PHILOSOPHY AND METHOD OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM

BY

PROFESSOR G.O. OZUMBA

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR, CALABAR NIGERIA

TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages 1. 2. 3. Dedication Preface -

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER ONE Background of Integrative Humanism -

CHAPTER TWO Definition and method of Integrative Humanism -

CHAPTER THREE Vision, Scope and Application of Integrative HumanismCHAPTER FOUR Reply to critics -

CHAPTER FIVE Situation Ethics and Kants Deontologism: an Integrative Approach to Contemporary Existence CHAPTER SIX Coherentism and Pragmatism: An Integrative Reconsideration -

CHAPTER SEVEN Analysis of Body/Mind Problem by Raymond Osei from the Point of view of Integrative Humanism -

CHAPTER EIGHT Political Education and Nation Building: An Integrative Humanist Approach CHAPTER NINE Neo-Colonialism and its Impact on Nigerias Economic Growth: From Integrative Humanist Standpoint -

CHAPTER TEN The Ideology of Super Powers and infringement on Nations Sovereignties -

CHAPTER ELEVEN Whither Indigenous African Knowledge in a Globalizing World: An Integrative Approach CHAPTER TWELVE Philosophy and an African Culture: An Integrative Humanist Approach CHAPTER THIRTEEN Outlines of African Aesthetics

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

EPILOGUE

INDEX

DEDICATION Dedicated to all lovers of man and God.

PREFACE This work is written to put pen to paper as a way of concretizing my thoughts and engraving them on the pages of paper in order to vouchsafe them for posterity. and into a My reading of the of and

positions/contentions/submissions postmodern Scholars led me

general

propositions eclipse

philosophical

disillusionment. I began to ask myself, if Richard Rorty merely announced the demise of philosophy even though it is contestable whether he actually meant what he said because, in the same vein, he suggested conversational Hermeneutics as a new way of doing philosophy, then, what are we still doing as philosophers? With this, one can say that philosophy has survived after all, after the postmortem. But the most fearsome vitriolic against philosophy is the post modern orientation in philosophy because, it left philosophy bleeding from all pores. If standards, rationality, structure, logic, order, consensus, objectivity, some forms of absolutism and values are despised and relegated to the background, it is enough signal that the philosopher should go home to his uneventful cradle since the child of knowledge he was raised to tend has died before childhood. My sense of propriety and rationality was provoked that with my training as a professional philosopher, that everything should be done to reveal the misguidance coming from postmodernism and to indeed point to the door now open to us for consummating our grooming of the vineyard of knowledge. You tend and groom knowledge, you dont hush it to death through rash and impatient husbandry. We have reached the watershed of our epistemological husbandry and all that is left is a circumspect prospecting and engineering of the tendrils and
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shoots of the knowledge tree to bring about its fruiting and consummation. Integrative humanism became the inspiration that is about opening the doors of this consummation. We are proposing that integrative humanism be seen as a philosophical epoch transcending the postmodern epoch. Our attempt is to show how hope, life, vision, enthusiasm and zest can be restored to our unfaltering search for more acceptable and inclusive knowledge. In this work therefore, we have attempted to define what we mean by integrative humanism. We have provided a background to integrative humanism, we have adumbrated the vision and general proposition of integrative humanism. We have also looked at most philosophical methods vis-a-vis the method of integrative humanism. Attempts have also been made to point out possible merits and demerits of this philosophy cum method of doing philosophy. Since integrative humanism encourages insight through

revelational knowledge, we have included a chapter on the reasons for validity of the bible and other corroborations authenticated by the divinity of Christ. We have also gone ahead to include chapters on epistemology, ethics, politics and political education, mind/body problems, globalization and issues on African interests in order to show how research can be carried on in the spirit of integrative humanism. It is my firm belief that as we all digest the materials contained in this book and approach its propositions with an open heart, with minimum or no prejudice, we shall come off our study better enlightened. Like Berkeleys advice in his Principles, we advice that we
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approach this work as thinking readers and not as destructive animadversionists. When we do this, we shall be able to build a philosophy and a method that will take philosophy beyond the present realms of inertia that the postmodernists have left it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge the Almighty God, who inspires men and women to philosophize. Like Newton, who discovered the law of gravitation through the fall of a fruit before him as he was sitting under a fruit-bearing tree, so was I inspired into the philosophy of integrative humanism as I sat under one of the many trees that decorate the scenery of the University of Cape Coast. A friend in Cape Coast had once jokingly said that the trees in the University of Cape Coast outnumber all the trees in all Nigerian Universities put together. This is to say that am grateful to the University of Calabar for granting me a Sabbatical Leave which saw me spending it at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. The numerous trees not only add to the beauty of the University but provide shelter from the storm of life and a conducive environment for Socratic Meditation and dialectics. I thank Prof. Princewill Alozie who arranged and packaged my visit and opportunity to lecture in that University. My twin spiritual brother and bosom friend Prof. Andrew Friday Uduigwomen was my kind benefactor because the opportunity to go to Ghana was first his but in line with biblical injunction that we should in honour, prefer one another, he left his place for me and it is my sojourn in that great land of the Nkrumahs, Rawlings, Kuffours and Mills, that has yielded the intellectual fruit which you now have in your hand. A vote of thanks must go to my undergraduate and postgraduate students who made my stay very interesting, fruitful and rewarding. Fondly remembered are Gyemfah, Addai, Gbeze, Joana, Gyan, Percy, Babangida, Babra, Kotei, Baffoe, Aziz, Juliet, Dogbe, Quainoo, Kojo, Laryba, Oware, Salvata, Frederica, Agorde, Collins, Achinah, Daniel
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and many others in the undergraduate class. At the postgraduate class Elsie, Hussein and Francis are remembered. Among the Teaching Assistants are Frank Amissah who was a son, friend and companion to me, Richard, George, Samuel Ababio, Awuni and others were more than friends and were wonderful in their companionship. The trio of myself, Drs. Ajayi and Akeredolu were Nigerian lecturers spending our Sabbatical Leave together at the University of Cape Coast. We were joined by Drs. Odimegwu, Umobong, Uduma, Tonia Umoren and Prof. Kofoworola (of the University of Illorin). These all created the convivial home away from home needed to cure home-sickness and to face the academic challenges for which we were at the University of Cape Coast. I cannot leave out the Staff of the Department of Classics and Philosophy, teaching and non-teaching namely; Dr. Raymond Osei (Head of Department), Peter Grant, Akkhenin, Dr. Kujo, Olivia Dzontoh auntie Rita, Faith, Ebenezer and others. They were all good and amiable in their disposition towards me. I thank also the Dean of the Faculty of Arts; Prof. Kupoole who is now the Pro-Chancellor of the university for his hospitality. The Dean of the School of Business; Prof. Simpson was indeed a brother in a strange land. Others are church members; Brothers Gyasi Bado, Quainoo, Joseph Agynim, Pastor Koka, Pastor John Boham, Seth Aniweh, Duncan, Francis, Benjamin Ghansa (was an adopted illustrious son to me) and a host of others too numerous to mention here. You all touched my life in more ways than one. I am happy that my sojourn to Ghana was not a barren

