Western and African Perspectives on Value

Abstract

Western and African philosophical traditions do not thrive on the same metaphysical assumption, especially when it comes to the nature of value. It is against this backdrop that I probe into Western and African perspectives on value. Having critically unpacked Plato's Form of the Good and Immanuel Kant's noumenon and phenomenon- by discussing how the two philosophers have created vagueness in our understanding of the nature of value from Western perspective, I reveal how African communal lifestyle is based on the value of 'we'. That permits me to argue that Omoluabi, which is an African communal theory of value, is rooted in the value of 'we', therefore, objectively functional. To substantiate this argument, I defend how moral value and aesthetic value are two sides of a coin in Yoruba thought system. The work contributes to knowledge for uniquely drawing attention to how the nature of value can be practically understood from Western and African perspectives.