African ethics and journalism ethics : news and opinion in light of Ubuntu
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2015-04-15
- Subjects: African ethics , Journalism ethics , Media ethics , Ubuntu (Philosophy) , Ubuntu journalism - South Africa
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5572 , ISSN 08900523 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14225
- Description: In this article, I address some central issues in journalism ethics from a fresh perspective, namely, one that is theoretical and informed by values salient in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on a foundational moral theory with an African pedigree, which is intended to rival Western theories such as Kantianism and utilitarianism, I provide a unified account of an array of duties of various agents with respect to the news/opinion media. I maintain that the ability of the African moral theory to plausibly account for issues such as proper content, investigative ethics, and freedom of speech means that it should be taken seriously by media ethicists and merits being paired up against competing approaches in future work.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2015-04-15
- Subjects: African ethics , Journalism ethics , Media ethics , Ubuntu (Philosophy) , Ubuntu journalism - South Africa
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5572 , ISSN 08900523 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14225
- Description: In this article, I address some central issues in journalism ethics from a fresh perspective, namely, one that is theoretical and informed by values salient in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on a foundational moral theory with an African pedigree, which is intended to rival Western theories such as Kantianism and utilitarianism, I provide a unified account of an array of duties of various agents with respect to the news/opinion media. I maintain that the ability of the African moral theory to plausibly account for issues such as proper content, investigative ethics, and freedom of speech means that it should be taken seriously by media ethicists and merits being paired up against competing approaches in future work.
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Censure theory still best accounts for punishment of the guilty: reply to Montague
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2009-04-01T06:07:16Z
- Subjects: Punishment , Censure , Proportionality , Retributivism , Self-defence
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5632 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2410
- Description: Philosophia, 37 (2009) , In an article previously published in this journal, Phillip Montague critically surveys and rejects a handful of contemporary attempts to explain why state punishment is morally justified. Among those targeted is one of my defences of the censure theory of punishment, according to which state punishment is justified because the political community has a duty to express disapproval of those guilty of injustice. My defence of censure theory supposes, per argumentum, that there is always some defeasible moral reason for the state to proportionately punish the guilty, and then demonstrates that censure theory best entails and explains this intuition. Montague does not question the intuition, but instead argues that three rival theories of punishment, including his societal-defence view, account for it to no worse a degree than my censure theory. In this article I defend my initial argument, noting resources for its defence that Montague does not appreciate and that, I maintain, provide those who believe that there is always pro tanto injustice in the state failing to proportionately punish the guilty reason to adopt censure theory over all competitors, including Montague’s societal-defence theory.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2009-04-01T06:07:16Z
- Subjects: Punishment , Censure , Proportionality , Retributivism , Self-defence
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5632 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2410
- Description: Philosophia, 37 (2009) , In an article previously published in this journal, Phillip Montague critically surveys and rejects a handful of contemporary attempts to explain why state punishment is morally justified. Among those targeted is one of my defences of the censure theory of punishment, according to which state punishment is justified because the political community has a duty to express disapproval of those guilty of injustice. My defence of censure theory supposes, per argumentum, that there is always some defeasible moral reason for the state to proportionately punish the guilty, and then demonstrates that censure theory best entails and explains this intuition. Montague does not question the intuition, but instead argues that three rival theories of punishment, including his societal-defence view, account for it to no worse a degree than my censure theory. In this article I defend my initial argument, noting resources for its defence that Montague does not appreciate and that, I maintain, provide those who believe that there is always pro tanto injustice in the state failing to proportionately punish the guilty reason to adopt censure theory over all competitors, including Montague’s societal-defence theory.
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Confucian Harmony from an African Perspective
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: African ethics , Confucianism , Harmony
- Language: English
- Type: Journal article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/91322 , uj:20093 , Citation: Metz, T. 2016. Confucian Harmony from an African Perspective.