experience. You all are the great players in this harvest which I have called Integrative humanism. I wish to acknowledge the support I garnered from colleagues in the Department; namely: Dr. C.L. Ochulor, Dr. Joe Ogar (who doubles as the publisher), Dr. Etim Okon, Dr.John Inyang, Kinsley Solomon, Chris Udofia( who are hoping to become ardent students of Integrative Humanism). It will be difficult to forget my prayer partners, Prof A.F.Uduigwomen( a bosom friend) and Mr. Elijah Yisa of Chemical Pathology. For Mr. Nikolaas Utsalo, it is a big thank you for typing and typesetting the entire work. I quite appreciate your spirit of sacrifice. May God richly bless you. Last but not the least in my list of gratitude-beneficiaries are my wife; Mrs. Lily Ozumba and my daughter Ifeoma Desire Ozumba. I love you very dearly and pray God to continue blessing you.

Prof. G.O. Ozumba, Professor of Philosophy, University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria.

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CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM Integrative humanism is a derivative of two words integration and humanism. Integration is derived from its root mathematical word integers which means whole number. Insight from electronics talks of integrated circuit or micro circuit. This means the assembly of electronic components fabricated as a single unit. It has to do with the interconnections of capacitors and resistors on a substrate to form a unitary structure. These insights from mathematics and electronics have fired my conception of how this concept can be deployed towards profitable philosophical utilization. Having seen that every philosophical theory lacks the capacity for comprehensive application to philosophical problems, it becomes only philosophically needful and expedient to think out a method and a way by which the benefits of different theories can be harnessed and deployed for the explication of philosophic tangles and the expansion of the frontiers of our cognitive landscape. Our aim in using integration is to see how we can achieve incremental expansion of our methodological landscape with a view to attaining comprehensive or better knowledge on issues that affect man and his world. This means that different complete theories will constitute our philosophical theoretical integers while our integrative method seeks to achieve a network of integrations of different philosophical integers where each integer represents a philosophical holism. Other insight from electronics talks of a monolithic integrative circuit and a multiversity of integrated circuits. It is this technology on
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a large scale integration that has led to microprocessors. We also learnt that the range of electronic functions which integrated circuits could perform is vast and varied. These include digital circuits used in computers, microwave ovens, self focusing cameras, analog circuits used in amplifiers and so on. Our attempt is to adapt these electronic operations and make them work in the realm of philosophical methodology. It is a truism that in many areas of application, the performance of integrated circuitry is far superior to that of conventional circuits. But it is worthy of note that integrated circuits because of their small size, low power requirements and heat generation, modest cost, reliability and speed of operations, they make possible electronic system that would otherwise be impossible or rather impractical (Micropedia, 337). In fact, computer technology would have been severely restricted without the capabilities of integrated circuits. The truth is that integrated circuitry is said to be growing in sophistication and complexity today. If philosophy is to transcend the dead-end of post-modernism and if we are to remain on the move with the spirit of science, then, we have to adapt this principle of integration and raise it to a philosophic method. This is primarily what this research is concerned about. As more brains begin to think and appreciate the possibilities this can unearth for philosophical methodological fecundity and fertility, we are sure to experience some form of breakthrough. As many good heads remain better than one, we enjoin colleagues and researchers to

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show interest in this novelty and amplify it to attract first-rate attention. Just as integrals are used to evaluate such quantities as area, volume, work, so our integration should be deployed in all

philosophical concerns. As an integrator is seen as an instrument for performing the mathematical operation of integration; man in our system is the integrator, the integrand is the scope covered by integration. The entire, philosophical landscape becomes our integrand (Micropedia, 337). Another insight was drawn from the social sciences where the concept of cultural integration is rife. In sociology and anthropological studies, the idea of cultural integration elicits the idea that the diverse parts of any culture normally cohere in some determinate fashion. Cultural integration is an aid to explanation, an aid to description, an aid to innovation, as a force in social cohesion. But on the contrary the breakdown of cultural integration leads to ennui, suicide, crime and cultural liability. Cultural integration is also useful in evaluation of cultures. For cultural integration to be useful and harmonious, it has to be based on the principle of coherence (Sills, International

Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences pp. 372 386). Apart from the above, a viable cultural integration must have a place for functional interdependence, that is integration based on logical and meaningful coherence (373). Cultural integration brings about a movement from ambiguity to specificity and encourages system building characterized by an inner coherence and unity. Following the traditions of Vico and Montesquieu, cultural integration
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extends to beliefs, purposes, laws and customs of a society which can be integrated in such a way as to constitute meaningfully interrelated complex of traits and not a haphazard assortment. This entails seeing society as an organism. We are hoping that the adoption and application of integrative humanism in philosophy will aid us in achieving configurational, thematic, linguistic, ontological and epistemological integration.

