Comparing Mogobe Ramose's And Barbara Alice Mann

You are who your are because of other people. This we identify as Ubuntu, which is an African term meaning “you are because we are”. In the essay I will firstly discuss what Ubuntu is in the Ubuntu philosophy then discuss Plato’s idea of being human as well as Mogobe Ramose’s and Barbara Alice Mann’s view of what humanity is. However after having discussed from the different positions I will then justify why out of all the above mentioned philosophers I agree with Ramose’s view of what humanity is.

All the report of what humanity(Ubuntu) is covered aspect such as human nature, goodness, virtue, kindness etc. In clearer words Ubuntu means a person is a person through other people. This idealism suggests to us that humanity is not a character

Plato made an analogy of the “Allegory Of The Cave”. Socrates asks us to imagine a scene in which everyone is born in a cave and the way in which we live out our lives is in such that we can only face and gaze at the back of the wall. At the entrance of the cave there’s fire, there are also various figures moving in between the fire and us (people). The fire is positioned in such a way that it casts shadows of the objects/figures in between the fire and us and as well as our shadows onto the wall in front of us, now with that being said the echoing sounds are created by the unseen figures and are usually followed by the shadows with which they are synchronized. The cave dwellers are unaware of what’s behind them as it is like their necks are chained so that they only face the back wall, they grew up in this, for as long as they have lived this is how things have always been and since they have no knowledge of anything better than this, nobody complains. The shadows to the cave dwellers are real. The shadows are their reality and since they are unaware of anything else they develop myths and science to prove the stories and structures of the

He feels strongly that ubuntu should not be limited only to ethics, such as one should not kill. It should be understood systematically as a way of being a life affirming human. To Ramose social justice is the core concern, he implies that moral education is the solution to ubuntu. As we now know education is not only what you are taught in formal institutions but it’s a responsibility of everyone, family, friends, community as well. He says that with moral education it’ll enable people to value life a lot more than they value their materialistic assets, accumulation of profits and wealth. This is one of the ways of working towards achieving social justice which to him is the same as ubuntu. Ramose sees social justice as humanity(Ubuntu) because ubuntu is about the people being each-others proponents and valuing the growth of a person more than materialistic