Chapters in Books (Philosophy)

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    The Complex 'I'. The Formation of Identity in Complex Systems
    (Lawrence and Wishart, 2010) Cilliers, Paul; De Villiers-Botha, Tanya; Philosophy
    When we deal with complex things, like human subjects or organizations, we deal with identity – that which makes a person or an organization what it is and distinguishes him/her/it from other persons or organizations, a kind of “self”. Our identity determines how we think about and interact with others. It will be argued in this chapter that the self is constituted relationally. Moreover, when we are in the realm of the self, we are always already in the realm of engaging with and mediating differences – the realm of ethics. The position which will be developed argues that approaching identity as a complex system allows us to resist thinking of identity as an easily identifiable and static entity. Identity is always being constituted within a complex and contingent world, where we have to make choices based on contingent values rather than on universal knowledge or the outcome of rational calculations. As a result, we have to keep in mind that our daily practices always already have an ethical component, and our decisions need to be continually evaluated and re-evaluated in the light of our (and others’) varying identities.
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    The world as the "Beyond" in politics
    (Rodopi Pubblishers, 2012-06) Roodt, Vasti; Stoker, Wessel; Van der Merwe, W. L.
    In this essay, I consider transcendence in relation to politics. Following Hannah Arendt, I argue that a necessary condition for politics is a concern with a common world. The world in this sense is the common interest that informs political action, but cannot be reduced to anyone’s particular interest. The world, in this sense, is the “beyond” of politics from which the call goes out for political action, but which can never be fully embodied in any given action or any specific position in the world. This understanding of the world renders a conception of political action as a way of being at home in the world that eschews an exclusive commitment to anyone’s particular place within it. To accept that the world lies beyond our private concerns, while nevertheless making an appeal to us from where we are not, is to accept that politics is predicated on transcendence.
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    On the imperative of sustainable development : a philosophical and ethical appraisal
    (Human Sciences Research Council and Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa, 2002) Hattingh, Johan P.
    See item for full text
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    Human dimensions of invasive alien species in philosophical perspective : towards an ethic of conceptual responsibility
    (IUCN, 2001) Hattingh, Johan P.
    How can we find an appropriate language in which to formulate our concerns about, and our policy responses to, the problem of invasive alien species? This question arises from the tensions between our conventional vocabulary and the context within which we have to use this vocabulary. Characterized by both globalization and the so-called postmodern conditon, this context confronts us on the one hand with the homogenizing effects of the dominant ideology of advancec industril societies and on the the other hand with a loss of faith in the grand narratives of modernity.
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    The state of the art in environmental ethics as a practical enterprise : a view from the Johannesburg documents
    (UNESCO Publishing, 2006) Hattingh, Johan P.
    In this chapter I focus more on what could be referred to as the practical task of environmental ethics, rather than on what could be described as its theoretical task.