Integration can be intrinsic, extrinsic, vertical, horizontal, connective, classificatory and regulative. It is from this mathematical, scientific and sociological

background that we drew insight and impetus for the development of the theory and method of integrative humanism. The humanism aspect is rather a reaction to secular humanism which is wholly mundane and scientific. Ours is an integration of the secular and the divine conceptions of humanism. But we denigrate the atheistic dimensions of secular and other humanisms that see man as merely an earthly being with no other worldly concerns. The purpose of humanism was/is to restore the dignity of man. Udo Etuks new humanism which is equally anchored on God stresses the need to revert back to God since man being wolf to man cannot guarantee mans readiness to take care of themselves as rationality demands. And since man cannot take care of himself, then, he must look up to his Creator who has all it takes to ensure that his society operates as God would want it in tandem with his divine will and purpose. This is a great inspiration to our philosophy of integrative humanism. Ours is both a method and philosophy and intends a more
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bogus coverage by operating with a spirit of liberty that permits, eclectism, sifting and engrafting to ensure that only the perceived, considered best results in our methodological operations are given a pride of place. Udo Etuks new humanism can be said to provide a good base for the take off of our modest attempt at articulating a method which we have called integrative humanism (Udo Etuk, New Humanism, pp. 5 9). Humanism as a philosophical and literary movement originated in Italy in the Second half of the 14th century it corresponded with the era of development in Western Europe known as the Renaissance. The names associated with the Renaissance Humanism were mostly Italians and notable among them were Gianozzo Manetti (1396 1459), Marsilio Fiuno (1433 1499), Pico dela Mirandola (1463 1494). The themes that mark humanism include freedom, naturalism, religion, science (Udo Etuk, 11 14). Basic principle of humanism is the Protagorean dictum that man is the measure of all things; of the things that are that they are and of things that are not that they are not. Protagoras also said, of the gods I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist or what they are like to look at; many things prevent my

knowing, among others, the fact, that they are never seen and the shortness of human life (Jim Herrick, 5). Other philosophers like Aristotle, Epicurus were more humanistic than Socrates and Plato. Epicurus himself did not believe that gods existed. Even where they (gods) existed, they were indifferent to humanity.

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On the other hand, other philosophers like Francis Bacon and Giovanni Bruno were theists and propagated theistic views. For Bacon it is little philosophy that inclines a mans mind to atheism but depth in philosophy brings mans mind about religion. (Herrick, 7) Voltaire on his part was a stickler for freedom and toleration in human affairs. He endorsed the principle of free speech and the defence of rights of those with whom we disagree. He taught that religion was only of making people to conform and live in peace. He rejected Christianity. Diderot was a more vehement atheist- He wrote that skepticism was the first step towards truth. d' Holbach on his own wrote many atheistical and anticlerical pamphlets. David Hume is another

celebrated atheist- His article on miracles, was very pungent in his decision of the idea of miracles in general Condorcet wrote about human rights and natural dignity and human progress. The utilitarians can also be seen as precursors of humanism- we see this spelt out in the works of Jeremy Bentham and J. S. Mill - They talked about the greatest happiness (pleasure) to the greatest number. Another developmental influence on humanist philosophy is Charles Darwins Evolutionism. His theory of evolution questioned the Christian concept of creation. It was Thomas Huxley that did much to clarify most of Darwins ideas. He coined the word Agnostic to describe someone who is neither atheist nor theist but who feels the answer to the questions about gods, creation/immortality were unknowable. Others like Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Fredrick Engels were all critical of Christianity. For Feuerbach in his Essence of Christianity, religion is mans attempt to project his human essence and aspirations into the supernatural sphere, it means the separation
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of man from himself. Man thinks that to realize his full humanity, God must become man and theology be converted to anthropology. He sees religion as a concomitant of mans spiritual immaturity

(Uchegbue: 283). For Karl Marx, religion is the opium of the people. We can say that humanism drew its aspiration, impetus, vigour and strength from the above atheistic free thinkers. Julian Huxley who became the first director of UNESCO and the first president of the international Humanist and Ethical Union followed in the steps of his grandfather in researching in the area of evolution. For him, humanism is a religion without revelation. Bertrand Russell was another avowed atheist who worked hard to promote humanist principles. In his book Why I Am Not A Christian, he tried to show why some of the positions held by Christianity are untenable (Herrick, II).

OTHER VIEWS ON HUMANISM Humanism viewed from the point of view of humanitarianism, that is, the doctrine that emphasizes a persons capacity for self realization through reason with a concomitant rejection of religion and the supernatural, it is an emphasis on the need to promote human welfare. It is also seen as a cultural movement of the Renaissance based on classical studies. Secular humanism is a humanist philosophy that upholds reason, ethics and justice and specifically rejects the supernatural and the spiritual as the basis of moral reflection and decision-making en.wikipedia.org/wiki/secular humanism. It places man before God or
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does not consider God at all. Our integrative humanism puts God first before man. Man first lives for God before living for himself. This is the only way true justice, ethics can be realized in the comity of men. When there is religious sanction with divine force, it becomes more effective in helping man to achieve the ideals of humanism. This is our contention. Any other way will mean putting the cart before the horse. Human values cannot therefore have precedence over religious values. Humanism also seen as the revival of classical culture started in the 16th Century. An ethical system that centres on humans and their values, needs, interests, abilities, dignity and freedom. Secular humanism emphasizes reason and scientific method. The term secular humanism was coined in the 20th Century and is contrasted with religious humanism. My humanism is secular, academic, scientific, religious, and intellectual with more emphasis on the spiritual and the integration. It is not necessarily against any of the humanisms per se only to the extent that each emphasizes an aspect of reality. My humanism is all embracing. As events unfold, we begin to understand why Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, etc., despised religion and described it as the opium of the people. This is partially true because man out of the fear of the unknown initially in line with Kierkegaardian ethics takes a leap of faith and finds himself in the arms of the living God. But this initial and worthwhile experience naturally begins to whittle down and after some genuine Christian principles are replaced with human traditions
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in order to maintain the status quo, maintain the subservience of the people and increase the hope of a better life beyond the present. The religionists key is the strategic jugular of the fear of death which he tosses up at any vantage period to actualize his hidden agenda this is what has led to the commercialization of religion, Christianity inclusive. But from our integrative humanist standpoint, there is need to balance out the truth. The truth is that as one continues to serve God, he is increasingly expected to sacrifice towards the course of the propagation of the Gospel. And since most of the time, the so-called ministers are themselves overzealous in their way of going about their demands of material and financial

commitments from the members, become unbiblical and now their activities border most on extortion than on wilful and cheerful giving. The beauty of Christian giving is that it is based on freewill, willingness, cheerful and from each according as God has prospered him borne out of gratitude to God. It is scandalous lust for material wealth which accentuates into exploitation that should be decried. At this level, God leaves the church and man begins to play God and continues the capitalist exploitation of man in a new guise. This has been the undoing of the church right down the ages. The church begins from a lowly platform, from the point of poverty of the spirit and at this level all the spiritual virtues of lowliness, humility, mercy, consideration, condescension, piety, meekness, love, empathy, sympathy, littleness, goodness, temperance, patience are exemplified. As God begins to bless the Christian, moral declension begins. He now becomes interested in the

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things of this world. As these quests continue, he gets entangled in greed, avarice and ostentation and thereafter comes decay and impiety begins to take the better part of the believer. The believer becomes like Ephraim who in Hosea Chapter 7 verses 8 and 9 is said to have mixed himself among the people, Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not. This sad commentary on the rise and fall of the Christian should not be misunderstood to mean that there is no God and that Christian profession is a cloud without rain. No. In integrative humanism, our concern is to seek for balanced truth. This truth is that the human nature and the presence of a devil and the insatiability of human nature are all responsible for this state of affairs. The Christian bible stands out as the revelation of Gods will to man. There is always a remnant defying the temptation of mortal existence to keep the undiluted word of God God is always constant and as many as are willing to do His will, He will provide grace and enablement. Depravity, love for pervasion, corruption, wallowing in the mire are all the natural attraction of the base human nature. Some mens inability to attain Gods height should not make others conclude that God is not there. Philosophical questions on the question of evil, the omnipotence of God in the face of daunting evils, mishaps, injustices are very known arguments that have been used to cavil Gods existence. Understanding the purposes of God and His nature are germane to understanding why the world of man and animals run the way they do.
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The term secularism was coined in 1851 by George Jacob Holyoake in order to describe a form of opinion which concerns itself only with questions, the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this world (Wikipedia). Secular humanism is said to have been first used by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple in the 1930s he warned that secular humanism was at the verge of adopting Christian values and principles without the Christian faith. They adopt Christian Morality of Respect for persons, duty for duty sake, the golden rule, love for ones neighbour, justice, sharing, patience etc.

OBJECTIVE OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM AS A PHILOSOPHY

The undergirding objective of integrative humanism is the need to place mans physical and spiritual wellbeing at the centre of every intellectual endeavour. Mans intellect seem to be skewed towards the development of material resources rather than human resources. There is the receding interest in catering to the real interests of human beings. This is seen in the way money meant for human wellbeing

are misdirected by our leaders in white elephant projects that have no real bearing to the immediate crucial needs of the masses. For example, the conduct of carnivals, acquisition of armaments for warfare, building of gigantic edifices for government officials,

proliferation of luxury cars and conspicuous life styles by our leaders are all pointers to the fact that the immediate wellbeing of humans are least considered in all our factorizations in our developmental plans. Monies voted for human empowerment are siphoned and stashed away in foreign accounts while salaries paid to civil servant are mere
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peanuts which can hardly solve basic problems for the people. There is no social security arrangement to take care of the unemployed. The typical Nigerian bigman would rather multiply cars in his fleet than help his poor neighbour next door or even poor kith and kin who are swarming around him for help. There seem to be a spiritual conspiracy that hardens the hearts of men against their fellow men. This is a kind of Sadism which defies explanation. What integrative humanism seeks to achieve is the primacy of human interests in their physical and spiritual dimensions. The main objective of integrative humanism is to show that human life is at the centre of Gods creation. Again, all things are made for man and not man for other creations. Others may argue that a scenario where the ideals of integrative humanism are worked out, that we shall have a perfect arrangement which is symptomatic of heaven-thereby denying man the important role suffering plays in making man the thoughtful, considerate and empathic being that God has factored into his existence. Integrative humanism should not be seen as an ideal which is likely going to take the sail off the ship of our conventional complacency. It is only a propadeutic for redressing the many missing links that are staring us at the face as we apply rigour to the many philosophical positions we have. There are the years that it may suffer the same fate which befell transcenderal phenomenology of Edmand Husserl. This fear is uncalled for because integrative humanism is not wholly about the spiritual, it is about using our physical situations and revelational knowledge to navigate a better existential conception for man taking into consideration the revealed fact that man is proceeding from physical existence to spiritual existence. It is a philosophy that
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wishes to make man to cooperate with fellow human beings than with the productive process. A man is more ready to buy a bottle of beer or whisky for a friend to show off the fact that he is well paid instead of empowering his poor friend who is poorly paid. The whisky is a token of mockery to his friend. It is this selfish, inconsiderate and inhuman attitude that integrative humanism wants to kill in human beings. A robust empathic and sympathetic concern is its goal.

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REFERENCES Encyclopedia Britanica, Vol. 6, London: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2003

Sills, David L (ed). International Encyclopedia of the social sciences, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968.

Udo, Etuk. New Humanism. Uyo: Afahaide Publishers, 1999.

Herrick, Jim. Humanism: An Introduction. Ibadan: Gadfly Publishers, 2006.

Smoker, Barbara. Humanism. Ibadan: Gadfly Publishers, 2006.

Uchegbue, Christian Karl Marxs Theory of Religion The Great Philosophers vol II. Aba: Vitalis Books, 1997.

Russell, Bertrand. Why I am Not a Christian. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1957.

Seartar. Humanism, e.g. Wikipedia.Org/wiki/Secular humanism

The King James Version of the Bible. Rasnussen, David Critical Theory.

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CHAPTER TWO
DEFINITION AND METHOD OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM Integrative humanism is simply defined as a ratio- spirito-centric approach in understanding human existence, interpreting human affairs, and a rigorous philosophical attitude which takes into

consideration, the spiritual and the mundane dimensions of human existence and reality. It attempts at philosophizing from the point of view of holistic truth bearing in mind that man is both mortal and \immortal, terrestrial and preternatural, spirit and body. Integrative humanism is both a philosophy and a method of doing philosophy. It is a philosophy because it a sombre, reflective, thoughtful and imaginative attitude to life. Philosophy is a way of life characterized by reasoned values with an inherent logic and possibility of

systematization. It is when a philosophy becomes articulated with its principles, values, goals objectives, suppositions and general

significance outlined that we begin to talk about a philosophy as we have in realism, idealism, existentialism, pragmatism, phenomenology, Marxism, anarchism, postmodernism, etc. Every philosophy is supposed to capture a reality from the wide and variegated pigeon holes through which reality can be perceived. There are many philosophies because there are many perceptions and frames of reference. Reality is a multilayered thing and in the words of William James reality is about the many, endless possibility of perception.
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There is no one way of capturing reality. By reality here we are not referring to the hard facts of nature the trees, buildings, cars, human beings, chairs, etc., but the many possibilities of ontological mappings, which reality as a whole is amenable to. Quine in his

words, would prefer to say that the mappings of reality are indenumerable, compatible and incompatible to one another depending on the ontological landscape we are using as our background theory. This has made the practice of philosophy very unpredictive and open to many abuses. This is partly because of the air of indeterminacy that trails philosophical interpretations. This has led to the verdict that philosophy la Russell is a no mans land between science and theology (religion). This is actually not so. Philosophy rather should be an integrative work using the provisions and raw materials supplied by science, religion and all the other fields of human endeavour. This is why philosophy plays a

second order role in gadflying other disciplines to question their assumptions and conclusions and methods which they apply in the pursuit of their business. Integrative humanism a philosophy adopts a guided but open attitude in approaching issues of knowledge as they affect humans directly or indirectly. This attitude takes a serious view that all parts of reality constituting matter and spirit, the plant and animal world as an integrated ecosystem of which no part can be isolated without dire consequences. Integrative humanism as a philosophy can therefore be applied as a beneficial approach in studying any facet of existent reality.

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INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM AS A METHOD Integrative humanism becomes a method when it is articulated and used either in interpreting a mass of reality or an instrument in conducting a research or as a way of bringing a new understanding to bear on old facts. For instance, a student applying the method of integrative humanism in research may want to know what different positions exist, and what constitute the limitations of these different positions (of say half truths) and how an integrative approach of sifting and welding can bring about a better or more acceptable harmonious whole. Integrative humanism is undergirded by the belief that different shades of reality keep unfolding and this presents researchers with ever-coming new possibilities of understanding the missing links. Philosophy has continued on an unending spree of agreements and disagreements, revolutions and counter revolutions, thesis and antithesis but integrative humanism emphasizes more the method of synthesis. Having reached the end of the road in postmodernism, our worry heightened and this has necessitated the articulation of integrative humanism as a method that will enable us to examine the gamut and labyrinthine of our philosophic peregrination to determine how the evolutions and revolutions of thoughts that have characterized the development of philosophy can be harnessed to achieve a better understanding of reality from the point of view we have referred to as spirito-centric-humanism.

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As a method we need to follow on systematically to; (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Understand the issue(s) you are examining The assumptions underpinning the issue(s) Does it have any spiritual dimension Has it any link with mans existence and wellbeing How does the issue affect mans afterlife. What are the best interpretation(s) to be given bearing in that man is a being unto eternity. (7) What is the sequence of rationality and logic that provides harmony to our integration. (8) Finally, does the overall picture of our interpretive and mind

integrative stages provide a better picture than component theories and possible rival theories.

