Shirima, Amedeus L. (1999) Nyerere's "Ujamaa" Policy and the Ethics of the Human Person in Community: Comparisons with Thomas Aquinas. PhD thesis, The Graduate School in Candidacy.
![[img]](http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png) |
PDF (Nyerere's "Ujamaa" Policy and the Ethics of the Human Person in Community: Comparisons with Thomas Aquinas)
Nyerere's_Ujamaa_Policy_and_the_Ethics_of_the_Human_Person_in_Community_-_Amedeus_L._Shirima_S.J..pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (12MB) | Request a copy |
Abstract
Julius Nyerere, the former president of Tanzania, started a political and social policy known as "Ujamaa," which refers to an African socialism modeled on African family life. This policy has philosophical and ethical significance beyond Tanzania and Africa since it deals with right living in society and is based on the understanding and promotion of human dignity. Nyerere's thought can thus be set within the long personalist philosophical and ethical traditions, and particularly within the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition. After demonstrating in Part I that Nyerere's thought is a synthesis of his threefold, experience of African traditions, Western liberal education, and Christian faith, I show in Part II that Thomas Aquinas' conception of human person and consequently his ethics and politics stand on the same principles as those which inspire Nyerere. The link between the two is supported by their common Christian faith and a Christian vision which came to Nyerere through the social teaching of the Catholic Church. Such a link is established by analyzing and interpreting selected texts from Nyerere and Aquinas. These texts show that the philosophical and ethical thought of both Nyerere and Aquinas is underlined by a conception of the human person adequately considered. A conception in which the human person is not only a being endowed with reason and free will but also a being both individual and social, an individual person in community. Some philosophies and ethics coming from Enlightenment and Modem thought ignored this conception and, consequently, excluded large sections of humanity from participating in philosophical and ethical endeavors. I claim in Part III that Nyerere's thought, seen in the context of an Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysical and ethical perspective, can restore the right understanding of the human person and support a contemporary ethics of the human person in community for Africa and the world. This ethics has great potentialities for resolving the contemporary moral crisis which is often lamented in various moral discourses.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Nyerere's Ujamaa: A Basis For Politics And Ethics, Socialism Built On African Traditions, Nyerere And Western Liberal Thought, The Role Of Christian Faith And Tradition, The Human Person As Individual To Aqutnas, Significance Of The Human Person For Ethics, Ethics And Rationauty From Nyerere And Aquinas, Ethics Of The Human Person In Community |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics |
| Divisions: | Africana Comparative Jesuitica |
| Depositing User: | JHI Africa |
| Date Deposited: | 06 May 2014 12:56 |
| Last Modified: | 14 May 2018 08:00 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/87 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |