Research Articles (Philosophy)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/2333

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Text, theory and methodology : ruminations from the horizon of a reader from the south
Makalima, Otto (AOSIS, 2025-11-14)
This article marks the tenth year of Welile Mazamisa's passing, as a proverbial burning down of a library. It contains a recollection of lessons gleaned from memory of his own ruminations as he lived and mused from his horizon as a reader from the south. In his own dialectic fashion, a reflection on the text, theory and methodology is discussed as a possible lesson and perhaps, also a quo vadis question to the contemporary biblical scholar and theologian in South Africa, concerning these categories of scholarship. It seems fair to say that among lessons to still be learned from Mazamisa, is this lesson: a critical reader is to be mindful of the centrality of the text, the urgency of theory and the necessity of methodology in the process of reading and appropriating the reading of the text. In conclusion, an application is made to the decolonisation project and the credibility of theology as an academic discipline in South Africa (SA). CONTRIBUTION : This article contributes to the discourse of hermeneutics and decolonisation and also to the discourse of hermeneutics and the question of the credibility of theology as an academic discipline in South Africa
Principles for compensating the epistemic injustices of colonialism
Metz, Thaddeus (Springer, 2026)
I aim to make headway towards understanding how to compensate properly for epistemic injustices committed during large-scale forms of intergroup domination, with my focus being European colonialism in much of Africa and apartheid in South Africa. I point out that there is a wide array of suggestions about how concretely to effect reparations for these injustices in the literature, and seek to discover which (if any) are justified by a plausible theory of compensatory justice. One potential theory is the principle that people done an injustice should be put into the position they would have been in had the injustice not occurred, while another is to give wrongfully harmed peoples control over what had been taken away from them. These principles have frequently been applied to major racial injustices pertaining to property and opportunity, but I present new reason to think that both have counterintuitive implications when applied to epistemic injustices. Drawing on values and practices salient in parts of South America and Africa as well as some Anglo-American thought about restorative justice, I advance a unique third account of compensatory justice in general that I show both avoids the criticisms facing rivals and has plausible implications for how to respond to the relevant epistemic injustices in particular.
Beyond ubuntu and decoloniality : toward a precarity-based African existentialist mobility framework
Matolino, Bernard (Routledge, 2026)
This article is conceived against the background of value systems that seek to understand and represent African reality vis-à-vis African migration. The two major systems of thought to be evaluated against the realities of migration are ubuntu and decoloniality. I seek to suggest that while these theories seek to account for experiences in modern Africa, there is a possible system of thought that may comprehensively capture African reality. Precarity, as a system of thought, speaks most directly to African reality as well as the motivating factors behind some of the characteristics of African migration. The argument for this position will be made against the migrant youth we interviewed in Johannesburg. In addition, I will seek to show that religious belonging plays a fundamental role in the formation of identity and a sense of belonging among migrant youths.
Advancing global economic justice in the face of race : Mwipikeni’s critique of Metz’s reformist normative economics
Lougheed, Kirk; Metz, Thaddeus (NISC (Pty) Ltd and Informa UK Limited (trading as Taylor & Francis Group), 2025)
In a recent article in this journal, Peter Mwipikeni argues that Thaddeus Metz’s appeal to an African relational ethic to suggest reforms that would promote global economic justice is misguided. According to Mwipikeni, the problem is that Metz’s ideas are offered in the context of a “racialised world order” that is fundamentally and structurally unjust. Without first tearing the current system down, there can be no true economic justice on the African continent, while those benefiting from the racism would not accept Metz’s prescriptions. We counter that Mwipikeni’s critique mistakenly evaluates Metz’s proposed reforms based on the likelihood that they would be adopted, instead of on whether they would promote justice in principle, where such a critique in fact plagues Mwipikeni’s own, more radical proposals to a much greater degree. We also argue that incorporating more aspects of Metz’s communal ethic into the discussion demonstrates that it would in fact reject any racist system, including by forbidding such a system in the first place and subsequently prescribing compensation for its victims if it did arise. We conclude that neither Metz’s reforms nor his underlying normative philosophy merits rejection for the reasons Mwipikeni has presented so far.