PHILOSOPHICAL METHODS AND THEIR LIMITATIONS We shall consider the following philosophical methods namely; (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Analysis (Conceptual Analysis) Inductivism Deductivism Existentialist Phenomenological
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(6) (7) (8) (9)

Pragmatism Logical Dialectical Scientific

(10) Hermeneutic (11) Critical Marxism (12) Postmodernism

Conceptual Analysis:

This method seeks to see reality from the

pigeon hole of concepts. Concepts are picturesque ideas which capture reality from a given point of view. What conceptual analysis does is to break down the concepts into the component parts and then determine where the relationship among the parts cohere and also to determine whether the concepts bear true link to an aspect of reality which the concept belies or seeks to capture. Philosophy is seen as a practice in concepts formation. Concepts can also feature as theories which

encapsulate a world view depicting a possible picture of reality. Since philosophers have different perceptions, this means different world views. The growth of concepts mark a corresponding growth of the philosophical enterprise. Analysis of concepts entail a critical appraisal of the concepts to ensure that it does not contradict an already well established concept. This means that in conceptual analysis, we must bear in mind the rules of correspondence, coherence and logicality. A given concept can be
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subjected to different conceptualizations, it is therefore needful for a scholar using conceptual analysis as a philosophical method to indicate the boundary marks of his concept. This is what is meant by delineation of scope. The limitation of conceptual analysis consist in (1) Providing endless incompatible concepts from the original

concept. That is, the possibility of multiple interpretation. (2) The insipient presence of subjectivism in its use. Analysis is done either from an objectively known point of view or from the speculative and indeterminable point of view. It becomes a problem if it is from the point of view of the latter. (3) There may not be identifiable parameters of analysis which may make the break down difficult. Though integrative humanism still employs conceptual analysis, it goes beyond this to factor in other methods in its procedure. What is important is to determine within the rational scheme of

spiritocentrism to determine the most suitable approach that will lead to the desired research result.

Inductivism: Inductive method is a scientific method which is concerned with the observation of facts as they appear to the observer or research. It is a process where we move from particular to general in arriving at decisions. Of a truth, this is the most pervasive methods in every scientific inquiry. The facts of reality normally do not come to the tribunal of experience in mass but singly or at best in segments.
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This means that at no time can we have all the facts to enable us have a comprehensive verdict on our observation. This is why inductive method is often accused of being guilty of hasty generalization and premature closure. However, we must state that all forms of human investigation being limited will always suffer the limitations identified here.

Deductivism: Is another method which can be used in research. Deductive method involves a process of inferring from a mass of information to particular conclusions. Another way of understanding it is by seeing deductivism as a process of moving from general to particular. It means logically determining what is the case from other leading instances of general nature. For example, we may say that All men are mortal, All men are rational since John is a man, therefore he is both mortal and rational. The point we have to know here is that in deductive systems; (1) Care is not taken as to how the general instances or premise is derived. What is considered is whether the conclusion flows from the general (preceding) premise(s). This means that we can

base our conclusion on information that is at best inductive and by so doing, subject the veracity of our conclusion to the same inconclusiveness that attends inductivism. (2) (3) Deductivism stresses validity and not truth. Deductivism is capable of leading to error when there is logical error in the process of inference.
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Integrative humanism does not accept the kind of assumption and pretentious logic which deductivism countenances but examines every case on its own merit. Every case faces the tribunal of sense, reason, spirituality as it is able to qualify itself acceptable from the point of view of human, physical and eternal weal.

Existentialist Method: This method is subjectivist and is concerned with determining the best choice or line of action in order to achieve authentic existence and avoid in authentic existence. Existentialist method enjoins the researcher to seek out its best interests without allowing extraneous interests to influence ones decisions. When this happens, one is said to be guilty of bad faith. Existentialist method may be atheistic or theistic. In the former, God is not considered in our determination of truth while in the latter, God is pivotal in our determination of what is true. Note that all philosophical methods are procedures adopted for the purpose of arriving at the truth through a morass of information. The existentialist insists that every opportunity holds grounds for farreaching consequences. We therefore need to apply rigour and seriousness to issues of existence because our choices can make or mar us. Integrative humanism is both a subjective and an objective method that seeks to take care of the broad human good rather than that of the individual. This does not mean that the individual cannot explore its rich propositions for subjective interests.

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Atheistic existentialism undercuts the real purpose of human existence and to that extent, becomes counter productive and sterile because man was created secondarily for his pleasure. If God is removed in our consideration of the question of truth, which all search is deployed, we shall end as blind wanderers in the desert of abundance. Integrative humanism adopts the values evinced by theistic existentialism. Existentialist philosophers include Kierkegaard, Jean Paul Sartre, Camus, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Merleau Ponty, Beauvoir, etc.

