Aribiah D Attoe
Biographic Data
| ID | 6298484 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aribiah D Attoe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aribiah D |
| FAMILY NAME | Attoe |
| SIGNATURE | ATTOE A D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9786-1824 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
How Relationality Precedes Thought
This essay argues that Descartes’ cogito , although a significant contribution to so-called ‘Western’ epistemological and ontological traditions, reveals new insights when tested against an Ubuntu -relational framework. The framework that allows for Descartes’ method of doubt and the conclusions about being that follow is, for us, inadequate, as it fails to address some crucial presumptions that trail a relational perspective. It is in this inade…
A Sino‐African perspective and the morality of procreation
Current studies of anti/‐natalism have been carried out mainly in the context of western philosophy. In this article, we offer a pro‐natalist view based on Confucian and Afro‐communitarian philosophy (Sino‐African ethics). Grounded in this Sino‐African perspective, we uphold that there is, at least, one reason to believe that not only is it morally permissible to procreate, but also that on some occasions, procreating is what morality prescribes.…
Death and meaning(lessness)
In much of the emerging literature in African philosophy on the question of life's meaning, little, if anything, has been said about the relationship between African conceptions of death and the question of life's meaning. Drawing from clues in the literature on African metaphysics/philosophy of religion, this article will argue that within the context of an African conception of death, life is ultimately meaningless. To do this, I will begin by …
Shifting Perspectives in African Philosophy of Religion
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Afrophobia and Belongingness
For a long time, some African thinkers have sought to project communalism—or, more specifically, ubuntu—as the face of social life in African thought. Unfortunately, rather than emphasizing ubuntu, the reality of things in Africa portrays contextualization and exclusion in some of its most destructive form. One of the more prominent examples of this is the Afrophobic sentiments that have pervaded and continue to pervade the continent. Often, ubun…
Cosmic Purpose
In much of the literature concerning African theories of meaning, there are certain clues regarding what constitutes meaningfulness from an African traditional perspective. These are theories of meaning in life such as the African God’s purpose theory, which locates meaning in the obedience of divine law and/or the pursuit of one’s destiny; the vital force theory, which locates meaning in the continuous augmentation of one’s vital force through t…
Groundwork for a New Kind of African Metaphysics
Discrimination and Violence against Women with Disabilities in Africa
To the authors’ knowledge, not much has been said or done in African philosophical circles with regard to providing a theoretical framework from which the discrimination against African women with disabilities can be addressed. In this article, the authors show how such a framework can be grounded in Innocent Asouzu’s complementarism. Their contention, one grounded in this framework, is that this discrimination has its roots in an isolationist, e…
Redefining the Problem of Evil in the Context of a Predeterministic World
Merciful, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, spirit, unchanging, the first cause, unknowable. These are just some of the properties that some scholars of African religions have attributed to the being they call God. Setting aside accusations that some of these properties reflect the colonially imposed religions, it is almost taken as a given that these properties really do belong to some of the various versions of the African God. This, then, raise…
Accounts of Life’s Meaningfulness from a Contemporary African Perspective
Examining the literature on the question of life’s meaning from an African perspective, I find that existing theories almost solely stem from the context of traditional African thought. Thus, very little, if anything at all, is said about contemporary African accounts of meaningfulness. It is this gap that this article fills. In this article, I identify two major accounts of meaningfulness that can be derived from the contemporary African context…
Interrogating the mistreatment of sacred objects as art(efacts)
In this article, we argue against the assumptions that allow for the exploitation of certain types of relics under the guise that these objects are merely artistic and/or artifactual. Our thesis, therefore, is that sacred objects cannot be counted as art or treated as artefacts. To buttress our point, we first present some understandings of art and show how they aid these misconceptions. We then zoom in on two instances where the assumptions we r…
Communal Dictatorships, Sexual Orientations and Perverse Labelling in Modern Africa
Most Africans are generally in sync in their communal rejection of certain perceived moral threats – in this case, allegedly ‘unnatural’ sexual orientations – as immoral and un-African. It is the truthfulness of these assumptions that I seek to question. Thus, in this essay, I question the assumption that nonheterosexuality is immoral and un-African. To do this, I attempt to isolate the traditional African outlook on alleged ‘unnatural’ sexual or…
