Philosophy

Many of the topics of public debate in contemporary South Africa raise intriguing philosophical questions: Morally speaking, does most of the Western Cape actually belong to the Khoisan? Does being indigenous give one certain moral rights? Has the achievement of legal equality liberated black people, or would true liberation require the rediscovery of a distinctive identity? What special responsibilities (if any) do formerly advantaged groups have today? This course brings the tools of philosophical argument and analysis to bear on such problems, making use of, e.g., contemporary theories of moral ownership rights and the phenomenon of “epistemic injustice". In addition, it traces the intellectual ancestry of ideas such as those of Black Consciousness, critically examining the attempts of theorists such as Hegel, Fanon, Césaire, and Biko to theorize about oppression, identity, empowerment, and the predicament of colonized peoples. DP requirements: Regular attendance at lectures and tutorials; completion of all tests, submission of all essays and assignments by due dates, and an average mark of at least 35% for the coursework. Assessment: Coursework counts 40%; one three-hour examination in October/November counts 60%. Course entry requirements: At least second-year status.

This course introduces and analyzes a number of lesser known perspectives and claimed solutions to problems that humanity and the world have been facing over the past 200 years by focusing on a range of spiritual and esoteric groups and movements. The course focuses on three major themes: global history and ideas about global communities; nature, ecology, sustainability, and animistic spiritualities; and human nature, ethics, and activism.

This course examines contemporary theories of justice such as those of Sen, Rawls, and Dworkin in the light of the distinction between theory and practice that we inherit from Aristotle. Of particular interest are those approaches to modern political problems that combine the unique insights that emerge from a sensitivity to conceptual history with the unquestionable moral progress that is owed to the ethical outlook of modern democracy.

This course examines the historical origins and development of welfare states. In addition, the course analyzes the principles and values underlying the welfare state such such as (different conceptions) equality, personal responsibility, and exploitation; and different philosophical proposals about how trade-offs between different principles and values should be made. The course interprets the welfare state as an idea, practice, and set of institutions in a historical and philosophical context; analyzes contemporary debates about the welfare state from a historical and philosophical perspective; and discusses crucial social and political themes related to the welfare state from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The course analyzes culture as an ethical construction, and ethics as cultural production. Topics include: culture, identity, and processes of subjectivation; ideology; hegemony, culture, and common sense; cultural criticism and emancipation; cultural distinction and exclusion; normative potential of the awareness of injustice in subordinate groups; ethical and epistemic decolonization processes; the multiculturalist program and its failures; interculturality and intersectionality.

This course begins with 12 fundamental problems in philosophy, and takes the list of these problems as a cue to introduce the main part of this course, i.e., the four main positions of the materialist conception of the nature of mind, which include: behaviorism, identity theory, eliminative materialism, and functionalism. When each position is addressed, the reasons for supporting it and main objections against it are provided to the audience respectively. The whole course is materialism-oriented, but there is still enough space for discussing its competing positions like dualism. This course also focuses on the correlation between philosophy and Artificial Intelligence.

The so-called period of “Enlightenment” in European history provided a wide range of debates that continues to provoke critical engagements in the following centuries. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to one of the most profound questions in Enlightenment debates, a question that is still seen by many as highly relevant to today's social and political theory, as well as moral and legal philosophy; that is, what constitutes a just society? The course covers texts constituting the “canon” in Enlightenment social and political thought, and will end with a brief reflection on how such debates might still preoccupy some of our own understandings of the nature of politics and sociability.