The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast · Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, Rose de Castellane, Gregory Mill

Episode 154, 'African Philosophy of Religion' with Aribiah David Attoe (Part I – The Meaning of Life)

March 22, 2026·31 min·2 clips

A philosopher argues life is ultimately meaningless and suggests suicide or living for living's sake as the only honest responses.

1. The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast presents an episode on African philosophy of religion and the meaning of life, hosted by Dr. Jack Symes and John Hawkins with guest Dr. Aribiah David Attoe. 2. Dr. Attoe is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and author of The Question of Life's Meaning: An African Perspective, among other books on African philosophy of religion. 3. The episode's guiding question is what African philosophical traditions say about the meaning of life, and whether those answers survive critical scrutiny. 4. Attoe defines philosophy as a method emphasizing logic and rational thinking to decipher what is real, and describes it as 'a type of hope' — though for him, 'mostly false hope.' 5. His philosophical influences include, unusually, the rapper Eminem — whose fearlessness in tackling outrageous topics without fear of repercussion Attoe cites as shaping his own willingness to challenge established traditions — alongside James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, and African philosophers Adag Adag and Jonathan Chimakonam. 6. Attoe names Hegel as his least favourite philosopher, calling his work 'the most dangerous philosophical work against Africans' for its diatribe against African traditions and ways of thinking. 7. His current philosophical position holds that life is ultimately meaningless, and that the best response is a 'philosophy of indifference' — either suicide or living for living's sake — though he is beginning to think even that distinction may not matter. 8. He uses Thaddeus Metz's definition of meaning as a starting point — asking what subjectively pursued ends, actions transcending animal nature, and objects of great esteem define a meaningful life — but supplements it with subjective ends and the concept of 'received meaning,' where a person can be a meaning patient without actively seeking meaning. 9. The Yoruba tradition holds that each individual appears before God before birth to receive a destiny, either good or bad; meaningfulness consists in pursuing that destiny, which represents God's purpose. 10. Attoe distinguishes hard determinism — in which destiny is inevitable even if the person attempts to change it through ritual — from soft determinism, in which the goal is set but whether it is achieved depends on individual effort. 11. His own theoretical contribution is that God issues divine laws and assigns destiny not primarily for human benefit but because African metaphysics holds 'being alone is impossible': God, like persons, cannot exist as a solitary being and needs the universe — a community of persons — to have a legitimate existence. 12. African metaphysics treats the spiritual and physical realms as 'two sides of the same' rather than as separate Cartesian entities: ancestors exist and act within this world, not in a remote heaven, and their influence is evidenced through tangible real-world effects. 13. In the vitalist tradition — found in Bantu, Yoruba, and Igbo philosophies — everything from inanimate objects to humans possesses varying degrees of an ethereal force from God; humans can augment vitality through good actions and community contribution, or diminish it through malevolence, which also decreases the vitality of those harmed. 14. Augmenting vitality increases flourishing and meaning; diminishing it decreases flourishing and makes life more meaningless; death occurs when vitality reaches zero. 15. Attoe acknowledges that the vitalist framework faces a strong naturalistic challenge: if the functions attributed to vital force can be explained by neuroscience and biology, the force itself is redundant — and he accepts this as a genuine problem without a satisfying answer in the current literature. 16. African communitarianism, in contrast to mere conformity, holds that meaningful actions are those that genuinely establish communal harmony and flourishing — conformity alone does not achieve this. 17. The episode is produced in partnership with the Global Philosophy of Religion Project 2, supported by the John Templeton Foundation, as the third of four special episodes on underrepresented religious traditions. 18. The conversation is engaged and discursive, with Symes and Hawkins actively challenging Attoe's claims — including whether vital-force theory commits the naturalistic fallacy — and Attoe frequently acknowledging limitations in the traditions he is presenting. 19. This episode is best suited to listeners interested in non-Western philosophy, comparative religion, and questions of meaning and nihilism who want an academic but accessible entry point. 20. Listeners seeking practical or therapeutic approaches to the meaning of life, or those put off by nihilistic conclusions, will likely find Attoe's final position unrewarding.

As heard by us

A thoughtful conversation about communal life, interwoven worlds, and living under the possibility of meaninglessness.

Questions about the meaning of life are framed through social belonging, as the episode moves through African philosophy of religion, communal life, harmony, and the treatment of outsiders.

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Want to test philosophy's most urgent question against African philosophy of religion?

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