ETHICAL METHODOLOGY IN METZ’S THEORY OF UBUNTU

Abstract

In this article I apply Thaddeus Metz’s ethical methodology to the ancient Greek ideal of σωφροσύνη in order to show that it generates a distorted account of ubuntu. If ubuntu is a virtue concept, then Metz’s analytical method will not reconstruct it — because it fails to determine whether ubuntu refers to one of a plurality of fundamental virtues, the fundamental virtue, or virtue itself.