Between Group Mind and Common Good: Interrogating the African Socio-Political Condition
The paper is challenged with the seeming contradiction resulting from the prevalent conception of the group mind and common good in African and Western cultures or societies. Many African scholars have theorized about the communalistic nature of African communities which leads to the
flourishing of group consciousness as opposed to individualistic attitudes. This is often discussed against the background of the liberalism of Western societies which tend to elevate individual consciousness and self-realization over that of the group. With this picture in mind, one would
expect the common good to flourish in the former more than the latter. Present African socio-political conditions examined against similar scenarios in the West makes it glaringly obvious that the exact opposite is the case. Being that the group mind principle needed for the attainment of
the common good seems absent in contemporary African states, the paper therefore recommends that a critical self-examination is needed by the African states in order to develop a genuinely African group consciousness for the attainment of the common good.
Keywords: African; West; common good; communalism; group mind; liberalism
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 January 2011
- Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devoted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to promote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are judged to make a novel and important contribution to understanding the values and cultural phenomena in the contemporary world.
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