From Aristotle and Epicurus in Ancient Greece to Kant’s speculations on the pursuit of happiness and Jeremy Bentham’s and John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian principles, the notion of ‘well-being’ has always been crucial for Western ethics and thought. Nowadays, however, an important and in many ways alternative contribution is to be found in non-Eurocentric philosophies and worldviews, such as (South)African Ubuntu. Variously defined as an ethics of reciprocity or a collective onto-epistemology, Ubuntu has played a decisive role in the decolonisation and restructuring process in post-apartheid South Africa, stimulating reflections which have also involved the aesthetic and literary domains. In line with recent studies that address Ubuntu as both a new humanist approach and a relational eco-philosophy, this paper aims to highlight the possible interconnections between Ubuntu and a modern concept of well-being in A Change of Tongue (2003) by Afrikaner writer Antjie Krog. The pursuit of well-being (at a personal, social and ecological level) is featured here as the outcome of a radical transformation, involving both a redefinition of human relationships – in which self-realisation is inextricably bound up with the respectful acknowledgment of otherness – and the notion of an inter-species dialogue that stresses the importance of environmental health and communities’ interdependence.
Ubuntu as an Eco-Social Welfare Ethics in Antjie Krog's A Change of Tongue
Linda Fiasconi
2019-01-01
Abstract
From Aristotle and Epicurus in Ancient Greece to Kant’s speculations on the pursuit of happiness and Jeremy Bentham’s and John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian principles, the notion of ‘well-being’ has always been crucial for Western ethics and thought. Nowadays, however, an important and in many ways alternative contribution is to be found in non-Eurocentric philosophies and worldviews, such as (South)African Ubuntu. Variously defined as an ethics of reciprocity or a collective onto-epistemology, Ubuntu has played a decisive role in the decolonisation and restructuring process in post-apartheid South Africa, stimulating reflections which have also involved the aesthetic and literary domains. In line with recent studies that address Ubuntu as both a new humanist approach and a relational eco-philosophy, this paper aims to highlight the possible interconnections between Ubuntu and a modern concept of well-being in A Change of Tongue (2003) by Afrikaner writer Antjie Krog. The pursuit of well-being (at a personal, social and ecological level) is featured here as the outcome of a radical transformation, involving both a redefinition of human relationships – in which self-realisation is inextricably bound up with the respectful acknowledgment of otherness – and the notion of an inter-species dialogue that stresses the importance of environmental health and communities’ interdependence.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.