This article explores current issues in South African philosophy curriculum design. Four questions are considered, each followed by a supplementary note. Firstly, the place of philosophy from other traditions, particularly Western philosophies, in South African curricula is considered (rather than the place of African philosophy in curricula). The related note reflects on whether different philosophical traditions in curricula should be treated separately or integrated. Secondly, ambiguity in some important authors' reception of plural traditions is identified and investigated to see what we can derive from their example for our philosophical practice. The related note looks at "decolonisation of the curriculum". Thirdly, I affirm the importance of relevance as a criterion for curriculum development, interrogating the meaning of this criterion for philosophy. The related note focuses on interpreting student feedback. Fourthly, the continued presence of "white" lecturers in South African philosophy departments is discussed against the background of the tension between the Mandela and Biko paradigms in contemporary society. The related note considers ideological resonances of our response to this issue in other parts of the world. Finally, the article's ideas are presented as an attempt to map argumentative options, clarify some of their merits and implications, and acknowledge their limits. 1 Another descriptor could be chosen for the paradigm. I selected the name for the sake of convenience, to suggest a trend, rather than to identify the paradigm with one specific articulation thereof. 2 Throughout this article, I use the terms "black" and "white" to denote "races" as social constructions only.
Th e article aims to advance our understanding of what the early Heidegger had in mind when he spoke about technics. Taking GA 18, Grundbegriff e der aristotelischen Philosophie, as a guiding text, Heidegger's "destructive" reading of the two notions most directly associated with Aristotle's presentation of technics-τέχνη and ἕξις-will be examined, especially with reference to the portrayal of technics in the Nicomachean Ethics. It will be argued that Aristotle already exaggerated the distinction between virtue and skill and that, instead of insisting on their similarities (as will be argued to be desirable), Heidegger drove the two notions even further apart. Th is enabled him to form a warped picture of technical life, which he exploited as a counter image to develop an unrealistically non-technical notion of πρᾶξις, which Heidegger implicitly advocates.
Volume 11 EditorialGlobalization demands for setting up new cultural orientations. Different traditions and forms of life struggle for recognition throughout the world and have to meet the necessity of values and norms with universal validity. Similarities and differences in understanding the world have to be analyzed and recognized which requires a new reflection on what it means to be a human being concerning its anthropological universality, but also its diverseness and changeability.The books of the series Being Human: Caught in the Web of Cultures -Humanism in the Age of Globalization are committed to a new Humanism, which not only highlights humaneness in its cultural and historical varieties but also presents it as a transculturally valid principle of human interaction in all cultural life-forms. Ernst Wolff (Prof.) teaches philosophy at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and is fellow of the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen (Germany). His research covers hermeneutics, social and political philosophy and the philosophy of technology.
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