6 research outputs found
Conflicting perceptions over water distribution in Sibasa-Thohoyandou area: interpreting local narratives.
Get PDFThe state perceives water as an economic commodity, even if its existing policy treats it as a national resource that should be freely accessed for basic usage. Research suggests many residents of the Sibasa-Thohoyandou area in the Limpopo Province, perceive water as a free natural resource that should not be paid for. As a result of this perception, most of the local residents are not paying for water services. In response to that, the municipality is faced with a cost-recovery problem – hence they restrict water reticulation. Residents concede that paying is a last resort because they are in need of water. Research was conducted on this issue after it surfaced as an apparent problem in the local media. The article explores and attempts to interpret the conflicting narratives on water procurement and distribution in the Sibasa-Thohoyandou area
Subject-object alienation and method
Get PDFMA (Philosophy), North-West University, Potchefstroom CampusThe purpose of this research project is to expose, analyze, and
criticise the origin, presuppositions, and influence of the subject-object alienation problem in method in a bid to establish proper
presuppositions for research methodology that can retain an
integral ontology. This is done through the means of textual
(literature) study, problem-historical approach, and
transcendental criticism. From the study of relevant literature, it
is revealed that Descartes, in his "I think, therefore I exist"
(Cogito ergo sum), declared the origin of the subject-object
alienation problem. It was also revealed through literature study
that there were several methodological attempts to solve this
problem by some of the philosophers or schools of philosophy
like Kant (Transcendental Philosophy), Husserl
(Phenomenology), Heidegger (Hermeneutic Phenemenology),
Dewey (Pragmatism), and the Participatory Research method
(Subject-subject, and object-object approach). These methods
were not capable of reaching their goal to resolve the legacy of a
split ontology in the theory of knowledge that was left behind by
Descartes.
All these methodological attempts, with the exception of
Participatory Research method, did not recognize the object
functions of the respondent. Some of these methods reduced the
object to the level of mere ideas of the consciousness. This left
us with questions such as 'Can there be any method that can
solve the subject-object alienation problem? Can research be
conducted without causing a split ontology? In a bid to establish
an answer to these questions the author opted for reformational
philosophy. Its basic ontological presuppositions for research
methodology includes (1) the creaturelihood of creation, (2)
unity of creation, (3) diversity of creation, and (4) human
calling. On the basis of these presuppositions reformational
philosophy rejects the self-origin of creation, and holds that
creation is a created reality that has its unity and diversity
through one origin - the Creator. That is to say, it is a created
reality, which was perverted by evil, which needs redemptive
redirection in order to re-discover its structure and potentiality.
The Creator does this through the calling of man.
Man was given the gift of science to help creation to rediscover
itself. This becomes a critical dialogue between man (who was
given the rationality to take the initiative in the process of
creation in self-rediscovery) and the rest of creation. In the
process of self-rediscovery of creation, man as the initiator, must
recognize the object function of the respondent in concrete
terms.Master
Ideology, virtue and well-being : a critical examination of Francis Fukuyama's notion of liberal democracy.
Get PDFThesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2003.This thesis is a critical examination of Fukuyama's "end of history" version of
liberalism, in which he announces the triumphant emergence of liberal democracy
as a universal form of governance. The thesis seeks to investigate Francis
Fukuyama's notion of liberal democracy and his arguments for it, in order to
assess the normative impact of market driven political and economic outcomes on
the human context or life satisfaction, especially recognition. This is contrasted
with Amartya Sen's notion of well-being in order to show that Fukuyama does not
pay attention to some of the basic moral demands of human life.
The thesis is comprised of an introduction and six chapters. The contents of
these chapters can be presented briefly as follows:
• The first chapter looks at how Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant use the
theory of social contract to explain the genesis and justification of the state.
Featuring prominently in all their versions of social contract are the values of
freedom, equality, and independence of the individual, the process of
consensus, the primacy of self-preservation and the necessity of the state.
Together these laid the basis for a philosophically reasoned and
progressive theory of politics. This chapter also looks at the theory of
laissez-faire, which paved the way for a free market economy. This doctrine
was developed in the thought of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Mill and Bentham.
For Fukuyama these thinkers inaugurated a tradition of political thought that
ultimately led to liberalism and democracy.
• The second chapter discusses the teleological view of history underlying the
philosophical theories of history advanced by Kant, Hegel, and Marx. Each
of these thinkers assumes that history is moving towards an end point or
goal. It is from these philosophers that Fukuyama appropriates the idea of
universality to envisage the universality of liberal democracy.
• The third chapter analyzes Fukuyama's "end of history" claim and his
arguments for it. When communism finally collapsed, liberal democracy was
the only remaining option, he claims. Drawing on Kant's idea of universal
history, Hegel's notion of a universal and homogeneous state and Marx's
materialist interpretation of history, Fukuyama envisages a global order that
will be ushered in by the universal and homogeneous liberal state which is the ultimate goal of liberal democracy. It is the duty of the liberal state to
ensure equal and mutual recognition and affirmation of its citizens' freedom.
• The fourth chapter stages a debate between Fukuyama and Sen in which
the question of life satisfaction and its achievability is addressed. Fukuyama
claims that human-beings desire recognition, and can best satisfy this
desire through liberal democracy. Sen for his part claims that people need
well-being, and can only achieve it through democracy, which he views as a
universal value. The discussion shows that although Fukuyama and Sen
may share similar political values they differ ideologically and in historical
vision.
• The fifth chapter deals with the critical evaluation of liberal democracy.
