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Document Details : Title: An African Philosophical Account of Just War Theory Author(s): BADRU, Ronald Olufemi Journal: Ethical Perspectives Volume: 26 Issue: 2 Date: 2019 Pages: 153-181 DOI: 10.2143/EP.26.2.3286746 Abstract : The central values of the just war theory in western philosophy are: (i) a war is morally justifiable; (ii) the war is morally conducted, and (iii) after the war, the former combatants must be morally related such that a conflictual phenomenon does not repeat itself in future; or, at least, the future possibility of such a conflict is substantially reduced. The present contribution advances such moral thinking within African metaphysics and ethics. An expansive conception of Alajobi (commonness of descent between the self and the other) in Yoruba metaphysics, harmonized with the value of social utilitarianism (moral rightness or wrongness as conduciveness or non- conduciveness to social or communal progress and development) in African ethics, yields, at least, three prescriptions: (i) conflict should not be a norm of social interaction in Africa because it represents social (or communal) disharmony between the self and the other; it depicts no true commonness of descent; (ii) if a conflict must arise at all, then it must be strictly premised on the removal of obstacle(s) to social (or communal) progress and development of the self and the other, (iii) since any conflict at all must be strictly premised on the removal of the noted obstacle(s), then the conflict must conclude in such a way that, all things considered, would ultimately allow future social (or communal) progress and development of the self and the other. |
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