ABSTRACT
Anglo-American and European normative philosophy is essentially individualist in character, while African philosophy is of a collectivist kind. Such general statements are common within the comparative literature on these philosophical traditions. Individualism considers the individual, taken separately, to be of sole and ultimate concern. The most prominent example of individualist normative thought are the various types of liberalism currently predominant in Anglo-American and European philosophy and politics. Collectivism, by contrast, holds that it is the community itself that is of normative concern. With its decidedly communalist orientation, African philosophy seems to be based precisely on such a collectivist approach to normative thought.
