ABSTRACT
J.F. Kirsten was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch in 1942. By the time of his appointment, the basic character of the Stellenbosch philosophical tradition had been given its form. Kirsten had himself been formed by its concern with overcoming the divisions of Afrikaner political and religious life, and his appointment to the chair was a sign that this concern was widely shared within the university.1 He had been a student at Stellenbosch throughout the years of the du Plessis case, and was one of the fi rst of a whole generation of theology students who turned to philosophy as orthodoxy imposed its restrictions on the study of theology. His initial philosophical work focused on the French philosopher Henri Bergson.
