Jason Stanley’sHow Propaganda Worksroots the danger of undermining propaganda in an ideology based account of politics, treating individuals’ beliefs and social belief systems as the primary target and mechanism of undermining propaganda. In this paper I suggest a theoretical alternative to the role ideology plays in Stanley’s theory and theories like it, which I callpractice first. A practice first account instead treats public behavior as the primary target of propaganda, and analyzes undermining propaganda as altering the incentive structure that sets (...) the terms for public behavior. (shrink)

Why hasn't Africa been able to respond to the challenges of modernity and globalization?

Tosi and Warmke discuss cases where the speaker intends for the audience to take their expressions as evidence of good moral character. However, another possibility exists that similarly exploits the social communicative architecture. A contribution to public moral discourse may also attempt to strut by demonstrating evidence of bad moral character, by purposely failing to meet the evaluative standards of its audience—or, paradigmatically for my purposes, a particular section of its actual or notional audience. I call this kind of communication (...) vice signaling. On their face, virtue signaling and vice signaling may seem to be opposites, since the labels imply that they are signaling opposite things. But certain cases of vice signaling are in fact also cases of virtue signaling. These are the cases where someone flaunts the standards of an out-group in order to demonstrate solidarity, seriousness, or some other virtue to their in-group. In this paper I attempt to describe these cases and point out the moral risks and opportunities they present. (shrink)

What purpose does civility actually serve? In an age of increasing political polarization, Amy Olberding's recently published The Wrong of Rudeness defends politeness, with some unexpected help from ancient Chinese thought. This defense sits in tension with a broader social conversation that focuses on the interaction of civility with oppressive social structures.Through a critical engagement with Olberding's book, I argue here that taking oppression seriously requires us to reclaim and repurpose civility. This means that we must attend to the social-structural (...) function of what we often split into "civility, manners, and etiquette." Olberding wisely suggests that we follow Confucius' lead in replacing this list... (shrink)

Contemporary political philosophy often operates on a ‘two-tiered’ theoretical treatment of global politics, on which domestic political systems and the principles governing their internal...

In a forthright and uncompromising manner, Olúfémi Táíwò explores Africa’s hostility toward modernity and how that hostility has impeded economic development and social and political transformation. What has to change for Africa to be able to respond to the challenges of modernity and globalization? Táíwò insists that Africa can renew itself only by fully engaging with democracy and capitalism and by mining its untapped intellectual resources. While many may not agree with Táíwò’s positions, they will be unable to ignore what (...) he says. This is a bold exhortation for Africa to come into the 21st century. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Ifá Defined Ifá Divination The Process of Divination.

In the influential 1995 article “Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease,” Bruce Link and Jo Phelan described social and political factors as “fundamental causes” of death and disease. Whitney Pirtle has recently declared racial capitalism another such fundamental cause. Using the case of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, she has argued that racial capitalism's role in that situation meets each of the criteria Link and Phelan's article outlines: racial capitalism influenced multiple disease outcomes, affected disease outcomes through multiple (...) risk factors, involved access to flexible resources that can be used to minimize both risks and the consequences of disease, and was reproduced over time through the continual replacement of intervening mechanisms. We argue for Pirtle's conclusion using the extensive literature on racial capitalism and case studies concerning housing in the United States and Brazil and what Naomi Klein has termed “corona capitalism” in India. If races correspond to hierarchies of material security, as suggested by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, then these hierarchies and their causal effects are fundamental determinants of public health. (shrink)

Anton Wilhelm Rudolph Amo (1703–c. 1759 ce), philosopher and physician, was born at Axim, Ghana, and died at Fort Chama, Ghana. When he was four years old, the Dutch West Indies Company's preacher in Ghana sent him to Holland to be baptized and educated in the Bible for future service in Ghana. However, the Company headquarters, undesirous of any interference with its lucrative trade in slaves, turned little Amo over to the German Duke Anton Ulric‐Wolfenbuttel.

The essays in Fanon and the Decolonization of Philosophy all trace different aspects of the mutually supporting histories of philosophical thought and colonial politics in order to suggest ways that we might decolonize our thinking. From psychology to education, to economic and legal structures, the contributors interrogate the interrelation of colonization and philosophy in order to articulate a Fanon-inspired vision of social justice. This project is endorsed by his daughter, Mireille Fanon-Mendès France, in the book's preface.

The thesis of this study is that there is a plausible, adequate and coherent theory of law which lies embedded in the corpus of Marxist writings. This latent theory of law is a variant of natural law theory, called in the thesis, 'Legal Naturalism'. Marxist legal theory is formally similar to other theories within the natural law tradition. It differs from other theories because it posits a different locus for law from those affirmed by these other theories. Natural law, for (...) Marxism, refers to the "natural law of the mode of production". Legal naturalism is the view that the basic law of a given epoch or social formation is that law which is an essential aspect of the mode of production. Like other natural law theories, legal naturalism asserts that the positive law of any particular society is reflective of deeper structures. ;The legal naturalist interpretation of Marxism differs from existing interpretations in denying that the deeper structures which positive law reflects is solely, or even significantly, economic. They are legal, but naturally legal. Natural law provides a touchstone with which to identify, differentiate, explain and evaluate positive law. The implications of the distinction between natural law and positive law for the evolution and future of law examined and defended. (shrink)

Legal Naturalism advances a clear and convincing case that Marx's theory of law is a form of natural law jurisprudence.

In this paper, I examine the generally accepted idea that law has definite limits to what it can be used to achieve. Toward this end, I discuss the limits of law as suggested by the Truth Commissions and the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC), and summarize the divergences between law and the TRC. I suggest reasons why law may not serve or may underserve the purpose of healing and reconciliation in our time and conclude that the TRC is at best (...) a reminder to us of the limits of law as a principle of social ordering. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction The Central Questions of Political Philosophy Making Sense of Human Nature Why One‐Party Rule? Why Socialism? Conclusion.

Adeshina Afolayan, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, and Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba have edited a stellar collection of essays in Pathways to Alternative Epistemologies in Afr.

What would happen if, instead of taking an instrumentalist view of the ideas of modern African political thinkers, we consider those ideas as indeed they are, attempts by them to proffer answers to the central questions of political philosophy as those are apprehended in the African context? If we did, we would end upwith a robust, sophisticated discourse properly denominated ‘Modern African Political Philosophy’ in which we recognize, possibly celebrate and, ultimately, assess the quality of answers that African thinkers have (...) provided. The importance of recognizing a body of work under this genre cannot be overemphasized given the many debates, controversies, misrepresentations abroad in accounts of the relationship between Africa and modernity. It is almost as if there is only one way that African thinkers have related to modernity: in antagonism. I argue that one can give an account in political philosophy that shows that the received wisdom is profoundly mistaken. To do so requires that we rethink political philosophy in the modern African context. (shrink)

In recent years, the judicial systems of African countries have been increasingly ineffective, as demonstrated in cases as varied as the genocide in Rwanda and the land seizures in Zimbabwe. It is not only in cases involving individual rights and the state that the legal system is barely existent. The situation is just as bad, if not worse, in the administration of criminal justice. Whether it is the police, the prisons, or the courts, under both military and democratic governments, we (...) are confronted with evidence of the impotence of the judiciary. This article examines the relationship between the executive and judicial branches of government in Nigeria. It also makes recommendations to improve the responsiveness and effectiveness of African judiciaries in checking executive power. (shrink)