Professor Thaddeus Metz

Professor Thaddeus Metz’s research is in value theory, moral-political-legal philosophy, philosophy of religion, and comparative philosophy. Many of his publications fit under the headings of ‘The Meaning of Life’ or ‘African Moral and Political Philosophy’.

Some of his recent works in these areas have been translated into French, Dutch, German, Igbo, Turkish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, or Persian.

In 2004, he joined the University of the Witwatersrand and received the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award in 2008. In 2009, he joined the University of Johannesburg; won the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award in 2012; and was given a distinguished professorship in 2015. He joined the University of Pretoria in 2020 where he is a professor with Research Focus.

Some recent accolades include being listed as the 71st most highly cited philosopher in the world in Scopus publications (2020) and having been named one of ‘The World’s Top 50 Thinkers’ by Prospect Magazine (2020).

Two of Prof Metz’s recent books are A Relational Moral Theory: African Ethics in and Beyond the Continent (Oxford University Press, 2022) and God, Soul and the Meaning of Life (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

His research outputs over the last eight years include 63 peer-reviewed journal articles, eight books and 90 book chapters.