Kwame Gyekye (“KWAH-may JAY-chay”) has argued that Kwasi Wiredu’s understanding of the role of this concept among the Akan produces a tyranny of this concept over the individual. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this concept, which names an ethical viewpoint developed by Thaddeus Metz. On Wiredu’s account, this concept grants personhood to individuals among the Akan.
ANSWER: community [or communitarianism; or communalism, or communalist; accept descriptions like acceptance by the community; reject “communism”]
[10e] Wiredu’s conception of personhood within Akan communities has been critiqued by Gyekye as overly subjugating the ends of the individual, arguments which invoke this Kantian ethical principle.
ANSWER: categorical imperative
[10m] Beyond the Akan, communitarianism in precolonial Africa has been championed using the phrase “I am because we are,” a key tenant in this philosophy.
ANSWER: Ubuntu
<Michael Bucknall, Philosophy>