Wits Philosophy Department

09/01/2026

The Department of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand invites applications for the position of Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Ethics (broadly understood) and Manager of its postgraduate programme in Applied Ethics for Professionals (AEP).

The successful candidate will teach ethics and applied ethics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and supervise MA and PhD students in AEP. They will also be responsible for redesigning, strengthening, and expanding AEP to meet the needs of South African professionals.

The Department’s standard teaching load is four courses per year (equivalent to a North American 2:2), with the programme management role reducing the load by approximately one course.

Applicants should hold a PhD in Philosophy and have experience in the management of academic programmes—for example, curriculum design and review, building external partnerships, and leading strategic growth initiatives. A strong interest in education and a research profile in ethics are also desirable.

The level of appointment (Lecturer/Senior Lecturer) will be commensurate with the candidate’s teaching and managerial experience, as well as their research profile.

The University is committed to employment equity. Preference may be given to appointable applicants from the underrepresented designated groups in terms of the relevant employment equity plans and policies of the University.

Further information about the Applied Ethics for Professionals Programme is available here: AEP Programme.

Inquiries should be directed to the Head of Department, Assoc. Prof. Dylan Futter, [email protected].

To apply, please follow the links from the University’s IREC site. IRC105350.

Closing Date: 15 February 2026

15/09/2025

The Philosophy Department at the University of the Witwatersrand is delighted to announce Associate Professor Dylan Futter's new book, "Socrates' Search for Wisdom. An Exegetical Theory", published by Taylor & Francis.

Socrates urges us to examine our lives, but what exactly does that mean? Should we question our moral convictions, or construct theories of virtue and the good? This book argues for a third path: the best human life is one of moral learning, in which we actualise our potential for wisdom.

Readers will gain a fresh perspective on the Socratic method—not as mere argument, but as a process of inquiry. The author develops an exegetical model of dialogue and shows its fidelity to Plato’s texts. He then situates this model in the scholarly literature and uses it to clarify several puzzling features of Socrates’ approach. The result is a deeper understanding of Socrates’ method and his philosophical life.

Socrates’ Search for Wisdom: An Exegetical Theory will appeal to scholars, students of Greek philosophy, and general readers, continuing the Socratic tradition of engaging specialists and non-specialists alike.

Socrates urges us to examine our lives, but what exactly does that mean? Should we question our moral convictions, or construct theories of virtue and the good?

16/07/2025

Lucy Allais, Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand & William H. Miller III Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University has been elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2025.

Founded in 1780, the academy is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It's both an honorary society that recognises and celebrates the excellence of its members, and an independent research centre. Earliest members include Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Graham Bell, and current members represent today’s innovative thinkers in every field & profession, including more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. Over the course of its history, the Academy admitted more than 300 philosophers to its ranks, 55 of which women.

These represent a pantheon of American 20th century philosophy and international luminaries well known to any student of Western philosophy such as W.V.O. Quine, Isaiah Berlin, R. Chisholm, Paul Ricoeur, Karl Popper, GEM Anscombe, Richard Rorty, D. Lewis, Hilary Putnam, B. Williams, Martha Nussbaum, and many more.

Prof. Allais joins 16 other South African members of the Academy including the late Nelson Mandela (elected 2009). She is the 5th South African woman to have been elected, the 1st being Nadine Gordimer in 1980 and remarkably only the 2nd SA philosopher since John Niemeyer Findlay in 1975.

Last but not least, she is the very first female South African philosopher to join the American Academy, ever. Prof Allais has been a member of the Philosophy Department at Wits University since 2006 and we are very proud of her achievement.

Prof. Allais' research focuses include moral emotions such as forgiveness and blame, the German thinker Immanuel Kant, and the nature of human free agency.

Lucy Allais Wits - University of the Witwatersrand

08/10/2024

Dear All,

Please see below the details for our Applied Ethics for Professionals Masters program. Please Apply and/or share widely

07/10/2024

Dear Friends,

You are cordially invited to be part of the Spring Seminar Talk by Prof Edwin Etieyibo, Hosted by the School of Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand.

