The Philosophy Department at Wits offers a solid programme of courses leading to a Philosophy major and a variety of other courses which may be of particular interest and benefit to non-majors as selective courses in their programmes.
To receive a BA in philosophy a student must:
(a) Pass both PHIL 1003A, PHIL 1002A, and pass any 2 level 2xxx courses.
(b) Pass any four courses at the PHIL 3xxx level.
The Philosophy Department at Wits offers a solid programme of courses leading to a Philosophy major and a variety of other courses which may be of particular interest and benefit to non-majors as selective courses in their programmes.
To receive a BA in philosophy a student must:
This course introduces students to philosophy through a focused selection of topics in epistemology and metaphysics (the theories of knowledge and reality) along with the required background on the identification and evaluation of arguments.
This course introduces students to ethical reasoning and its applications. Examples of topics include theories of right and wrong, the relativity or objectivity of ethics, ethics and religion, equality and justice, selected ethical issues in the contemporary world.
* Courses on offer in any given year vary and the student must contact the Department or Undergraduate Teaching and Learning officer to confirm what courses are on offer.
This course is an inquiry into the nature of nature, knowledge, and the idea of philosophy as self-examination. Thinkers to be studied include Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Leibniz, and Hume.
This course introduces students to core issues in the Philosophy of Mind & Psychology and serves to provide a background for continuing study in the Philosophy of Mind & Psychology. In previous years, the course has been divided into two sections: the metaphysics of mind and consciousness.
This course includes the nature of scientific knowledge and scientific theories, the problem of confirmation and explanation, the development of science and related topics (including the role and nature of scientific revolutions and paradigms, and theoretical incommensurability in science), further topics such as the objectivity of science, causation and determinism, the nature of social explanation and topics from the history of science are also covered.
This course covers a philosophical investigation of a number of concepts and issues in social and political theory, through historical and/or contemporary sources. Topics include:
This course covers a philosophical investigation of a number of concepts and issues in social and political theory, through historical and/or contemporary sources. Topics include:
Applied Ethics - PHIL2001A
This course applies techniques of philosophical reasoning and basic ethical and social theory to particular moral and socio-political issues. Topics selected include any of the following:
racism and/or sexism, abortion, euthanasia, research on animals and humans, reproductive technologies, punishment and the death penalty, affirmative action, sexual morality, our obligations to the poor, war and revolution, immigration, patriotism and international justice.
Philosophy of Religion - PHIL2006A
This course applies techniques of philosophy to religious belief and disbelief. It includes the critical examination of philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God from both historical and contemporary sources.
Theories of Justice - PHIL2012A
In this course, the central issue is the morality of law, why law is sometimes justly enforced with punishment, how much punishment a given crime should receive, which actions criminal law justly forbids, and when justice requires citizens to obey the law. Examples of possible topics include the justification of punishment, civil liberty, property and political obligation.
Business Ethics - PHIL2013A
This course introduces the fundamentals of ethical theory as applied to practical issues in business, with some emphasis on accountancy in particular. The course questions the major philosophical approaches to ethics, how these approaches affect corporate governance and the obligations of an accountancy firm.
Continental Philosophy - PHIL2015A
This courses addresses philosophy from the nineteenth and twentieth century European tradition, possible examples of authors and schools are Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Habermas, the Frankfurt School, phenomenology, French existentialism, postmodernism, hermeneutics and critical social theory.
* Courses on offer in any given year vary and the student must contact the Department or Undergraduate Teaching and Learning officer to confirm what courses are on offer.
This course comprises the following:
Basic concepts of logic.
This course discusses a study of various issues in philosophical ethics (understood as covering both normative and metaethical theory).
Topics include some of the following:
Philosophy of Art - PHIL3010A
This course introduces students to core issues in the philosophy of art, covering both historical and contemporary sources and material.
Possible topics include:
Some of the topics covered include:
A critical study of central issues such as:
This course involves the critical study of parts of Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason in relation to topics such as:
This course deals with select topics, periods and movements in 20th-century philosophy. Possible offerings include:
Each of these would normally focus on the relation between language, thought and reality.
A Selected Topic in Philosophy - PHIL3006A
Detailed study of an advanced thematic or historical topic (or set of topics) in philosophy which complements the contents of the other third year level courses offered during the same academic year are covered in this course.
Past topics have included:
Senior Seminar in Philosophy - PHIL3007A
This course involves the systematic study of an approved topic from the research fields of the member of staff teaching the course. The topic offered will complement the contents of the other third year level courses.