- Description: Abstract: Chenyang Li’s new book, The Philosophy of Confucian Harmony, has been heralded as the first book-length exposition of the concept of harmony in the approximately 3,000 year old Confucian tradition. It provides a systematic analysis of Confucian harmony and defence of its relevance for contemporary moral and political thought. In this philosophical discussion of Li’s book, I expound its central claims, contextualize them relative to other salient work in English-speaking Confucian thought, and critically reflect on them, particularly in light of a conception of harmony that is salient in the sub-Saharan African tradition. Hence, this article aims to continue the nascent dialogue between indigenous Chinese and African philosophical traditions that has only just begun.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: African ethics , Confucianism , Harmony
- Language: English
- Type: Journal article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/91322 , uj:20093 , Citation: Metz, T. 2016. Confucian Harmony from an African Perspective.
- Description: Abstract: Chenyang Li’s new book, The Philosophy of Confucian Harmony, has been heralded as the first book-length exposition of the concept of harmony in the approximately 3,000 year old Confucian tradition. It provides a systematic analysis of Confucian harmony and defence of its relevance for contemporary moral and political thought. In this philosophical discussion of Li’s book, I expound its central claims, contextualize them relative to other salient work in English-speaking Confucian thought, and critically reflect on them, particularly in light of a conception of harmony that is salient in the sub-Saharan African tradition. Hence, this article aims to continue the nascent dialogue between indigenous Chinese and African philosophical traditions that has only just begun.
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Emergent issues in African philosophy : a dialogue with Kwasi Wiredu
- Eze, Michael Onyebuchi, Metz, Thaddeus
- Authors: Eze, Michael Onyebuchi , Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Journal article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/91037 , uj:20055 , Citation: Ezem M.C. & Metzae, T. 2016. Emergent issues in African philosophy: A dialogue with Kwasi Wiredu.
- Description: Abstract: These are major excerpts from an interview that was conducted with Professor Wiredu at Rhodes University during the 13th Annual Conference of The International Society for African Philosophy and Studies. He speaks on a wide range of issues such as political and personal identity, racism and tribalism, moral foundations, ity, the golden rule, the liberal‐communitarian debate, African communalism, human rights, personhood, consensus, meta‐philosophy, amongst other critical themes.
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- Authors: Eze, Michael Onyebuchi , Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Journal article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/91037 , uj:20055 , Citation: Ezem M.C. & Metzae, T. 2016. Emergent issues in African philosophy: A dialogue with Kwasi Wiredu.
- Description: Abstract: These are major excerpts from an interview that was conducted with Professor Wiredu at Rhodes University during the 13th Annual Conference of The International Society for African Philosophy and Studies. He speaks on a wide range of issues such as political and personal identity, racism and tribalism, moral foundations, ity, the golden rule, the liberal‐communitarian debate, African communalism, human rights, personhood, consensus, meta‐philosophy, amongst other critical themes.
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Factors contributing to high growth in SMMEs in Gauteng
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Small , Micro and medium-sized enterprises , South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/404804 , uj:33964 , Citation: Metz, T. 2019. Factors contributing to high growth in SMMEs in Gauteng.
- Description: Abstract: South Africa is in desperate need to grow the population of high growth SMMEs, as these businesses are key to job creation, innovation efforts, poverty alleviation, promoting economic growth and contributing meaningfully to the South African tax base. This study aims to identify the factors contributing to the high growth of SMMEs in the Gauteng province in South Africa. The study further aimed to determine how the high-growth SMME sector could be nurtured, from the perspective of existing high-growth SMME owners who have experienced more than 20% growth in the past three years. The study was qualitative in nature and made use of semi-structured interviews with sixteen SMME owners based at Incubation Hubs in Gauteng. Data were analysed by means of thematic content analysis. This study concludes that this particular sector plays a significant role within South Africa’s economy. However, for this sector to continue growing, SMMEs need to equip themselves with managerial and industry skills, have a good financing model in place and be provided with government support through policies and development finance. The study is of value to existing SMMEs struggling who can use the identified factors to promote growth internally, as well as to policymakers to structure interventions to promote high growth in existing SMMEs.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Small , Micro and medium-sized enterprises , South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/404804 , uj:33964 , Citation: Metz, T. 2019. Factors contributing to high growth in SMMEs in Gauteng.
