23 research outputs found
The politics of memory and forgetting after Auschwitz and apartheid
Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: The TRC; Commissioning the Past, 11-14 June, 1999This article focuses on the politics of memory and forgetting after Auschwitz and apartheid. In the
first two sections Habermas's critical contribution to the German Historikerstreit is discussed.
Important in this regard is the moral dimension of our relation to the past. In the next two sections
the emphasis shifts to South Africa and more specifically the work of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC). The article ends with a general discussion of the dilemma of historical "truth"
and representation in contemporary societies
The Ecstasy of Communication. Critical remarks on Jean Baudrillard
The socio-cultural criticism of Jean Baudrillard (born 1929), spans from the political turmoil ofFrance in the late-1960s, to the mediatised world of the 1990s and early 21st century.1 In thisprocess his provocative work on the socio-political role of signs, symbolic exchange, simulation,and hyperreality has important implications for communication studies â and more specificallycommunication theory. The point is that with the â⊠greater mediatization of society ⊠we arewitnessing the virtualization of our world.â2 This contribution briefly reconstructs, firstly, two phasesin Baudrillardâs intellectual career â phases that shifted from an early neo-Marxist critique of themodern consumer society to a post-Marxist or postmodern view of society (which includeengagements with socio-anthropology; psychoanalysis, sociology, semiology and media theory),and eventually ends in a kind of anti-theory with an extreme fatal vision of the world.3 In section2 the implications of these two shifts in Baudrillardâs intellectual career are contextualized in thefield of media and communication studies â and specifically his concept of the âecstasy ofcommunicationâ. Finally (in Section 3) some critical remarks are made on Baudrillardâs fascinating,but problematic, project
Multilingualism, Afrikaans and normative political theory
This contribution focuses on the survival of Afrikaans within the framework of a multilingual South Africa. The first section provides a brief historical reconstruction of the power-political shifts that Afrikaans underwent between 1966 and 2004. In the second section some of the arguments that were used for and against Afrikaans between 1994 and 2004 are presented. In the last section these arguments are shifted to the terrain of contemporary normative political theory, where three aspects are important: the question of addressing language loss in the world; the importance of  multicultural citizenship, and the need for a more profound and multilingual understanding of democracy. In short: a democracy is not just characterised by the instrumental counting of votes, but also by the qualitative articulation of different voices
Human participation in a scarred and frenzied world : C.K. Oberholzer, phenomenology and Pretoria
Human participation in a scarred and frenzied world: C.K. Oberholzer, phenomenology and
Pretoria
This article focuses on the living presence of phenomenology as an intellectual tradition at the
University of Pretoria, and more specifically the role of C.K. Oberholzer (1904â1983) in creating
a space for such reflection. The article consists of four (interrelated) parts: the founding years of
philosophy at the University of Pretoria against the colonial backdrop of the British Empire, and the
rise of Oberholzer under different circumstances in the 1930s; a succinct definition and description
of phenomenology in four chronological waves of influence over the last century; the specific way
in which Oberholzer interpreted and appropriated phenomenology in the Pretoria context; and
finally, the political implications of Oberholzerâs phenomenology and philosophical anthropology
in the apartheid years, the present as well as the future.Denke is ondenkbaar sonder konteks. DĂt impliseer dat betoĂ« en redes in ân hedewerklikheid of
hedepraktyk altyd met die geskiedenis verband hou. Anders gestel: Denke in die hede het ân
verantwoordelikheid teenoor die verlede ten einde ân toekoms te kan hĂȘ. Denke is ook dank of
dankbaarheid. Die filosofiese denke aan die Universiteit van Pretoria is in hierdie opsig geen uitsondering
nie. Oor die afgelope honderd jaar het verskillende filosofiese benaderings hier tot uiting gekom. Met
verloop van tyd het daar ân wisselwerking tussen filosofiese en teoretiese tradisies aan die een kant, en
die toepassing van hierdie tradisies deur verskillende generasies denkers aan die ander kant ontstaan.
