First impressions
Write in response to the proposition that: a person is a person through other persons. Write whatever you like. A mini-essay, a poem, a song, a story.
Initial discussion
- What impressed you most about the paper?
- What did you find most puzzling or unconvincing?
- What did you take away that you found most useful to help you think through ethics?
An introduction to Ubuntu
Before the break, let’s watch this short introduction to Ubuntu from the BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UojwMiRpNM&t=39s
Thinking through Ubuntu Ethics:
Here are some things that, in the paper, the author says are uncontroversially immoral in Ubuntu ethics, but not in Western approaches to ethics.
- making policy decisions in the face of dissent, as opposed to seeking consensus.
- making retribution a fundamental and central aim of criminal justice, as opposed to seeking reconciliation.
- creating wealth largely on a competitive basis, as opposed to a cooperative one.
- distributing wealth largely on the basis of individual rights, as opposed to need.
- ignoring others and violating communal norms, as opposed to acknowledging others, upholding tradition and partaking in rituals.
- failing to marry and procreate, as opposed to creating a family.
To what extent do you agree with the arguments as to the immorality of these things? If you agree, why? And if you disagree, also… why?
Homework
Your homework is to have some rest.