Shirah Theron
In 2021, The Socratic Society of the Department of Philosophy at Stellenbosch University gave birth to the Stellenbosch Socratic Journal. This year, we are proud to present its second issue. This annual serves not only as an opportunity for homegrown student philosophers to publish their questions and ideas, but strives to spark creative theoretical and pragmatic philosophical dialogue. The student-founded and student-run Socratic Society fosters insightful philosophical discussion and critical debate on a wide range of relevant issues by hosting events featuring speeches or screenings, often followed by vigorous discourse.
The Stellenbosch Socratic Journal (SSJ) aims to inspire students to find their unique philosophical voice and to submit their work for publication in this formal academic setting. We believe that this formal academic platform not only serves as a showcase for the work of Stellenbosch philosophy students, but also serves as continuous stimulation to encourage and enable these innovative thinkers to engage with the work of their peers and develop and exchange their ideas with others. Postgraduate philosophy students at Stellenbosch University are encouraged to submit papers on any theoretically interesting topic. We also welcome the submission of papers from third-year philosophy students who have produced exceptionally outstanding work. The content of the SSJ is not constrained to any one branch or field of philosophy, and proudly directs attention to the wide range of topics and concepts Stellenbosch philosophy students work on in an ever-changing environment.
The Stellenbosch Socratic Journal adheres to the same procedures and standards as set out for the typical academic journal. Two anonymous student reviewers, at either Masters or Doctoral level, independently peer-review each conditionally accepted submission and offer constructive criticism to assist the author to bring their work to the highest level of performance and effectiveness. The SSJ editorial board, a group of postgraduate Stellenbosch Philosophy students representing a variety of specialisations, facilitates this process.
In this second edition, we are delighted to present the writings of our students at various academic stages, from undergraduate to PhD level, representing an expansive range of philosophical interests.
In the first paper, Shirah Theron analyses whether non-consensuality can be used as a determiner for paraphilic disorders by examining the diagnostic criteria of paraphilic disorders in the DSM-5-TR. Is it the case that consent not only becomes the standard for permissible and legal sexual activity with other persons, but also, when the diagnostic criteria are taken at face-value, for sexual pathology in the DSM-5-TR when the patient acts on their sexual urges?
Many individuals have started to doubt the institution of policing and its justification, given the prevalence of police brutality against black people that appears to be increasing globally at an alarming rate. The public’s awareness of police brutality is a growing phenomenon and many academics have examined policing and racism through the prism of a critical theory of race. Paul Joubert investigates, through the use the theoretical tools from the theory of instrumental reason, as described by Horkheimer and Adorno, the manner in which the institution of policing utilises instrumental reason in order to subjugate humans, particularly black people, to an inscrutable end.
The right to abortion remains a deeply debated subject within the field of moral philosophy. This debate recently reignited, capturing public imagination, when the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – the landmark ruling that established the U.S. constitutional right to abortion. Summer Carne’s paper conducts a deep-dive into Thomson’s arguments for the moral permissibility of abortion, while acknowledging her most well-known critiques and commentaries by John Finnis and Phillipa Foot.
Marking the halfway point of the collection of publications for this second issue of the SSJ, is Pieter Conradie’s paper that allows us to experience a sense of leisure by discussing two uses of the concept GAME in relation to the repression of desire. The first use refers to the common use of the term: board games, sports and riddles, while the second refers to sexual prowess. Conradie makes the claim that the purported emancipation of desire in an evolved capitalist society transforms desire into another consumable good under rational control, following Herbert Marcuse’s concepts of surplus repression and the performance principle. In a series of interludes, Conradie imagines societies with alternative expressions of desire. In doing so, he seeks to describe, as well as to perform, a world free from excessive rationality.
The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 was introduced in South Africa as a means to further reduce the structural patterns of disadvantage that disproportionately impact the black majority of the population in the wake of Apartheid. The moral theory of John Rawls seeks to provide a kind of distributive justice that is founded upon fairness. Shannon Stodel investigates the application of the criteria and principles, as presented by Rawls in his theory of justice as fairness, to the enactment of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (BBBEE) to evaluate whether or not it satisfies his stipulated conditions.
For Wittig, sex is a political category that establishes heterosexual society – not in a binary way, but in a way that particularises women as “the sex” while men are universal subjects in Being. In the penultimate paper of this second issue of the SSJ, Tamlyn February discusses Monique Wittig, Judith Butler’s critique of Wittig, to articulate their own theory of gender performativity, and the more primary point that Butler does not argue for full-scale revolution. Rather, their emancipation strategy from heterosexual society is more radical, as it aims to trouble all identities, and the notion of identity itself to make space for the legitimacy and recognition of “impossible” identities.
Finally, Jaco Louw expands on how it remains a contentious topic whether the philosophical counsellor should have a method in their practice to help the counsellee resolve philosophical problems. Some philosophical counsellors claim that there should be no rigid adherence to method(s), as this will render philosophy too dogmatic. To unpack this issue, Louw discusses what he calls “dissentient philosophical counselling” by introducing African conversational philosophy via its method of conversationalism, as well as a peculiar version of Pyrrhonian scepticism, especially regarding the notion of bios adoxastōs (life without dogma).
I wish to highlight that the editorial board of the SSJ deserves high praise for their hard work and unwavering support that made this second issue possible. Thank you to each and every author and reviewer for devoting so much time and effort on delivering such thought-provoking content. A special word of thanks to our Socratic Society and Stellenbosch Socratic Journal convenors, Dr Andrea Palk and Prof. Vasti Roodt, for their invaluable guidance and assistance throughout this process. May the Stellenbosch Socratic Journal continue to prosper and expand throughout the coming years and serve to nurture creative and critical thinking, free and robust dialogue and build towards the shared understanding of crucial topics within our society.
May the SSJ always bring about recognition of the views of others, especially those different from our own. Happy reading!