​Finding space on Prof Anton van Niekerk’s bookshelves is as difficult as securing parking in Stellenbosch. An even harder task is to find someone who stands neutral towards the ideas that this philosopher and bioethics expert expresses in his books, articles and talks. Over the years, he has tackled a range of topics – from HIV, racism and the role of universities to the dying process, euthanasia language issues and the payment of E-tolls.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be his topic when he presents the next Forward with Research Impact lecture, on Wednesday 23 October at 13:00 in the Old Main Building on campus. Van Niekerk will discuss the medical-ethical implications that could result from the race to improve people’s functioning, longevity and quality of life through robotics, bionic interventions and other forms of technology.

Prof van Niekerk’s impact on a national and international level as thinker and philosopher has its roots in his school years, some 50 years ago. Today, he is the last remaining academic at Stellenbosch University to have been appointed as professor back in the 1980s. Recently, his appointment as distinguished professor and founding director of the Centre for Applied Ethics was extended to 2023, when he will turn 70.

The work of the Centre focuses on the ethics behind biomedical developments, the business sector, the environment and more recently also socio-politics. It was founded in 1990, and in 1996 a masters degree and doctoral programme was also added. Along with his colleagues, Van Niekerk has since supervised the studies of 100 graduates.

“It’s the one aspect about my career that I really feel good about,” says van Niekerk.

In his office in the SU Arts and Social Science Building, he points out rows of red, blue and green dissertations: “Our test tubes stand on these shelves.”

Connections with Stellenbosch

Van Niekerk recons he has been lucky to have spent his life in “two of South Africa’s most beautiful towns”, Knysna and Stellenbosch. He was born in 1953 in Brits in the Northwest, by far the youngest of three children. When he was six years old his father (a bank manager) was transferred to Knysna because of health reasons. In turn, Van Niekerk Junior was relocated to Paul Roos Gymnasium in his thirteenth year to start high school in 1967. Thus began his five decade long relationship with Stellenbosch.

At his Grade 11 prizegiving, Van Niekerk received an Afrikaans book about influential thinkers, but did not really understand too much about its contents. The same could be said when, in matric, he heard a philosopher speak for the first time. It was Prof Hennie Rossouw of the SU Department of Philosophy, who elaborated on the essence of science to the science club of his school. (Rossouw would later become his study leader and mentor).

“Something did tickle me, though. I knew that I ought to like it,” remembers Van Niekerk, who only very late in his matric year decided not to pursue his long-held aspirations of becoming a doctor.

Van Niekerk, who was admitted as a minister to the Dutch Reformed Church, explains his change of heart as such: “Typical of what happens to a 17-year old, I had a religious experience and decided to become a minister.”

Some of his teachers, however, insisted that he take Philosophy along with subjects such as Greek as part of his BA qualifications that would lead to admission to the Theological Seminary.

“Within two classes, I was hooked. Hooked,” he adamantly recollects.

In those years, Theology students were allowed to register for two graduate programmes at the same time. Van Niekerk took up the opportunity and started with an honours degree in Philosophy along with his first year at the Theological Seminary. Much hard work and discipline later, he eventually received five qualifications within five years – all cum laude. After completing his masters degree studies in 1980, he also received the Chancellor’s Medal as the best final year student at Stellenbosch University.

In 1977 he was offered a substitute position as a lecturer in political science, a subject he was not well versed in. Van Niekerk subsequently took a break from the Theological Seminary and his masters’ degree studies to read up on the philosophy behind political science and its ideologies, and to focus on his responsibilities as head student of Eendrag hostel.

“The lecturing position made me financially independent, which I was very grateful for,” he remembers his first position at SU.

Back at the Theological Seminary in 1978, he also started to lecture part-time in Philosophy. The next year, he was accepted as a minister, and married his wife, Amy. Because of conscription, he became a chaplain at 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg. It forced him to make the best of his uneasiness around sick people. On the one hand he realised that he did not have a pastoral heart. On the other, he realised that you need to understand the essence of theology very well if you want to make a difference in the lives of the sick and dying.

“Their questions cannot simply be answered with niceties and little books filled with nothings. People grapple with fundamental theological questions. About God. About the meaning of life and that type of thing,” he underlines every word sermonically. 

At the time, academic posts in Philosophy were rare to come by. Therefore, the newlywed and soon to be father of three boys reckoned that joining a congregation would have to be the next logical step for him. If it had to be, it would be on his terms.

“I was happy to go into the ministry, but not at all cost. I was quite adamant about it,” he remembers.

Quite unexpectedly, the ideal opportunity that he had hoped for arrived in the form of a lectureship in the SU Department of Philosophy.

“It just fell from the sky. I was not expecting it. I don’t believe in metaphysical explanations, but I reckoned that if it had to be the will of some or other higher power, it was what it was. And I’m still here today,” he grins.

Philosophy and bioethics

Along with his new position, van Niekerk started with his doctoral studies in 1981 about religious-philosophical issues. This he would receive in 1983. For 25 years thereafter, he spent one semester trying to explain to his first year students that the essence of philosophy cannot be summarised into a cute bumper sticker.

Van Niekerk leans heavily on his arms behind stacks of rainbow coloured files as he explains: “The question about what philosophy is, is itself already a philosophical question. Your efforts to answer it is itself a philosophical exercise in philosophising.”

To him, a philosopher’s work isn’t research, but rather contemplations. He makes it all seem deceptively easy: “It’s thinking about thoughts and ideas. You read. You read a lot. Secondly, you think about what you have read. Thirdly, you discuss what you are doing, especially when you are still busy with your doctoral studies. Lastly, you write a meaningful argument, and you publish it.”

Van Niekerk views Philosophy as both the most theoretic subject and the most practical of disciplines that one can pursue on university level. That’s because contemplations about especially ethical concepts and ideas often lead to policy changes, and how people view their bodies, scientific innovations, the environment and business practices.

He also recons that bioethics and decisions about what is morally possible in the medical sciences are both the oldest and youngest disciplines within the Western culture. Its roots lie in ancient times and Hippocrates’ oath for physicians. Bioethics gained momentum after the Second World War and the race-based experimental atrocities that were committed in the name of medical science. By the sixties, the first kidney dialysis and heart transplants provided food for though. Human rights and better guidelines about the treatment of people who were part of studies became more pronounced.

Van Niekerk recons that he took his first tentative steps in the field of bioethics during his year as a chaplain. Later, in the 1980s, he was invited to a discussion group about biomedical issues by one of his theology professors, Prof Danie du Toit. The fruitful contemplations between law experts, doctors and phycologists would eventually lead to the establishment of the Centre for Applied Ethics at Stellenbosch University, and in the Department of Philosophy.

At the time, his mentor, Prof Rossouw, was vice-rector. He gave him “the best advice ever”: to keep things general and not focus on bioethics when naming the centre. This decision would allow for the inclusion of other subject matter, such as business ethics.

Public intellectual

“Hennie (Rossouw) taught me a lot about academia and philosophy,” he says by way of thanking one of his mentors. “From Willie Esterhuyse I learnt about life, and how to operate as a public intellectual.”

It’s a function that often elicits comments for and against him. Once he was even attacked in his own office by someone who vehemently disagreed with him.

To have something to say and to be public about it can be tough, but is important to do, he believes. As he once said in a newspaper article: “I participate in public discourse about relevant issues – not because I want to be wantonly wilful or controversial, but because I believe that frank discussions are the lifeblood of a healthy democracy.”