Philosophy Debate on Ubuntu: Lucy Allais (Wits) and Thad Metz (UJ), chaired by Eusebius McKaiser

WISER and the Wits Centre for Ethics, based in the Philosophy Department, invite you to join us for a Philosophical Debate.

Venue: WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor Richard Ward Building, Wits Main Campus.   Live video of this event will be available here.

Can we give a clear explanation of what Ubuntu is supposed to be? Is a moral theory based on Ubuntu plausible? Lucy Allais will argue that Thad Metz’s important philosophical work on Ubuntu gives a clear and plausible account of what ubuntu is and why it is important, but that a single-value moral theory based on ubuntu is not plausible (and not plausibly African). She suggests that Immanuel Kant’s conception of morality can, while ubuntu cannot, give a proper grounding of human rights.

Allais will present a paper: “In Defence of an Enlightenment Conception of Reason: a Critique of a single Value Moral Theory based on Ubuntu” and Metz will respond, followed by open debate.

Those interested in further reading on this subject may want to read Thad Metz's 2011 piece on "Ubuntu as a moral theory and human rights in South Africa" from the African Human Rights Law Journal.