Meet our Team

Dr. Phila M. Msimang Senior Lecturer

[email protected]

Phila M. Msimang is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Stellenbosch University and a member of the Azanian Philosophical Society (APS). He is also an active member of the International Philosophy of Biology Circle (IPBC) and participates in several international research groups focused on race and the legacies of racism in science.

His primary research critically assesses the uses and abuses of group descriptors like race and ethnicity in the sciences. The purpose of this work is to, where appropriate, dismantle or improve the use of these group descriptors in specific social or scientific domains.

Beyond the discipline of philosophy, Msimang has written about what to do with racial and ethnic classifications in areas ranging from public policy design and heritage management to research ethics and health. The philosophical approach he takes to his work unpacks the complex impact various conceptions of race and ethnicity have on society, scholarship, and scientific practice. His work explores how—and under what circumstances—labels related to community, identity, social affiliation, and biological difference gain significance in both social and scientific settings.

phila-msimang

Selected publications Book chapters

  • 2021. Social races in biomedical settings. In Ludovica Lorusso and Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther (eds) Remapping Race in a Global Context. Routledge. (HTML)
  • 2021. Revisiting race and biology in the South African social sciences. In David Ludwig, Inkeri Koskinen, Zinhle Mncube, Luana Poliseli, Luis Reyes-Galindo (eds) Global Epistemologies and the Philosophy of Science. Routledge, 243–253. (HTML)

Journal articles

  • 2024. Prescribing Race: No Blank Scripts for Using Race and Ethnicity in Health. Argumenta (online first), 1–24. (HMTL)
  • 2022. The IRR as false witness: how the Institute of Race Relations strategically misinforms us about race and policy (as a threat to deliberative democracy). Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 172 (2), 1–31. (HTML)
  • 2020. Medicine, anti-realism, and ideology: variation in medical genetics does not show that race is biologically real. Northern European Journal of Philosophy 20 (2), 117–140. (HTML)

Scientific communications

  • (in progress). What is the biological profile of ‘the’ South African?
  • 2022. That only the elite should have children is a worrying argument. South African Journal of Bioethics & Law 15 (1), 6–7. (HTML); Don’t shy away from the elitist implications of your argument: Response to de Roubaix. South African Journal of Bioethics & Law 15 (2), 42–43. (HTML)

A more comprehensive list of Msimang’s academic publications can be found on Google Scholar. These publications are available for download on Researc​hGate​

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • Philosophy 214: Subdisciplines in Philosophy I (Modern Epistemology)
  • Philosophy 333: Philosophy of race (the metaphysics of race)
  • Philosophy 354: Analytic Philosophy (Philosophy of Mind)

 

Postgraduate

  • Honours coursework and supervision
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Ethics
  • MPhil (Applied Ethics) Biomedical Ethics
  • MPhil (Applied Ethics) Social and Political Ethics
  • MA coursework and supervision (topics in philosophy)
  • PhD in Philosophy (various topics)