Canguilhem’s critique of Kant: bringing rationality back to life

Canguilhem’s contemporary relevance lies in how he critiques the relation between knowledge and life that underlies Kantian rationality. The latter’s Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Judgment represent life in the form of an exception: life is simultaneously included and excluded from understanding. Canguilhem’s critique can be grouped into three main strands of argument. First, his reference to concepts as preserved problems breaks with Kant’s idea of concepts regarding the living as a ‘unification of the manifold’. Second, Canguilhem’s vital normativity represents life as the potential to resist normative orders that judge the living, relegating Kant’s ‘lawfulness of the contingent’ to a ‘mediocre regularity’. Third, Canguilhem’s introduction of the environment as a ‘category of contemporary thought’ decentres the living/knowing subject and introduces contingency. His idea of the ‘knowledge of life’ leads to the conclusion that life is the condition of possibility of rationality, rather than rationality’s ‘blind spot’

From dominance to diversity in international cooperation: a view from South Africa

Critical research in the 1970s and 1980s in South Africa played an important role in exposing the implications of repressive and discriminatory urban policy and management. This critical urban research movement, which also engaged with approaches for a post-apartheid city, was subsequently replaced by a neo-liberal turn in urban research, largely informed by dominant international research thrusts. Within this context, what is the role of international cooperation? The paper takes a critical look at north-south urban research initiatives involving research in South Africa, to which the author has had direct exposure. The paper also examines the changing conditions under which local research funding is made available in South Africa, using the example of current restructuring of research funding at Wits University, Johannesburg. The paper argues that these conditions broadly follow the (neo-liberal) institutional trends set by the Anglophone northern counterparts. Should north-south cooperation reinforce this trend? The paper highlights the critical need for publication and dissemination in the south, of local as well as international research. Access in the south to academic literature, and the publication and dissemination of local research, are cruc ial in order for southern researchers to effectively cooperate. The paper points to the imbalance of facilities and resources in many north-south cooperations. Linked to this is the critical question as to where and by whom the research agenda is set. Far from assuming that research on South African urban issues is best initiated, conducted and funded locally, the paper argues that value is added when researchers from different regions apply different questions to the same problematic. Here the example is used of a group of young international and local PhD researchers addressing a similar urban problematic in South Africa, but with different theoretical approaches depending on the region of their academic home. The complexity of the unevenly developed urban south requires many different questions to be asked. The paper argues that ideally north-south cooperation should lead to enrichment in terms of the research questions and the theoretical approach, rather than imposing one dominant framework as is often the case

A Case of Ipilimumab Induced Hypophysitis

Introduction Ipilimumab (Yervoy®) is a human monoclonal antibody that has been shown to significantly improve survival in cases of metastatic melanoma.1 Ipilimumab blocks cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), a protein receptor on the surface of T-cells, resulting in their activation, proliferation and an anti-tumor response.2,3,4 Commonly reported immune-related side effects of ipilimumab are enterocolitis, dermatitis, and hepatitis.5,6,7 However, different endocrinopathies, including autoimmune hypopituitarism, have become emerging clinical entities in patients taking ipilimumab. We present a case of ipilimumab induced hypophysitis in a 62-yearold male presenting with fatigue and hypotension. Case Presentation A 62-year-old male with a history of melanoma metastatic to the lung and brain status-post frontal craniotomy and whole brain radiation, as well as a recent diagnosis of hypothyroidism, presented from the oncology office with hypotension after receiving his fourth dose of ipilimumab therapy. The patient had a routine blood pressure check after the chemotherapy infusion and was found to be hypotensive at 80/58 mmHg. He reported increasing fatigue over the past week. He denied chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness and headache. He was given one liter of normal saline solution, but remained hypotensive and was directly admitted to the hospital

‘Up close and personal’ - How does local democracy help the poor access the state? Stories of accountability and clientelism in Johannesburg

The paper revisits participation and decentralization in relation to local clientelism, arguing that they share the personalization of links between residents and the State and the local possibility to adapt state policies. The line between decentralization-participation on the one hand, and clientelism on the other, is therefore easily blurred. The paper thus argues that clientelism is not per se anti-democratic, some forms allow for local and immediate accountability of politicians. However, in most cases, it contributes to fragment or sedate local organizations or social movements and it prevents contestation of existing policies and dominant power structures. The paper thus challenges the idea that the promotion of decentralization and participatory institutions intrinsically leads to more democratic forms of government