An unexpected dialogue? when Ubuntu meets Rawls

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to establish a dialogue between two perspectives that, at first, seem far apart: the South African epistemology of ubuntu and the theory of justice of the American philosopher John Rawls. We argue that both Rawls, from his vision of justice as equity, and the ubuntu perspective, in its anti-humanist and communal essence, converge to formulate a social justice that values general well-being and combats inequalities and injustice. This argument can be extended in the direction of a global dialogue between different forms of knowledge, societies, and civilizational traditions, so that the overcoming of a supposedly “universal” hegemonic conception gives way to an effective “pluriverse.”