Community, Justice, and Freedom Liberalism, Communitarianism, and African Contributions to Political Ethics

Abstract: This study deals with theories of community, justice, and freedom within liberalism, communitarianism, African philosophy and theology. The study maintains that there are different latitudes on how to formulate and articulate theories of community, justice and freedom informed by particualr moral experiences with bearing on different views of human. People differ and their claims on moral matters are influenced by contexts in which they find themselves, which means that cultural diversity has bearing on different interpretations of what it means to be a human being. Given the importance of this diversity, of particular significance in this study is the relationship between various theories of justice and freedom and different understandings of the relationship between the individual and the community. The study endorses that any contemporary discourse on community, justice, and freedom to be adequate should take notice on the political, economic, and cultural aspirations of the people it seeks to address itself. It argues that there might be alternative theories of community, justice, and freedom which may give a fuller appreciation to the fact that there are different understandings of what community implies as well as what justice and freedom means. One such alternative is the African view of human, that of "ubuntu", which maintains that "to be" is "to belong". In this view a person is because of others, and by inference one's humanity, including one's sense of personhood, is affirmed by affirming the humanity and personhood of others. The first aim of the study is to examine how we should understand different theories of justice and freedom within Western political philosophy, and African political theory and theology. The second aim is to analyse how different theories of justice and freedom are related to different conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the community. The third and final aim is to propose an adequate theory of community, justice, and freedom from an African perspective.