Anton A. van Niekerk

Dept. of Philosophy
University of Stellenbosch,
Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602
South Africa
Phone: 021-8082055/082-411-7869
Fax: 021-8083556

Anton van Niekerk

Author of philosophical works
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch
and Director of the Centre for Applied Ethics.

Anton Albert van Niekerk was born on 4 December 1953 in Brits, South Africa. He attended primary school in Knysna and Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch and studied at the University of Stellenbosch (BA, BA Hons (Philosophy), MA (Philosophy), BTh, Licenciate in Theology (all cum laude) and DPhil).
Anton van Niekerk was appointed lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch in 1981, and has been Professor and Director of the Centre for Applied Ethics since 1989. He was Head of the Department of Philosophy from 1990-2000.
He is a co-founder, member and current chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Ethics Institute of South Africa and serves as a member of various important ethics committees, including that of the Medical Research Council of South Africa. He was National President of the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa, 2000-2002, and editor of the SA Journal of Philosophy from 1989-2000. He is currently a Senate representative in the Council of the University of Stellenbosch. Besides a number of books, he has published some 90 scholarly articles and about 100 popular articles. He has read papers at 16 international scholarly conferences and approximately 50 national conferences. He serves on the editorial boards of various scholarly journals, and has twice been a guest professor for extended periods in the USA. He has supervised nine completed doctoral and 40 masters dissertations.

Anton van Niekerk is married to Amy van Niekerk; they have three sons and live in Stellenbosch.

Hobbies: Reading
Favourite books: A History of the English Speaking Peoples, 4 volumes (Winston Churchill)
A History of the Modern World (Paul Johnson)
The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
Favourite quotes:
"Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come" (Victor Hugo)
"Civilization is marked by the victory of persuasion over force" (Alfred North Whitehead)

Awards and Honours:

University of Stellenbosch's Queen Victoria Stipend (1980)
Chancellor's Medal of Stellenbosch University for the best final year student on campus (1980)
Stals Prize for Philosophy of SA Academy for Science and Arts (1995)
Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research (1999)
Various Grants for Research Abroad
Guest professor for the Applied Ethics program of the Erasmus Mundus Project at Utrecht University in Holland, where he will lecture for 3 month in 2007.

List of Books:
[English translations of Afrikaans titles in square brackets]

Moderne Politieke Ideologieë, (Co-editor and -author) , Johannesburg: Southern Books, 1987, 326 pp. [Modern political ideologies]
Staatsgesag en Burgerlike Ongehoorsaamheid, (co-editor and -author), Lux Verbi, 1987 [State authority and civil disobedience]
Wat kom na Apartheid? (co-editor and co-author), Southern Books, 1988 [What comes after apartheid?]
The status of prenatal life, (editor and co-author), Lux Verbi, 1991
Aids in Context: a South African Perspective, (editor and co-author with A. van Wyk, Lux Verbi, 1991
Rasionaliteit en relativisme, R.G.N., 1992 [Rationality and relativism]
Health care as human right, (editor and co-author), Unit for Bioethics, 1993
H.W. Rossouw: Universiteit, Wetenskap en Kultuur (editor and co-author), Tafelberg, 1993. [University, science and culture]
Intellektueel in Konteks: Opstelle vir Hennie Rossouw (editor and co-author), Human Sciences Research Council,1993 [Intellectual in context: essays for Hennie Rossouw]
Ethics and Aids in Afrika
Tussen wanhoop en vreugde, Lux Verbi, 1994 [Between despair and joy] Wysgerige Perspektiewe op die 20ste eeu (Co-author. edited by DFM Strauss), Tekskor, 1994 Filosoof op die Markplein: opstelle deur en vir Willie Esterhuyse , (editor and co-author), Tafelberg, 1996. [Philosopher on the market place: essays for and by Willie Esterhuyse]
Geloof sonder sekerhede, Lux Verbi, 2005
Ethics and Aids in Afrika The challenge to our thinking, 2005

Text by A. van Niekerk

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