Background Currently there is increasing recognition of the need for research in developing countries where disease burden is high. Understanding the role of local factors is important for undertaking ethical research in developing countries. We explored factors relating to information and communication during the process of informed consent, and the approach that should be followed for gaining consent. The study was conducted prior to a family-based genetic study among people with podoconiosis (non-filarial elephantiasis) in southern Ethiopia. Methodology/Principal Findings We adapted (...) a method of rapid assessment validated in The Gambia. The methodology was entirely qualitative, involving focus-group discussions and in-depth interviews. Discussions were conducted with podoconiosis patients and non-patients in the community, fieldworkers, researchers, staff of the local non-governmental organisation (NGO) working on prevention and treatment of podoconiosis, and community leaders. We found that the extent of use of everyday language, the degree to which expectations of potential participants were addressed, and the techniques of presentation of information had considerable impact on comprehension of information provided about research. Approaching podoconiosis patients via locally trusted individuals and preceding individual consent with community sensitization were considered the optimal means of communication. Prevailing poverty among podoconiosis patients, the absence of alternative treatment facilities, and participants' trust in the local NGO were identified as potential barriers for obtaining genuine informed consent. Conclusions Researchers should evaluate the effectiveness of consent processes in providing appropriate information in a comprehensible manner and in supporting voluntary decision-making on a study-by-study basis. (shrink)

BackgroundThe consent process for a genetic study is challenging when the research is conducted in a group stigmatized because of beliefs that the disease is familial. Podoconiosis, also known as 'mossy foot', is an example of such a disease. It is a condition resulting in swelling of the lower legs among people exposed to red clay soil. It is a very stigmatizing problem in endemic areas of Ethiopia because of the widely held opinion that the disease runs in families and (...) is untreatable. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of social stigma on the process of obtaining consent for a study on the genetics of podoconiosis in Southern Ethiopia.MethodsWe adapted a rapid assessment tool validated in The Gambia. The methodology was qualitative involving focus-group discussions (n = 4) and in-depth interviews (n = 25) with community members, fieldworkers, researchers and staff of the Mossy Foot Treatment and Prevention Association (MFTPA) working on prevention and treatment of podoconiosis.ResultsWe found that patients were afraid of participation in a genetic study for fear the study might aggravate stigmatization by publicizing the familial nature of the disease. The MFTPA was also concerned that discussion about the familial nature of podoconiosis would disappoint patients and would threaten the trust they have in the organization. In addition, participants of the rapid assessment stressed that the genetic study should be approved at family level before prospective participants are approached for consent. Based on this feedback, we developed and implemented a consent process involving community consensus and education of fieldworkers, community members and health workers. In addition, we utilized the experience and established trust of the MFTPA to diminish the perceived risk.ConclusionThe study showed that the consent process developed based on issues highlighted in the rapid assessment facilitated recruitment of participants and increased their confidence that the genetic research would not fuel stigma. Therefore, investigators must seek to assess and address risks of research from prospective participants' perspectives. This involves understanding the issues in the society, the culture, community dialogues and developing a consent process that takes all these into consideration. (shrink)

Habermas’ critical theory is partly an attempt to identify the limitations of critique and emancipation as espoused in the first generation critical theory of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. In their attempt to develop an interdisciplinary, reflexive, emancipatory and dialectical reason that is critical towards accepted realities, Horkheimer and Adorno in their monumental work The Dialectic of Enlightenment pictured a world trapped in instrumental rationality. Taking and revolutionizing traditional critical theory, Habermas argues that reason entails both emancipator as well as (...) instrumental possibilities. Through an exposition of Habermas’ critique of Horkheimer and Adorno in his discourse of modernity, this article argues that although Habermas successfully identifies the equation of the rational with the instrumental and offers an emancipator model in return; still he ends up not paying sufficient attention to aesthetic truth. (shrink)

The article explores the role that can be played by philosophy education in terms of addressing the crisis of subjectivity and modernity in Africa. Philosophy education in Africa can play the function of liberating Africans from alien modalities of existence and ways of being, and in return embarking on a new journey of self-invention. Without succumbing to a reactive epistemic nationalism that identifies the totality of European philosophy with the ideologies of colonialism, there is a need to develop a form (...) of philosophy education that is cognisant of the troubled path within which the African mode of individual existence and modernity are constituted within. This contributes to the development of a vision of an African future that is founded on collective histories and struggles. (shrink)

This article critically exposes Habermas’ discussion of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of Being and George Bataille’s heterology as a way of identifying the postmetaphysical stance as the guiding spirit of Habermas’ modernity. In his work The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Habermas argues that whereas Heidegger’s Being sacrifices actuality in the name of interpretation, Bataille’s heterology sets up the unlimited experience which fails to provide an impetus for societal critique. Here a postmetaphysical approach is envisaged by Habermas as a way of going (...) beyond the confines of the metaphysical tradition, although it also needs to pay attention to charges of misreading in its attempt to deconstruct the discourse of the modern. (shrink)