Rescuing the (open) theistic multiverse against two recent challenges
Lougheed, Kirk; Blank, Timothy (Springer, 2025-06)
One theistic account of creation says that God created the best possible world in the form of a multiverse containing all and only all of the universes sufficiently good enough to create. Certain proponents of this view urge that it solves the problem of no best world and need not commit one to affirming divine middle knowledge. We address two recent challenges to the (open) theistic multiverse. First, Marshall Naylor argues that what he calls the Cantorian account of divine creation is better than any theistic multiverse account because it provides more satisfying answers to a number of philosophical problems (2020). Second, Elliot Crozat criticizes the open theistic multiverse by arguing that if God lacks middle knowledge, God cannot know infallibly that the universe token he creates will be the right type (i.e., sufficiently good enough for inclusion in the multiverse) (2019). We show that Naylor’s alternative violates incredibly strong moral intuitions and that Crozat’s objection fails to appreciate that on open theism God still knows all the possible future outcomes. Theistic multiverse accounts of divine creation in general, and one cojoined with open theism in particular, remain unscathed in the face of the criticisms offered by Naylor and Crozat.
The defence and limits of consensual democracy
Metz, Thaddeus (Routledge, 2026)
In this article, I draw on the neglected tradition of African political and legal philosophy to address the sort of representative democracy suitable for twenty-first-century urban societies. In particular, I present and evaluate for a global audience consensualism about democracy, the view that some kind of unanimous agreement amongst elected legislators should normally be a necessary condition for a statute to count as valid law. After expounding this view, which is more or less the default in the African philosophical tradition, I present a new argument for it by drawing on a plausible communal ethic, contend that this argument is a better explanation of why consensualism might be justified than extant moral rationales, draw on the ethic to explain why consensualism might not be unconditionally justified and might be unjust in certain circumstances, and finally defend consensualism from major objections that have recently been made and remain as yet unaswered.
Negotiating the present, facing the past : postcolonial politics and transnational youth experiences in South Africa
Mlambo, Sibusisiwe; Matolino, Bernard (Routledge, 2026)
Migration reshapes South Africa’s religious and political landscape, yet the experiences of African youth who traverse the continent remain under-examined. Drawing on biographical interviews and participant observation with Nigerian and Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg (2024–25), this article explores how young people negotiate xenophobia, post-apartheid inequality and the unfinished business of decolonization through religious and spiritual practices. We show how schools, clinics and urban neighborhoods function as key sites where colonial and apartheid racial hierarchies are reproduced, and where migrants are marked as criminal, excessive or disposable. At the same time, faith-based organizations and everyday spiritual repertoires provide infrastructures of mobility, belonging and political critique, enabling youth to reframe marginalization in Pan-African and theological terms. By bringing postcolonial and Pan-African debates into conversation with lived religion, the article demonstrates how transnational African youth convert traumatic encounters with exclusion into fragile yet meaningful forms of agency and hope in Johannesburg today.
Introduction : roaming and rooted - migration, religion, spirituality and the transnational lives of African youth
Pasura, Dominic; Chitando, Ezra; Williams, Dodeye; Matolino, Bernard (Routledge, 2026)
This Special Issue examines the intersections of migration, religion, spirituality and the transnational lives of African youth, offering a decolonial and youth-centred perspective on mobility and belonging. Drawing on comparative, multi-sited ethnography in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the UK, the contributions centre on young Africans’ agency as they navigate structural inequality, postcolonial legacies, racialised bordering and digital connectivity. By foregrounding African epistemologies such as kufambira (relational journeying) and unsettling Eurocentric binaries – migrant/left-behind and religious/secular – this Special Issue reconceptualises migration as a spiritually embedded, multi-directional process. The ten articles explore how youth leverage religion and digital platforms for identity, resistance and resilience, while interrogating the colonial infrastructures that shape their mobilities. Collectively, this issue advances a transformative agenda for migration studies, one that foregrounds Southern theories, lived experience and African youth’s creative agency to reshape understandings of migration, religion, spirituality and transnational life, offering a critical intervention in contemporary scholarship.