- Description: Abstract: South Africa is in desperate need to grow the population of high growth SMMEs, as these businesses are key to job creation, innovation efforts, poverty alleviation, promoting economic growth and contributing meaningfully to the South African tax base. This study aims to identify the factors contributing to the high growth of SMMEs in the Gauteng province in South Africa. The study further aimed to determine how the high-growth SMME sector could be nurtured, from the perspective of existing high-growth SMME owners who have experienced more than 20% growth in the past three years. The study was qualitative in nature and made use of semi-structured interviews with sixteen SMME owners based at Incubation Hubs in Gauteng. Data were analysed by means of thematic content analysis. This study concludes that this particular sector plays a significant role within South Africa’s economy. However, for this sector to continue growing, SMMEs need to equip themselves with managerial and industry skills, have a good financing model in place and be provided with government support through policies and development finance. The study is of value to existing SMMEs struggling who can use the identified factors to promote growth internally, as well as to policymakers to structure interventions to promote high growth in existing SMMEs.
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Fundamental conditions of human existence as the ground of life's meaning : reply to Landau
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2015-03
- Subjects: Human existence , Landau, Iddo, 1958- , Meaning of life
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5618 , ISSN 00344125 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14573
- Description: Taking the good (generosity), the true (enquiry), and the beautiful (creativity) as exemplars of what can make a life noticeably meaningful, elsewhere I have advanced a principle that entails and plausibly explains all three. Specifically, I have proffered the view that great meaning in life, at least in so far as it comes from this triad, is a matter of positively orienting one's rational nature towards fundamental conditions of human existence, conditions of human life responsible for much else about it. Iddo Landau has raised important objections to this principle, arguing in particular that contouring one's rationality towards fundamentality is neither necessary nor sufficient for great meaning in life. In this article, I reply to Landau's objections to the fundamentality account of what makes life very meaningful. I thereby aim to enrich reflection about what it is about the lives of Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, and Pablo Picasso that made them so significant as well as to indicate how fundamentality implicitly plays a key role in theistic conceptions of meaning in life.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2015-03
- Subjects: Human existence , Landau, Iddo, 1958- , Meaning of life
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5618 , ISSN 00344125 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14573
- Description: Taking the good (generosity), the true (enquiry), and the beautiful (creativity) as exemplars of what can make a life noticeably meaningful, elsewhere I have advanced a principle that entails and plausibly explains all three. Specifically, I have proffered the view that great meaning in life, at least in so far as it comes from this triad, is a matter of positively orienting one's rational nature towards fundamental conditions of human existence, conditions of human life responsible for much else about it. Iddo Landau has raised important objections to this principle, arguing in particular that contouring one's rationality towards fundamentality is neither necessary nor sufficient for great meaning in life. In this article, I reply to Landau's objections to the fundamentality account of what makes life very meaningful. I thereby aim to enrich reflection about what it is about the lives of Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, and Pablo Picasso that made them so significant as well as to indicate how fundamentality implicitly plays a key role in theistic conceptions of meaning in life.
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How the West was one : the Western as individualist, the African as communitarian
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2014-12-22
- Subjects: Communitarianism , Individualism , Western philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5622 , ISSN 00131857 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14650
- Description: There is a kernel of truth in the claim that Western philosophy and practice of education is individualistic; theory in Euro-America tends to prize properties that are internal to a human being, such as her autonomy, rationality, knowledge, pleasure, desires, self-esteem and self- realisation, and education there tends to adopt techniques focused on the individual placed at some distance from others. What is striking about other philosophical–educational traditions in the East and the South is that they are typically much more communitarian. I argue that since geographical terms such as 'Western', 'African' and the like are best construed as picking out properties that are salient in a region, it is fair to conclude that the Western is individualist and that the African is communitarian. What this means is that if I am correct about a noticeable contrast between philosophies of education typical in the West and in sub-Saharan Africa, and if there are, upon reflection, attractive facets of communitarianism, then those in the West and in societies influenced by it should in some real sense become less Western, in order to take them on.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2014-12-22
- Subjects: Communitarianism , Individualism , Western philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5622 , ISSN 00131857 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14650
- Description: There is a kernel of truth in the claim that Western philosophy and practice of education is individualistic; theory in Euro-America tends to prize properties that are internal to a human being, such as her autonomy, rationality, knowledge, pleasure, desires, self-esteem and self- realisation, and education there tends to adopt techniques focused on the individual placed at some distance from others. What is striking about other philosophical–educational traditions in the East and the South is that they are typically much more communitarian. I argue that since geographical terms such as 'Western', 'African' and the like are best construed as picking out properties that are salient in a region, it is fair to conclude that the Western is individualist and that the African is communitarian. What this means is that if I am correct about a noticeable contrast between philosophies of education typical in the West and in sub-Saharan Africa, and if there are, upon reflection, attractive facets of communitarianism, then those in the West and in societies influenced by it should in some real sense become less Western, in order to take them on.