* Courses on offer in any given year vary and the student must contact the Department or Undergraduate Teaching and Learning officer to confirm what courses are on offer.
This course introduces students to philosophy through a focused selection of topics in epistemology and metaphysics (the theories of knowledge and reality) along with the required background on the identification and evaluation of arguments.
This course introduces students to ethical reasoning and its applications. Examples of topics include theories of right and wrong, the relativity or objectivity of ethics, ethics and religion, equality and justice, selected ethical issues in the contemporary world.
* Courses on offer in any given year vary and the student must contact the Department or Undergraduate Teaching and Learning officer to confirm what courses are on offer.
The core course for the AEP Programme, to be taken by all participants in the Programme in the first semester. It serves as an introduction to some basic philosophical concepts and some fundamentals of ethical theory. It also explores basic matters such as moral reasoning and argument, and will typically introduce participants to philosophical approaches to applied ethics through study of some prominent examples of work in the area.
An examination of ethical issues arising from the fact of cultural pluralism. Possible topics may include moral relativism, duties to minorities and rights of majorities in multicultural states, cross-cultural tolerance, the alleged value of cultural pluralism, and liberal and non-liberal approaches to the fact of cultural pluralism.
An inquiry into some central theoretical questions in ethics with an eye to their bearing on practical issues. Builds upon some of the introductory theory in the ''Methods of Applied Ethics'' course, as well as introducing other theoretical approaches to ethical inquiry. Issues may include consequentialism, deontology, virtue, moral motivation, the codifiability of ethics, and the possibility of moral knowledge.
An examination of a range of ethical issues surrounding the environment and its relationship to human activity. Topics may include such theoretical questions as: Whether wholes such as ecosystems or relationships, and not merely individuals, can have moral status, as well as more specific issues about land and resource use, the ethics of pollution and environmental degradation, and the rights of future generations to environmental integrity.
An examination of topics such as the following: terrorism and the response to it; war more generally and its justice, as well as the justice of conduct within war; the use of torture as a means of preventing attacks; poverty and the duties of rich countries and their citizens to alleviate it; the ethics of international aid more generally; globalization, colonialism and imperialism; and more abstract issues about the place of ethical considerations in international affairs at all.
A potentially diverse exploration of moral issues concerning the use of and accessibility of information, and their effects on privacy. Topics may include the nature and value of privacy, issues in media ethics, computer/information ethics, the ethics of professional-client relationships, and the ethics of information accessible to businesses and government agencies.
An examination of moral issues arising in the contexts of health care and biomedical research. Could cover both micro health-care issues such as informed consent, and the rights of patients (and health care workers), or macro issues such as resource allocation. Other topics could include research issues such as the ethical treatment of human subjects and the social consequences of certain research programmes, such as stem-cell research and genetic engineering.
An inquiry into the relationship between law and morality and/or moral issues surrounding the use of law as a social instrument. Topics may include the moral underpinnings, if any, of law, the use of law to promote morality, paternalistic legislation, the general ethics of legal coercion, and the moral significance of the Constitution.
A potentially diverse exploration of ethical issues in business and market-oriented social policy. Could include discussions of micro-issues such as morality vs. profit, the rights (and responsibilities) of share-holders, secrecy and honesty in business contexts, the ethics of whistle-blowing and the rights of, and relationships between, workers and their employers. Could also include such macro-issues as the morality of market-capitalism, and social tinkering with it such as BEE programmes.
An inquiry into theories of, and issues concerning, social, and particularly, economic justice. Topics could include prominent theories of distributive justice such as those of Rawls and Nozick, as well as narrower issues such as the role and ethics of affirmative action, compensation for past injustices, progressive taxation, and alleged rights to a basic income.
An exploration of life's alleged value and/or particular issues that bear upon it. Topics may include theories of the wrongness of killing normal, adult human beings, and issues such as abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research and animal rights.
Guidance on research report proposals and individual supervised work on research reports.
The Philosophy Department at Wits offers a solid programme of courses leading to a Honours, Masters (research only and research and coursework), and Doctoral degrees. We also offer the Applied Ethics for Professionals Masters Programme, which allows professionals who may not have had prior degrees in philosophy, to earn a Masters degree in Applied Ethics.
For more enquiries, please contact:
Prof Samantha Vice
Email: samantha.vice@wits.ac.za
