THE INDISPENSABLE PLACE OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE CURRICULUM OF SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY DEGREE EDUCATION: A REFLECTION

Abstract

This paper presents the recent African Renaissance approach in the academic discipline of philosophy in South Africa and its exceedingly rich values in critical thinking and African identity, as indispensable in the curriculum of South Africa’s university education. Its argument comes against the backdrop of seeming public disdain and lukewarm attitude towards philosophy as a discipline, and general criticism of the discipline in the South African context as “boring and abstract”. The main thesis is that the overt sentiment that philosophy does neither teach practical skills nor produce physical or material needs in modern South African society; and hence, has limited relevance in the decolonisation curriculum agenda of academic degrees lacks merit. In contrast, if the very purpose of university education in South Africa remains “to produce well-educated” African students, African renaissance-based philosophy should occupy a very important place in the reform and decolonisation agenda of the academic curriculum of university degree programs in South Africa. By its nature, such philosophy focus in the curricula promises to be one of the best approaches to help students imbibe logical reasoning; pay attention to the unrelenting pursuit of true knowledge; and continuously commit to sets of given and verified truths, yet search for new ways to improve and justify established truths within their disciplines. Adoption of such focus can also provide the foundation upon which accepted theories, hypotheses, and arguments of other degree programs can re-developed.