating
Prevailing literature argues that arguing is the only appropriate mode of deliberation. The literature acknowledges bargaining, storytelling, and other forms of communication, but is unwilling to describe these as deliberation, properly speaking. The claim is that describing them as such would amount to concept stretching. My first thesis is that arguing exhausts neither the legitimate modes of deliberation nor the modes for effective deliberatio…
Afro-communitarianism or Cosmopolitanism
The Consensus Project and Three Levels of Deliberation
The basic argument is that the consensus debate has not been very meaningful until now because consensus has not been closely studied as a concept, and deliberation has not been studied precisely in terms of the propensity to reach common agreement. In particular, deliberation-as well as issues for deliberation-has not been categorized into different levels with a view to exposing the varying challenges of reaching common agreement and the kinds …
The question of social conformity in Wiredu's consensual democracy
This article is a continuation of a debate about social conformity in practicing consensus. The debate arose from my response to Kwasi Wiredu’s proposal for consensual democracy, which he proposed as an alternative to the majoritarian democracy many African countries inherited from their colonial masters. In the course of his proposal, Wiredu had presented the activity of deliberation as a purely rational affair. I had, in a 2014 article, disprov…
Theistic humanism and a critique of Wiredu's notion of supernaturalism
In decrying the evils of supernaturalism, African philosopher Kwasi Wiredu (1931-) proposes humanism, by making concern for human well-being the basis for morality. However, the presentation of humanism as a simple replacement of supernaturalism is objectionable. Wiredu's notion of supernaturalism is too narrow, since it is only a variant of supernaturalism. His reference to humanism is too broad, since humanism is an umbrella of very conflicting…
Debating the Roots of Poor Academic Performance in the West African Subregion
Recent nationalistic arguments have tended to blame the use of foreign language as responsible for poor academic performance and even underdevelopment. Although I theoretically agree with the mother tongue (MT) proposal concerning early elementary education, I identify some narrowness in the meaning of MT that drives the nationalistic school. A correction of this connotative inaccuracy would mean that the importance of the MT proposal to educatio…
Combatting corruption with public deliberation
Building on Seumas Miller's concept of corruption leads me to conclude that the question of disposition is central to the concept of corruption, which prompts me to consider punishment theories with regard to deterring dispositions to corruption. However, problems with punishment as a stand-alone approach lead me to consider institutional reform recommendations. Although institutional reforms have the weakness of merely engaging corrupt dispositi…
A United States of Africa
On agreed actions without agreed notions
In his plea for consensual democracy in Africa, Kwasi Wiredu recommends unanimity about what is to be done, not what ought to be done, or unanimity on action rather than unanimity of values, beliefs and opinion. I caution the use of this procedural instrument by showing that some issues are so value-laden that a group decision cannot be value-neutral. It may sometimes be more productive to entertain value differences to keep them from going under…
On Traditional A frican Consensual Rationality
Africa and the prospects of deliberative democracy
Preoccupation with multiparty aggregative democracy in Africa has produced superficial forms of political/electoral choice-making by subjects that deepen pre-existing ethnic and primordial cleavages. This is because the principles of the multiparty system presuppose that decision-making through voting should be the result of a mere aggregation of pre-existing, fixed preferences. To this kind of decision-making, I propose deliberative democracy as…
On Traditional A frican Consensual Rationality
Africa and the prospects of deliberative democracy
Preoccupation with multiparty aggregative democracy in Africa has produced superficial forms of political/electoral choice-making by subjects that deepen pre-existing ethnic and primordial cleavages. This is because the principles of the multiparty system presuppose that decision-making through voting should be the result of a mere aggregation of pre-existing, fixed preferences. To this kind of decision-making, I propose deliberative democracy as…
On agreed actions without agreed notions
In his plea for consensual democracy in Africa, Kwasi Wiredu recommends unanimity about what is to be done, not what ought to be done, or unanimity on action rather than unanimity of values, beliefs and opinion. I caution the use of this procedural instrument by showing that some issues are so value-laden that a group decision cannot be value-neutral. It may sometimes be more productive to entertain value differences to keep them from going under…
The Consensus Project and Three Levels of Deliberation
The basic argument is that the consensus debate has not been very meaningful until now because consensus has not been closely studied as a concept, and deliberation has not been studied precisely in terms of the propensity to reach common agreement. In particular, deliberation-as well as issues for deliberation-has not been categorized into different levels with a view to exposing the varying challenges of reaching common agreement and the kinds …
On Traditional A frican Consensual Rationality
Africa and the prospects of deliberative democracy
Preoccupation with multiparty aggregative democracy in Africa has produced superficial forms of political/electoral choice-making by subjects that deepen pre-existing ethnic and primordial cleavages. This is because the principles of the multiparty system presuppose that decision-making through voting should be the result of a mere aggregation of pre-existing, fixed preferences. To this kind of decision-making, I propose deliberative democracy as…
