Personhood as immanently meaningful: An Ubuntu theory of meaning resisting nihilism.

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Filosofie (BA)

Bühler, Roberta Claire Marie (2024)

Personhood as immanently meaningful: An Ubuntu theory of meaning resisting nihilism.

Bachelor thesis | Filosofie (BA)

In this thesis, I propose a reconstruction of the response to Nietzsche’s nihilism made available by Ubuntu philosophy. This is achieved by extracting a theory of the meaning of life from the Ubuntu worldview, as put forward by Mogobe Ramose, which makes meaning resilient to nihilism. Ubuntu philosophy understands personhood as inherently relational and co-constituted with the world in a way that “a person is a person through other persons” (Ubuntu aphorism). From this relational ontology of personhood, I propose a theory of meaning that locates the experience of meaningfulness in the relations that constitute the person. I then show how meaning, because it is immanent to personhood, is impervious to nihilism.

Author: Bühler, Roberta Claire Marie

Faculty: Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation: Global and Comparative Perspectives

Supervisors: Chouraqui, F.

ECTS Credits: 10

Language: en

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Personhood as immanently meaningful: An Ubuntu theory of meaning resisting nihilism.