Eugene Ezenwa Oguamanam

The Kind of Society Required for Human Flourishing:: a Critical Comparison of the Formation of Ethical Character in Aristotelian and African Ethics Eugene Ezenwa Oguamanam

This book shows that Aristotle's ethics is structually similar to African ethics. It argues thatindividualism cannot guarantee good life rather good or flourishing life is a question of theindividual relating well with the other members of her community, and it is the community and family that are essential in the formation of ethiical character leading to flourishing life. Crucial to this upbringing is that the individual be embedded in certain networks of social relationship, particularly virtuous friendships. It also shows that social relationships in African ethics mirror eudaimon, or virtuous friendship in Aristotelian ethics. African ethics, like Aristotelianethics, African ethics does not explicitly talk about human rights. And They hold that if the values and virtues are operational they guarantee respect and dignity for the individual since a life lived in the right kind of society is a life that makes for human individual flourishing. Thus African values can be explicated and understood with reference to the ideas of one of the greatest philosophers that ever lived.