Mogobe Bernard Ramose is a South African

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, one of the key thinkers to have popularised

African philosophy African philosophy is the philosophical discourse produced using indigenous African thought systems. :African philosophers, African philosophers are found in the various academic fields of present philosophy, such as metaphysics, epistemology, E ...

, and specifically

Ubuntu philosophy Ubuntu (; meaning in some Bantu languages, such as Zulu language, Zulu) describes a set of closely related Bantu African-origin value systems that emphasize the interconnectedness of individuals with their surrounding societal and physical world ...

, internationally. Ramose is Professor of Philosophy at the

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 student ...

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

Biography

Mogobe Ramose received his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Philosophy from the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

in 1983. His time in Belgium was spent as a political refugee, having been

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

d from South Africa during the regime of

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. He returned to South Africa in 1996, to take up a research position at the

University of Venda The University of Venda (Univen; , ) is a South African comprehensive rural-based institution, located in Thohoyandou in Limpopo province. It was established in 1981 under the then Republic of Venda government. History The university was es ...

Notable works

In his essay The struggle for reason in Africa,''' published in 1998, Ramose argued for the importance of opening up Western philosophy to the range of philosophical traditions originating outside of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Another notable work is ''African Philosophy through Ubuntu'', published in 1999. The book outlines how concepts such as

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

can be understood through Ubuntu philosophy, and demonstrates how

colonization 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

negate the shared humanity of coloniser and colonised. In 2013 Ramose edited a collection of essays entitled ''Hegel's Twilight'', which contrasts

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

's view of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

as a dark continent outside of history, to the intercultural philosophy of Heinz Kimmerle.

Influence and reception

Mogobe Ramose's work has been influenced by the political thinking of South African dissident and founder of the

Pan Africanist Congress The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, often shortened to the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), is a South African pan-Africanist national liberation movement that is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert So ...

Robert Sobukwe Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG (5 December 1924 – 27 February 1978) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, ...

. Ramose has contributed to

pan-Africanist Pan-Africanism is a nationalist movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the Trans-Sa ...

thinking and activism, popularised

, and repeatedly critiqued the persisting view that

rationality Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reason. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do, or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an ab ...

is the exclusive purview of

Western philosophy Western philosophy refers to the Philosophy, philosophical thought, traditions and works of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the Pre ...

. He has supervised and influenced a number of students including Masilo Lepuru, Joel Modiri and Ndumiso Dladla.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramose, Mogobe Year of birth missing (living people) Living people South African philosophers Academic staff of the University of South Africa Catholic University of Leuven alumni 20th-century South African male writers South African exiles 21st-century South African male writers