Ubuntu Ethics: Human Dignity, Moral Perfectionism, and Needs

This book provides a philosophical exposition of Ubuntu ethics, which it does by explaining the saying ’a person is a person through other persons’. Written by one of the world’s leading scholars of African philosophy, the book first argues that the focus on umuntu (or, a person) in Ubuntu ethics as intrinsically valuable makes ethical humanism and human dignity vitally important. The book then goes on to consider the role of virtue ethics in driving an ideal of moral perfectionism. This, in turn, provides the basis for what a good society should be: a needs-based political theory. Providing an important guide through Ubuntu ethics as a moral system constructed in terms of moral perfectionism, it will be an important read for researchers of African philosophy, and of the philosophy of virtue ethics and moral perfectionism more generally.

Motsamai Molefe is an Associate Professor, University of South Africa, Graduate School of Business Leadership, South Africa. He specialises in African philosophy, Ethics, and Governance. He serves as the Chair of Department: Inter-Africa Trade and Investment. He is the Editor-in-chief of the South African Journal of Philosophy. His recent co-authored book African Ethics and Death: Moral Status and Human Dignity in UbuntuThinking (Routledge, 2023) and co-edited book Human Dignity in anAfrican Context (Palgrave, 2023).