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Meaning in life as the Right Metric: A key value beyond happiness and morality
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/90939 , uj:20042 , Citation: Metz, T. 2016. Meaning in life as the Right Metric : a key value beyond happiness and morality.
- Description: Abstract: In “Happiness Is the Wrong Metric,” Amitai Etzioni largely argues that human beings are motivated by more than just their own happiness, whether conceived in terms of pleasant experiences or fulfilled preferences, and that the state should attend to more than merely people’s happiness. He contends that we are often disposed to seek out, and that public policy ought to promote, what is morally right and good for its own sake. While not disagreeing with this thrust of Etzioni’s position, I maintain in my contribution that it is too narrow. There is a large range of goods that people tend to pursue, and that social and political institutions should plausibly foster, which are reducible to neither happiness nor morality. They are values that are instead well captured by the concept of what makes a life meaningful. If Etzioni is correct that the state ought to enable people to live morally upright lives, then it has no less reason to enable them to live meaningful ones, too.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/90939 , uj:20042 , Citation: Metz, T. 2016. Meaning in life as the Right Metric : a key value beyond happiness and morality.
- Description: Abstract: In “Happiness Is the Wrong Metric,” Amitai Etzioni largely argues that human beings are motivated by more than just their own happiness, whether conceived in terms of pleasant experiences or fulfilled preferences, and that the state should attend to more than merely people’s happiness. He contends that we are often disposed to seek out, and that public policy ought to promote, what is morally right and good for its own sake. While not disagreeing with this thrust of Etzioni’s position, I maintain in my contribution that it is too narrow. There is a large range of goods that people tend to pursue, and that social and political institutions should plausibly foster, which are reducible to neither happiness nor morality. They are values that are instead well captured by the concept of what makes a life meaningful. If Etzioni is correct that the state ought to enable people to live morally upright lives, then it has no less reason to enable them to live meaningful ones, too.
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Neither parochial nor cosmopolitan : cultural instruction in the light of an African Communal Ethic
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: African ethics; Communalism; Cosmopolitanism;
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/396531 , uj:32930 , ISSN: 1947-9417 (Online) , https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/4742 , Citation: Metz, T. 2019. Neither parochial nor cosmopolitan : cultural instruction in the light of an African Communal Ethic
- Description: Abstract : What should be the aim when teaching matters of culture to students in public high schools and universities in Africa? One approach, which is parochial, would focus exclusively on imparting local culture, leaving students unfamiliar with, or perhaps contemptuous of, other cultures around the world. A second, cosmopolitan approach would educate students about a wide variety of cultures in Africa and beyond it, leaving it up to them which interpretations, values, and aesthetics they will adopt. A third way, in between these two, would be to give some priority to understanding and enriching local culture, while being open to and not remaining ignorant of other cultures. In this article, a work of moral philosophy, I argue for this third alternative by rebutting arguments for the other two approaches and by showing that it uniquely follows from a plausible African ethic informed by indigenous ideals of communion.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: African ethics; Communalism; Cosmopolitanism;
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/396531 , uj:32930 , ISSN: 1947-9417 (Online) , https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/4742 , Citation: Metz, T. 2019. Neither parochial nor cosmopolitan : cultural instruction in the light of an African Communal Ethic
- Description: Abstract : What should be the aim when teaching matters of culture to students in public high schools and universities in Africa? One approach, which is parochial, would focus exclusively on imparting local culture, leaving students unfamiliar with, or perhaps contemptuous of, other cultures around the world. A second, cosmopolitan approach would educate students about a wide variety of cultures in Africa and beyond it, leaving it up to them which interpretations, values, and aesthetics they will adopt. A third way, in between these two, would be to give some priority to understanding and enriching local culture, while being open to and not remaining ignorant of other cultures. In this article, a work of moral philosophy, I argue for this third alternative by rebutting arguments for the other two approaches and by showing that it uniquely follows from a plausible African ethic informed by indigenous ideals of communion.
