Doctoral Degrees (Philosophy)
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- ItemAbortion, sentience and moral standing : a neurophilosophical appraisal(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-12) Van Bogaert, Louis-Jacques; Cilliers, P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Moral theories on abortion are often regarded as mutually exclusive. On the one hand, pro-life advocates maintain that abortion is always morally wrong, for life is sacred from its very beginning. On the other hand, the extreme liberal view advocated by the absolute pro-ehoieers claims that the unborn is not a person and has no moral standing. On this view there is no conflict of rights; women have the right to dispose of their body as they wish. Therefore, killing a non-person is always permissible. In between the two extreme views, some moral philosophers argue that a 'pre-sentient' embryo or fetus cannot be harmed because it lacks the ability to feel pain or pleasure, for it is 'sentience' that endows a living entity (human and non-human) with moral considerability. Therefore, abortion of a pre-sentient embryo or fetus is permissible. Neurophilosophy rests a philosophical conclusion on neurological premises. In other words, to be tenable sentientism - the claim that sentience endows an entity with moral standing - needs robust neurobiological evidence. The question is, then: What is the basic neuroanatomical and neurophysiological apparatus required to be sentient? The answer to that question requires a fair understanding of the evolution, anatomy and function of the brain. The exploration thereof shows quite convincingly that the advocates of sentientism do not provide convincing arguments to root their theory in neurobiological facts. Their claims rest rather on emotions and on behaviours that look like a reaction to pain. The other shortcoming of sentientism is that it fails to distinguish pain from suffering, and that as a utilitarian moral theory it considers only the alleged pain of the aborted sentient fetus and disregards the pregnant woman's pain and suffering. And, finally, sentientism leaves out of our moral consideration living and non-living entities that deserve moral respect. The main thrust of the dissertation is that the argument of sentience as its advocates present it has no neurophilosophical grounds. Therefore, the argument from sentience is not a convincing argument in favour or against abortion.
- ItemAfrican feminism as decolonising force: a philosophical exploration of the work of Oyeronke Oyewumi(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Coetzee, Azille Alta; Du Toit, Louise; Halsema, Annemie; Goris, Wouter; Du Toit, H. L.; Halseman, J. M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH SUMMARY: In this dissertation I present the work of Nigerian feminist sociologist, Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmí, as a decolonising force having the power to disrupt sub-Saharan African philosophy, Western feminist thought and discourses on African decolonisation in highly significant and surprising ways. Sub-Saharan African feminist voices have been largely absent from philosophical discourse in the Western and African worlds, but also from global western feminist debates and the discourses on the decolonisation of Africa. This has been explained in African scholarship to be due to the fact that the two struggles that Africa feminism has pledged allegiance to, namely on the one hand, the liberation of African people from colonialism, neocolonialism and racism and, on the other hand, the empowerment of African women, are often construed as two logical opposites on account of the fact that feminism is regarded as a recolonising force that is alien to Africa. In this sense African feminism’s fight for the rights of African women is commonly made out to be ‘unAfrican.’ African feminist voices are therefore excluded from, and understood in opposition to, African intellectual discourses that centre indigenous and decolonising knowledges. At the same time, on the other hand, on account of the fact that Western feminism still often unthinkingly applies Western conceptual frameworks to African contexts and thereby erases African knowledges and realities, African feminists most often formulate their feminist theories outside of or independent of Western feminist theory. Their allegiance to the struggle of the decolonisation of Africa therefore keeps African feminists outside of global feminist debates, while, at the same time, their commitment to bettering the plight of women, leads to their exclusion from many systems of African knowledge production that centre indigenous or decolonising knowledges. Moreover, African philosophy is still mostly a masculinist venture and does not engage with issues of gender and accordingly African feminists mostly choose other disciplines within which to express themselves. African feminism and African philosophy are therefore to a large extent regarded to be two mutually exclusive domains of knowledge. In this dissertation I show how Oyĕwùmí, as African feminist, who is rendered inaudible and invisible in the dominant processes and sites of sub-Saharan knowledge production and Western feminism, occupies a unique epistemological position that is rich in resources to subvert, rupture and enrich these dominant systems of knowledge. I make this argument by placing Oyĕwùmí in dialogue with sub-Saharan African philosophy and with Belgian feminist scholar, Luce Irigaray.