Several issues present major problems for liberal democracy. These issues
are liberal individualism as the central focus of liberalism and liberal
democracy; the global trend against gender bias; the political and cultural
homogenization of the world; the problem of parallel histories versus a
single inclusive history; desire-satisfaction versus need-satisfaction, and the
cultural preconditions of liberal democracy.
• The sixth chapter recapitulates the preceding chapters and spells out the
conclusion reached in the course of the thesis.
The findings on the notion of the "end of history" show that Fukuyama wishes the
equal and mutual recognition of the freedom and dignity of all individuals as well as
the affirmation of their individual rights. This concern for the individual is laudable.
However, excessive individualism threatens the fabric of every society, and
Fukuyama realizes that this threat is especially strong in liberal democracy. His
suggested solution is to cultivate social capital in the form of trust. This thesis
concludes that Fukuyama's medicine is no match for the disease; the whole thrust
of the intellectual tradition leading to liberal democracy - and of much else in
Western culture since Hobbes - is in the direction of excessive individualism and
the withering of community. Moreover, where Fukuyama sees isothymia - the
desire for equal recognition, the psychological truth is probably that people desire
to be recognized as superior - mega/othymia, again making individualism
intrinsically more threatening to a sense of community than Fukuyama seems to realize. Fukuyama suggests that an international consensus in favour of liberal
democracy is emerging. But it appears that such a consensus is unlikely to arise nation-
states fear disenfranchisement and assimilation and thus insist on their
sovereignty, effectively blocking any shift from the nation-state to a homogeneous
and universal liberal state. It is difficult to generate the consensus needed to
receive it as a universal system, because not all people subscribe to its cultural
preconditions. The satisfaction of human desire of any kind cannot be
universalized since human existence is centrally characterized by diversity of
context, culture, and perception. Any attempt to impose cultural or ideological
homogeneity requires conquest - cultural or military imperialism.
The triumphant emergence of liberal democracy cannot be the ultimate end
of the whole of human history. If this were the case, it would no longer be worth
trying to increase human knowledge, since knowledge always points to an open
future in terms of how it will be used for further advancement.
Due to its internal contradictions, such as the tension between excessive
individualism and community, liberal democracy has unintended negative
consequences. Liberal democracy is not yet the final ideology leading to human
satisfaction at a global level for this generation and generations to come as long as
human thought evolves. This will remain the case as long as Fukuyama's
admission that liberal democracy only works where its cultural preconditions are
met, remains true
AFRICA IN THE IDEALS OF FUKUYAMA’S NOTION OF THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN: A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY QUEST
Get PDFThis essay pursues a critical examination of Fukuyama’s appropriation of the Kantian/Hegelian/Marxian philosophies of history, particularly the notion of the end of history, and the idea of the last man. Fukuyama uses the concepts to explain what he claims to be the triumph of liberal democracy over socialism and many other ideologies. In Fukuyama, the notion of the last man has at its centre the triumph of liberal democracy – personified in the United States of America – over other socio-economic-political ideologies. This triumphant advent and settlement of liberal democracy has impact on weaker nations of Africa and other parts of the world. The paper advances an argument that the advent and triumph of Western liberal democracy, its universalization and declaration as the final form of government has perilous implications to African human sociocultural development. Its purposive end cannot mean the end of human capability to come up with a new forms of governing framework: since not all nations wholly embrace the ideology as the logical conclusion for social, economic, and political development. Fukuyama did not think within the possibilities of the aftermaths of such a conceptualization of history that it has a tendency of overlooking his position as a source of enhancing the disenfranchisement of the weaker states of the world, in particular, those in Africa. Africa is left out of the movement of human history towards the ‘superhuman’ by intention. The main ideals of Fukuyama’s notion of the end of history, namely, freedom, recognition and consciousness have proved not to be meant for the African people unless they assimilate into the Western cultural preconditions. The paper will use descriptive/analytic method
Educating and training in an Ideological vacuum: A critical explanation of the dilemma of education in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThis paper is a philosophical study on ideology and its indispensable relationship to education policy making and implementation and its didactical dimension with a special reference to Zimbabwe. The paper points out that successive colonial governments and religious organisations of that era established and worked, planned and implemented their policies within the bounds of liberal-cum-capitalist ideological framework. Hence all their education and training institutions were built and meant to fulfill that cause. Post-independent Africa inherited that framework and found herself giving her citizens education that created useless school leavers. This paper will advance an argument that educating and training in an ideological vacuum stifles critical and creative thinking which is the sources and foundation of potential invention and innovation. It therefore calls for Africa to come up with an ideological framework that defines their contextual social, political, and economic condition(s) resulting in crafting policies that are relevant to their needs than repeating tired ideologies. Key words: Ideology, education, training, vacuum, Zimbabwe, society
Disenfranchisement-counterculture dialectic in the South African story of water access and its impact: A critical reflection
Get PDFThe paper is a philosophical reflection on social and hydropolitical issues in South African water story with special reference to water procurement and distribution. The article explores the problem of political disenfranchisement and its reaction in the form of political counterculture in the South African story of the right to access water. It sets the exploration within the framework of disenfranchisement-counterculture dialectic. The former portrayed in the water laws passed by the then successive South African governments and the latter showed by numerous boycotts that took place. The dialectic framework will lead to the preference of a Yin-Yang approach to explain a possible synthesis achievable in an attempt to deal with ongoing boycotts for paying water services delivery. The article advances an argument that a close look at the story of water rights through South African history shows that there is a disenfranchisement-counterculture dialectic underpinned and propelled by social and political drives that are rooted in the past
