This volume presents a theoretical defense of the potential of ordinary individuals to construct values and through them to become self-empowering, responsible participants in a democratic community. Rather than conceiving of power as domination, the author identifies true power as self-empowerment, a notion based on self-construction. He proposes the vision of an authentically free self filled with a compassion that is a composite of reason and feeling. Such a composite self does not consciously manipulate language, truth, and desire to dominate and subordinate other individuals, but uses them to construct values and norms that can enrich others. To support his argument the author draws on both classical and contemporary philosophers, as well as on literary sources.

Self Definition argues that sex, gender, and race are constructions by the ineffable self as it seeks to define its possibilities free of domination. The self’s embodiments are themselves performances of self definition. Teodros Kiros supports his argument by a careful reading of the literature from both the Global South and Global North that spans figures, works, and eras from antiquity to our late modern present. These readings demonstrate that race, gender, and sex are performed in the Global South radically differently from in the Global North. These three notions as markers of identity are fluid, open, and expansive, and Kiros brilliantly shows this through inquiry into thought rooted in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, and China. By the time that the Global North forges possibilities of the self in the modern period, race, gender, and sex become fixed. Biology and anatomy become understood as destinies, and the possibilities of the self are deeply constrained. This book approaches case studies of key figures and movements chronologically and thematically, and in doing so Kiros highlights the tensions between the openness of the Global South and the rigidity of the Global North through which human possibilities as exercises of self-definition become clear under conditions of freedom. Our views of self definition will forever be transformed after reading this important text.

Contents:
1. Introduction:African Philosophy for the New Millenium Teodros Kiros 2. The Proverb and Oral Society 3. Society and Democracy in Africa 3. Ibn Khaldun:A Dialectical Philosopher for the Twenty-First Century George Katsiaficas
4. Critical Rationalism and Cultural Traditions Dismas Masolo 5. Normative Instability as the Cause of African Political Disorder I.F. Menkiti 6. The Wisdon of African Sages Gail M. Presbey 7. Ideology and Political Culture in Africa Ali Mazrui 7. Civil Society Matters Ajume Wingeo 8. Chieftancy as an NGO Anthony Appiah 9. Democracy in Africa Immanuel Eze

Contents:
1. Introduction:African Philosophy for the New Millenium Teodros Kiros 2. The Proverb and Oral Society 3. Society and Democracy in Africa 3. Ibn Khaldun:A Dialectical Philosopher for the Twenty-First Century George Katsiaficas
4. Critical Rationalism and Cultural Traditions Dismas Masolo 5. Normative Instability as the Cause of African Political Disorder I.F. Menkiti 6. The Wisdon of African Sages Gail M. Presbey 7. Ideology and Political Culture in Africa Ali Mazrui 7. Civil Society Matters Ajume Wingeo 8. Chieftancy as an NGO Anthony Appiah 9. Democracy in Africa Immanuel Eze

This volume presents a theoretical defense of the potential of ordinary individuals to construct values and through them to become self-empowering, responsible participants in a democratic community. Rather than conceiving of power as domination, the author identifies true power as self-empowerment, a notion based on self-construction. He proposes the vision of an authentically free self filled with a compassion that is a composite of reason and feeling. Such a composite self does not consciously manipulate language, truth, and desire to dominate and subordinate other individuals, but uses them to construct values and norms that can enrich others. To support his argument the author draws on both classical and contemporary philosophers, as well as on literary sources.