- ItemAmor fati, amor mundi : Nietzsche and Arendt on overcoming modernity(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005-03) Roodt, Vasti; Van Tongeren, P. J. M.; Esterhuyse, W. P.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.The purpose of this thesis twofold: first, to develop an account of modernity as a “loss of the world” which also entails the “death” of the human as a meaningful philosophical, political or moral category, and second, to explore the possibility of recovering a sense of the world in us and with it, a sense of what it means to be human. This argument is developed by way of a sustained engagement with the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Hannah Arendt, whose analogous critiques of modernity centre on the problem of the connection between humanity and worldliness. My argument consists of three parts, each of which spans two chapters. Part one of the thesis sets out the most important aspects of Nietzsche’s and Arendt’s respective critiques of modernity. Chapter one focuses on modernity as a rupture of a philosophical, political and religious tradition within which existence in the world could be experienced as unquestionably meaningful. Following arguments developed by Nietzsche and Arendt, chapter two establishes that the loss of this tradition results in a general crisis of meaning, evaluation and authority that can be designated as “modern nihilism”. The second part of the thesis deals with what may be called the “anthropological grounds” of the critique of modernity developed in part one. To this end, chapter three focuses on Nietzsche’s portrayal of the human as “the as-yet undetermined animal” who is neither the manifestation of a subjective essence nor the product of his own hands, but who only exists in the unresolved tension between indeterminacy and determination. This is followed in chapter four by an inquiry into Arendt’s conception of “the human condition”, which in turn points to the conditionality of being human. What is clearly demonstrated in both cases is that, in so far as the predicament of modernity is incarnate in modern human beings themselves, any attempt at overcoming this predicament would somehow have to involve re-thinking or transcending our present-day humanity. The third part of the thesis examines the way in which the reconceptualisation of the human as advocated by Nietzsche and Arendt transforms our understanding of “world”. The more specific aim here is to demonstrate that both thinkers conceive of a reconciliation between self and world as a form of redemption. In chapter five I explore their respective attempts to resurrect the capacity for judgement in the aftermath of the death of God as the first step in this redemptive project, before turning to a more in-depth inquiry into the “soteriology” at work in Nietzsche’s and Arendt’s thinking in chapter six. This inquiry ultimately makes clear that there is a conflict between the Nietzschean conception of redemption as amor fati (love of fate) and Arendt’s notion of redemption as amor mundi (love of the world). I conclude the thesis by arguing that what is at stake here are two conflicting notions of reconciliation: a worldly – or political – notion of reconciliation (Arendt), and a much more radical, philosophical notion of reconciliation (Nietzsche), which ultimately does away with any boundary between self and world. However, my final conclusion is not that we face an inevitable choice between these two alternatives, but rather that the struggle between these two dispositions is necessary for an understanding of what it means to be human as well as for the world in which our humanity is formed.
- ItemThe autonomy of culture : a cultural-philosophical analysis(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12) Niemand, Johannes R.; Van Niekerk, Anton A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Multicultural conflicts pervade our world and have sparked considerable debate about their possible resolution. We argue that how culture is conceptualized is crucial to the continued dialogue about multicultural conflicts. Specifically, we argue that approaches that argue for the protection of cultures run into significant problems if they do not employ a conception of cultures as delineated entities. However, we also hold that the notion that cultures cannot be distinct in any way, does very little to contribute to dialogue. From the very beginning, it excludes the notion of a culture that is to be protected and thus stops the dialogue there and then. To be true to the principle of audi ad alteram partem, approaches to multicultural conflicts must conceive of an alternative model, provided that such a model is logically possible. This may provide the dialogue with a much needed point of common understanding from which to proceed. Accordingly, we develop a model of culture whereby it is possible to delineate cultures. In this model, a culture can be delineable in a manner analogous to how we delineate persons. Our model of personal delineation suggests a dual structure whereby a trivial personal boundary contains a unity of conflict within the person. In persons, this unity of conflict lies in the relationship between the “I” and repressed meanings. This relationship must be characterised by self-referential decisions and the capacity to make self-referential decisions is central to our definition of personal autonomy. In cultures, we argue that multicultural conflicts provide the necessary conditions that enable us to conceptualize trivial boundaries in cultures in terms of the communicative relationships between members of a particular culture. Multicultural conflicts prompt self-categorizations by individuals and such self-categorizations are made in terms of group membership. Though all members may not agree as to who belongs to the culture and who does not, the claims made about membership serve to differentiate the communicative relationships inside the culture from those outside it. Furthermore, we show that, inside this trivial boundary, a unity of conflict analogous to the one found in personal autonomy, can be exhibited by cultures. We show how a culture, through its institutions, particularly through an institutionalised exit possibility, 1) may exhibit self-reference and 2) relate to a source of authority in the same way as a person does when making selfreferential decisions. In this regard, we argue that institutionalised exit possibilities embody adherence to the consensus vs. power criterion, according to which the dominant account of a culture is achieved through consensus, as opposed to through the exertion of power. Furthermore, we argue that with a strong analogy between cultures’ and personal delineation, it becomes reasonable to extend concepts we usually apply to persons, such as fairness, attachment and viability, so that they can also apply to cultures. We show that the application of these concepts clarifies certain current multicultural issues. The application of theses concepts also leads to the development of a decision making process to deal with multicultural issues.