The future of sustainable development goals and culture : addressing missing dimensions from four cosmovisions African Ubuntu, Latin-American Buen Vivir, Buddhist Happiness and Nordic Sami Arbediehtu
Van Norren, Dorine Eva; Seehawer, Maren (Springer, 2025-10)
The SDGs miss crucial dimensions when viewed from the cosmovisions of Ubuntu, Buen Vivir, Buddhist Happiness and Sami Arbediehtu. What principles can be derived from these cosmovisions to guide discussions after 2030? As methodology we use a dialogical intercultural philosophical reflection and a decolonial stance addressing planetary survival instead of sustainable development, to develop principles for after 2030, for example to be included in a Culture Goal using the transformative power of culture. After analysing and comparing the four cosmovisions, we suggest ‘Harmony with Nature’ as an umbrella planetary wellbeing concept. Other principles could be: (social SDGs:) harmony with oneself, others and nature; interculturality and epistemic diversity; community flourishing; balance of masculine and feminine values; intertwinement of spiritual, emotional, physical, communal health; serving others as educational goal; (green SDGs:) intrinsic value of nature as part of the community; recognizing ancestorial legacy and future generations’ needs; (economic SDGs:) economics of collective well-being, earth governance and society-oriented businesses; (SDG16:) participatory, ‘deep’ consensus oriented democracy; collective dignity, restorative justice; (SDG17 global partnership:) interdependence of all life.
Cross-cultural and applied ethics in the light of a relational moral theory
Metz, Thaddeus (Springer, 2025-11-15)
This article is a reply to six contributions to a special issue of Ethical Theory and Moral Practice that is devoted to critically discussing A Relational Moral Theory: African Ethics in and Beyond the Continent. In this book I articulate a comprehensive principle of rightness that is substantially informed by relational values salient in the African philosophical tradition (and some others in the Global South) and defend it as preferable to some major moral-theoretic rivals, including standard versions of utilitarianism and Kantianism. Some contributions argue for a method of undertaking cross-cultural ethics different from mine , while others consider to what extent my general ethic can entail and powerfully explain particular duties or at times aspects of morality beyond duties. The latter topics include: when biotechnological enhancements are permissible, how to respond emotionally to injustice, how solitude is morally significant, what we owe the environment, and what the obligations of a private business are. I work to clarify and motivate my approach within the constraints of a brief reply.
Gaza : we need to talk!
Davids, Nuraan; Barnett, Ronald; Metz, Thaddeus; Zalloua, Zahi; Yancy, George; Orchard, Janet; Papastephanou, Marianna; Maldonado-Torres, Nelson; Robins, Steven; Conroy, James; Forster, Daniela J.; Le Grange, Lesley; Biesta, Gert; Gordon, Mordechai (Taylor and Francis, 2025-07-16)
No abstract available.
Ocean management and rights of nature : the case of the Galapagos in Ecuador and beyond
Van Norren, Dorine Eva; De Blok, Chris (Elsevier, 2025-03)
The expanded protection zone of Galapagos encircling sea territories of Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama (CMAR) could incorporate a rights of Nature approach, whereby prosecution of trespassers becomes more likely to be successful as cross boundary ecology is recognized in the rights of Nature approach and extra territorial application facilitated with positive effects for ocean governance. In the rights of Nature doctrine, anyone can stand up for Nature regardless of personal interest. The Galapagos sharkfin cases of 2015 and 2019 based on constitutional rights of Nature legislation in Ecuador demonstrate the preventative effect. This can be a first step towards recognizing ocean rights (as a substrand of rights of Nature). There are several options for implementation in CMAR. This fits into a wider buen vivir (good living in harmony with Nature) and development approach. Closing of areas for biodiversity protection has wider ecosystem effects (as Palau demonstrated) causing multiplication of species such as sharks outside the protection zones as well. Current levels of (CMAR and general) ocean protection are highly insufficient. The national Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are too small in number. Moreover, the areas covered by MPAs do not always have high protection levels. The majority of areas beyond national jurisdiction are thus not protected. Which countries will ratify the new ocean protection regime (BBNJ) remains to be seen.
Classic pro‐choice thought experiments and African communitarianism
Lougheed, Kirk (Wiley, 2025-07)
I analyse two classic pro‐choice thought experiments in the Anglo‐American philosophical literature in Thomson's Violinist Case and Tooley's Kitten Serum Case, in light of two prominent African normative theories. Though each of these cases is designed to generate pro‐choice intuitions, I suggest they do not do so nearly as clearly when African normative theories are in view. Furthermore, even where they might yield a pro‐choice verdict, they do so for very different reasons. That African ethics, which is often labelled communitarian, differs from what one typically finds in the Anglo‐American normative tradition is hardly a new insight. However, that these differences might undermine the universality of pro‐choice thought experiments about abortion in Anglo‐American bioethics has yet to receive significant attention.
Philosophy of education as pluriversal : opening the dialogues
Davids, Nuraan; Simba, Precious; Metz, Thaddeus; Horsthemke, Kai; Noaparast, Khosrow Bagheri; Faruque, Muhammad U.; Memon, Nadeem; Kwak, Duck-Joo; Jackson, Liz (Routledge, 2026)
Despite the historical origins of philosophy from a richly diverse tapestry of thinkers, which cuts across geopolitical, cultural and religious traditions, and despite internationalising trends to develop both a more inclusive and authentic account of philosophical thinking, it remains largely unquestioned to equate philosophy of education with its western canon. These concerning biases are succinctly laid bare in Jackson and Kwak’s (2025) editorial, ‘Is philosophy of education western?’ They are correct in their assertion that the persistent perspective of philosophy of education as western suggests that the world beyond Western Europe and North America appears insignificant, holding negative implications for the development of curricula, research, scholarly discourse, and educational practice and outcomes in the field globally. Jackson and Kwak (2025, p. 2) are also correct that the unfolding epistemic framing is not only a continuing marginalisation of ‘non-western’ thinkers and philosophies, but also expectations of the latter to be ‘western facing in outlook’, and a preparedness to ‘sacrifice’ ‘internally oriented explorations and articulations of thought from other positions’. In this collective article, we seek to take Jackson (2025) thesis a step further – by acknowledging the colonial logic that has ensured the systemic subjugation, assimilation, or erasure of Indigenous and other ‘non-western’ philosophies, while also affirming philosophy of education as inclusively pluriversal. Our aim is not only to foreground marginalised voices and traditions, but also to restore the epistemic dignity of all philosophies. By bringing together the contributions in this article, we do not simply gesture toward ‘alternative’ knowledge systems as supplements to the dominant canon; rather, we affirm them as philosophies, constitutive of a genuinely pluriversal field of philosophy of education. The contributions offered here represent only fragments of what a pluriversal philosophy of education might become. They are offered as an opening of dialogues, which question the dominance of any single epistemic tradition, and as calls for recognising the pluriversality of philosophy of education as co-constitutive rather than derivative. Importantly, to affirm philosophy of education as pluriversal is not only to expand the margins of the western canon. It also involves disrupting its centre, and to insist that multiple traditions of thought stand in dialogue as equals not only in the discipline of philosophy of education, but in the day-to-day living in this world. It is, of course, impossible to capture within a single article the full range of philosophies that have shaped the world’s civilisations. Yet this impossibility is itself revealing. It confirms how little is known or even acknowledged beyond the confines of the western canon. At this point, it might be worth asking why it matters so much to de-normalise the westernisation of philosophy of education, and why it is important to recognise the offering of multiple philosophies. On the one hand, the response resides in ridding philosophy of education from self-impoverishment – philosophy of education is diminished by a denial of a plurality of insights and traditions. On the other hand, when we write and talk about philosophy of education, we are not only referring to educational programmes, principles, goals and outcomes. We are also referring to intellectual, spiritual and traditional heritages, which have shaped communities and societies, It matters, therefore, because restoring philosophy of education to its pluriversal roots is not simply a matter of inclusion or representation; it is also a liberatory act of epistemic reparation. We see epistemic reparation as crucial because in addition to restoring and recentering historically marginalised ways of thinking and being, it also diversifies knowledge by opening spaces for multiple ways of knowing and understanding the world. Without disruption, contestation, and dialogue, philosophy of education will persist in its trappings of narrow perspectives and exclusions. There are consequences not only for what, who and how we teach, but also for the kind of world that we ought to be co-creating.
