Papers by OLUSOLA V I C T O R OLANIPEKUN
The African Review, Mar 23, 2021
The paper examines Kwame Gyekye’s defense of commitmental moral revolution as a solution to the p... more The paper examines Kwame Gyekye’s defense of commitmental moral revolution as a solution to the problem of political corruption in postcolonial Africa. In his book; Tradition and Modernity, Gyekye argues that the problem of political corruption in Africa can mainly be solved by commitmental moral revolution. However, there is a fundamental worry about the applicability of this proposal. The worry is that despite Gyekye’s suggested solution, why is it that the problem of political corruption still persists in Africa on a large-scale? Is this persistence of political corruption in postcolonial Africa not a refutation of Gyekye’s main claim? This paper provides answers to these questions. The paper identifies the reason why Gyekye’s suggested solution may be ineffective in postcolonial Africa. It argues that the problem of political corruption in Africa (Nigeria to be specific) is a function of social acceptability of the phenomenon. Primarily, the paper intends to achieve two main objectives. First, to critically assess Gyekye’s commitmental moral revolution, and also, to argue that failure to address the question of social acceptability of corruption in Africa, Gyekye’s suggested solution to corruption may continue to be of no effect. The paper concludes that commitmental moral revolution is necessary but not sufficient in addressing the problem of political corruption in postcolonial Africa.
Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai, Aug 12, 2022
"The paper examines the ethics of truth telling and free speech in Jonathan Rauch’s The Huma... more "The paper examines the ethics of truth telling and free speech in Jonathan Rauch’s The Humanitarian Threat. The central question is this: “Should we suspend the truth to prevent harm?”. Both humanitarians and the anti-humanitarians supply different responses to this question. While the humanitarians supplied a positive answer, Rauch argues that the anti-humanitarian posture of the exponents of liberalism supplied a negative answer. The paper considers the humanitarian argument that puts the welfare of the people above the truth or anything else. Meanwhile, for the anti-humanitarians, the right to speak the truth must be guaranteed at all time. This paper argues that, in practice, the morality of truth telling is not only context bound, it also depends on what the truth is meant to achieve. Thus, the suspension of the truth may be consistent with morality in some medical and sensitive security situations due to the tendency to cause harm. The paper does not argue that the truth be suspended arbitrarily or for mischievous reasons. It only concludes by identifying some practical situations under which suspension of the truth may not be inconsistent with morality. Keywords: Truth-telling, Harm, Liberal Science, Humanitarianism, Situational Moral Relativism"
Studia philosophica, 2022
The African Review
The paper examines Kwame Gyekye’s defense of commitmental moral revolution as a solution to the p... more The paper examines Kwame Gyekye’s defense of commitmental moral revolution as a solution to the problem of political corruption in postcolonial Africa. In his book; Tradition and Modernity, Gyekye argues that the problem of political corruption in Africa can mainly be solved by commitmental moral revolution. However, there is a fundamental worry about the applicability of this proposal. The worry is that despite Gyekye’s suggested solution, why is it that the problem of political corruption still persists in Africa on a large-scale? Is this persistence of political corruption in postcolonial Africa not a refutation of Gyekye’s main claim? This paper provides answers to these questions. The paper identifies the reason why Gyekye’s suggested solution may be ineffective in postcolonial Africa. It argues that the problem of political corruption in Africa (Nigeria to be specific) is a function of social acceptability of the phenomenon. Primarily, the paper intends to achieve two main obj...
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2018
The issue of animal rights protection is a fundamental one for the animal rights activists especi... more The issue of animal rights protection is a fundamental one for the animal rights activists especially in Western societies. There are animal rights organisations in the USA, UK and some European countries, with the sole aim of protecting and rescuing animals around the world. There are series of legislations also from the governments of various countries with the aim of prohibiting wanton and unreasonable killing of animals or violation of animal rights. But is it the same in Africa? The answer is not straightforward. Why is this so? Do Africans really believe in the validity of such rights? If they do, are they really thinking about it, just like Westerners? These questions are addressed in this paper, which agrees with the view of the supporters of animal rights. Essentially, it argues that given the enormity of socioeconomic and political challenges confronting African countries, the issue of animal rights seems not to be a matter of priority in practice for many African leaders. The focus of this paper is that the inherent challenge of securing human rights in Africa, coupled with socioeconomic and political problems confronting African countries, is basically responsible for ineffective protection of animal rights in Africa. Thus, this paper concludes that if human rights are taken seriously in Africa, animal rights will be taken seriously.
Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philosophia
"The paper examines the ethics of truth telling and free speech in Jonathan Rauch’s The Huma... more "The paper examines the ethics of truth telling and free speech in Jonathan Rauch’s The Humanitarian Threat. The central question is this: “Should we suspend the truth to prevent harm?”. Both humanitarians and the anti-humanitarians supply different responses to this question. While the humanitarians supplied a positive answer, Rauch argues that the anti-humanitarian posture of the exponents of liberalism supplied a negative answer. The paper considers the humanitarian argument that puts the welfare of the people above the truth or anything else. Meanwhile, for the anti-humanitarians, the right to speak the truth must be guaranteed at all time. This paper argues that, in practice, the morality of truth telling is not only context bound, it also depends on what the truth is meant to achieve. Thus, the suspension of the truth may be consistent with morality in some medical and sensitive security situations due to the tendency to cause harm. The paper does not argue that the truth be suspended arbitrarily or for mischievous reasons. It only concludes by identifying some practical situations under which suspension of the truth may not be inconsistent with morality. Keywords: Truth-telling, Harm, Liberal Science, Humanitarianism, Situational Moral Relativism"
Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social sciences , Aug 1, 2020
This article examines Kwasi Wiredu's arguments on democracy and consensus. In Cultural Universals... more This article examines Kwasi Wiredu's arguments on democracy and consensus. In Cultural Universals and Particulars, Wiredu presented consensual democracy as a better means of decision-making process than majoritarian democracy in traditional African life and governance. He defended this claim with two main arguments: (i) that consensus takes care of the interests of the minority, and (ii) that consensual democracy permits substantive representations. Contrary to Wiredu's claim, this article argues that the implication or challenges of majoritarian democracy identified by Wiredu do not necessarily (i) undermine majoritarian democracy, and (ii) make Wiredu's suggested decision by consensus a workable means of decision-making in present African society. Our aim in this paper is not to defend majoritarian democracy as a plausible position; rather, the bulk of the paper is devoted to a critical assessment of Wiredu's defense of consensual democracy. The paper argues that at a certain level of discussion, Wiredu's idea of consensus (consensual democracy) shares some similarities and also faces similar challenges to (majoritarian) democracy. The paper concludes that, logically speaking, democracy and consensus are not mutually exclusive.
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2020
This article examines Kwasi Wiredu’s arguments on democracy and consensus. In Cultural Universals... more This article examines Kwasi Wiredu’s arguments on democracy and consensus. In Cultural Universals and Particulars, Wiredu presented consensual democracy as a better means of decision-making process than majoritarian democracy in traditional African life and governance. He defended this claim with two main arguments: (i) that consensus takes care of the interests of the minority, and (ii) that consensual democracy permits substantive representations. Contrary to Wiredu’s claim, this article argues that the implication or challenges of majoritarian democracy identified by Wiredu do not necessarily (i) undermine majoritarian democracy, and (ii) make Wiredu’s suggested decision by consensus a workable means ofdecision-making in present African society. Our aim in this paper is not to defend majoritarian democracy as a plausible position; rather, the bulk of the paper is devoted to a critical assessment of Wiredu’s defense of consensual democracy. The paper argues that at a certain leve...
The Journal of Pan-African Studies, 2017
This paper suggests that the neglect cum negative disposition of people to certain ethical notion... more This paper suggests that the neglect cum negative disposition of people to certain ethical notions and concepts is undeniably one of the factors responsible for moral decadence in contemporary African societies. Hence, it argues that the cause of social disorder is traceable to lack of virtuous qualities among people in the society. It focuses on how some of those virtues that make an omoluabi got gradually not emphasized. Second, the concept of omoluabi in Yoruba moral system and its significance which involves drawing contrasts and comparisons between the concept of omoluabi and the Western philosophical approaches to the notion of virtue is examined. The paper also argues that since culture, religion and education play pivotal roles in the lives of African people, they should be engaged in reviving the omoluabi virtues and qualities in people to ensure internalization. The presentation concludes that reviving and imbibing the culture of omoluabi can serve as a heuristic device to...
Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions, 2016
The question whether justice can be completely detached from morality seems to be relevant to the... more The question whether justice can be completely detached from morality seems to be relevant to the discussion of the issues that surround the execution of witches in Africa. In spite the widespread belief in witchcraft in African societies, it is apparent that part of the West as well as the Judeo-Christian traditions also support this view. However, this does not remove the fact that, there are thousands of individuals who are still sceptical about such belief. This paper agrees with the view of those who believe the existence of witchcraft. Thus, despite the fact that many scholars have written on the existence of witchcraft in Africa, little or no attention has been paid to the question of moral implications of executing witches in Africa. An attempt to fill this gap facilitates an investigation into the nexus between morality and social justice. The fundamental problem now is, is it morally right to kill? Should witches be killed? If witches should be executed, are there moral and legal bases for such killing? How should we account for the question of sanctity of human life? In this paper, effort shall be made to answer these fundamental questions. The methods employed in this research are critical analysis, philosophical argumentation and conceptual clarification.
Open Journal for studies in philosophy , 2024
The paper examines the supervenience argument advanced by the robust moral realists in defense of... more The paper examines the supervenience argument advanced by the robust moral realists in defense of moral realism. How defensible is the supervenience argument? The paper argues that answer to this question is not as straight forward as the proponents of the robust realism assumed. It argues that defending supervenience argument without paying proper attention to details about the main tenets of moral realism in relation to "is and ought" gap that exists between natural and non-natural properties is largely responsible for why moral realists assume that up till now, there is no demonstrative argument to show that their supervenience argument had been persuasively refuted. This paper does not intend to fill the traditional gap in favor of moral realism. Instead, it intends to challenge such assumption. The paper concludes that the supervenience argument is not as defensible as the proponents of the theory have claimed.
The Philosophy journal , 2024
Does Colour really matter to a sympathetic impartialist? In this article, I return a negative res... more Does Colour really matter to a sympathetic impartialist? In this article, I return a negative response. The article examines certain aspect of Kwasi Wiredu's moral philosophy in Cultural Universals and Particulars, and how that aspect of his moral philosophy is applicable to an issue of global concern such as racism. One of the major ways by which Wiredu established his version of moral universalism is through the principle of sympathetic impartiality (PSI). This principle is central to his moral theory because for him, the principle is not only common to all human practice of morality, but is also essential to the harmonization of human interests in the society. This article attempts to interrogate how Wiredu's PSI could be employed to tackle the problem of racial discrimination that bedevilled the whole world. The study employs the method of textual interpretation, argumentative discourses of Wiredu's principle of sympathetic impartiality and analysis of the concepts of racism. The paper contends that if the principle of sympathetic impartiality is universally embraced, it stands the chance of reducing the global problem of racism.
ETHOS: Dialogues in Philosophy and Social sciences , 2024
This paper attempts to deconstruct anti-realist's denial of moral facts. One of the controversial... more This paper attempts to deconstruct anti-realist's denial of moral facts. One of the controversial issues in meta-ethics is the debate about the ontological status of moral facts. This is an issue between moral realists and moral anti-realists. While moral realism affirms the existence of moral facts, moral anti-realism on the other hand is often interpreted as a thesis that denies the existence of moral facts. Thus, the fundamental problem however, is how to interpret this denial. This question is so pertinent because taking the debate at face value, scholars do not always pay attention to different ways by which this denial could be interpreted. This paper intends to fill the gap. The paper argues that contrary to the parochial way of looking at the anti-realist's denial of moral facts mainly from the absolute sense, there is another possible way by which the denial could be understood, which is the non-absolute sense. Essentially, in deconstructing moral anti-realist's denial of moral facts, this paper clarifies and examines (i) idealist-antirealists' argument, (ii) logical positivists' claim in defense of moral anti-realism.
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Papers by OLUSOLA V I C T O R OLANIPEKUN