Research Articles (Office of the Dean: The Humanities)
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Item Open Access Visual communication - a transcendental empirical-perspective(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2010) Strauss, D. F. M.The recent pictorial turn, succeeded by a visual turn, led to a new appreciation of visual communication in human culture. Communication is normally associated with subjectsubject rela tions. The qualification “visual” entails an important demarcation and restriction for it mainly concerns (lingual and non-lingual) signs, sketches, tables, typographi cal designs, and so on. What is taken for granted are the spoken and the (electronically or non-electronically) written word. Attention is given to the remarkable differences between animals and human beings regarding their visual capacities within the visible world. It appears that ani mals select only a limited section from what is available to them within their visible world. Yet, there are animals that can register supersonic waves, see ultraviolet rays as light, fish can sense electrical fields, and birds use the magnetic poles of the earth as navigating devices – all senses lacking in a human being. Within the human visual field human beings are capable of perceiving many more things than what they are actually noticing. This coheres with the absence of inborn activating mechanisms in humans. Given the mysterious complexity of the eye, the important difference be tween animals and human perception is found in the distinctively human capacity to discern, to locate, to be attentive to something within a person’s visual field. This ability to be attentive is indeed decisive for visual communica tion. It is argued that the difference between oral and visual communication actually may serve to provide a criterion to distinguish between the science of ethnology and the science of history.Item Open Access Die dagboek van'n Boeremeisie in diens van die vyand-siekte en sorg in die Bethulie-kamp(Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2011-09) Pretorius, Engela; Krige, DaleenThe many published diaries kept by women in the concentration camps constitute an extraordinary aspect of the Anglo-Boer War. Undoubtedly, some diaries have only survived within families – like the one kept by Susara Johanna (Sarie) Roos. Armed conflict can be considered to be the antithesis of public health and, as such, it constitutes a health issue. Central to every war one finds the health care staff, and specifically the nurse, who has to deal with the physical, emotional and social consequences of the conflict. Sarie Roos, a young Boer woman, was employed by the British as a nurse in the Bethulie camp. In the main, her narrative deals with this role. This article aims to describe and analyse her experiences in this camp – one of the most devastating of its kind. During the course of her narrative, documented history comes to light, which serves to verify the reliability and authenticity of her diary. It does, however, also provide a somewhat different view of the events – from the perspective of a Boer woman employed by the enemy to serve her own people.Item Open Access Anthropology and development: culture, morality and politics in a globalised world(University of the Free State, 2014) Botes, LuciusAbstract not availableItem Open Access The mixed legacy underlying Rawls's Theory of justice(Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, 2006-06) Strauss, D. F. M.English: The Theory of justice advanced by Rawls must be understood within the context of factual legal approaches (such as positivism and pragmatism) that eliminated normative considerations. By contrast, Rawls argues for an account of the role of normative legal principles by proceeding from an idea introduced during the Enlightenment, namely that of a social contract. However, the way in which he speaks about law, morality and virtues clearly demonstrates his indebtedness to Ancient Greek and Medieval conceptions as well. His assumption is that it is possible for normal human beings to arrive at a rational consensus by assuming that these individuals not only do have a normative (moral) awareness but that they are also capable to take distance from their factual societal position and relations (the veil of ignorance) in order to be open to moral principles acceptable to every normally developed human being. This article sets out to investigate the historical roots of the idea of a just society by contrasting the classical Greek and Medieval ideals with that of modern approaches since the Renaissance, particularly the account found in natural law theories about the supposed social contract lying at the foundation of an ordered and just society. The open-ended problems present within this legacy - particularly regarding the inherent shortcomings of both atomistic and holistic orientations implicit in the mainstream views on being human and on the place of the latter within human society and the state - are then related to the mixed assumptions underlying Rawls's theory at a basic level. It will be argued that although his intention is to advocate the basic elements of a constitutional democracy, this aim is threatened by the latent holistic undertones accompanying his entire theory.