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Recent work on the meaning of life
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Life - Philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5981 , ISSN 1539-297X , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8583
- Description: What, if anything, makes a life meaningful? This question is obviously important but has not received much attention from normative theorists. Although there is relatively little philosophical literature on life’s meaning, there is more than most readers are probably aware. And this literature has reached a point at which it would be useful to reflect on where it stands and where it needs to go. In this article, I survey a particular subset of recent work on the meaning of life. First, I am concerned with writings that take a meaningful life to be one desirable facet of a person’s existence.1 I set aside those that treat a meaningful life as a purely descriptive property or that discuss the meaning of anything supraindividual such as the human race or the universe.2 Furthermore, I concentrate on the Anglo-American philosophical literature; I do not address the insights to be found in works of fiction, psychology, religion, or, say, Continental philosophy.3 In addition, I disregard pieces devoted to applied issues in favor of those with a decidedly theoretical focus.4 Finally, I focus on literature that has appeared since 1980.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Life - Philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5981 , ISSN 1539-297X , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8583
- Description: What, if anything, makes a life meaningful? This question is obviously important but has not received much attention from normative theorists. Although there is relatively little philosophical literature on life’s meaning, there is more than most readers are probably aware. And this literature has reached a point at which it would be useful to reflect on where it stands and where it needs to go. In this article, I survey a particular subset of recent work on the meaning of life. First, I am concerned with writings that take a meaningful life to be one desirable facet of a person’s existence.1 I set aside those that treat a meaningful life as a purely descriptive property or that discuss the meaning of anything supraindividual such as the human race or the universe.2 Furthermore, I concentrate on the Anglo-American philosophical literature; I do not address the insights to be found in works of fiction, psychology, religion, or, say, Continental philosophy.3 In addition, I disregard pieces devoted to applied issues in favor of those with a decidedly theoretical focus.4 Finally, I focus on literature that has appeared since 1980.
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The ethics of routine HIV testing : a respect-based analysis
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: HIV infections - Testing , Routine testing , Anti-retroviral treatment , Medical ethics
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5983 , ISSN 02587203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8585
- Description: Routine testing is a practice whereby medical professionals ask all patients whether they would like an HIV test, regardless of whether there is anything unique to a given patient that suggests the presence of HIV. In three respects I aim to offer a fresh perspective on the debate about whether a developing country with a high rate of HIV infection morally ought to adopt routine testing. First, I present a neat framework that organises the moral issues at stake, bringing out the basic principles involved and exhibiting their logical relationships. Second, appealing to the Kantian principle of respect for the dignity of persons, I offer a thorough justification for routine testing when it serves as a gateway to anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Third, I present a respect-based defence of the controversial and novel thesis that routine testing is morally justified even if ART is unaffordable or otherwise unavailable.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: HIV infections - Testing , Routine testing , Anti-retroviral treatment , Medical ethics
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5983 , ISSN 02587203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8585
- Description: Routine testing is a practice whereby medical professionals ask all patients whether they would like an HIV test, regardless of whether there is anything unique to a given patient that suggests the presence of HIV. In three respects I aim to offer a fresh perspective on the debate about whether a developing country with a high rate of HIV infection morally ought to adopt routine testing. First, I present a neat framework that organises the moral issues at stake, bringing out the basic principles involved and exhibiting their logical relationships. Second, appealing to the Kantian principle of respect for the dignity of persons, I offer a thorough justification for routine testing when it serves as a gateway to anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Third, I present a respect-based defence of the controversial and novel thesis that routine testing is morally justified even if ART is unaffordable or otherwise unavailable.