- ItemBeing harmed and harming: government responsibility for inadequate healthcare(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Komu, Philbert Joseph; Roodt, Vasti; De Villiers-Botha, Tanya; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the importance of the concept of harm in formal and applied ethics, the concept itself has received comparatively little attention. This dissertation aims to develop a concept of harm that can carry the weight of the moral arguments that rely on it. It is generally considered wrong to harm others, and as a good thing to act in a way that avoids, prevents, or lessens harm to them. Yet we are often hard-pressed to say what it is for a thing to be harmed, or to cause harm. Traditionally, there are non-comparative accounts of harm whose generalised view is that harms are at the same time intrinsic bads, and comparative accounts which commonly view harms as events that leave us worse off than we historically were before their occurrence or than we would have counterfactually been had the events not occurred. On the one hand, both of these accounts are inconsistent with some of our moral intuitions about harm; on the other, they do accept – but fail to show why – it is impossible to think of harms that are not bad for their victims in some respect. In this dissertation, I defend the concept of harm as prudential disvalue, which coherently holds that harms are bad for their victims from their own perspective. In order to avoid being radically subjective and including trivial things under the definition of harm, I adopt the “appealing-life view”, arguing that harms are things that detract from the appealworthiness of being in someone’s position. I then apply this revised concept of harm to a real-world example. I show why the lack of access to adequate healthcare services in Tanzania is a harm, in what respects the Tanzanian government is responsible for this harm, and why this harm is not justified, which renders the government morally blameworthy. In the domain of formal moral theory, the dissertation contributes to the scholarly literature on the problem of harm. In the field of applied ethics, the dissertation helps us to understand not only the nature of hardships endured by people within an inadequately-resourced and -managed healthcare system, but also the responsibility for the harm suffered as a result of these institutional failures.
- ItemDie Christelike broederskapsleer : sy agtergrond en toepassing in die vroee kerk(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1946-12) Marais, Barend Jacobus; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: No Abstract Available.
- ItemCitizenship as a human well-being capability(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Munyiswa, Isaiah; Roodt, Vasti; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH SUMMARY: The aim of this dissertation is to defend the claim that citizenship is an architectonic human well-being capability. Citizenship so conceived is a necessary condition for human flourishing. I make and defend this claim in an endeavour to bridge the theory-practice gap that exists in Sen’s and Nussbaum’s notions of capability – a gap that has led some critics to describe the capability approach as an unworkable idea. By “citizenship” I mean, firstly, the formal status of being a legally recognised member of a state, and secondly, the formal capacities and immunities connected with such status – in short, citizenship rights. My claim, then, is that being a citizen in both senses of the word is a condition for achieving various functionings and, in this way, enabling human beings to live lives they have reason to value. The conception of capabilities in Sen’s capability approach is essentially theoretical and abstract. However, the value of the capability approach as an evaluation space for human well-being ultimately depends on its translation into a practical evaluative tool accessible to both academic researchers and policy-makers. Adopting the position that citizenship is an architectonic capability operationalizes the capability approach in particular ways. Firstly, defining citizenship as a capability gives specific content to, and thus improves our theoretical understanding of, capabilities. Secondly, defining capabilities in this way makes it easier for us to develop appropriate methods for their measurement. Thirdly, this approach develops a richer concept of citizenship, according to which citizenship is not simply a legal designation, but an important condition of human flourishing. I take this dissertation to be a contribution to growing efforts that are aimed at clarifying and operationalizing the capability approach.
- ItemCo-evolutionary relationships between environmental ethics and environmental assessment(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-04) Burns, Michael Edmund Reid; Hattingh, J. P.; Canter, L. W.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The dissertation traces the development of environmental assessment and environmental ethics as these disciplines have evolved independently in response to the global environmental crisis. The aim is to determine the extent to which they can promote the integration of the dissociated objective and subjective spheres of human valuation of the environment. This is a necessary condition, it is argued, for arresting the pathology in the human-environment relationship. The study concludes that both disciplines were initially trapped in narrow, monistic approaches, which rendered them largely ineffective. However, their evolutionary advancement, and a common grounding in a radical conceptualization of sustainable development, greatly enhances their usefulness in environmental decisionmaking.
