Philosophical Skills (Year One)

Department: Philosophy

BVA First Year Philosophical Skills Module Overview

SFV131 introduces students to philosophical questioning and argumentation as two core cognitive competencies crucial to the successful study of philosophy, and helps students gain mastery of these through practice.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Describe what a philosophical question is and describe different argumentative forms.
• Raise philosophical questions concerning the present and provide two alternative arguments responding to each question raised.
• Describe questions and arguments relevant to various branches of philosophy.
• Read short texts actively for comprehension, raise and discuss pertinent philosophical questions, and identify and describe any common fallacies detected in the text.
• Construct a short philosophical essay.

Lecture Themes

• This module focuses on philosophy as an activity rather than a study of philosophical ideas.
• It concentrates on the cognitive tools that philosophy has developed as an academic discipline to analyze and evaluate philosophical concepts, arguments, and theories.
• The module includes exercises in raising different kinds of philosophical questions stemming from different branches of philosophy, and identifying, evaluating, and constructing arguments.

Contact: 

Ms. Michéla Jantjies michela.jantjies@mandela.ac.za and 

Ms. Anzel Loubser anzel.loubser@mandela.ac.za

SFV 132: Introduction to Philosophy (Year One, Semester Two)

Department: Philosophy

BVA First Year Introduction to Philosophy Course Overview

The SFV132 Module introduces students to the diverse philosophical traditions across cultures and history. This module emphasises philosophy’s role in the global conversation on existence, knowledge, reason, personhood and humanism, among many, shaped by both wonder and critical questioning. Students will engage with ancient thinkers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as medieval and modern philosophers, including Thomas Aquinas, René Descartes, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant, to critically assess how their ideas continue to influence contemporary lives. This course also foregrounds African philosophy, examining Ubuntu, Afro-communitarianism and personhood. By tracing philosophy’s development from ancient foundations to modern and African perspectives this course aims that students learn to evaluate conflicting claims, understand diverse approach to truth, knowledge, meaning of being and reflect on the relevance of philosophical ideas in today’s world.

Learning Outcomes

On the successful completion of this module, the expected outcome is that students are able to:

• Describe diverse themes (metaphors, concepts, ideas, frameworks) offered in early, modern, and contemporary philosophical traditions for answering the question of the meaning of being.
• Compare and evaluate conflicting conceptions of the meaning of being.
• Explain why select ancient, modern, and contemporary philosophical ideas are or are not applicable to contemporary lived experience.
• Read actively for comprehension and discussion.
• Construct a short philosophical essay.

Lecture Themes

• Foundations of Philosophy: Socrates, Plato
• Classical and Medieval Philosophy: Aristotle’s Causes, Aquinas’ synthesis of Faith and Reason)
• Modern Philosophy: Rationalism, Empiricism, Critical Philosophy
• African Philosophy: Ubuntu and African Humanism, Afro-Communitarianism, Personhood

Contact:

Lemohang Tebeli Lemohang.tebeli@mandela.ac.za

Philosophical Practice: Interpretation and Art (Year three)

Department: Philosophy

BVA three Year Philosophical Practice: Interpretation and Art Module Overview

SFV222 introduces students to the practice of hermeneutics as well as the application of the ‘hermeneutic circle’ in the critical interpretation of diverse artworks.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Describe the practice of hermeneutics as set out by Martin Heidegger, Hans Georg Gadamer, Gilles Deleuze and Friedrich Nietzsche.
• Define philosophical terms related to the practice of hermeneutics.
• Define philosophical terms related to the discipline of aesthetics.
• Critically discuss the concept ‘art,’ including what constitutes an artwork and the function of art.
• Apply the ‘hermeneutic circle’ and other hermeneutic frameworks as models to critically discuss historical, contemporary and local artworks.

Lecture Themes

• The theory and practice of hermeneutics as set out by the theories of interpretation offered by Martin Heidegger, Hans Georg Gadamer, Gilles Deleuze and Friedrich Nietzsche.
• The principles, characteristics and methods of the ‘hermeneutic circle’ and concepts such as aletheia, ‘fusion of horizons,’ ‘productive interpretation’ and the Apollo/Dionysus tension.
• Analysis of the question “What is art?”
• Consideration of the different ways in which the function and purpose of art may be understood via different hermeneutic frameworks.
• Application of the ‘hermeneutic circle’ and other models of interpretation as philosophical strategies to analyze and criticize historical, contemporary and local artworks.

Contact:

Prof. Inge Konik Inge.Konik@mandela.ac.za