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The good, the true, and the beautiful : toward a unified account of great meaning in life
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Life - Philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5982 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8584
- Description: Three of the great sources of meaning in life are the good, the true, and the beautiful, and I aim to make headway on the grand Enlightenment project of ascertaining what, if anything, they have in common. Concretely, if we take a (stereotypical) Mother Teresa, Mandela, Darwin, Einstein, Dostoyevsky, and Picasso, what might they share that makes it apt to deem their lives to have truly mattered? I provide reason to doubt two influential answers, noting a common flaw that supernaturalism and consequentialism share. I instead develop their most plausible rival, a naturalist and non-consequentialist account of what enables moral achievement, intellectual reflection, and aesthetic creation to confer great meaning on a person’s life, namely, the idea that they do so insofar as a person transcends an aspect of herself in some substantial way. I criticize several self-transcendence theories that contemporary philosophers have advanced, before presenting a new self-transcendence view and defending it as the most promising.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Life - Philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5982 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8584
- Description: Three of the great sources of meaning in life are the good, the true, and the beautiful, and I aim to make headway on the grand Enlightenment project of ascertaining what, if anything, they have in common. Concretely, if we take a (stereotypical) Mother Teresa, Mandela, Darwin, Einstein, Dostoyevsky, and Picasso, what might they share that makes it apt to deem their lives to have truly mattered? I provide reason to doubt two influential answers, noting a common flaw that supernaturalism and consequentialism share. I instead develop their most plausible rival, a naturalist and non-consequentialist account of what enables moral achievement, intellectual reflection, and aesthetic creation to confer great meaning on a person’s life, namely, the idea that they do so insofar as a person transcends an aspect of herself in some substantial way. I criticize several self-transcendence theories that contemporary philosophers have advanced, before presenting a new self-transcendence view and defending it as the most promising.
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The Immorality requirement for life's meaning
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2009-03-17T10:12:33Z
- Subjects: Meaning of life , Death , Immortality , God , Supernaturalism
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5631 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2285
- Description: Ratio XVI, 2 June 2003 , Many religious thinkers hold the immortality requirement, the view that immortality of some kind is necessary for life to have meaning. After clarifying the nature of the immortality requirement, this essay examines three central arguments for it. The article establishes that existing versions of these arguments fail to entail the immortality requirement. The essay then reconstructs the arguments, and it shows that once they do plausibly support the immortality requirement, they equally support the God-centred requirement, the view that God's existence is a necessary condition for life to be meaningful. The paper concludes by explaining why we should expect any argument for the immortality requirement also to constitute an argument for the God-centred requirement.
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- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2009-03-17T10:12:33Z
- Subjects: Meaning of life , Death , Immortality , God , Supernaturalism
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5631 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2285
- Description: Ratio XVI, 2 June 2003 , Many religious thinkers hold the immortality requirement, the view that immortality of some kind is necessary for life to have meaning. After clarifying the nature of the immortality requirement, this essay examines three central arguments for it. The article establishes that existing versions of these arguments fail to entail the immortality requirement. The essay then reconstructs the arguments, and it shows that once they do plausibly support the immortality requirement, they equally support the God-centred requirement, the view that God's existence is a necessary condition for life to be meaningful. The paper concludes by explaining why we should expect any argument for the immortality requirement also to constitute an argument for the God-centred requirement.
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The Politics of Philosophy in Africa: a conversation
- Jones, Ward E., Metz, Thaddeus
- Authors: Jones, Ward E. , Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/375206 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/92938 , uj:20286 , Citation: Jones, W.E. & Metz, T. 2016. The Politics of Philosophy in Africa: a conversation.
- Description: Abstract: The background to the present discussion is the prevalence of political and personal criticisms in philosophical discussions about Africa. As philosophers in South Africa – both white and black – continue to philosophize seriously about Africa, responses to their work sometimes take the form of political and personal criticisms of, if not attacks on, the philosopher exploring and defending considerations about the African continent. Both of us have been the targets of such critiques in light of our work. Our aim in this conversation is not to diminish or deflect such critiques. On the contrary, our aim is to understand them, to make them as strong as possible, and to bring them into the cooler realm of philosophical discussion.
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- Authors: Jones, Ward E. , Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/375206 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/92938 , uj:20286 , Citation: Jones, W.E. & Metz, T. 2016. The Politics of Philosophy in Africa: a conversation.
- Description: Abstract: The background to the present discussion is the prevalence of political and personal criticisms in philosophical discussions about Africa. As philosophers in South Africa – both white and black – continue to philosophize seriously about Africa, responses to their work sometimes take the form of political and personal criticisms of, if not attacks on, the philosopher exploring and defending considerations about the African continent. Both of us have been the targets of such critiques in light of our work. Our aim in this conversation is not to diminish or deflect such critiques. On the contrary, our aim is to understand them, to make them as strong as possible, and to bring them into the cooler realm of philosophical discussion.
