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In answering the question of life's meaning, the African perspective is only just beginning to emerge. While this is true, a critical examination of African theories of meaningfulness, the possibility of life's meaninglessness, as well as ideas about the proper mode/mood for living with the meaninglessness of life are largely underexplored within the African philosophical tradition. This book provides several plausible accounts of meaning in/of life from an African perspective, examines the relationship between death and life's meaningfulness, and explores the possibility of life's meaninglessness, proposing the "philosophy of indifference" as the proper mode/mood for living with the meaninglessness of life.
List of contents
Part I. Laying the Groundwork.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Understanding "Meaning".- 3. African Metaphysical Thought: What We Mean and Why It Is Important.- Part II. African Conceptions of Meaning in Life.- 4. Some Traditional African Conceptions of Meaning in Life.- 5. Rejecting the Obsolete.- 6. Accounts of Life's Meaningfulness from a Contemporary African Perspective.- 7. Passionate Yearning Theory as a Theory of Meaning in Life.- Part III. The Meaning(lessness) of Life.- 8. A "Concept" of the Meaning of Life.- 9. Death and Meaninglessness.- Part IV. Living with Meaninglessness.- 10. The Path of Meaninglessness: Beyond Ada Agada's Consolationism.- 11. The Philosophy of Indifference: An Introduction.- 12. Indifference and the Future of Human Existence: Towards an Anti-Natalist Destiny and Specie Suicide?.- 13. Conclusion.
About the author
Aribiah David Attoe is a Lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand and a member of the prestigious Conversational School of Philosophy.
