Ontologized Ethics

New Essays in African Meta-Ethics

Contributions by Segun Gbadegesin, Sandra A. McCalla, Kevin Behrens, Jose Chemhuru, Isaac E. Ukpokolo, Justina O. Ehiakhamen, Jim I. Unah, M. Molefe, Elizabeth Oluwafunmilayo Kehinde, Chris Tasie Osegenwune, Thaddeus Metz Professor of Philosophy (Research Focus) Edited by Elvis Imafidon, John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji

Publication date:

21 November 2013

Length of book:

242 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

232x162mm
6x9"

Ontologized Ethics: New Essays in African Meta-Ethics examines an often neglected meta-ethical issue in African philosophical discourse: the extent to which one’s orientation of being, or idea of what-is – as an individual or as a group of persons – does, or should, determine one’s concept of the good. To what extent is ethics, or our idea of what is permissible or impermissible, grounded on ideas of what fundamentally exists or what it means to be? The aim of this collection of essays, with emphasis on an African philosophical context, will be to establish more firmly and vigorously whether there is an intrinsic link between ontology and morality – that is, whether, and, if so, how the proper norms for human actions can be explained and validated once we make lucid ideas about metaphysical topics such as human nature, community, relationality and spirituality. The essays included in this volume focus rigorously on ethical issues such as communalism, adultery, environmental ethics, and bioethics with the primary aim of showing whether the link between such issues and metaphysical beliefs is trivial or intrinsic.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Moral Tradition and Moral Revolution: A Conceptual Analysis
Chapter 2: University of Morality – myth or reality
Chapter 3: On the Ontological Foundation of a Social Ethic in African Traditions
Chapter 4: Towards an African Relational Environmentalism
Chapter 5: The Ethical Import in African Metaphysics: A Critical Discourse in Shona Environmental Ethics
Chapter 6: A Re-Interpretation of Gender Power Play in the Metaphysics of Adultery and Moral Exclusionism of Married Males in an African Culture
Chapter 7: Beyond Culpability: Approaching Male Impotency through Legitimated Adultery in Esan Metaphysics
Chapter 8: Finding Common Grounds for a Dialogue between African and Chinese Ethics
Chapter 9: Critical Reflection on Gyekye’s Humanism: Defending Supernaturalism
Chapter 10: Life’s Origin in Bioethics: Implications of Three ontological Perspectives: Judeo-Christianity, Western Secularism and the African Worldview
Chapter 11: Implicit Anachronism of the Concept of Eldership in African (Yoruba) Thought
Chapter 12: The Nature of Moral Values in African Philosophy: A Foundation for African Development
Chapter 13: Neo-Ontological Challenge to Negative Atheism: Feuerbach’s God of Secularism
Chapter 14: Questioning African Attempts to Ground Ethics on Metaphysics
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
Index
Notes on Contributors