- ItemCommunity and democracy in South Africa : liberal versus communitarian perspectives(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-12) Waghid, Yusef; Van Niekerk, Anton A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The tradition of liberalism in South Africa has played a significant role in shaping the country's multi-party democracy. Yet, there are several gaps within the tradition of liberalism which can be associated with an aversion towards majority rule, equalising opportunities through affirmative action measures, and a focus on securing political rights as opposed to substantive rights for all citizens. It is my contention that weaknesses within the liberal tradition could be minimised if a more credible conception of liberalism is constructed within the parameters of a deliberative framework of democracy. In this dissertation I make an argument for a defensible form of liberalism which can be achieved through a rational, reflexive discourse-oriented procedure of deliberative democracy. Deliberative democracy in turn can engender a form of citizenship which recognises the need for citizens to care, reason and engage justly in political conversation with others. KEYWORDS: Liberalism, communitarianism, deliberative democracy and South Africa.
- ItemA complex ethics : critical complexity, deconstruction, and implications for business ethics(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-12) Woermann, Minka; Cilliers, Paul; Vrba, Minka; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study commences with a critical, philosophical exploration of the ethical theories that constitute the normative basis of the dominant business ethics paradigm. It is argued that the universal and communitarian notions of the good upon which this paradigm is based, are inadequate in helping us deal with the complexities that define the modern day business environment. It is suggested that a sophisticated and affirmative account of postmodernism is a better suited alternative, as this paradigm is geared towards assisting us in finding workable solutions to our problems in the absence of universal truths or homogenous operating environments. Although postmodernism serves as a useful starting point for challenging the normative basis of business ethics, this study moves beyond this broad paradigm in providing an analysis of both complexity theory (specifically critical complexity theory), and Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive philosophy. The paradigm of critical complexity presents us with a useful framework for understanding, and thinking through the implications that complex phenomena hold for us, for our practices, and for our understanding of our responsibilities. Deconstruction (which serves as a philosophical example of a complex position) contributes to, and supplements this paradigm. Specifically, deconstruction draws attention to the processual nature of ethical decision-making and action, as well as to the ethical and political implications that arise from our limited knowledge of complex phenomena. Once critical complexity theory and deconstruction are adequately defined, a close reading of a critical text on the relevance of Derrida for understanding business ethics is presented. In undertaking the close reading, a number of criticisms against deconstruction are addressed, and an argument is made for why a more complex understanding of ethics is preferable to universal or communitarian notions of the good – and, therefore, preferable as a normative basis for business ethics. After making the case for a complex ethics, a general circumscription of a complex ethics is provided. This circumscription is premised on an understanding of ethics as a critical, provisional, transgressive, and imaginative enterprise. The specific implications that such a notion of ethics hold for teaching business ethics, and for understanding prominent business ethics themes (such as corporate social responsibility, responsible leadership, and sustainable development) are also elaborated upon. In conclusion, it is argued that taking cognisance of the insights and implications that arise from this study will help to support the future viability of business ethics. This is because a complex understanding of ethics can promote the development of robust and flexible strategies, which are needed for dealing with the realities of the modern business environment.
- ItemComplexity and hermeneutic phenomenology(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2008-12) Collender, Michael; Van der Merwe, W.; De Villiers-Botha, Tanya; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.This thesis argues that the study of the brain as a system, which includes the disciplines of cognitive science and neuroscience, is a kind of textual exegesis, like literary criticism. Through research in scientific modeling in the 20th and early 21st centuries, anong with the advances of nonlinear science, and both cognitive science and neuroscience, along with the work of Aristotle, Saussure, and Paul Ricoeur, I argue that the parts of the brain have multiple functions, like words have multiple uses. Ricoeur, through Aristotle, argues that words only have meaning in the act of predication, the sentence. Likewise, a brain act must corporately employ a certain set of parts in the brain system. Using Aristotle, I make the case that human cognition cannot be reduced to mere brain events because the parts, the whole, and the context are integrally important to understanding the function of any given brain process. It follows then that to understand any given brain event we need to know the fullness of human experience as lived experience, not lab experience. Science should progress from what is best known to what is least known. The methodology of reductionist neuroscience does the exact opposite, at times leading to the denial of personhood or even intelligence. I advocate that the relationship between the phenomenology of human experience (which Merleau-Ponty explored famously) and brain science should be that of data to model. When neuroscience interprets the brain as separated from the lived human world, it “reads into the text” in a sense. The lived human world must intersect intimately with whatever the brain and body are doing. The cognitive science research project has traditionally required the researcher to artificially segment human experience into it pure material constituents and then reassemble it. Is the creature reanimated at the end of the dissections really human consciousness? I will suggest that we not assemble the whole out of the parts; rather human brain science should be an exegesis inward. So, brain activities are aspects of human acts, because they are performed by humans, as humans, and interpreting them is a human activity.
