What?
Who?
LOGICAL EMPIRICISM / LOGICAL POSITIVISM Made up of: Linguistic Analysis Logical Symbolism Empiricism To get to bare What is a fact? Our Claim experience is the bones of truth senses & experiences only reality there is. “experience-ism” via our are most reliable way of checking & 5 senses establishing facts. Establish truth by means Closely analysed Factual & logical of scientific testing. Its statements are NB!! how language Factual – right / wrong true because 1. My works by closely can be proved. Logical senses say so 2. Can test analysing what a it scientifically ‘fact’ is. Focused 2+2 = 4 (Math Claim experience is the on logic. statements) Objective only reality there is. & not subjective truth Critical of claims of is NB religion & ideologies like Marxism Bertrand Russell AJ Ayer – (both focused on logic, linguistic meaning & verifiable facts) Ludwig Wittenstein
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CRITICAL RATIONALISM Scientific Rationalism Ensure we don’t come to believe an idea that is false.
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY
Avoid falsity. NB of clear thinking & asking Q. Driving force is rationality – readiness to learn from mistakes. Encourages open mindedness, anti dogmatic & anti authoritarian
Community regarded as centre of life. Vast ever expanding net of spiritual, psych, biological & emotional relations. Shares the earth with the unborn, the living spirits of the dead, the earth, mountains & sky Ubuntu (humanity) – related to human happiness & well being. Avoids materialism. ‘I am because you are.’ Recognises human self exists & dev only in relation with others. Challenges arrogance of the West & asks them to rethink its claim of cultural superiority. Methods of enquiry (What does it mean to say “I am African?”) 1. Ethnic Phil 2. Sage Phil 3. Political Phil 4. Pure Phil
Karl Popper (Principle of falsification) Stephen Hawking Einstein Mandela Helen Suzman
Dates back to Pharoahs St Augustine (earliest & best known) Kwame Anthony Appiah, Kwasi Wiredu, Leopold Senghor, John Mbiti
Empiricism Critical Rationalism
SYSTEMS THEORY Looking at everything & people in a system. Based on idea – all systems share some concepts (goals, work in a certain order) Economic, political & any system that helps us
CRITICAL THEORY Total emancipation of all from all forms of oppression. Believe we are trapped by modern society -> technology. Wants us to critically reflect on society –
Overview: Is a cluster of philosophies whose focus is on sex stereotyping especially rejecting the assumption that women are inferior to
FEMINISM African Feminism “Sisterhood of Africa” Political, pragmatic, reflexive & a group oriented form of feminism. Focus also on politics of gender (power relations) Criticises W & European
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2 Wave Feminism Women are people in own right, shouldn’t claim equality but superiority, should reject traditional definitions of what makes a woman valuable. Have right to control own
understand what makes us human.
What?
Sees wholes – don’t split problem into parts. Its questioning approach reveals inconsistencies. There are different ways of looking at a problem. Ed sys – many systems feed off it.
Who?
Bertalanffy (looking at everything & people in a system)
existing power structures. Believes all societies have inequalities of wealth & status. Believe can offer us a comprehensive account of society & the production of K. Age 6+ made to fit into the ‘system’ Model child fits nicely. Influences Marxism, Feminism, Black rights movements, Socialism Jesus of Nazareth Karl Marx Gaukama Buddha Moses Mohammed Michael Foucault
men.
feminists for trying to speak for them & denying ability to voice own thoughts.
fertility, including abortion.
Lobbies for recog & acknowledgement of the worth of women in society. All focus on 1. Sexual stereotyping 2. Creating a bigger place for women in the world 3. Rejecting view that women are inferior to men.
Focus on struggles of African women to create a space of independence & dignity out of a triple layer of oppression – colonial, western & African patriarchical cultures.
Has given women psych & moral power especially those suffered at the hands of a man – abuse, divorce etc
Mamphela Ramphele, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Wolf, Lindiwe Zulu
Germaine Greer Kate Millet Marilyn French Naomi Wolf Margaret Atwood
Critical theory, critical rationalism & empiricism
Critical rationalism, critical theory, African phil, logical empiricism, empiricism
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What?
PHENOMENOLOGY
HERMENEUTICS
‘I am in the world & the world is in me’ Claims humans & the world interact with each other the whole time, one influencing the other.
‘The science of interpretation / communication’. Examines symbols & their meaning. Can communicate with language, also art, music, gestures, facial expressions, dance etc. Believe can be used to understand all forms of human beh. Implications for education -> when teachers & learners
Try to get to the essence of the thing they research. [ ] 1 thing (phenomenon) at a time – put aside all labels, prejudice &
EXISTENTIALISM Existence-ism Theory on the meaning of life. Dont believe there is only 1 meaning. Discover for ourselves.
Questions role of social institutions. Opposed to nihilism. Found in all cultures esp Modern African
POSTMODERNISM (Modernism – Science & Tech will fix all & rule ideal world) There must be something else besides Sc & Tech that can fix things.
Examines (humans) -> way see self, failure of Sc to solve many problems, power of large, modern institutions over individuals, our
emotional reactions. Most dangerous – falsity (individual pretence & social falsity) Categories: 1. Of the self (Who am I) 2. Social(Who and what is my community) 3. Cosmic (Our place in the universe) Who?
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The Dalai Lama Martin Luther King Albert Einstein Oshita Oshita
listen & comm with each other, effective learning takes place. Believe our happiness is linked to our creativity in whatever form/cultural context it is produced. How do we discover / create meaning? Carl Jung ‘universal symbols’ Hans-Georg Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, John Mbiti Steve Biko (The great gift still has to come from Africa – giving the world a more human face) Existentialism
Philosophers. Black existentialism – issue of race. Lewis T Gordon – “universal sense of superiority to & hatred of black folk” What is the meaning of life? Friederich Nietzsche, Michael Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida
inner needs, mental anguish & mental illness. Response to bewildering world of techn & virtual reality that has mushroomed over the last 20yrs. Believes humans deeply influenced by advertising gimmicks. Jacques Derrida Michael Foucault (believed schools based on military ideas of discipline, submissiveness..) Jacques Lacan Frederich Nietzsche Phenomenology Hermeneutics Empiricism Feminism
