Department of Philosophy & Applied Ethics

Welcome to the module 1PHP312 (Philosophy and Language), and thank you for choosing to stay with us. This module is intended for 3^rd year students doing philosophy as a major. The aim of this module is to introduce you to selected topics regarding the philosophical debates on language. In this module you will be introduced to the debates regarding the philosophical foundations of language, the connection between language, meaning and truth, the connection between language and society, and language as a theme in African philosophy. At the end of this module you should be should be able to develop a philosophical debate arising from these topics.

Welcome to the module Philosophical Ethics 1 (1PHP321 / APHP321)

The module focusses on giving you an enhanced understanding of ethical theories including how to apply these to relevant ethically challenging scenarios such as ethical dilemmas and moral mazes. Through this rigorous and engaging course, you can learn to analyse problems from multiple perspectives – something that will make you more effective in your current role and prepare you for even greater responsibilities in your chosen vocation.

This module is intended for third-year level students who have selected Philosophy as a major. It aims at helping students to critically investigate the principles governing human actions in terms of their ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’, ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’. By the end of this module, you should be able to have an enhanced understanding of ‘how ought I to act? or ‘what should I do?’ in a situation in which there is an ethical dilemma to solve or a moral maze to work through. 

We discuss various philosophies, African and Western, and how these should enlighten our ethical practice in an African and international context. We consider Utilitarianism, Deontology, the Rights Model, Ubuntu, Relativism, and Virtue and Applied ethics to investigate what ought to be done in ethically challenging circumstances. We will also discuss Gender Based Violence (GBV) and investigate what the moral theories have to teach us about this important area which is plaguing societies globally.

This is the Moodle page for the Philosophy module 1PHP311 Phenomenology and Existentialism.
This course is designed to introduce you to a number of  key themes and concepts in existentialism and phenomenology, including consciousness, phenomenology, being (being-in-time, being-in-the-world, being-amongst-others”), bad faith, radical freedom and responsibility. We begin with the origins of existentialism and phenomenology in the work of Soren Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois. We will then follow the ongoing conversation between existentialist theory and historical developments, as existential thought develops in response to antisemitism and colonial racism in the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, and Lewis Gordon.