- ItemComplexity, peacebuilding and coherence : implications of complexity for the peacebuilding coherence dilemma(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-12) De Coning, Cedric Hattingh; De Villiers-Botha, Tanya; Jordaan, Barney; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores the utility of using Complexity studies to improve our understanding of peacebuilding and the coherence dilemma, which is regarded as one of the most significant problems facing peacebuilding interventions. Peacebuilding is said to be complex, and this study investigates what this implies, and asks whether Complexity could be of use in improving our understanding of the assumed causal link between coherence, effectiveness and sustainability. Peacebuilding refers to all actions undertaken by the international community and local actors to consolidate the peace – to prevent a (re)lapse into violent conflict – in a given conflict-prone system. The nexus between development, governance, politics and security has become a central focus of the international effort to manage transitions, and peacebuilding is increasingly seen as the collective framework within which these diverse dimensions of conflict management can be brought together in one common framework. The coherence dilemma refers to the persistent gap between policy-level assumptions about the value and causal role of coherence in the effectiveness of peacebuilding and empirical evidence to the contrary from peacebuilding practice. The dissertation argues that the peacebuilding process is challenged by enduring and deep-rooted tensions and contradictions, and that there are thus inherent limits and constraints regarding the degree to which coherence can be achieved in any particular peacebuilding context. On the basis of the application of the general characteristics of Complexity to peacebuilding, the following three recommendations reflect the core findings of the study: (1) Peacebuilders need to concede that they cannot, from the outside, definitively analyse complex conflicts and design ‘solutions’ on behalf of a local society. Instead, they should facilitate inductive processes that assist knowledge to emerge from the local context, and such knowledge needs to be understood as provisional and subject to a continuous process of refinement and adaptation. (2) Peacebuilders have to recognise that self-sustainable peace is directly linked to, and influenced by, the extent to which a society has the capacity, and space, to selforganise. For peace consolidation to be self-sustainable, it has to be the result of a home-grown, bottom-up and context-specific process. (3) Peacebuilders need to acknowledge that they cannot defend the choices they make on the basis of pre-determined models or lessons learned elsewhere. The ethical implications of their choices have to be considered in the local context, and the effects of their interventions - intended and unintended - need to be continuously assessed against the lived-experience of the societies they are assisting. Peacebuilding should be guided by the principle that those who will have to live with the consequences should have the agency to make decisions about their own future. The art of peacebuilding lies in pursuing the appropriate balance between international support and home-grown solutions. The dissertation argues that the international community has, to date, failed to find this balance. As a result, peacebuilding has often contributed to the very societal weaknesses and fragilities that it was meant to resolve. On the basis of these insights, the dissertation concludes with a call for a significant re-balancing of the relationship between international influence and local agency, where the role of the external peacebuilder is limited to assisting, facilitating and stimulating the capacity of the local society to self-organise. The dissertation thus argues for reframing peacebuilding as something that must be essentially local.
- ItemConstructing “Climate Change Knowledge” the example of small-scale farmers in the Swartland region, South Africa(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) De Ruijter, Susann; Hattingh, J. P.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the last decades “Climate Change” has become a vital topic on national and international political agendas. There it is presented as an irrevocable fact of global impact and thus of universal relevance. What has often been neglected are local discourses of marginalized groups and their specific contextualization of “Climate Change” phenomena. The aim of this project, to develop another perspective along these dominant narratives, has resulted in the research question How is social reality reconstructed on the phenomenon of “Climate Change” among the “Emerging Black Farmers” in the Swartland region in Western Cape, South Africa? Taken as an example, “Climate Change Knowledge” is reconstructed through a case study on the information exchange between the NGO Goedgedacht Trust and local small-scale farmers in the post-Apartheid context of on-going political, social, economic and educational transition in South Africa. Using a constructivist approach, “Climate Change Knowledge” is not understood as an objectively given, but a socially constructed “reality” that is based on the interdependency of socio-economic conditions and individual assets, including language skills and language practice, sets of social norms and values, as well as strategies of knowledge transfer. The data set consists of qualitative data sources, such as application forms and interview material, which are triangulated. The rationale of a multi-layered data analysis includes a discursive perspective as well as linguistic and ethical “side perspectives”. Epistemologically, the thesis is guided by assumptions of complexity theory, framing knowledge around “Climate Change” as a fluid, constantly changing system that is shaped by constant intra- and inter-systemic exchange processes, and characterized by non-linearity, self-organization and representation of its constituents. From this point of departure, a theoretical terminology has been developed, which differentiates between symbols, interrelations, contents and content clusters. These elements are located in a system of spatio-temporal orientation and embedded into a broader (socio-economic) context of “historicity”. Content clusters are remodelled with the help of concept maps. Starting from that, a local perspective on “Climate Change” is developed, adding an experiential notion to the global narratives. The thesis concludes that there is no single reality about “Climate Change” and that the farmers’ “Climate Change Knowledge” highly depends on experiential relativity and spatio-temporal immediacy. Furthermore, analysis has shown that the system’s historicity and social manifestations can be traced in the scope and emphasis of the content clusters discussed. Finally the thesis demonstrates that characteristics of symbols, interconnections and contents range between dichotomies of direct and indirect, predictable versus unpredictable, awareness and negligence or threat and danger, all coexisting and creating a continuum of knowledge production. All names of participants in this study are mentioned on the basis of explicit informed consent.
