‘The mind-body problem’ is the problem of how to understand conscious awareness within a world made up of physical things. But I argue that any view according to which it is meaningful to use different terms to refer to ‘the mind’ and ‘the body’ must be a dualist view; and that dualism is not a satisfactory metaphysical position. A strong case can be made for the claim that even those who profess to be opposed to dualism can often still be described as ‘closet’ dualists.

‘The mind-body problem’ is the problem of how to understand conscious awareness within a world made up of physical things. But I argue that any view according to which it is meaningful to use different terms to refer to ‘the mind’ and ‘the body’ must be a dualist view; and that dualism is not a satisfactory metaphysical position. A strong case can be made for the claim that even those who profess to be opposed to dualism can often still be described as ‘closet’ dualists. Much typical ‘consciousness’ research concerns what David Chalmers calls ‘the easy problems of consciousness’. My own view is that almost all of Chalmers’ ‘easy problems’ could better be characterized as ‘problems to do with (‘conscious’) sense perception, and with cognition’. However, perception and cognition are very often not ‘conscious;’ therefore, I argue, approaching conscious experience by means of investigating perception or cognition is problematic. Just like perceptual and cognitive processes, psychological processes can take place without being (introspectively) ‘conscious’. I explain how Freud’s account of unconscious psychological processes enables him to understand psychical processes as similar in kind to other natural (physical) processes; and I dismiss a number of complaints from critics who have misunderstood Freud’s naturalist project. On the Freudian view, which I endorse, it is problematic to equate ‘what is mental’ with ‘what is conscious’. The considerations against conflating ‘the mind’ with ‘consciousness,’ I argue, are just as relevant within philosophy as they are in the context of psychoanalysis. The condition hydranencephaly (in which children are born with part of their brain missing) provides good evidence that we should not approach the mind-body by examining the functioning of the cerebral cortex – which goes against the prevalent ‘corticocentric’ view of ‘consciousness’. Whereas Mark Solms claims that hydranencephaly is problematic to the Freudian view, I argue that Freud’s view is well-suited to accommodating cases of hydranencephaly. Finally, I argue that, rather than talking about ‘the mind-body problem,’ we should use a biological naturalist framework to help us understand why there is no such problem. If we are able to free ourselves from our dualist intuitions, something along the lines of Panksepp’s ‘affect-centric’ view – which incorporates several commitments that are central to Freudian theory – is just what we need to help us understand the truly physical nature of conscious awareness.

The study examines how the family, peers, and sociocultural environment at school in primary schools in South Africa perpetuated divergent gendered experiences among immigrant learners. A qualitative narrative inquiry was used during the study.

The thesis, A Critical Analysis of the Oversight Role and Function of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) in Promoting Accountability in South Africa’s Public Sector, looks at the underlying problem of financial mismanagement in the public sector in relation to public accountability in South Africa. This problem has manifested in growing wasteful, irregular and fruitless expenditure in a post-apartheid era confronted by a multitude of social-economic challenges.

This study was motivated by the fact that young adults living with Williams syndrome in South Africa do not have access to post-secondary institutions capable of addressing their distinctive educational needs. I was further driven to conduct this study due to the lack of support in the South African post-secondary educational system for young adults with Williams syndrome.

Muslim religious leaders are commonly accused of adopting a conservative interpretation of Islam that guides the way in which they counsel married women on their rights to divorce and how they should address violence in the marital context. They have also been viewed as favouring male-dominant positions, protecting abusive husbands and adopting a reconciliation-at-all-cost approach.

Strong emphasis has been placed on entrepreneurship in recent times as scholars and policy makers, including those in the field of education, regard it as a remedy for the social and economic challenges facing societies.

German Studies students at Rhodes University have normally never studied the German language before enrolling for the first-year course and face the challenge of a fairly rapid linguistic advancement, in a context with very limited exposure to the foreign language outside the classroom. Free writing is an area which students find particularly challenging as it requires students to synthesise grammatical and vocabulary knowledge.

Low literacy levels have been argued to partially contribute to poor health literacy and poor health outcomes. Low health literacy refers to the inability to apply health information in pursuit of good health. While several strategies have been used to assist persons with low literacy to understand health information, these strategies have been focused primarily on improving medication taking in persons with low literacy.

In the thesis, I critically examine the art acquisition policy of the Unisa Art Gallery (UAG) during and after apartheid in South Africa. The Unisa Art Gallery acquisition policy (UAGAP) is investigated against the transformation imperatives as informed by national policies on arts and culture. I take the view that the process of art acquisition does not exist outside of the sociopolitical discourse.