This article explores the role that can be played by philosophy education in Ethiopia as a means to develop a shared meaning that is able to go beyond the ethnic polarization that is currently haunting the nation. It shows that through the introduction of a philosophy education that fosters a culture of critical reflection, dialogue, and reflection on the nature of human existence, human values, and a moral fabric that is able to bestow a sense of a common purpose on (...) the lives of individuals, one can develop a shared conception of meaning in the Ethiopian context. This reflective exercise, made possible by philosophy education, can lead into the bridging of ethnic divisions and a process of intercultural understanding that is able to introduce commonly shared normative systems. In a nation like Ethiopia that is being plagued by ethnic divisions rooted in the system of ethnic federalism, philosophy education can provide a foundation for social cohesion and ethical deliberation that leads into the creation of an inclusive society grounded on the development of a shared sense of identity. (shrink)

In this essay, I recount my intellectual journey in teaching philosophy at three Ethiopian universities. Such a recounting focuses on from the time I was assigned to the Department of Philosophy at Addis Ababa University through a quota system as an undergraduate student, to teaching philosophy at Wollega University, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University and Addis Ababa University. Through such a discussion, I show the foundations of my conviction that philosophy needs to play an active role in the emancipation (...) of the individual. I also believe that a philosophy that is grounded on the analysis of societal predicaments can serve as a foundation of an Ethiopian critical theory that is developed as a critical engagement with the question of modernity. (shrink)

Through a discussion of the historical trajectory within which modern philosophy in Ethiopia developed, the article situates the discussions of the spirit of cultural coexistence, the reflections on modernity, the process of state building, religion and modernity and the validity of indigenous traditions as the objects of analysis upon which social philosophizing in Ethiopia could take place within. Through such a discussion, it will be shown that the social function of philosophy in Ethiopia needs to be situated in the two-fold (...) task of identity formation and the emergence of an emancipatory impulse. Concrete strategies for realizing such a function in terms of the development of curriculums, the cultivation of an interdisciplinary engagement between philosophy and other disciplines, community engagement, knowledge dissemination and the need to engage in an ethical and political reflection are identified. (shrink)

In this article, the nature of Ethiopian modernity will be explored through the usage of concepts like coloniality, entangled modernities and uneven histories that are borrowed from decolonial and postcolonial perspectives. Through such an analysis, the Ethiopian discourse on modernity will be presented as a conception of social progress that developed in a dialectical relationship with liberal, Marxist, indigenous and religiously inspired conceptions of modernity. It will be argued that resisting the attempts to romanticize the past as a foundation of (...) cultural revival and also the attempt to confine the discussion of Ethiopian modernity to the introduction of western modernization, Ethiopian modernity should be alternatively conceptualized as a discourse that is co-constituted in an active confrontation with alternative visions of progress. The article argues that the diagnosis of the multiple and interconnected discourses that shaped the Ethiopian discourse on modernity serves as a foundation of an Ethiopian critical theory. Such a theory creatively synthesizes cultural values, hosts an inclusive political culture that furnishes the culture of public criticism and introduces a world of knowledge production that overcomes Eurocentrism. (shrink)

In this article after identifying four major trends in the discourse on Ethiopian philosophy, it will be argued that there is a need to introduce a mature conception of Ethiopian philosophy that can both diagnose existential predicaments and also has the ability of introducing an emancipatory dimension. At the heart of this article is the claim that there are four major trends in Ethiopian philosophy which is a discourse that is still looking for an identity and that these trends are (...) characterized by hermeneutics, intercultural philosophy, critical theory and indigenous Ethiopian philosophy. After identifying the limitations of the four trends in Ethiopian philosophy, the article will point towards the development of a new discourse in Ethiopian philosophy that has the power of pointing towards the emergence of a new discourse that is able to diagnose existing realties and also can engage in a dialogue with other philosophical traditions. (shrink)

Through the development of a comparative analysis that explores the conceptions of the Golden Rule that are expressed in the teachings of Confucius, Christianity and the Hatatas, the article shows that the combined insights that emerge from these three teachings have a contemporary significance in the attempt to develop a complementary learning process with the Other. Throughout its variations, the Golden Rule is grounded on the need to treat others as how we want to be treated. Such a moral vision (...) occupies a central importance in Confucius’s ren, Christianity’s Gospel of Matthew and the commandments, and the Hatatas’ principle of harmony. The comparative exercise in contending conceptions of the Golden Rule that are found in Confucius’, the Christian and the Hatatas’ approaches leads into the emergence of a learning process that goes beyond the mere tolerance of the Other. In a globalized world, where there is a search for a moral guideline that can serve as a common source of motivation, the Golden Rule can serve as a foundation of a process of learning that is mutually supportive, supplementary and is hence complementary. (shrink)

The Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät are enigmatic and controversial works. Respectively an autobiography and a companion treatise by a disciple, they are composed in the Gǝʿǝz language and set in the highlands of Ethiopia during the seventeenth century. Expressed in prose of great power and beauty, they bear witness to pivotal events in Ethiopian history and develop a philosophical system of considerable depth. However, they have also been condemned by some as a forgery, an elaborate mystification (...) successful in deceiving generations of European and Ethiopian scholars. -/- This volume breaks new ground for the study of these texts, presenting a clear account of the most up-to-date scholarship the ways they works are being investigated by contemporary philosophers, philologists, and historians. -/- While the authorship question is addressed in the volume, it is not the sole locus of discussion. The near-exclusive focus on this question over the last century has obscured scholarly interest in the texts’ philosophical and literary qualities in their own right. Accordingly, this volume begins to fill this gap, exploring the texts' implications for the global history of philosophy and transnational intellectual history of the 17th century. (shrink)