Abstract

Chapter 1 introduces the book’s central questions and chief claims. It asks: What makes individuals ‘persons’ in a moral sense, beings with a certain dignity or worth, entitled to others’ respect? Are all humans persons? Are any non-humans persons? How does personhood begin and end? Philosophers from Africa and the West have not worked collaboratively on personhood to address these questions. Chapter 1 begins to fill this gap, engaging African and Western traditions in critical conversation. This brings to light five salient differences, which relate to whether personhood is (1) intrinsic or extrinsic, (2) earned or unearned, (3) binary or scalar, (4) mostly stable or mostly changing, and (5) foundational or derivative. Chapter 1 proposes that these five notable differences were not always present, are hardly inevitable, and can and should be bridged.