Violence and African philosophy : beyond reaction and mimicry
Sanni, John Sodiq (Taylor and Francis, 2025-07-24)
The history of African philosophy often begins with the quest for legitimacy, by which I mean the desire for it to be recognised, accepted and considered as critical thinking in the real sense of the word. This starting point, on the part of many African philosophy scholars, was due to the historical epistemic violence that Africans experienced as a result of the encounter with the colonisers. The nature of this encounter resulted in the debasement, neglect, and marginalisation of African philosophical positions. Plunged in this epistemic doubt, uncertainty, and imposed decadence, for centuries, many African philosophers grappling with the question, ‘Is there an African philosophy?’ The question does two main things: on the one hand, it seeks to validate philosophical positions that are uniquely African, and on another hand, the question searches for prescriptive philosophical paradigms for addressing African problems and analysing issues. Most African philosophical engagements do the former. Shedding new light to the question, I argue that a disposition to African philosophy that stems from a need to validate its existence risks being a mere reaction and/or mimicry, and as such, further perpetrates epistemic violence by removing Africa from its lived realities.
A critical consideration of the effects of violence in Fanon
Hofmeyr, Augusta Benda (Taylor and Francis, 2025-08-01)
My aim in this paper is twofold: first, I aim to establish to what extent Fanon ascribes intrinsic value to violence or whether it would be more accurate to align his position with a constructive and instrumental conceptualisation of violence. From a close reading of his 1960 address ‘Why We Use Violence’ (Fanon [1960] 2018) and the first chapter of The Wretched of the Earth ([1961] 2004), a more nuanced understanding emerges that avoids the trap of the Arendtian binary scheme, which validates instrumental violence while dismissing Fanon’s conceptualisation as non-instrumental. Ascribing intrinsic value to violence in Fanon decontextualises violence, which cannot be understood outside of the end it serves in the struggle for decolonisation. The intrinsic necessity of violence in colonial contexts is wrongly conflated with the intrinsic value of violence beyond instrumentality. The necessity of violence upon which Fanon insists is not an unqualified advocation of violence ora call for violence ex nihilo. Instead, he is urging the colonised to make productive use of the violence that is already given to them. Violence as Fanon conceptualises it, it will be shown, is not merely instrumental and reactive, but is also creative and constructive. In the second instance, a critical assessment of Fanon’s creative and liberatory conceptualisation of violence is needed for the question remains, was Fanon right in his belief that violence in the context of the French-Algerian War would purge the African mind of the trauma colonisation inflicted, that violence is not endlessly self-perpetuating but would give rise to newly empowered subjects capable of postcolonial nation-building. To critically assess the effects of revolutionary violence, I confront Fanon’s conceptualisation with the lived wartime experiences of Algerian intellectual Feraoun as documented in his Journal 1955–1962: Reflections on the French-Algerian War (2000) in the conclusive part of this paper. Feraoun concurs with Fanon that violent retaliation is a necessary condition to bring about liberation, but his testimonial reveals that revolutionary violence did not cleanse the Algerian subjects of their psychological dehumanisation, but instead spawned violent, inhuman erevolutionary subjects who ended up wielding the violence they opposed against their own people.
