The Housekeeper’s Tale

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On August 2, 2021
International Solidarity in Apartheid South Africa Keynote Address North American Levinas Society “Solidarity and Community” 29 July 2021 Need I remind anyone again / that armed struggle is an act of love? ~ Keorapetse Willie Kgositsile In 1987, my husband Rob and I were recruited in Canada to move to Johannesburg to run a safehouse […]
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New essay: PHILOSOPHICAL COUNSELLING AS A PRACTICE OF EMANCIPATION

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On April 28, 2014
This paper has just been published in Philosophical Practice, the journal of the American Philosophical Practice Association. You can find it here  and there … PHILOSOPHICAL COUNSELLING AS A PRACTICE OF EMANCIPATION Helen Douglas, Philosophy in Practice, Cape Town Abstract: This is a second ‘field report’ of a Levinassian philosophical counseling practice. The first part elaborates the practice by […]
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QA 45. Much obliged?

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On November 30, 2013
For months I’ve been like a hound dog barking at a rabbit hole. Then I think I fell in because things got kind of strange. Here’s how it went… Step 1 (QA 44). The development of philosophical practice as ethical and emancipatory leads me to think about human dignity as integral, inherent and immeasurable. And […]
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QA 43. The meaning of transgression

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On July 28, 2013
But the poet’s task, Kafka says, is to lead the isolated human being into the infinite life, the contingent into the lawful. Anne Carson The contingent: what sommer happens to be and could just as well be otherwise. South Africans drive on the left side, Canadians on the right. Some people wear black for mourning […]
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QA 14. (May 09) The first priority

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On May 31, 2009
What should be the single priority for the new South African government? In his Sunday Times column (3 May 2009), Mac Maharaj invited readers to answer this question, following Peter Bruce’s observation that a government that tries to fix everything achieves nothing. “Let us… find some common purpose, which is the first step to success.” […]
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