- ItemDarwin's doubt : implications of the theory of evolution for human knowledge(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-12) Vlerick, Michael Marie Patricia Lucien Hilda; Smit, J. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation I enquire into the status, scope and limits of human knowledge, given the fact that our perceptual and cognitive faculties are the product of evolution by natural selection. I argue that the commonsense representations these faculties provide us with yield a particular, species-specific scope on the world that does not ‘correspond’ in any straightforward way to the external world. We are, however, not bound by these commonsense representations. This particular, species-specific view of the world can be transgressed. Nevertheless, our transgressing representations remain confined to the conceptual space defined by the combinatorial possibilities of the various representational tools we possess. Furthermore, the way in which we fit representations to the external world is by means of our biologically determined epistemic orientation. Based on the fact that we are endowed with a particular set of perceptual and cognitive resources and are guided by a particular epistemic orientation, I conclude that we have a particular cognitive relation to the world. Therefore, an accurate representation for us is a particular fit (our epistemic orientation) with particular means (our perceptual and cognitive resources).
- ItemEarth, air, fire and water : moral responsibility and the problem of global drug resistance(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004-03) Knapp van Bogaert, Donna; Van Niekerk, Anton A.; Beyers, Nulda; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation, I grapple with the problem of global drug resistance and moral responsibility which, as far as I am aware, has so far not been presented as a topic of ethical inquiry. It represents a conundrum involving three major factors: microbial adaptation and change, human social factors and environmental changes. Drug resistance is a phenomenon in which certain microorganisms, when exposed to antimicrobial agents, may acquire the beneficial trait of drug resistance which ensures a better potential for their survival. The acquired trait of drug resistance I argue renders such microorganisms 'supra-natural '. Supra-natural is a term I coin for entities that have been imposed upon nature by human design; they do not follow the natural evolutionary processes of adaptation and change. Drug resistance is classified as an emerging infectious disease. Human social factors and environmental change (particularly population growth, density and consumerist practices) enhance the rise of emerging infectious diseases. Through such increasing destructive practices, stress is placed on the environment. Environmental stress facilitates the rise of new and old infectious diseases and the spread of drug resistant supra-natural microorganisms. Thus, our ability to treat successfully illnesses and injuries in humans, animals and plants is increasingly impaired. Morally, we are responsible for the problem of global drug resistance. Drug resistant microorganisms exist in nature and concerning this, we can do nothing. At best, we can only try to control the problem using prudential measures. The problem of global drug resistance represents both a biomedical ethical and an environmental ethical issue. Is there a way out of the human-nature debate? Through Bryan Norton's enlightened anthropocentrism, I identify the ways in which his thesis may be applied to the problem of human and environmental concerns and show its applicability in broadening the parameters of biomedical ethics education to include environmental concerns.