A United States of Africa
On agreed actions without agreed notions
In his plea for consensual democracy in Africa, Kwasi Wiredu recommends unanimity about what is to be done, not what ought to be done, or unanimity on action rather than unanimity of values, beliefs and opinion. I caution the use of this procedural instrument by showing that some issues are so value-laden that a group decision cannot be value-neutral. It may sometimes be more productive to entertain value differences to keep them from going under…
Combatting corruption with public deliberation
Building on Seumas Miller's concept of corruption leads me to conclude that the question of disposition is central to the concept of corruption, which prompts me to consider punishment theories with regard to deterring dispositions to corruption. However, problems with punishment as a stand-alone approach lead me to consider institutional reform recommendations. Although institutional reforms have the weakness of merely engaging corrupt dispositi…
Debating the Roots of Poor Academic Performance in the West African Subregion
Recent nationalistic arguments have tended to blame the use of foreign language as responsible for poor academic performance and even underdevelopment. Although I theoretically agree with the mother tongue (MT) proposal concerning early elementary education, I identify some narrowness in the meaning of MT that drives the nationalistic school. A correction of this connotative inaccuracy would mean that the importance of the MT proposal to educatio…
Theistic humanism and a critique of Wiredu's notion of supernaturalism
In decrying the evils of supernaturalism, African philosopher Kwasi Wiredu (1931-) proposes humanism, by making concern for human well-being the basis for morality. However, the presentation of humanism as a simple replacement of supernaturalism is objectionable. Wiredu's notion of supernaturalism is too narrow, since it is only a variant of supernaturalism. His reference to humanism is too broad, since humanism is an umbrella of very conflicting…
The Consensus Project and Three Levels of Deliberation
The basic argument is that the consensus debate has not been very meaningful until now because consensus has not been closely studied as a concept, and deliberation has not been studied precisely in terms of the propensity to reach common agreement. In particular, deliberation-as well as issues for deliberation-has not been categorized into different levels with a view to exposing the varying challenges of reaching common agreement and the kinds …
The question of social conformity in Wiredu's consensual democracy
This article is a continuation of a debate about social conformity in practicing consensus. The debate arose from my response to Kwasi Wiredu’s proposal for consensual democracy, which he proposed as an alternative to the majoritarian democracy many African countries inherited from their colonial masters. In the course of his proposal, Wiredu had presented the activity of deliberation as a purely rational affair. I had, in a 2014 article, disprov…
Is Bargaining a Form of Deliberating
Prevailing literature argues that arguing is the only appropriate mode of deliberation. The literature acknowledges bargaining, storytelling, and other forms of communication, but is unwilling to describe these as deliberation, properly speaking. The claim is that describing them as such would amount to concept stretching. My first thesis is that arguing exhausts neither the legitimate modes of deliberation nor the modes for effective deliberatio…
Afro-communitarianism or Cosmopolitanism
What Exactly is Voting to Consensual Deliberation
There have been two parallel views regarding the role of voting in deliberation. The first is that deliberation before the fabrication of balloting was completely devoid of voting. The second is that voting is not just part of deliberation, but is standard to deliberation. I argue in this article that neither of these views is correct. Implicit voting has always existed across time and space but only as a last resort in the event of a failure of …
Consensus and majoritarian democracies
I argue that when conceiving or assessing normative ideas about how we should organize society into the kind of ecosystem we desire, it is unwise to completely ignore empirical conditions. I also demonstrate that when evaluating empirical difficulties attending a social system, it is also unwise to do so in total oblivion to the normative idea or objective informing the establishment of such a system. Each of these assessments I call an under inf…
Africa Beyond Liberal Democracy
Considering escaping hell
Adams argues that the traditional doctrine of eternal hellish experience stretches the Problem of Evil beyond any reasonable solution, as hell is stubbornly incompatible with God's omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness. Buckareff and Plug argue that people could leave hell. Matheson responds that if people could leave hell, people could leave heaven. But Matheson provides reasons to think that this is not possible. Luck attempts to refut…
Where Communitarianism Stops and Liberalism Begins
Bernard Matolino argues that Kwame Gyekye’s moderate communitarianism is not different from the radical communitarianism of earlier communitarians. But I show that in many other places, Matolino acknowledges that Gyekye’s version is indeed different. I also show that Matolino has the penchant to not only praise Gyekye for positions he (Matolino) has previously criticized, but also to take over such positions by making them central arguments in hi…
Political science (12 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · African cultural and philosophical studies (5 works) · Deliberation (5 works)