A systematic account of African conceptions of the meaning of/in life
In the growing literature on meaning in/of life, not a lot has been done to address the question of the meaning of/in life from an African perspective. Thus, in this article I attempt to bridge this intellectual gap by taxonomising and justifying some plausible theories of meaning in African thought in more depth than is found in African philosophical literature. Achieving this would involve proffering answers to the question: what are the Africa…
Guest editor’s introduction
(2020). Guest editor’s introduction: African perspectives to the question of life’s meaning. South African Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 39, African Perspectives to the Question of Life's Meaning, pp. 93-99
The philosophy of affirmative action as a constraint to gender equality
In this paper, I attempt to show in clear terms what I believe to be the inconsistencies inherent in adopting affirmative action as a proper philosophy for remedying the gender imbalance in contemporary African societies. I have also gestured towards the fact that apart from the issues involved in adopting affirmative action as a principle, the concept quite ironically further widens the gap it is meant to seal. In the spirit of the conversationa…
Are we finished with the ethnophilosophy debate? A multi-perspective conversation
In line with the tradition of the Conversational School of Philosophy, this essay provides a rare and unique space of discourse for the authors to converse about the place of the ‘ethno’ in African philosophy. This conversation is a revisit, a renewal of the key positions that have coloured the ethnophilosophy debate by the conversers who themselves are notable contributors to arguments for and against the importance of ethnophilosophy in the unf…
An essay concerning the foundational myth of ethnophilosophy
Ethnophilosophy, although glorified by some African philosophers, remains a problem in our undertakings in African philosophy. In its infancy, the problem revolved around the call for a total decolonization of African thought and philosophy, which eventually led to the proliferation of a vast array of mostly descriptive literature about the cultural views and practices of the African, sold to us as not only philosophy but genuine African philosop…
Mental Surgery
No Abstract
A systematic account of African conceptions of the meaning of/in life
In the growing literature on meaning in/of life, not a lot has been done to address the question of the meaning of/in life from an African perspective. Thus, in this article I attempt to bridge this intellectual gap by taxonomising and justifying some plausible theories of meaning in African thought in more depth than is found in African philosophical literature. Achieving this would involve proffering answers to the question: what are the Africa…
Mental Surgery
No Abstract
An essay concerning the foundational myth of ethnophilosophy
Ethnophilosophy, although glorified by some African philosophers, remains a problem in our undertakings in African philosophy. In its infancy, the problem revolved around the call for a total decolonization of African thought and philosophy, which eventually led to the proliferation of a vast array of mostly descriptive literature about the cultural views and practices of the African, sold to us as not only philosophy but genuine African philosop…
The philosophy of affirmative action as a constraint to gender equality
In this paper, I attempt to show in clear terms what I believe to be the inconsistencies inherent in adopting affirmative action as a proper philosophy for remedying the gender imbalance in contemporary African societies. I have also gestured towards the fact that apart from the issues involved in adopting affirmative action as a principle, the concept quite ironically further widens the gap it is meant to seal. In the spirit of the conversationa…
Are we finished with the ethnophilosophy debate? A multi-perspective conversation
In line with the tradition of the Conversational School of Philosophy, this essay provides a rare and unique space of discourse for the authors to converse about the place of the ‘ethno’ in African philosophy. This conversation is a revisit, a renewal of the key positions that have coloured the ethnophilosophy debate by the conversers who themselves are notable contributors to arguments for and against the importance of ethnophilosophy in the unf…
Communal Dictatorships, Sexual Orientations and Perverse Labelling in Modern Africa
Most Africans are generally in sync in their communal rejection of certain perceived moral threats – in this case, allegedly ‘unnatural’ sexual orientations – as immoral and un-African. It is the truthfulness of these assumptions that I seek to question. Thus, in this essay, I question the assumption that nonheterosexuality is immoral and un-African. To do this, I attempt to isolate the traditional African outlook on alleged ‘unnatural’ sexual or…
A systematic account of African conceptions of the meaning of/in life