- ItemEarth, air, fire and water : moral responsibility and the problem of global drug resistance(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004-03) Knapp van Bogaert, Donna; Van Niekerk, Anton A.; Beyers, Nulda; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation, I grapple with the problem of global drug resistance and moral responsibility which, as far as I am aware, has so far not been presented as a topic of ethical inquiry. It represents a conundrum involving three major factors: microbial adaptation and change, human social factors and environmental changes. Drug resistance is a phenomenon in which certain microorganisms, when exposed to antimicrobial agents, may acquire the beneficial trait of drug resistance which ensures a better potential for their survival. The acquired trait of drug resistance I argue renders such microorganisms 'supra-natural '. Supra-natural is a term I coin for entities that have been imposed upon nature by human design; they do not follow the natural evolutionary processes of adaptation and change. Drug resistance is classified as an emerging infectious disease. Human social factors and environmental change (particularly population growth, density and consumerist practices) enhance the rise of emerging infectious diseases. Through such increasing destructive practices, stress is placed on the environment. Environmental stress facilitates the rise of new and old infectious diseases and the spread of drug resistant supra-natural microorganisms. Thus, our ability to treat successfully illnesses and injuries in humans, animals and plants is increasingly impaired. Morally, we are responsible for the problem of global drug resistance. Drug resistant microorganisms exist in nature and concerning this, we can do nothing. At best, we can only try to control the problem using prudential measures. The problem of global drug resistance represents both a biomedical ethical and an environmental ethical issue. Is there a way out of the human-nature debate? Through Bryan Norton's enlightened anthropocentrism, I identify the ways in which his thesis may be applied to the problem of human and environmental concerns and show its applicability in broadening the parameters of biomedical ethics education to include environmental concerns. Key words: biomedical ethics, environmental ethics, drug resistance, Supra-natural' microorganisms, ethics education, enlightened-anthropocentrism.
- ItemEthical concerns in the debate about pediatric vaccinations, with special reference to MMR (Mumps, Measles and Rubella)(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Bester, Johan Christiaan; Van Niekerk, Anton A.; Horn, Lyn; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines the ethical aspects of vaccination in children by focusing on vaccination against measles using the MMR vaccine. Applying a principlist ethical framework to the relevant medical and scientific facts, I articulate two ethical principles or action guides that can be used to formulate obligations resting on persons or institutions, as well as to guide measles vaccination policy. These ethical action guides are: (1) All children eligible for measles vaccination should be vaccinated against measles, at least to the point of sustained measles elimination. (2) Respect for parental decision-making and the parent-child relationship guide the response to parental vaccine refusals. Ethical action guide (1) describes the obligations of those who stand in significant relationships with children and of the just society – to protect children against measles using vaccination. Action guide (2) guides the individual and societal response to vaccine refusal, describing morally important considerations that should be kept in mind when responding to vaccine refusal. The dissertation proceeds as follows. First, the introductory chapter examines ethical tensions regarding measles vaccination in children, and identifies some deficiencies in the existing literature. Next, two chapters provide an overview of the scientific and medical facts regarding measles and MMR vaccination. Third, the principlist framework of Beauchamp and Childress is defended as an appropriate ethical framework for analysis of the problematic. Fourth, the individual case of measles vaccination is considered, using a medical decision-making framework based in the principlist approach. Fifth, the obligations of the just society with regards to measles vaccination is considered, using different conceptions of justice in turn. In the last section of this work, it is argued that action guides (1) and (2) bring all four principles into balance, a state of reflective equilibrium, and various ethical obligations and policy suggestions are derived from these two action guides.
- ItemEthics and risk. Toward a responsible approach to acceptable risk impositions(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Bijloos, Annemarie Dorothee; Van Niekerk, Anton A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH SUMMARY: This research deals with the ethical evaluation of risk impositions, i.e. actions that expose other human beings to risk. When – under what circumstances or conditions – is it acceptable to perform an action that exposes others to risk? The research attends to this question in three parts. The first part of the research explores the notion of risk and its relevance for normative philosophy. The history of the term risk is discussed, as well as its relation to ethical concepts such as agency, knowledge, harm, safety, blame, trust, and responsibility. The second part of the research investigates how four branches of mainstream ethical theory – utilitarianism, deontology, rights-based ethics, and contractualism – individually evaluate risk impositions. These theories of right action bring to the fore several ethical considerations that influence the acceptability of risk impositions: the likeliness and severity of harm; the likeliness and extent of benefit; the obligation not to harm without good reason; rights not to be harmed without good reason; compensation for suffered harm; consent to risk exposure; distribution of risks and benefits; knowledge about consequences and victims; relations between cause and effect; and power relations between risk-imposing agents and risk-bearers. A multitude of these considerations can determine the acceptability of a particular risk imposition, depending on the context in which the risk is imposed. Quality judgement is indispensable, for a risk-imposing agent must judge which considerations are most important in the given situation, to what extent they matter, and whether they justify the risk imposition. An honest and adequate evaluation of risk impositions then has to take all mentioned considerations into account, and be attentive to the motives, character, and judgement of agents. However, the traditional normative approaches fail to provide such a holistic evaluation, as they tend to focus solely on several considerations, and lack attention to the context in which risks are imposed. The third and last part of the research therefore develops an alternative approach to the evaluation of risk impositions, which combines theories of action with theories of virtue. The proposed alternative interprets the notion of responsibility in virtue-ethical terms, i.e. as the virtue of answerability. It argues that the acceptability of risk impositions is directly correlated to the extent to which a risk-imposing agent is answerable for her actions. It argues that answerability has to be understood conversationally, as a call-and-response process between risk-imposing agent and riskbearer. And it argues that a risk-imposing agent should aim to be answerable, and can take responsibility, for her actions in three ways: by providing reasons for acting, by responding in a practically adequate way to risked or actual harm, and by responding in an attitudinally appropriate way to risked or actual harm.
