PLS1501
Assignment 1 Semester 1 2026
Unique number:
Due Date: March 2026
Detailed solutions, explanations, workings
and references.
+27 81 278 3372
, QUESTION 1
Philosophy, in my view, is the broad human practice of asking and answering deep
questions about reality, knowledge, ethics, politics and what it means to be human. It
develops concepts and arguments that help societies make sense of life, power and
justice. Western philosophy is one historical and cultural tradition within philosophy.
It grew mainly from European intellectual histories and, in South Africa, it arrived
through conquest, missionary schooling, colonial universities and later apartheid
shaped institutions (Day 2008; Phillips 2003). Because it often presents itself as
neutral and universal, it can hide its own cultural starting points and political interests
(Mills 1998; Mazrui 1978).
Study Unit 1 shows that Western philosophy in South Africa did not arrive as a
neutral body of ideas. It travelled with conquest, settler schooling and the building of
universities that copied the “metropole” in curriculum and procedures, while
remaining largely ignorant of African realities (Phillips 2003: 123–126). This history
helps explain why African philosophy, which speaks directly from the experience of
conquest, racism and liberation, could be treated as marginal, or placed in separate
spaces, while the main philosophy curriculum stayed strongly Eurocentric (More
2004). It also supports the warning that racism can survive even when people claim
to be beyond race, because removing racial categories in name does not
automatically undo privilege and historical harm (Goldberg 2006: 257).
If teachers fail to distinguish philosophy from Western philosophy, several problems
follow. Learners can be led to believe that European experiences are the measure of
all human reason, while African histories and ideas are treated as an optional add
on, often pushed into separate spaces such as African Studies or Indigenous
Knowledge Systems (Mazrui 1978; Ramose 2002). This reproduces epistemic
injustice, because it limits who counts as a knower and what counts as knowledge
(Mills 1998). It also weakens critical thinking, because learners are not trained to
question how power shaped the curriculum and the so called neutrality of academic
traditions (More 2004; Barnes 2015). In South Africa, this failure keeps colonial
patterns alive inside teaching, even after 1994, and it makes genuine decolonisation
and social justice harder to achieve (More 2004; Maloka 2014).
Varsity Cube 2026 +27 81 278 3372
Assignment 1 Semester 1 2026
Unique number:
Due Date: March 2026
Detailed solutions, explanations, workings
and references.
+27 81 278 3372
, QUESTION 1
Philosophy, in my view, is the broad human practice of asking and answering deep
questions about reality, knowledge, ethics, politics and what it means to be human. It
develops concepts and arguments that help societies make sense of life, power and
justice. Western philosophy is one historical and cultural tradition within philosophy.
It grew mainly from European intellectual histories and, in South Africa, it arrived
through conquest, missionary schooling, colonial universities and later apartheid
shaped institutions (Day 2008; Phillips 2003). Because it often presents itself as
neutral and universal, it can hide its own cultural starting points and political interests
(Mills 1998; Mazrui 1978).
Study Unit 1 shows that Western philosophy in South Africa did not arrive as a
neutral body of ideas. It travelled with conquest, settler schooling and the building of
universities that copied the “metropole” in curriculum and procedures, while
remaining largely ignorant of African realities (Phillips 2003: 123–126). This history
helps explain why African philosophy, which speaks directly from the experience of
conquest, racism and liberation, could be treated as marginal, or placed in separate
spaces, while the main philosophy curriculum stayed strongly Eurocentric (More
2004). It also supports the warning that racism can survive even when people claim
to be beyond race, because removing racial categories in name does not
automatically undo privilege and historical harm (Goldberg 2006: 257).
If teachers fail to distinguish philosophy from Western philosophy, several problems
follow. Learners can be led to believe that European experiences are the measure of
all human reason, while African histories and ideas are treated as an optional add
on, often pushed into separate spaces such as African Studies or Indigenous
Knowledge Systems (Mazrui 1978; Ramose 2002). This reproduces epistemic
injustice, because it limits who counts as a knower and what counts as knowledge
(Mills 1998). It also weakens critical thinking, because learners are not trained to
question how power shaped the curriculum and the so called neutrality of academic
traditions (More 2004; Barnes 2015). In South Africa, this failure keeps colonial
patterns alive inside teaching, even after 1994, and it makes genuine decolonisation
and social justice harder to achieve (More 2004; Maloka 2014).
Varsity Cube 2026 +27 81 278 3372
