conduct; hence, it can be changed over a person's life. In some African cultures, "personhood" refers to an adult human who exhibits moral virtues, and one who behaves badly is not considered a person, even if he is considered a human. While many traditional African societies are highly religious, their religions are not revealed, and hence, ethics does not center around divine commands. Instead, ethics is humanistic and utilitarian: it focuses on improving social functioning and human flourishing. On the other hand, social welfare is not a mere aggregate of individual welfare; rather, there is a collective "social good" embodying values that everyone wants, like peace and stability. In general, African ethics is social or collectivistic rather than individualistic and united in ideology. Cooperation and altruism are considered crucial. African ethics places more weight on duties of prosocial behaviour than on rights per se, in contrast to most of Western ethics. Africana philosophy Africana philosophy is the work of philosophers of African descent and others whose work deals with the subject matter of the African diaspora. This is a relatively new (since the 1980s) and developing name given to African thought, and it is given credible attention by professional organizations, including the American Philosophical Association. Africana philosophy includes the philosophical ideas, arguments and theories of particular concern to people of African descent. Some of the topics explored by Africana philosophy include: pre-Socratic African philosophy and modern day debates discussing the early history of Western philosophy, post-colonial writing in Africa and the Americas, black resistance to oppression, black existentialism in the United States, and the meaning of "blackness" in the modern world. List of African philosophers This is a list of notable philosophers who theorize in the African tradition, as well as philosophers from the continent of Africa. Algerian Albert Camus Louis Althusser Mohammed Arkoun Augustine of Hippo Malek Bennabi Hélène Cixous Jacques Derrida Frantz Fanon Bernard-Henri Lévy Mohammed Chaouki Zine Beninese Paulin J. Hountondji Cameroonian Achille Mbembe Congolese Jacques Depelchin V. Y. Mudimbe Ernest Wamba dia Wamba Theophile Obenga Egyptian Ptah-Hotep Kagemni I Mustafa Abd al-Rizq Arnouphis Abdel Rahman Badawi Mohamed Osman Elkhosht George of Laodicea Hassan Hanafi Ihab Hassan Zaki Naguib Mahmoud Abdel Wahab El-Messiri Plotinus Rifa'a al-Tahtawi Fouad Zakariyya Maimonides Ethiopian Walda Heywat Zera Yacob Gambian Kocc Barma Fall Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumah Nii Bortey Bilson Kwame Anthony Appiah Al-Hajj Salim Suwari Anton Wilhelm Amo