•  69
    The Ethical Function of Research and Teaching
    Educational Philosophy and Theory (1): 1-12. 2013.
  •  66
    In this paper I criticize political realism in International Relations for not being realistic enough, for being unrealistically pessimistic and ultimately incoherent. For them the international arena will always be a place where a battle of wills, informed by the logic of power, is fought. I grant that it may be true that the international political domain is a place where such battles are fought, but this alleged infelicitous situation does not in and of itself entail the normative pessimism i…Read more
  •  53
    The Oppressor's Pathology
    Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 57 (125): 77-98. 2010.
    In Black Skin, White Masks Frantz Fanon discusses the neurotic condition that typifies the oppressed black subject, their 'psychoexistential complex'. He argues that this neurotic condition is closely related to another, the 'psychoexistential complex' of the white oppressor. Both of these complexes sustain and are sustained by social and economic injustice. But Fanon does not delve in detail into the nature of this second neurosis, for he was primarily interested in discussing this neurosis onl…Read more
  •  46
  •  35
    Personhood and community
    South African Journal of Philosophy 23 (1): 54-68. 2004.
    Davidson develops an argument that establishes the most basic set-up for rationality. The minimal set-up is a triangle formed by two subjects and an object. Each of the two subjects occupies one of the three angles and the third angle is occupied by a subject matter – that about which the two subjects are in communication with one another. I extend Davidson's argument somewhat and show how an entire pluralistic community is required for individuals to develop most fully as rational creatures. I …Read more
  •  34
    Parallels between living and painting
    Journal of Value Inquiry 37 (1): 59-68. 2003.
  •  33
    The Postcolonial Heart of African Philosophy
    South African Journal of Philosophy 27 (4): 285-295. 2008.
    This piece is one of among a handful that seek in the first instance to reveal the origin of African philosophy as an academic discipline, the source of its unity and distinctiveness. The discipline of African philosophy originates in tragedy, out of pain, confusion and rage stemming from colonial destruction; destruction that is responsible for what Fanon calls the ‘negro neurosis' caused by what Biko would describe as the unbearable fusion of colonised and coloniser. I argue that the birth of …Read more
  •  30
    Précis of "Happiness: Personhood, Community, Purpose" (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003)
    South African Journal of Philosophy 23 (4): 336-342. 2004.
    Happiness: Personhood, Community, Purpose (Happiness from now on) is, among other things, a book about the holistic interrelationship that exists between the concepts of happiness, rationality and ethics. The conception of happiness at issue is, in broad outline, Aristotle's, which is to say that it is about the meaning of life. He referred to this conception as eudaimonia. Perhaps the fundamental guiding question that has motivated me to write Happiness in the first place is ‘Why even bother ab…Read more
  •  26
    Young, mark A., negotiating the good life: Aristotleand the civil society (review)
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 10 (1): 105-107. 2007.
  •  25
    Rebellion and revolution
    Angelaki 24 (2): 116-129. 2019.
    In this piece I will focus on what I think is a central aspect of Albert Camus’s thinking, embodied in the distinction he makes in The Rebel between rebel and revolutionary. His is a philosophy of rebellion and he thinks that revolutions are a distorted expression of our need to rebel against that which we cannot accept. His views should serve as a counterpoint to those who think that an all-or-nothing approach to social change is desirable. And the issue here is not that embodied crudely in the…Read more
  •  19
    This collection embodies a debate that explores what could be characterised as the tension between judging and understanding.
  •  19
    Replies to commentators
    South African Journal of Philosophy 23 (4): 411-422. 2004.
  •  18
    What's Wrong with Walden Two?
    South African Journal of Philosophy 28 (1): 1-12. 2009.
    Despite being eminently forgettable from the literary point of view, B. F. Skinner’s novel, Walden Two , provides us with an excellent opportunity, not so much to show what is wrong with mainstream accounts of free will, as Robert Kane thinks, but rather to explore another key and importantly neglected condition for genuine agency; namely, that properly lived human lives are those that are and must continue to be vulnerable to unforseable reversals, as Aldous Huxley speculates in his Brave New W…Read more
  •  16
    Pitfalls of Negritude: Solace-driven tertiary sector reform
    South African Journal of Philosophy 35 (4): 471-489. 2016.
  •  15
    The Postcolonial Heart of South African Philosophy
    South African Journal of Philosophy 27 (4): 285-295. 2008.
    This piece is one of among a handful that seek in the first instance to reveal the origin of African philosophy as an academic discipline, the source of its unity and distinctiveness. The discipline of African philosophy originates in tragedy, out of pain, confusion and rage stemming from colonial destruction; destruction that is responsible for what Fanon calls the ‘negro neurosis’ caused by what Biko would describe as the unbearable fusion of colonised and coloniser. I argue that the birth of …Read more
  •  13
    Being at Home: Race, Institutional Culture and Transformation at South African Higher Education Institutions (edited book)
    with Sally Matthews
    University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. 2015.
