This article examines the question of the meaningfulness of life in traditional African thought with a focus on the Yorùbá. It discovers that the dominant Yorùbá conception of a meaningful life among the Yorùbá is the manifestation of some relational valuable ends: material comfort symbolised with monetary possession; a long healthy life; children; a peaceful spouse; and victory over life’s vicissitudes. The Yorùbá account considers a positive realisation of the quintuple ends as sufficient conditions of a meaningful life worth pursuing by an individual. This article argues that the Yorùbá conception of life’s meaningfulness is neither supernaturalistic nor nihilistic in motivation and orientation. Rather, it is holistic, and rationally and relationally embedded in ways that reveal the communal structure of traditional Yorùbá society. This article critically exposes the problems and limitations of such an account with some suggestions for future research in the African philosophy of life.

中文翻译：

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约鲁巴人关于有意义生活的传统观念

本文以约鲁巴为重点，研究了非洲传统思想中生命意义的问题。它发现约鲁巴人中有意义的生活中占主导地位的约鲁巴人概念是一些相关的有价值目的的体现：物质上的舒适感象征着金钱的占有；健康长寿；孩子们; 和平的配偶；并战胜了人生的沧桑。约鲁巴语帐户认为五元组结尾的积极实现是值得个人追求的有意义生活的充分条件。本文认为，约鲁巴关于生命意义的概念在动机和取向上既不是超自然主义也不是虚无主义。相反，它是整体的，合理的和相关的，以揭示传统约鲁巴社会的社区结构的方式嵌入其中。