Phenomenological Method: this method was made a rigorous philosophical method by Edmund Husserl. Edmund Husserl in his phenomenological method sought to see how we can reach the essence of things through what he calls bracketing off of the elements that do not constitute part of the object of perception. This was at the level of descriptive phenomenology. At the level of transcendental phenomenology, he talks about eidetic reduction whereby we move from scientific reduction to philosophical reduction until the consciousness is completely unmasked and the object of perception also undergoes its unmasking until only the essence is left and there is an inalienable union between consciousness and its object. This method is seen to be impractical, utopian and idealistic. But it provides us with a lot of groundwork for integrative humanistic procedure in research. This is so because we are concerned with

achieving the most acceptable divine end for humanity. The spirit of phenomenology is therefore the true spirit of integrative humanism.
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Pragmatic Method: This is the method enunciated by C.S Pierce and popularized by William James, John Dewey and Schiller. The pragmatic method emphasizes the scientific method of observation, hypothesis, theory and conclusion. It holds that since the scientific method provides the most trustworthy way of ascertaining truth, it should be employed. However, there is another way in which we can see the pragmatic method as meaning the most effective and reliable method or combination of methods within any given realm of research. Pragmatism is not necessarily after truth but after workability, precision, practical usefulness and utility. Emphasis is on creativity, expediency, ability to solve problems, etc. Pragmatic method will therefore include all methods that are done in the spirit of science for the purpose of achieving positive results. The limitation of pragmatic method is on its insistence that the end justifies the means expediency becomes a rule rather than an exception and truth is relegated to the background. A proposition may lead us to solve our immediate problem whereas, at the long run, it is full of long term negative consequences. Integrative humanism stretches pragmatism to its divine limits and accepts only proposals that take care of mans earthly and eternal ends. We do not relegate the fruits of science but complements them with divine insight.

Logical Method:

The logical method is an essential plank in the

acceptability of every philosophical method. Logic is a basic tool or rationality applied in assessing the worth of methods.

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In logic, we talk of validity, consistency, coherence, reasonability, soundness of arguments, truth, precision, etc. These are the canons that define philosophic adequacy. This means that all

philosophical methods to qualify as such must be logical. We have formal and informal logic; we have propositional logic, symbolic logic, syllogistic logic, predicate logic and quantificational logic. The logical method insists that our research procedure takes on the logical form, that is ensuring that we move our ideas from premises to conclusion while adhering to the rules of sequentiality, necessity, coherence, consistency and validity. When this is done, we achieve truth, precision, validity, soundness and/or rationality. There is the logic of the letter and the logic of the spirit and they may be opposed to one another depending on the context. The logic of the flesh may think that smoking cigarettes will help in keeping one awake to study while the logic of the spirit sees that as an activity that will defile the soul. In law, we talk about the logic of necessity, expediency and the letter of the law. What however needs to be stressed is that in any given situation we should be able to discern the logic that best fits the situation. This is the position of integrative humanism. Logical methods may have the pitfall of excessive formalism, symbolism, philistinism and tendency to excessive linguistic consideration which may end up trying to use ambiguity to solve ambiguity. Dialectical Method: The dialectical method is as old as the ancient period of philosophizing that dates back to Socrates. Socrates called

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his method dialectics or conservationalism, that is, a method of conversation whereby one engages another called the interlocutor on a dialogue of conceptual analysis and purification. The idea here is to seek for the essential definition of concepts. The method of dialectics moved on to Hegel who gave dialectics a spiritual connotation. He talked about the movement of the spirit in its movement from its inward beingness, out of itself and back to itself. This is, the triadic movement of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. This is the movement of the spirit in-itself, out-of-itself and for itself. This method was further popularized by Karl Marx and his friend Frederich Engels who used dialectics from purely materialist point of view. They said that Hegel had placed dialectics on its head and needed to place it on its feet. For Marx and Engels, in their theory of dialectical materialism, are of the view that the only reality is matter and this matter is in motion characterized by an inherent tension of opposites which is propelling it from quantity to quality. The dialectics in history depicts the phenomenon of class struggles. The haves and the have-nots. This internal contradiction, ever seeking resolution which results in revolution, spearheaded by the proletariat. This process is bound to end in what they called classless society. Dialectical method as a philosophical method has to do with the procedure of providing a thesis and then providing an anti-thesis before attempting a synthesis which may or may not contain the germs of the previous positions but should supercede them. It may involve analysis and synthesis or may involve integrating the thesis and the anti-thesis to derive the synthesis the supposition always is

36

that the synthesis should be better than the thesis and anti-thesis. The synthesis if it is not completely purged of inherent contradictions will stand as the new thesis and the dialectics continues. The limitations of dialectics is that as far as human enterprise is concerned, we never can be sure when we have reached the last and purest stage of the dialectics. Apart from this, dialectics is seen as utopian since it countenances a first beginning without a specified last ending though Hegelian Idealism talks of absolute spirit returning to itself but this method is bound to continue as God eternally endlessly desires to manifest Himself. The so-called classless society by Karl Marx is only a mirage for there can never be a human society without classes because men are never created equal and the circumstances of existence are averse to equality. On the methodological plane, there is no work of human creation that can attain the final synthesis, there will always be room for improvement. Though integrative humanism is dialectical, it does not pretend to provide the final Eldorado in methodology. It only seeks to show how we can utilize all the available methods to transcend their individual shortcomings to attain a more qualitative interpretation of human existence.

Scientific Method: Scientific method no doubt has become the paradigm of all methods. This is because of the popularity of science since the 17th century. The achievements of science in our generation is quite monumental and impressive. It is only one who is blind to facts will deny science this hegemony. The scientific method is the

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method of experimentation with the process of observation, hypothesis formulation, testing, theories and formulation of laws. It is a method that subjects itself to a constant scrutiny and reexamination. It is also a method that allows multiple research programmes which can go on concurrently. This provides for counter information, proofs, disproofs, confirmations and new conjectures and possible future refutations or modifications or improvements. The benefits of the scientific method is amenable to open-inquiry, intersubjective controllability, multiple cross checks and replicability (repeatability). Scientific method is supposed to be based on observable facts. The major limitation of the scientific method is the fact that it is becoming increasingly concerned with the unobserved and there is the accusation of the mystical component and the ideological dimension which is fast reducing it to a method for the initiates. This is fast making the scientific method to become a method which is now limited to the initiated and ideologically qualified. Again, there is the limitation of guess work or trial and error, there is also the problem of approximations and the issue of generalization arising from its inductive approach to its issues. Integrative humanism adopts the scientific method but bears in mind its limitation. It complements what it lacks through spiritual insight and balanced interpretation of issues to the best good of man.