Veral een filosofiese tradisie, naamlik die fenomenologie (en opvolgertradisies soos die eksistensialisme,
wysgerige antropologie, hermeneutiek, kritiese teorie en dekonstruksie), het danksy die onvermoeide
bydrae van C.K. Oberholzer aan die Universiteit van Pretoria ân groot invloedsfeer opgebou. Teen
hierdie agtergrond is die bedoeling hier om oor die spore, impak en afloop van die fenomenologiese
tradisie in Pretoriase verband te besin. Waarom het verskeie generasies filosowe gereken dat hierdie
benadering juis in hulle verwysingswĂȘreld toepaslik is? Waarom het juis ân fenomenologies-kontinentale
benadering, en nie byvoorbeeld die analitiese benadering nie, so ân vrugbare filosofiese kweekplek in
Pretoria gevind? Om bostaande vrae te beantwoord, word hierdie bydrae in vier (interafhanklike)
gedeeltes uiteengesit, naamlik (1) die ontstaan van Filosofie in Pretoria, en die opgang van Oberholzer;
(2) ân bondige bespreking van die belangrikste aspekte van fenomenologie; (3) die bepaalde wyse waarop
Oberholzer hom die fenomenologie in Pretoriase verband toeëien; en (4) die politieke implikasies van
Oberholzer se bydrae vir vandag Ă©n die toekoms.http://www.hts.org.zahb201
Afrikaanse Filosofie
"Hierdie is die eerste boeklengte poging om 'n Afrikaanse filosofiese tradisie te beskryf binne die konteks van die Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis, en om die geskiedenis van die filosofie internasionaal te interpreteer. In die proses word van die belangrikste Afrikaanse filosowe self aan die woord gestel. Dit is werklik 'n waardevolle kultuurhistoriese dokument en 'n enorme bydrae tot die intellektuele geskiedenis in Suid-Afrika." - Prof Desmond Painte
Reflections on Habermasâs discourse ethics
In this article Habermasâs discourse ethics is critically interpreted. The article starts with a brief intellectual biography of Habermas (section 1), showing that his life and work has always had a strong ethical and political dimension â leading to the concept of discourse ethics. Next, it is indicated how Habermasâs work in the 1970s culminated via four steps in his major philosophical work â the Theory of Communicative Action (section 2) published in 1981. In the next two sections Habermas Theory of Communicative Action is applied to ethics and morality in the form of his discourse ethics â the heart of this contribution (section 3). In this process the following four aspects of Habermasâs discourse ethics are discussed: Its qualified Kantian deontological dimension, as well as its universalist, cognitivist, and formalist dimensions. In the following section (4) the discussion of discourse ethics is shifted to Habermasâs theory of law, deliberative politics, and democracy which is a further application of ideas developed in his Theory of Communicative Action. The contribution then ends with some critical remarks on Habermas discourse ethics and sketch of law and politics (section 5) Three arguments are presented in this regard. First, Habermas argument is judged to be too closely related to abstract rationality. Secondly the distinction that Habermas makes between morality and ethics is critically investigated. Finally, the Habermasian use of justification in his argument is critically compared with the concept of application. These points of criticism, though, indicate that the debate on Habermasâs discourse ethics is ongoing.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications:Â This article deals with the concept of discourse ethics (in the Kantian tradition of ethics) as developed firstly by Karel Otto Apel and later refined by Jurgen Habermas for his own purposes. The line of argumentation developed here has significant relevance for philosophy, moral theory, law, and theology. Discourse ethics can be considered as a contemporary version of Kantian deontological ethics after the linguistic turn
Die mens as deelname aan ân âgeskonde en besete wĂȘreldâ : C.K. Oberholzer, fenomenologie en Pretoria
Human participation in a scarred and frenzied world: C.K. Oberholzer, phenomenology and Pretoria
This article focuses on the living presence of phenomenology as an intellectual tradition at the University of Pretoria, and more specifically the role of C.K. Oberholzer (1904â1983) in creating a space for such reflection. The article consists of four (interrelated) parts: the founding years of philosophy at the University of Pretoria against the colonial backdrop of the British Empire, and the rise of Oberholzer under different circumstances in the 1930s; a succinct definition and description of phenomenology in four chronological waves of influence over the last century; the specific way in which Oberholzer interpreted and appropriated phenomenology in the Pretoria context; and finally, the political implications of Oberholzerâs phenomenology and philosophical anthropology in the apartheid years, the present as well as the future
Is daar 'n Afrikaanse filosofiese tradisie?<Sup>1<Sup>
Is there an Afrikaans philosophical tradition? This article asks whether there is an Afrikaans philosophical tradition. The answer to this question is a qualified no, but it is nevertheless argued that there is something like an Afrikaans philosophical approach. In the first part a reading is provided of A H Murray's idealistic interpretation of Afrikaans philosophy (1947) and more specifically his discussion of the theological, educational and political traditions that influenced Afrikaans philosophy. Murray's idealistic approach is criticized via a dialectical, material and historical reconstruction of the institutionalization of philosophy as a field of study in the context of colonialism (part 2). Against this background it is argued that British Idealism was a major influence on the philosophers who started philosophy as an academic subject at the four founding residential universities in South Africa (Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Wits and Pretoria). In section three the reaction of Afrikaans philosophers against British Idealism is discussed. In the final part of the paper some questions are posed regarding the possible role of Afrikaans philosophy in the post-1994public sphere of South Africa