African communal basis for autonomy and life choices. Issue 3 (5th September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ikuenobe, Polycarp
• Is Part Of: Developing world bioethics. Volume 18:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 212
• Page End: 221
• Publication Date: 2017-09-05
• Subjects: relational autonomy -- metaphysical autonomy -- African communalism -- moral personhood -- suicide in African tradition; Bioethics -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; Medical ethics -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; 174.2091724
• DOI: 10.1111/dewb.12161
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1471-8731

Abstract

Abstract: I argue that the metaphysical capacity of autonomy is not intrinsically valuable; it is valuable only when used in relation to a community's values and instrumentally for making the proper choices that will promote one's own and the community's well‐being. I use the example of the choice to take one's life by suicide to illuminate this view. I articulate a plausible African conception of personhood as a basis for the idea of relational autonomy. I argue that this conception is better understood as a social‐moral thesis, and not a metaphysical thesis. A metaphysical thesis gives an account of the abstract nature of an atomic individual, his agency, and rational choice. The social‐moral thesis indicates that personhood and autonomy are positive and relational to the life plans, well‐being, material conditions, and the best means for achieving them that are made available and possible by harmonious living in a community. This idea of autonomy is not just having the capacity of freewill; it also involves how such freewill is used, in terms of how an individual's choices are guided by internalized communal values.