In the growing literature on meaning in/of life, not a lot has been done to address the question of the meaning of/in life from an African perspective. Thus, in this article I attempt to bridge this intellectual gap by taxonomising and justifying some plausible theories of meaning in African thought in more depth than is found in African philosophical literature. Achieving this would involve proffering answers to the question: what are the Africa…
Guest editor’s introduction
(2020). Guest editor’s introduction: African perspectives to the question of life’s meaning. South African Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 39, African Perspectives to the Question of Life's Meaning, pp. 93-99
Accounts of Life’s Meaningfulness from a Contemporary African Perspective
Examining the literature on the question of life’s meaning from an African perspective, I find that existing theories almost solely stem from the context of traditional African thought. Thus, very little, if anything at all, is said about contemporary African accounts of meaningfulness. It is this gap that this article fills. In this article, I identify two major accounts of meaningfulness that can be derived from the contemporary African context…
Interrogating the mistreatment of sacred objects as art(efacts)
In this article, we argue against the assumptions that allow for the exploitation of certain types of relics under the guise that these objects are merely artistic and/or artifactual. Our thesis, therefore, is that sacred objects cannot be counted as art or treated as artefacts. To buttress our point, we first present some understandings of art and show how they aid these misconceptions. We then zoom in on two instances where the assumptions we r…
Groundwork for a New Kind of African Metaphysics
Discrimination and Violence against Women with Disabilities in Africa
To the authors’ knowledge, not much has been said or done in African philosophical circles with regard to providing a theoretical framework from which the discrimination against African women with disabilities can be addressed. In this article, the authors show how such a framework can be grounded in Innocent Asouzu’s complementarism. Their contention, one grounded in this framework, is that this discrimination has its roots in an isolationist, e…
Redefining the Problem of Evil in the Context of a Predeterministic World
Merciful, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, spirit, unchanging, the first cause, unknowable. These are just some of the properties that some scholars of African religions have attributed to the being they call God. Setting aside accusations that some of these properties reflect the colonially imposed religions, it is almost taken as a given that these properties really do belong to some of the various versions of the African God. This, then, raise…
Death and meaning(lessness)
In much of the emerging literature in African philosophy on the question of life's meaning, little, if anything, has been said about the relationship between African conceptions of death and the question of life's meaning. Drawing from clues in the literature on African metaphysics/philosophy of religion, this article will argue that within the context of an African conception of death, life is ultimately meaningless. To do this, I will begin by …
Shifting Perspectives in African Philosophy of Religion
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Afrophobia and Belongingness
For a long time, some African thinkers have sought to project communalism—or, more specifically, ubuntu—as the face of social life in African thought. Unfortunately, rather than emphasizing ubuntu, the reality of things in Africa portrays contextualization and exclusion in some of its most destructive form. One of the more prominent examples of this is the Afrophobic sentiments that have pervaded and continue to pervade the continent. Often, ubun…
Cosmic Purpose
In much of the literature concerning African theories of meaning, there are certain clues regarding what constitutes meaningfulness from an African traditional perspective. These are theories of meaning in life such as the African God’s purpose theory, which locates meaning in the obedience of divine law and/or the pursuit of one’s destiny; the vital force theory, which locates meaning in the continuous augmentation of one’s vital force through t…
A Sino‐African perspective and the morality of procreation
Current studies of anti/‐natalism have been carried out mainly in the context of western philosophy. In this article, we offer a pro‐natalist view based on Confucian and Afro‐communitarian philosophy (Sino‐African ethics). Grounded in this Sino‐African perspective, we uphold that there is, at least, one reason to believe that not only is it morally permissible to procreate, but also that on some occasions, procreating is what morality prescribes.…
How Relationality Precedes Thought
This essay argues that Descartes’ cogito , although a significant contribution to so-called ‘Western’ epistemological and ontological traditions, reveals new insights when tested against an Ubuntu -relational framework. The framework that allows for Descartes’ method of doubt and the conclusions about being that follow is, for us, inadequate, as it fails to address some crucial presumptions that trail a relational perspective. It is in this inade…
African cultural and philosophical studies (15 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Epistemology (14 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works) · History (4 works) · Mathematics (4 works) · Metaphysics (4 works)