Student profiles
Patrick Effiong Ben
Website: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/patrick-ben
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-ben-92954b153/
Email: patrick.ben@manchester.ac.uk
Thesis Title
Institution
Supervisors
Prof. John O’Neill
Dr. Thomas Smith
Research Summary
One of the most important and urgent collective harm problems facing the world today is the problem of global climate change. Increasingly, across the world and especially in developing countries, there has been a growing sense of moral resignation among individuals to act in morally relevant ways, due to the general belief that their singular positive acts cannot make a difference. Issues concerning collectively insignificant actions and their outcomes, and individual moral responsibility for resolving them, are of global concern. The idea that, as individuals, our choices and actions have little to no effect on the general scheme of things, particularly in changing the status quo, is responsible for many moral derelictions in our world today, which have had many negative effects on the human and non-human environments. This is what we might call the problem of inconsequentialism. This problem—what I prefer to call the ‘problem of collectively insignificant individual actions’—is most visible in the areas of climate action, political participation, and related cases of collective impact. My doctoral research addresses the inefficacy challenge—that is, inconsequentialism—raised by collective impact problems in the contexts of climate change and political participation from an African perspective.
Research Interests
Applied Ethics,
Moral Philosophy,
African Philosophy,
Poverty and Inequality,
Conversational Philosophy,
Social and Political Philosophy.
Publications
Article publications in peer-reviewed/refereed journals
[In press] — Ben, Patrick Effiong. 202_. ‘On the Moral Implications of Odera Oruka’s “Human Minimum” Approach to Fighting Extreme Poverty in Africa.’ African Studies.
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2025. ‘Groupcism as an Acceptable Type of Discrimination.’ Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, vol. 55, no 4. DOI: Groupcism as an Acceptable Type of Discrimination – Ben – 2025 – Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour – Wiley Online Library
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2025. ‘The problem with Conceptual Mandelanisation.’ Arụmarụka: Journal of Conversational Thinking, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 62–72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/ajct.v5i1.4.
Ofuasia, Emmanuel and Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2025. ‘Deterrence and Decapitation Tactics as a Strategy for Counter-Terrorism.’ Journal of Military Ethics, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 140-154. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15027570.2025.2562736.
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2023. ‘Predeterminism as a category error: Why Aribiah Attoe got it wrong.’ South African Journal of Philosophy, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 13-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2023.2211824.
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2022. ‘The Paradox of Ambivalent Human Interest in Innocent Asouzu’s Complementary Ethics: A Critical Inquiry.’ Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 89–108. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ft.v11i2.7.
Book Chapters
Wangenge-Ouma, Gerald, Manyasa, Emmanuel and Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2025. ‘Achieving SDG 4: A Challenge of Education Justice.’ In Higher Education and SDG4: Quality Education, edited by Tawana Kupe, pp. 55-73. Leeds: Emerald Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-627-020241004.
Benblag, Patrick. 2016. ‘I Wanna Be A Child Again.’ In The Sun Will Rise Again: Top 100 Poems of the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize 2016, edited by Eriata Oribhabor and Kolade Olanrewaju Freedom, pp. 207-208. Lagos: Something for Everybody Ventures.
Book Review
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2022. ‘Consolationism and Comparative African Philosophy: Beyond Universalism and Particularism, by Ada Agada.’ International Journal of African Renaissance Studies, 17:1, pp. 226-230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2022.2105734.
Public Philosophy
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2025. ‘Think your efforts to help the climate don’t matter? African philosophers disagree.’ The Conversation UK, January 27, 2025. [Online] Available from: https://theconversation.com/think-your-efforts-to-help-the-climate-dont-matter-african-philosophers-disagree-247042.
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2024. ‘Climate Action: Insignificant Contributions Matter.’ The University of Manchester School of Social Sciences, September 18, 2024. [Online] Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/climate-action-insignificant-contributions-93ite/.
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2020. ‘The Anti-Racists Purge Must Begin From Within.’ The Conversational Society of Philosophy. [Online] Available from: https://cspafrica.org/the-anti-racists-purge-must-begin-from-within/.
Ben, Patrick Effiong. 2020. ‘Tail of Masculinity.’ Writers Resist. [Online] Available from: https://www.writersresist.com/2020/07/23/tail-of-masculinity/.
Benblag, Patrick. 2016. ‘Why Premarital sex is not immoral.’ The Nation, September 19, 2016. [Online] Available from: https://thenationonlineng.net/premarital-sex-not-immoral/.
Selected Lectures and Conference Presentations
‘Why It’s Your Complementary Obligation: A Rejection of Sinnott-Armstrong’s Defence of Inconsequentialism.’ — Second International Congress of Philosophy, University of Cartagena: Philosophy and Environmental Ethics: Sentipensar the Earth in the 21st Century, November 17–21, 2025. Universidad de Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia.
Invited Discussant: ‘Coloniality of Youth in Contemporary Africa.’ — Higher Education and Human Development Research Group Webinar, August 4, 2025. University of the Free State (UFS), Bloemfontein, South Africa.
‘An African Approach to The Motivation Problem of Climate Action.’ — Science for Engagement 2025 Conference, June 19–20, 2025. Centre for Climate and Environmental Resilience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Participant: ‘Climate Reparations in Australia: Obstacles and Opportunities.’ — Workshop Organised by Erin Fitz-Henry (University of Melbourne) and Julia Dehm (La Trobe University), May 15–16, 2025. The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus, Victoria, Australia.
‘An African Conception of Individual Moral Obligation.’ — XXV World Congress of Philosophy, Rome, August 1-8, 2024. Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
‘Inconsequentialism and Climate Action.’ — School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) PGR Conference, May 22, 2024. Engineering Building, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
‘In Defence of ‘Moral Whataboutism’.’ — PhD Seminar Presentation, Department of Philosophy, April 30, 2024. The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
‘Thinking Beyond Bivalence: Ezumezu and the Future Direction of Logic.’ — São Paulo School of Advanced Science on “Contemporary Logic, Rationality, and Information” — SPLogIC, February 6-17, 2023. University of Campinas (Universidade Estadual de Campinas) (UNICAMP), Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
‘Moral Intheses: Towards Conversational Ethics.’ — Philosophical Society of Southern Africa (PSSA) Conference, January 16–18, 2023. University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa.
‘Individual Moral Obligation: An Approach to Sustainability.’ — Boston University Graduate Student Philosophy Conference on Sustainability and Environmental Ethics, April 21-22, 2022. Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, Boston, MA, USA. [Paper was one of the 7 papers selected on merit and originality for the 7 presentation spots available for the conference]
Talks
Ben, Patrick. August 28, 2025. ‘Why Philosophy Is Not Dead.’ Club Alpbach France Fireside Chat, European Forum Alpbach, Alpbach, Tyrol, Austria.
Ben, Patrick. October 1, 2022. ‘Why Africa is Poor.’ TEDx University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. [Online] Available from: https://youtu.be/wR7N433E_rE.