Description
Book SynopsisWhat makes for good societies and good lives in a global world? In this landmark work of political and ethical philosophy, Omedi Ochieng offers a radical reassessment of a millennia-old question. He does so by offering a stringent critique of both North Atlantic and African philosophical traditions, which he argues unfold visions of the good life that are characterized by idealism, moralism, and parochialism. But rather than simply opposing these flawed visions of the good life with his own set of alternative prescriptions, Ochieng argues that it is critically important to step back and understand the stakes of the question. Those stakes, he suggests, are to be found only through a social ontology â a comprehensive and in-depth account of the political, economic, and cultural structures that mark the boundaries and limits of life in the twenty-first century. It is only in light of this social ontology that Ochieng then proffers an alternative normative account of the good soc
Table of Contents
Introduction: Groundwork for the Infraphysics of Practice: The Good Society and the Good Life in North Atlantic and African Philosophy
Part I: "Think Relationally, Act Structurally": A Social Ontology of the Good Society
1. Introduction
2. Mapping Social Ontology
2.1. Social Structure
2.1.1. Politics
2.1.2. Economics
2.1.3. Culture
2.2 Subjectivity and Relationality
2.3 Power, Legitimation and Ideology
2.3.1. Power
2.3.2. Representation
2.3.3. Relationships
2.3.4. Consciousness
2.4. Agency
2.5. Normativity
3. Dimensions and Vectors of The Good Society
3.1. Interanimated Historiography
3.2. Chronotopian Political Imagination
3.3. Secular/Naturalistic Structures
3.4. Restructurative Justice
4. Conclusion
Part II: Chronotopes: Archaeologies and Landscapes of the Good Society
1. Introduction
2. Contextualizing African Identity
3. African Political Structures
3.1. Auto-politics
3.2. Inter-politics
3.3. Pneuma/Theo-politics
3.4. Meta-politics
3.5. Anti-politics
3.6. Dia-politics
3.7. Ethno-politics
3.8. A-politics/Post-politics
3.9. Endo-politics
3.10. Poly-politics
4. Conclusion
Part III: Creaturely Value: A Meta-Ethics of the Good Life
1. Introduction
2. The Epistemology of Ethics
3. Mapping an Ontology of Ethics
3.1. Contextual Creatureliness
3.2. Toward a Critique of Dominant Ethical Theories
4. Conclusion
Part IV: Emergent Normativity: The Good Life as the Articulation of Ground Projects
1. Introduction
2.1 Ground Projects as World-Articulations
2.2. Ground Projects as Self-Articulations
2.3. G