- ItemExistentialism and suicide: a philosophical analysis(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12) Heymans, Susanna Helena; Van Niekerk, Anton A. ; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Contemporary suicide theorists describe suicide as "something" that goes wrong when a person's self-preservation fails, if and should there be mental health issues or significant life stressors that a person experiences before their death. By implication, an inborn, predetermined "human nature" usually protects a person against self-harm and suicide, which means that self-preservation follows naturally, unthinkingly, and, as a matter of course, is characteristic of our species. This dissertation will level criticism at the supposition that people are simple, instinctual beings and behave in unison. As an alternative, existentialist thinkers, such as Kierkegaard, Sartre, and, in particular, Camus, show that it takes strenuous ongoing effort to exist because one carries an inescapable imperative to make oneself. By creating or bringing about oneself, the self is aware that being human in the world comes with an intricate mix of admirable capabilities and tragic limitations. Considering a person in this light shows that the abilities and constraints residing in the human condition can make it possible for a person to end his or her own life. In this way, one contemplates how scientific advancement and technology showcase the mind subjugating the world to its will and understanding. Yet, it falls short of making sense of oneself and the worth of one's life or what lies inaccessible in the human heart. As mortal and conscious, a human person often understands its strife in an unintelligible universe as absurd and daily life as repetitive and taxing. One is aware of the human incapability to create sense and purpose in an irrational universe, except through faith, which often leaves one searching for a reason to live or a justification to die. More so, a human person knows full well that death "solves everything" and extricates one from any condition or situation by ending one's consciousness. On this account, I argue that suicidality implicates the human subject, this curious mix of the extraordinary and the pitiful.
- ItemExploring Martin Heidegger’s conceptions of phenomenology and transcendence: addressing the problem of religious fundamentalist violence(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-12) Sanni, John Sodiq; Du Toit, Louise; Louw, Dirk; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research uses Martin Heidegger’s phenomenological understanding of Dasein (human existence or being) as a frame for developing an improved understanding of why religious fundamentalist violence (RFV) occurs and why it is so pervasive and enduring. In other words, drawing on Heidegger’s diagnosis of how Western philosophy ‘forgets’ what humans always already know about human being, the argument shows that RFV is one manifestation of the violence associated with this covering over or forgetfulness of the nature of human existence. At the same time, it shows that RFV is enduring, pervasive, or at least resonant with many people, since it responds to the same universal human question about the meaning of human existence to which Heidegger’s philosophy, and arguably all (other) religious thinking also respond. It shows how the absolutisation of certain religious frameworks which present a misinterpretation of the true nature of human reality, may act as a driving force for RFV. In framing this form of violent terror in this way, new approaches to dealing with the phenomenon are suggested. Amongst other things, it becomes clear that the way to combat RFV is not through further secularisation or attempts at extinguishing religious thought and life forms altogether, because they respond to a legitimate, authentic and enduring human need for asking about the ultimate meaning of human existence. To simply try to quash the question to which religion attempts to present an answer, is equally to repeat the forgetfulness of the meaning of being and Dasein as revealed by Heidegger. Instead then, drawing on Heidegger’s insights into the nature of Dasein (that being in which the world of being/s constitutes or shows itself), universal philosophical training is proposed as one way to combat destructive fundamentalist thinking and acting. If this is the way to go, it at the same time becomes clear that Heidegger might become reductive on his own terms. The work of later philosophers is then used to show how a plurality of metaphysical investigations should be opened up instead of taking Heidegger’s potentially ‘absolutist phenomenology’ as the only legitimate reading of the meaning of human being. However, this proliferation remains limited in principle, my thesis would argue, to engagements with the meaning of Dasein that renounce any final, ultimate or absolute positions. This is the case since first, final positions would go against the most enduring insight of Heidegger, which is the finitude and temporality of all meaningmaking and second, such absolute interpretations reduce the very multiplicity which is the direct result of the necessarily tentative and finite nature of every interpretation of the meaning of human being.