Background
Degenaar, Johan was born on March 7, 1926 in Ladysmith, Natal. South Africa.
anthropologist interpreter philosopher
Degenaar, Johan was born on March 7, 1926 in Ladysmith, Natal. South Africa.
Studied at the University of Stellenbosch in the Republic of South Africa, 1944-1949. Groningen in the Netherlands, under Helmuth Plessner and Gerhardus van der Leeuw, 1949-1950. Leiden under C. A. van Peursen, 1961.
1949-1969, Lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch. 1969-1991, Professor of Political Philosophy, Stellenbosch.
Degenaar writes mainly in Afrikaans and his books, which are relatively short, consist mainly of essays on a common theme. His moral concern with the question of what it means to be a human being forms the basis of a political philosophy propounding justice for all, and in taking ordinary experience seriously he endeavours to make philosophy accessible to all in terms of everyday language and by the exploration of the imaginative play of signs in myths, fairy-tales, stories, novels, plays and films. One aspect of his work is the assessment and interpretation of other philosophers’ writings. His Evolusie en Christendom (1965) is a sympathetic treatment of the French Jesuit and palaeontologist, Teilhard de Chardin. Die Wereld van Albert Camus (1966) treats of absurdity, revolt and solidarity in the thought of the French existentialist writer, Albert Camus, and Exsistensie en Gestalte (1962) concerns existentialist traits in the poetry of the greatest Afrikaans poet, N. P. van Wyk Louw. Another aspect of his work has a much wider scope. Die Sterflikheid van die Siel (1963) is an introduction to phenomenological anthropology in which Degenaar argues that the ‘mortality’ of the soul underscores a person’s commitment to this world and fellow human beings. Op Weg na n nuwe politieke lewenshouding (1963) is a work profoundly influenced by Kierkegaard, Buber. Husserl and Heidegger in which Degenaar rejects the Cartesian view of the human subject as selfenclosed. Instead he advocates a new humanism based upon the principles that human beings are human through relationships and only through openness and receptivity do they become whole and ‘at home in the world. In the important little book, Sekularisasie (1967), these ideas are further developed within the framework of the concepts of ‘secularization’ and ‘solidarity’. Degenaar argues that secularization either alienates persons or leads to a growing solidarity amongst them, and he is particularly interested in the latter, which he believes involves a theology of encounter. In the late 1970s his interest gradually shifted towards aesthetics and literary theory, and many believe that it is in this field that—especially during the 1980s—he made his most valuable philosophical contribution. He was certainly instrumental in the introduction of Jacques Derrida’s thought and the deconstructivist/postmodernist tradition to South Africa. It is likewise in the 1970s and 1980s that most of Degenaar’s overtly political writings were published. They include such topics as: morality and politics; the place of ethnicity in politics and the concept of structural violence; the nature and danger of nationalism and—in 1991—the idea of a democratic culture in preference to the mystifications of the idea of ‘nationhood’. Degenaar’s anti-apartheid stance aroused considerable opposition from conservative Afrikaner intellectuals. He nevertheless remains perhaps the most influential South African philosopher to date and continues to be admired for his moral integrity and intellectual honesty. Sources: Personal communication.