As I said in my previous posting, there is a clear divide between those who deny the existence of an ecological crisis, on the one hand, and those who assert that the inhabitants of planet Earth face an ecological crisis of unprecedented proportions. On both sides there are scientists — at least people who claim […]
Bert Olivier
As an undergraduate student, Bert Olivier discovered Philosophy more or less by accident, but has never regretted it. Because Bert knew very little, Philosophy turned out to be right up his alley, as it were, because of Socrates's teaching, that the only thing we know with certainty, is how little we know. Armed with this 'docta ignorantia', Bert set out to teach students the value of questioning, and even found out that one could write cogently about it, which he did during the 1980s and '90s on a variety of subjects, including an opposition to apartheid. In addition to Philosophy, he has been teaching and writing on his other great loves, namely, nature, culture, the arts, architecture and literature. In the face of the many irrational actions on the part of people, and wanting to understand these, later on he branched out into Psychoanalysis and Social Theory as well, and because Philosophy cultivates in one a strong sense of justice, he has more recently been harnessing what little knowledge he has in intellectual opposition to the injustices brought about by the dominant economic system today, to wit, neoliberal capitalism. His motto is taken from Immanuel Kant's work: 'Sapere aude!' ('Dare to think for yourself!') In 2012 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University conferred a Distinguished Professorship on him. Bert is attached to the University of the Free State as Honorary Professor of Philosophy.
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What do people have in common?
When I think about all the divisions among people in the world — economic, political, religious, ideological (which is already included in all three the previously mentioned concepts) — it appears somewhat ludicrous to raise the question about what people have “in common”. Right here on Thoughtleader the divergence of opinions, judgements and interpretations that […]
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Signs of transition: From accumulation to edifying experience
Hiking along a beautiful gorge in the Groendal area outside of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape with a young friend yesterday, our conversation ranged from complexity theory to cuisine (he happens to be an accomplished chef), what South Africa has to offer the world except minerals and tourist-attracting natural beauty, and, eventually, the emerging signs, […]
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Our carceral society
In Discipline and Punish (his genealogy of modern penal practices) Michel Foucault makes the following observation: “Is it surprising that the cellular prison, with its regular chronologies, forced labour, its authorities of surveillance and registration, its experts in normality, who continue and multiply the functions of the judge, should have become the modern instrument of […]
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Why OBE has not worked in South Africa
Outcomes-based education (OBE) has not worked in South Africa. For someone of the stature of Mamphela Ramphele to say this openly and courageously is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stifling atmosphere of lip-service being paid to the ANC-government’s ill-starred, bureaucracy-blighted policy by many educators who admit privately that teachers are despondent and […]
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Diversity’s cool but let’s begin with what we have in common
In my previous post, I wrote about the rather paradoxical nature of autonomy — that “complete” autonomy is impossible, given everything around one that one unavoidably depends on, or has to take as a basis for exercising one’s “autonomy” — language, for example, as well as other conventions so that, in the end, the best […]
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What it means to be ‘autonomous’ today
What does it mean to be “autonomous” (from the ancient Greek words for “self” and “law”) — that is, to be able to be one’s own “law-giver”? I put the word in scare quotes because, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “complete” autonomy on the part of a person or an institution. At […]
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Philadelphia’s ‘ethical’ architecture
Looking down from the monument of George Washington towards the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (Philadelphia’s very own Champs Elysees) I always — in the course of one of my frequent visits — know that I am back in one of my favourite American cities. Before going down to this specific area, with the Philadelphia Museum of […]
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The pragmatics of love
Not too long ago, I wrote two pieces on love for Thought Leader, and because of events in my own life the subject has been on my mind again lately. These events have compelled me to take a serious look at what one might call “the pragmatics of love”, because, no matter how convincing some […]
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The mathematics of chaos in economics and nature
The Mathematics of Chaos — a documentary that was aired on BBC Four not too long ago is an informative, enlightening but disturbing viewing experience. In brief, it contrasts the modern understanding of causality (and the mathematics this presupposes) with the more recent, perhaps in a sense “postmodern” understanding of causality (again with a concomitant […]
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1968 or 1989?
In the latest issue of TIME magazine, Martin Ivens laments the fact that 1968 seems to be valorised as a watershed year to a far greater extent than 1989. The first of these dates marks the student uprisings in Paris, the US and elsewhere, as well as any number of movements associated with it — […]
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China, a country of contradictions
Having supervised a number of Chinese media students’ work at master’s level, most of which involved a reflection of some kind on certain aspects of their own culture — for example the effect of globalisation on the attitude of young Chinese people to traditional Chinese values — I was glad to be able to visit […]