The aim of this article is to provide a unified account of hope by defining and discussing false hope. Hope cannot be understood without understanding false hope. The article distinguishes between ordinary hopes and fundamental hope on the one hand, and highlights the close relation of fundamental hope to despair on the other. In the philosophical literature, false hope is assumed to be wishful thinking or unreasonable hope. I argue that false hope is neither wishful thinking nor unreasonable hope, but arises instead from a conflict between ordinary hopes, fundamental hope, and despair. According to the account presented here, false hope is any ordinary hope that either implicitly increases the temptation to despair, or masks suppressed despair.

This article examines the parallels and distinctions between mystical experiences within religious and cultic contexts, using Mormonism and Happy Science as case studies. The study begins with a clarification of the theoretical framework, rejecting logical positivism and acknowledging the truthfulness of beliefs as held by followers. Definitions of religion and cults are explored, highlighting the challenges in distinguishing between them. Religion is defined through the lens of transcendent belief in God, offering solutions beyond the natural world, while cults are characterised by their non-traditional beliefs and the presence of a divine element within an individual leader. The similarities between cults and religion are discussed, emphasising the human need for meaning and orientation beyond empirical evidence. Mysticism is defined as an experiential phenomenon transcending the physical world, often involving telepathy, clairvoyance, and union with the divine. The article then presents the mystical experiences of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, and Ryuho Okawa, the founder of Happy Science. Smith’s vision is portrayed as a transcendent experience, marked by paradoxical elements and a dissolution of self, aligning with traditional religious mysticism. In contrast, Okawa’s experience is contained within the physical realm and emphasises the divine within the individual, reflecting characteristics of cultic experiences. The article concludes that the interpretation of the divine as either uncontainable or contained serves as a philosophical tool for distinguishing between religious and cultic traditions, respectively. This framework provides a basis for further research across a broader range of religious and cultic contexts.

In many African communities, identity is profoundly intertwined with communal values and ethics. Individuals strongly associate with families, clans, tribes, or ethnic groups to shape their identity and belonging. Identity is a reciprocal relationship between the individual and the community, grounded in equality and mutual understanding. Bernard Matolino’s limited communitarianism offers a unique lens for understanding the balance between these communal values and individual rights. It underscores the importance of balance between them, forming a profound theoretical foundation for exploring LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, queer, plus) rights in African society. LGBTQ+ individuals in African communities face various challenges from communal values and diverse sexual and gender identities. Recognising this diversity underscores the significance of individualised identities in the collective narrative. This article delves into the ethical complexity intersecting these identities, highlighting instances where LGBTQ+ individuals grapple with conforming to communal values at the cost of their rights and authentic identities. It highlights the tension between societal norms and individual autonomy, intensified by the discourse on cultural relativism and universal human rights in Matolino’s framework. It aims to comprehensively examine whether limited communitarianism accounts for the rights and complexities of LGBTQ+ individuals while seeking a balance between communal and individual identity dimensions. It acknowledges intricate challenges in this intersection and seeks paths toward harmonising communal values, individual rights and LGBTQ+ identities in African society. The primary goal is to contribute to the discourse on identity, ethics and human rights in African communities, aspiring to inform more inclusive and equitable approaches to African identity and rights.

This article suggests a convergence of three areas of scholarship, namely black feminism, black existentialism, and the concept of intersectionality, towards a “Black Feminist Transcendence Framework” that addresses antiblack-sexism or antiblack-racist-sexism. South African philosopher, Mabogo Percy More, throughout his work, interrogates the facticity and situation of “being-black-in-an-antiblack-world”, in order to challenge antiblack-racism. One of the concepts that he employs to this end, is the “Politics of Being”, which proposes a symbiosis of ontology and politics, and captures a progression from “what-is” to “what-ought-to-be” – a movement from ontology to teleology, and from alienation to transcendence. When one studies his entire oeuvre, one finds that the resources he suggests for his existential-phenomenological progression are rooted predominantly in the themes of alienation, consciousness, identity, and freedom/liberation. Together, these themes capture the components of his politics of being concept. However, it also becomes apparent that he focuses on a homogenous, or universalist account of blackness, and male-biased lived experience with antiblackness, that does not sufficiently engage the gendered nature of black embodied existence. Thus, I draw from his rich and generative account of antiblack-racism, and extend it into the domain of antiblack-racist-sexism, by employing a black feminist lens – particularly the concept of intersectionality. To describe the unique situation of the woman, I employ phenomenological concepts from existential feminist Simone de Beauvoir; and to specifically offer a black female lived experience account, I engage the work of black/African feminist scholar Pumla Dineo Gqola. More’s transcendence framework is set out in detail and underpins my own novel black feminist transcendence framework.

Existentialism has progressively fallen out of favour in contemporary philosophy departments, as well as in the broader cultural discourse. David Mitchell posits that its diminishing appeal can, in part, be attributed to the naïve, humanist view of the subject with which it has become associated. In this context, what can then be said of the fate of the work of Mabogo P. More, the foremost advocate of existentialism among the black South African philosophical tradition? I provide a reading of More’s distinct brand of existentialism, contending that, as articulated by More himself, his existentialism may be regarded as a “humanist endeavour”, yet one advocating for “a novel humanism” reminiscent of “Fanonian revolutionary humanism”. Consequently, I suggest that More’s existentialism retains its relevance amid the waning interest in existentialism, principally due to the distinctively relational conception of humanism that I contend grounds it.

This essay studies the work of Mabogo More, arguing that More is a philosopher of listening. The essay deals with More’s critique of white liberalism, arguing that More offers several varieties of critiques of being-a-white-philosopher-in-the-world.