How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

by Michael Schur

In fact, one of the best explanations of why “other people” matter isn’t really an “explanation” at all, but rather a worldview: it’s the southern African concept of ubuntu. “I Am, Because We Are” Explaining ubuntu will take a second, because there’s not really (as far as I’ve found) a perfect encapsulation, and since I don’t speak Zulu or Xhosa or any other African language, all I have to go on are somewhat murky English translations. A lot of the explanation of ubuntu is done through aphorisms, anecdotes, and proverbs, though the South African political philosopher Johann Broodryk defines it this way: A comprehensive ancient African world view based on the values of intense humanness, caring, sharing, respect, compassion, and associated values, ensuring a happy and qualitative human community life in the spirit of family. Broodryk anticipates our next question: “It may be asked whether this notion is unique,” he writes, “since all cultures ascribe basically to these positive values.” He’s right, of course—if we think of ubuntu as, say, “human interconnectedness,” there are parallels in Buddhism, or the Hindu concept of dharma.