Ubuntu and violence
Matolino, Bernard (Taylor and Francis, 2025-08-22)
Ubuntu in its essential outlook is committed to a humane and conciliatory interchange between moral agents and their environs. Yet the countries that have given ubuntu its name have had violence at the centre of their public spaces. This raises the question: what sort of engagement could there be between the violence inherent in these countries and ubuntu? And to what end would that engagement be? I examine ubuntu’s relationship with violence, looking at the enduring effects of the historical reality of the banality of the violence of oppression. In the second instance, I seek to demonstrate how ubuntu, which is characteristically postcolonial, has developed an identity that is antithetical to ubuntu. The routine production of these disasters, and the normalcy of the existence of absurdity that generates violence of all sorts, has become the sign and mode of modern postcolonial Africa. This identity appears intransigent. In the light of these two instances, I seek to explore what aspects of ubuntu render it unable to shape its home turf.
Intuitions about just public healthcare versus liberal political theory
Metz, Thaddeus (Jagiellonian University, 2025-04-30)
I argue that strong intuitions about how the state ought to allocate healthcare are incompatible with quite influential autonomy-centric and neutral strains of liberal political theory. Specifically, I maintain that it is uncontroversial that we should routinely distribute medical treatments in public hospitals in ways that have little to no bearing on patients’ ability to pursue a wide array of ends and further that we cannot easily avoid making judgments of which ways of life are good (or bad) when making such distributions. These intuitions tell against the principles that the state in general should aim merely to protect individuals’ rights to choose their own ways of life and should not take sides on which lives are good (or bad) when adopting policy or law. I show that this tension, which has not been addressed in the literature, manifests in at least three types of healthcare decisions, viz., which types of treatments should be offered to patients, how to prioritize among types of treatments, and who should receive a certain type of treatment. I do not prescribe how to resolve the tension, that is, whether to reject autonomy-centric and neutral forms of liberalism or revise judgments about how public medical facilities should allocate healthcare, but instead I establish the point that one must choose between them.
Duties to oneself in the light of African values : two theoretical approaches
Metz, Thaddeus (Oxford University Press, 2025-01)
I draw on ideas salient in African philosophy to construct two new theoretical ways of capturing the essence of duties to oneself. According to one theory, a person has a basic duty to “relate” to herself in ways similar to how the African field has often thought one should relate to others, viz., harmoniously, while, according to a second, one has such a duty to produce liveliness in oneself. Beyond articulating these two novel attempts to account for what all duties to oneself have in common and showing that each captures several intuitions about them, I offer reasons to favor the harmony theory, meriting consideration by a global audience as a rival to, say, the Kantian-rationalism common in the West and Confucianism in the East.
Deterrence and decapitation tactics as a strategy for counter-terrorism
Ofuasia, Emmanuel; Ben, Patrick Effiong (Routledge, 2025-10)
Some scholars have lauded “decapitation tactics” as a legitimate approach by countries such as Nigeria, the United States of America, and Israel in their struggle against the expansion and influence of terrorist groups. The decapitation tactic implies, basically, three routes: killing, capturing, or capturing and then killing the leader(s) of terrorist cells. Through a critical analysis of the arguments for such a tactic, this article contends that the approach will not stem the proliferation of terrorist groups. The elimination of the leader(s) of terrorist groups does not play a decisive role in mitigating terrorism but has rather contributed to its surge in places with links to cells like Al-Qaeda. Also, the article defends the position that it is morally unjustified to kill terrorist leaders without a fair trial in a competent court of law. Using Boko Haram and Hamas as illustrations, the article contends that targeted killings subvert the existence and essence of the criminal justice system. Taking inspiration from deterrence theory, this article suggests that the decapitation tactic has served as a basis for escalation and proliferation of terrorist groups rather than serving as deterrence against the possibility of recurrence.

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