In this talk, the speaker will expound a conception of freedom that is commonly held by those working in the sub-Saharan African philosophical tradition. Roughly, according to this view, one is more free, the more one is able to enter into communal relationships with others. After spelling out this relational notion of freedom, Prof. Metz will compare and contrast it with conceptions of freedom from other major traditions, specifically Confucianism, which is also relational, and liberalism, which is individualist.

Thaddeus Metz is Distinguished Professor and Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg. About half of his more than 125 scholarly publications provide a theoretical-analytic interpretation of traditional African ethical thought and put it into dialogue with moral and political philosophy in the West and in East Asia.