What?

Who?

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LOGICAL EMPIRICISM / LOGICAL POSITIVISM

Made up of:
Linguistic
Logical Symbolism
Empiricism
Analysis
To get to bare
What is a fact?
Claim experience is
bones of truth Our senses &
the only reality
experiences are
there is.
most reliable way
experience-ism
of checking &
via our 5 senses
establishing facts.
Closely
Factual & logical
Establish truth by
analysed how
statements are
means of scientific
language
NB!! Factual
testing. Its true
works by
right / wrong can
because 1. My
closely
be proved. Logical senses say so 2.
analysing
2+2 = 4 (Math
Can test it
what a fact
statements)
scientifically
is. Focused on Objective & not
Claim experience is
logic.
subjective truth is
the only reality
NB
there is. Critical of
claims of religion &
ideologies like
Marxism
Bertrand
Russell
AJ Ayer (both
focused on
logic,
linguistic
meaning &
verifiable
facts)
Ludwig
Wittenstein

CRITICAL
RATIONALISM
Scientific
Rationalism
Ensure we dont
come to believe
an idea that is
false.
Avoid falsity. NB of
clear thinking &
asking Q. Driving
force is rationality
readiness to
learn from
mistakes.
Encourages open
mindedness, anti
dogmatic & anti
authoritarian
Karl Popper
(Principle of
falsification)
Stephen Hawking
Einstein
Mandela
Helen Suzman

Empiricism
Critical
Rationalism

AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY

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

Dates back to Pharoahs

St Augustine (earliest & best known)
Kwame Anthony Appiah,
Kwasi Wiredu,
Leopold Senghor,
John Mbiti

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 understand
what makes us
human.
What?

Sees wholes dont

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)

Links
to

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 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

FEMINISM
Overview:

African Feminism

2nd Wave Feminism

Is a cluster of
philosophies
whose focus is on
sex stereotyping
especially
rejecting the
assumption that
women are inferior
to men.

Sisterhood of Africa
Political, pragmatic,
reflexive & a group
oriented form of
feminism.
Focus also on politics
of gender (power
relations) Criticises W
& European feminists
for trying to speak for
them & denying ability
to voice own thoughts.
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.

Women are people in

own right, shouldnt
claim equality but
superiority, should
reject traditional
definitions of what
makes a woman
valuable. Have right
to control own
fertility, including
abortion.

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

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.

Has given women

psych & moral power
especially those
suffered at the hands
of a man abuse,
divorce etc

What?

Who?

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to

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 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

Try to get to the essence of the

thing they research.
[ ] 1 thing (phenomenon) at a
time put aside all labels,
prejudice & 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)
The Dalai Lama
Martin Luther King
Albert Einstein
Oshita Oshita

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 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

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 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