- Full Text:
Toward an African moral theory
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2009-04-01T06:55:30Z
- Subjects: African ethics , Sub-Saharan morality , Normative ethics , Right action
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5637 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2416
- Description: The Journal of political philosophy, 15(3): 321-341, 2007 , In this article I articulate and defend an African moral theory, i.e., a basic and general principle grounding all particular duties that is informed by sub-Saharan values commonly associated with talk of "ubuntu" and cognate terms that signify personhood or humanness. The favoured interpretation of ubuntu is the principle that an action is right insofar as it respects harmonious relationships, ones in which people identify with, and exhibit solidarity toward, one another. I maintain that this is the most defensible moral theory with an African pedigree and that it should be developed further with an eye to rivalling dominant Western theories such as utilitarianism and Kantianism.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2009-04-01T06:55:30Z
- Subjects: African ethics , Sub-Saharan morality , Normative ethics , Right action
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5637 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/2416
- Description: The Journal of political philosophy, 15(3): 321-341, 2007 , In this article I articulate and defend an African moral theory, i.e., a basic and general principle grounding all particular duties that is informed by sub-Saharan values commonly associated with talk of "ubuntu" and cognate terms that signify personhood or humanness. The favoured interpretation of ubuntu is the principle that an action is right insofar as it respects harmonious relationships, ones in which people identify with, and exhibit solidarity toward, one another. I maintain that this is the most defensible moral theory with an African pedigree and that it should be developed further with an eye to rivalling dominant Western theories such as utilitarianism and Kantianism.
- Full Text:
Ubuntu and the value of self-expression in the mass media
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: African ethics , Ubuntu
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/386718 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/67416 , uj:17598 , Metz, T. 2015. Ubuntu and the value of self-expression in the mass media.
- Description: Abstract: In this article I consider what the implications of ubuntu, interpreted as an African moral philosophy, are for self-expression as a value that the mass media could help to promote. In contrast to the natural hunches that self-expression is merely a kind of narcissism or makes sense for only individualist cultures to prize, I argue that an attractive construal of ubuntu entails that self-expression can play an important communitarian role. The mass media can be obligated to enable people to express themselves since doing so can be one way for people to share with and care for others.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: African ethics , Ubuntu
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/386718 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/67416 , uj:17598 , Metz, T. 2015. Ubuntu and the value of self-expression in the mass media.
- Description: Abstract: In this article I consider what the implications of ubuntu, interpreted as an African moral philosophy, are for self-expression as a value that the mass media could help to promote. In contrast to the natural hunches that self-expression is merely a kind of narcissism or makes sense for only individualist cultures to prize, I argue that an attractive construal of ubuntu entails that self-expression can play an important communitarian role. The mass media can be obligated to enable people to express themselves since doing so can be one way for people to share with and care for others.
- Full Text:
Utilitarianism and the meaniing of life
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: Utilitarianism , Life - Philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5980 , ISSN 0953-8208 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8582
- Description: This article addresses the utilitarian theory of life's meaning according to which a person's existence is significant just in so far as she makes those in the world better off. One aim is to explore the extent to which the utilitarian theory has counter-intuitive implications about which lives count as meaningful. A second aim is to develop a new, broadly Kantian theory of what makes a life meaningful, a theory that retains much of what makes the utilitarian view attractive, while avoiding the most important objections facing it and providing a principled explanation of their force.
- Full Text: false
- Authors: Metz, Thaddeus
- Date: 2003
- Subjects: Utilitarianism , Life - Philosophy
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5980 , ISSN 0953-8208 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8582
- Description: This article addresses the utilitarian theory of life's meaning according to which a person's existence is significant just in so far as she makes those in the world better off. One aim is to explore the extent to which the utilitarian theory has counter-intuitive implications about which lives count as meaningful. A second aim is to develop a new, broadly Kantian theory of what makes a life meaningful, a theory that retains much of what makes the utilitarian view attractive, while avoiding the most important objections facing it and providing a principled explanation of their force.
- Full Text: false
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