Revisiting Eze on Ubuntu: Interrogating the Priority of the Political Over the Philosophical

Abstract

Introduction Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze’s insightful critique of ubuntu, first expressed in his paper ‘Between History and the Gods: Reason, Morality, and Politics in Today’s Africa’ and in his book On Reason: Rationality in a World of Cultural Conflict and Racism (Eze 2008a, 2008b) shows the theoretical shortcomings of ubuntu as a philosophical tool that may inform how philosophy reflects on the political. Eze argues that ubuntu as an extraordinary moral framework, may be ill-suited to capture ordinary experiences and subsequently pass appropriate judgement. Further, Eze asserts that to protect philosophy from unphilosophical encroachments, such as politics, we need to maintain a strict distinction between politics and the moral and philosophy. Such a distinction, in his view, would enable philosophy to turn itself into good philosophy that is free of ideological influences and commitments. In order for philosophy to do its philosophical tasks well, it has to stand up for and defend a specific form of reason that Eze identifies as ordinary reason. What I seek to do is to reaffirm Eze’s arguments, against ubuntu, in the three main sections that this paper is divided into. The first section will