Time: 10.00-12.00 (SAST)
Venue: Seminar Room 141, School of Social Sciences

25/09/2024

Dear Friends,

You are all invited to our annual philosophy lecture, scheduled to be held on the 10th of October 2024, from 5 pm. The Lecture will be delivered by Prof Edwin Etieyibo, and he will speaking on the topic; "African Democracy and the Many Democracies".

Please RSVP by sending an email to Julia Mamabolo ([email protected]), stating your interest in attending.

See the poster below for more details.

15/07/2024

Professor Xiang Shuchen and Professor Edwin Etieyibo are back this week at the Nishan Forum as we expand our discussion on cultures and civilizations in light of the Nishan Forum on World Civilizations. In this discussion, both scholars help us understand the forum's relevance to humanity and assess what Chinese civilization and African Philosophy can offer the world.

To listen to this discussion, please click on the link below:

Professor Xiang Shuchen and Professor Edwin Etieyibo are back this week as we expand our discussion on cultures and civilizations in light of the Nishan Forum on World Civilizations. They help us understand the forum's relevance to humanity and assess what the Chinese civilization, along with ideas....

13/07/2024

The Wits Philosophy Applied Ethics for Professionals (AEP) Master's Degree Programme is now open for applications. Please see below. You can email [email protected] for more details.

05/07/2024

Recently, our very own Prof Edwin Etieyibo sat down, in a podcast interview, with Professor Xiang Shuchen at Xidian University to have a conversation about the idea of Ubuntu and the Chinese idea of Hehe, and how these distinct but similar ideas conceive of harmony and community. This podcast interview was facilitated by the China Global Television Network (CGTN), based in Beijing.

Please find below the link to the discussion:

Both China's Hehe culture and the African philosophy of Ubuntu advocate the idea of harmony and a sense of community. How important is it for the two ancient civilizations to share their understandings on such thoughts, and how do they contribute to a China-Africa community with a shared future? We....

22/04/2024

Book Symposium: The Question of Life’s Meaning: An African Perspective, by Aribiah Attoe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

Date and time: 2 May 2024 (09:30 – 14:30 SAST)

Venue: CB 3, Robert Sobukwe Building, Wits

RSVP deadline: 29 April 2024. To RSVP, please email [email protected]. (There is a maximum of 25 attendees. However, once this limit is reached or if you are outside of Johannesburg, you can still register to attend via Zoom.)

Discussants

Masahiro Morioka (Waseda University)

Motsamai Molefe (University of South Africa)

Thad Metz (University of Pretoria)

Asheel Singh (University of Johannesburg)

Description

In answering the question of life’s meaning, the African perspective is only just beginning to emerge. While this is true, a critical examination of African theories of meaningfulness, the possibility of life’s meaninglessness, as well as ideas about the proper mode/mood for living with the meaninglessness of life are largely underexplored within the African philosophical tradition. This book provides several plausible accounts of meaning in/of life from an African perspective, examines the relationship between death and life’s meaningfulness, and explores the possibility of life’s meaninglessness, proposing the “philosophy of indifference” as the proper mode/mood for living with the meaninglessness of life.

Programme

09:30-10:10 Introduction to the book by Aribiah Attoe (University of the Witwatersrand)

10:10-10:50 Masahiro Morioka (Waseda University) (Virtual presentation)

10:50-11:20 Tea break

11:20-12:00 Motsamai Molefe (University of South Africa)

12:00-12:40 Thad Metz (University of Pretoria)

12:40-13:40 Lunch break

13.40-14.20 Asheel Singh (University of Johannesburg)

19/04/2024

AI is increasingly being used to inform decisions that affect our lives, and this has given rise to the development of "explainable AI (or XAI). But does XAI include explanatory variations that cater for non-western/collectivist explanatory needs?

Our very own Mary Carman, and Uwe Peters have sought to respond to this question (covering over 200 XAI user studies) and other related issues in two articles, and you can read them for free via the following links:

https://theconversation.com/understanding-ai-outputs-study-shows-pro-western-cultural-bias-in-the-way-ai-decisions-are-explained-227262

https://jair.org/index.php/jair/article/view/14888

Cultural Bias in Explainable AI Research: A Systematic Analysis Article Sidebar PDF Published: Mar 28, 2024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.1.14888 Keywords: Accountable explainable AI, Explainability, Human-computer interaction, User interfaces Main Article Content Uwe Peters a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:2...