Just the beginning for ubuntu

Reply to Matolino and Kwindingwi

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11419909
AutoresThaddeus Metz (0000-0001-9861-2408, University of Johannesburg, autor correspondente)
Ano2014
Volume33
Fascículo1
Páginas65-72
Data de publicação2014-01-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSouth African Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0258-0136 • E-ISSN: 2073-4867
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02580136.2014.892680
OpenAlexW2143305627
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas33
Referências citadas8

In an article titled ‘The end of ubuntu’ recently published in this journal, Bernard Matolino and Wenceslaus Kwindingwi argue that contemporary conditions in (South) Africa are such that there is no justification for appealing to an ethic associated with talk of ‘ubuntu’. They argue that political elites who invoke ubuntu do so in ways that serve nefarious functions, such as unreasonably narrowing discourse about how best to live, while the moral ideals of ubuntu are appropriate only for a bygone, pre-modern age. Since there is nothing ethically promising about ubuntu for today's society, and since elite appeals to it serve undesirable purposes there, the authors conclude that ubuntu in academic and political circles ‘has reached its end’. In this article, I respond to Matolino and Kwindingwi, contending that, in fact, we should view scholarly enquiry into, and the political application of, ubuntu as projects that are only now properly getting started

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