Degenaar Part Three: The Art of Dialogue
From the beginning of his academic career, and probably even before that, Degenaar was committed to dialogue. What drew him to philosophy, and away from theology, was the figure of Socrates and the practice of Socratic dialogue. Dialogue was thwarted at times, but not his commitment to it. His unsettling prayers, in the first years of his appointment, may have seemed to his students to be provoking God; but it’s just as likely he was seeking a response from pious, but anxious, admissante.
This commitment to dialogue set Degenaar apart as a teacher. His lectures were not intended to provide a one-way transmission of established knowledge. He was seeking to invite, stimulate or provoke some kind of response and then to engage with that response.
Just as he was in dialogue with his students when his prayers in the classroom provoked them, he was in dialogue with readers of the Herdenkingsblad in his essay on a theology of dance... READ MORE
Degenaar Part Two: Challenged To Conform
In the early years of his appointment as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch, Johan Degenaar was by all accounts conspicuously challenging established conventions. He was doing so not through open confrontation, but rather through wit, suggestion and questioning, and it must have been hard for the establishment of the time to know whether to call him to order, and how to do that.
I believe, however, that there was at least one moment during the early years of Degenaar’s academic career, when he was more or less explicitly challenged to move in one direction or the other: either to conform in a more definite way to dominant norms and beliefs, or to openly refuse to conform and suffer the consequences. There may have been other such moments, but the one I have in mind is both vivid and well-documented. This moment provides a view of Degenaar, at a crucial moment of his formation, that is sharply focused, although also partly obscured, in ways I’ll describe.
The event I have in mind took place in 1954, when Degenaar was invited to contribute a short essay to a... READ MORE
Degenaar Part One: Apprentice Philosopher
There is an ancient Chinese story of a young man who approaches his father, a master burglar, and asks to become his apprentice. The son wishes to be taught the art of burglary, before his father’s skills deteriorate with advancing age. The master burglar agrees, and that very night father and son set out together to commit burglary
They go to a wealthy area, and decide which house to burgle. Later that night, they gain entry to the house and look around.The father notices a large wooden chest in a prominent place in the main room, and asks his son to look inside it. As his son leans forward to look inside, the father suddenly forces him into the chest. He then bolts the chest from the outside, and begins to shout at the top of his voice, waking up the sleeping household. The father then makes his escape, leaving his son behind, locked in the chest
Some hours later, just before daybreak, the apprentice burglar returns home, angry, demanding to know what his father thought he was doing, and why he had put his son in such danger... READ MORE
Ways of Contradiction
An Introduction to the Practice of Dialectic
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In dialectical thought, definitions are often a problem. Definitions imply that terms have a single, stable meaning. Dialectical thought focuses on change, including changes in the meaning of the terms we use and the instability that makes such change possible.
At the same time, preliminary definitions are clearly helpful for anyone encountering the field of dialectic forthe first time. Even for those familiar with the field, definitions indicate how terms are to be understood in a specific text. So, I begin with a few basic definitions, and a warning that they serve as no more than starting points, or as points of orientation in a landscape that changes as we travel through it.
First, a dialectical process is a process characterized by the movement of contradictions... READ MORE
Remembering Peter Hudson
I met Peter Hudson in 1986, at a conference at the University of Natal in Durban. We knew of each other by then, although we had not met. What brought us together over a number of years was the question of publication of the philosophical writings of Rick Turner, produced during the years of his banning from 1973 until his assassination in 1978. That context surely informs the sense of Peter’s life and work that I’ll convey here.
Although I knew Peter for many years, I should say that we did not spend much of that time in each other’s company. This was partly a matter of geography: he spent his adult years in Johannesburg (mostly), Durban and Paris; I spent mine in Cape Town (mostly), Stellenbosch and New York. Perhaps neither us had the gift of sociability in the right measure. But every encounter with Peter was invigorating. I valued his friendship highly, and I mourn his loss... READ MORE