    Being at Home stimulates careful conversation about some of the most pressing issues facing higher education institutions in South Africa today - race, transformation, and institutional culture. While there are many reasons to be despondent about the current state of affairs in the South African tertiary sector, this book is an invitation for the reader to see these problems as opportunities for rethinking the very idea of what it is to be a university in contemporary South Africa. It is also, m…Read more
  •  12
    This is the first book to offer a systematic comparison of the philosophies of Albert Camus and Frantz Fanon. It shows how the ethical, political, and psychological outlooks of these two influential thinkers can further our understandings of how to bring about justice in the face of deep power imbalances. The author foregrounds the bloody Algerian War of Independence in his analysis of the philosophies of Camus and Fanon. Although neither supported French colonial occupation of Algeria, they hel…Read more
  •  11
    Ethics and education as practices of freedom
    Educational Philosophy and Theory 53 (6): 568-577. 2020.
    On the one hand, according to Richard Rorty, Paulo Freire and others, education is the practice of freedom. On the other hand, according to Michael Foucault, Mary Midgley and others, ethics is the practice of freedom. How, then, are education and ethics related to one another and what do these authors mean by ‘the practice of freedom’? In this piece, I argue that education and ethics are two mutually constitutive aspects of the practice of freedom. Individuals who are able to engage in this prac…Read more
  •  10
    Guest Editorial
    South African Journal of Philosophy 27 (4): 285-295. 2008.
  •  8
    In this paper I criticize political realism in International Relations for not being realistic enough, for being unrealistically pessimistic and ultimately incoherent. For them the international arena will always be a place where a battle of wills, informed by the logic of power, is fought. I grant that it may be true that the international political domain is a place where such battles are fought, but this alleged infelicitous situation does not in and of itself entail the normative pessimism i…Read more
  •  7
    The positive function of evil (edited book)
    Palgrave-Macmillan. 2009.
    This collection explores the controversial and perhaps even abject idea that evils, large and small, human and natural, may have a central positive function to play in our lives. For centuries a concern of religious thinkers from the Christian tradition, very little systematic work has been done to explore this idea from the secular point of view.
  •  6
    Feminism and women in African philosophy
    South African Journal of Philosophy 42 (3): 161-164. 2023.
    In this preamble, we highlight some of the more recent work on gender and sexuality in African philosophy. We do this as a way of introducing the special issue on “African Philosophy, Women, and Feminism”. In particular, we outline and highlight the trajectory and intellectual landscape of several discussions on women and feminism in African philosophy in the issue, and in this way, build on some previous work on gender, women, sexuality and African philosophy.
  •  6
    The Ethical Function of Research and Teaching
    Educational Philosophy and Theory 46 (1): 100-111. 2014.
    It is the epistemic as well as the ethical responsibility of academics to aim to approach their research and teaching with a proper understanding of the ultimate ethical purpose or telos of their defining activities and products,which is the practical aim of promoting human flourishing. Minimally, academics should aim at understanding, and a key component of understanding is to understand the ideal ethical purpose of what is being researched and taught. For instance, sadistic Nazi medical resear…Read more
  •  2
    Acknowledgements Abbreviations of Works by Aristotle 1 Introduction: A Basic Topography of the Ethical Domain 2 Ethics and Personhood 3 The Eudaimon Principle 4 Logos 5 The Method of Critical Introspection 6 Personhood and Community 7 Our Political Nature Select Bibliography Index.
  •  1
    2. Explain the position Hume assigns the relation of identity among the seven philosophical relations, and explain his view that “resemblance is the cause of the confusion or mistake, and makes us substitute the notion of identity, instead of that of related objects.” Evaluate Hume’s position on these matters
  •  1
    Tragic Joyfullness
    In Lisa Bortolotti (ed.), Philosophy and Happiness, Palgrave-macmillan. 2009.
  •  1
    Virtue ethics for skin-bags : an ethics of love for vulnerable creatures
    In Stan van Hooft & Nafsika Athanassoulis (eds.), The Handbook of Virtue Ethics, Acumen Publishing. 2014.
  • Shadows of goodness
    In The Positive Function of Evil, Palgrave-macmillan. 2009.
  • Reviews (review)
    Theoria 51 (103): 141-155. 2004.
    Imagining the Possible: Radical Politics for Conservative Times Stephen Eric Bronner Stranger Shores: Essays 1986-1999 J.M. Coetzee History and Illusion in Politics Raymond Geuss Happiness: Personhood, Community, Purpose Pedro Alexis Tabensky The Philosophy of Social Practices: A Collective Acceptance View Raimo Tuomela.