Research Articles (Philosophy)

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Browsing Research Articles (Philosophy) by Author "Cilliers, Paul"

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    Complexity, postmodernism and the bioethical dilemma
    (SUN MeDIA Bloemfontein, 2008) De Roubaix, Malcolm; Cilliers, Paul
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This article examines the implications of a postmodern ethics for bioethical problems. Traditional approaches to bioethics, with specific reference to “principlism”, depend on a modernist strategy which attempts to produce generalised solutions. Making use of complexity theory, it is shown that the factors specific to each instance cannot be reduced in an objective way. The contingency of each individual case has to be considered. This leads to an ethics which cannot be the result of following universal rules, but one that has to accept the responsibility for the outcome of our decisions, even if these outcomes are not fully predictable. The responsibility for our choices cannot be shifted onto some a priori principle.
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    Narrating the self : Freud, Dennett and complexity theory
    (South African Journal of Philosophy, 2004) De Villiers, Tanya; Cilliers, Paul
    Adopting a materialist approach to the mind has far reaching implications for many presuppositions regarding the properties of the brain, including those that have traditionally been consigned to “the mental” aspect of human being. One such presupposition is the conception of the disembodied self. In this article we aim to account for the self as a material entity, in that it is wholly the result of the physiological functioning of the embodied brain. Furthermore, we attempt to account for the structure of the self by invoking the logic of the narrative. While our conception of narrative selfhood incorporates the work of both Freud and Dennett, we offer a critique of these two theorists and then proceed to amend their theories by means of complexity theory. We argue that the self can be characterised as a complex system, which allows us to account for the structure of the wholly material self.