The Hermeneutic Method: This is a method that is concerned with the interpretation of texts. This tradition dates back to the biblical

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exegetical times. At this time, scholars interpreted Holy books from their original language to other languages. According to G.B Madison in modern times, hermeneutics had progressively redefined itself as a general, overall discipline dealing with the principles regulating all forms of interpretation. Whenever we encounter texts whose meaning are not immediately evident, then, special interpreters are called upon to offer interpretation. Interpretation involves a dual component understanding and application. It was Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768 1834) who expanded the scope of hermeneutics and gave it the status of an overall theory. He is often referred to as the father of modern Hermeneutics. He emphasized the psychological or divinatory function of hermeneutics. The purpose of interpretation is seen as that of divining the intentions of the author, and unearthing the original meaning of the text it is a form of cultural understanding. Other notable proponents of this method are Wilhelm Dilthey (\ 18331911), Hans-George Gadamer (1906 ), Paul Ricoeur (1915), Emilio Betti and E.D. Hirsch. All these proponents brought their different dimensions to the hermeneutic method. Hermeneutics is to be best understood as an empathic system/method of

understanding and interpretation. Hirschs own motive was to transfer lock, stock and barrel the method of hypothetico-deductionism and Popperian falsificationism from the philosophy of natural science to the humanities (culled from G.B. Madison Hermeneutics: Gadamer and Ricoeur pp. 290 294).

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Already the question of interpretation has led to so many problems. Is interpretation to be author centred, text centred, the interpreter centred or context centred or meaningless words hanging to be stipulated by the user or reader of the string of words. This has led to the movement from structuralism to post-structuralism and finally to post-modernism. To maintain a worthy methodological impetus, we may have to remain with the empathic and cultural hermeneutics of Schleiermacher and Dilthey and discountenance the philosophical hermeneutics of Ricoeur and Gadamer. Integrative humanism is favourably disposed to the hermeneutic method as an interpretive method that seeks understanding, meaning and appropriate application of information for better guidance of man in his search for truth and well-being. The only problem is that integrative humanism does not bother much about philosophical dimensions of hermeneutic but believes that with the impartation of the Holy Spirit, standard interpretation of situations, texts, events can be achieved.

Critical Marxism or Critical Theory: This method is an offshoot of Marxian philosophy. Hegel and Marx in their pursuit of the dialectics temper, adumbrated and showed how the spirit can first be constituted (in line with Kants critical philosophy) and then lead to a

transformation. While this transformation has spiritual origin for Hegel, for Marx, it was material. Marx had dialectically shown that the proletariat will serve as the transformative class but this was not to be. This led to some form of
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disenchantment in the camp of Marxian scholars. The aftermath of the 2nd World War and Stalinization which absorbed or integrated the proletariat into the civil society changed the epi-centre of Marxian theory. There began German institutional thought led by one Felix Weil, who established an institute for social research with the sole aim of finding lasting solution/explanations as to the failure of Marxian theory to put paid to the disaffection among the working class. This institute continued but not until the coming on stage of Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno that critical theory assumed a new face. Critical theory is concerned with the proper knowledge that the individual has to understand himself within the context of prevailing reality and how he stands in relation to others in the constitutive business that will eventually lead to the positive transformation of the society. The idea here is to avoid the reification and the abstraction of the concept of the proletariat and to bring the theory realistically to the individual(s) who have a role to play in shaping their destiny. Theory, is not to be reified and dislocated from praxis. They should go pari passu. The alienation and separation that exist between the individual and the society must be overcome. Critical theory is to be linked to practical activity. In the words of Marx, philosophy has interpreted the world but remains for it to change it. It is how to achieve through practical activity this change that critical theory is about. It says that the thinker must relate all the theories which are proposed to the practical attitudes and social strata which they reflect. Critical theory blossomed in the 1930s with other notables like Leo Lowenthal, Erich Fromm, Fredrich Pollach, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin. However, it was through powerful minds like
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Horkheimer (1895 1973) and Adorno (1903 1969) that this movement blossomed (David Rasmussen, critical theory, Horkheimer, Adorno, Habermas, pp. 254 266). Integrative humanism is particularly enamoured of the central place given to the individual and the necessity of relating theory with praxis it is in practical activity in society that man will contribute to his own liberation. However, the sole limitation to this method is its inability to have a clean break with Marxian doctrines, whose failure necessitated its primary origination.

Post-Modernism:

This movement can be seen as a method, a

philosophy or a temperament or disposition with regards to all that has gone on in their gamut of the architectonics of human knowledge. It is only a method because it is a method against all existing methods. A method in revisionism and deconstructionism. It is against so-called traditional, standard, rational, universal and logo-centric approaches to the issue of knowledge. It is a method that enjoins individual liberty and initiative. There are no hard and fast ways of doing things Anything goes. It may be only one step away from anarchism. It is an expression of the breakdown of truth, standard, rationality, meaning, structure, methods etc. It is indeed a method against method, it is destructive of itself. Integrativism sees post modernism as the cul-de-sac of human philosophic journey, the expression of insipid frustration arising from mans inability to arrive at a rock bottom truth that will assuage mans thirst for truth. It is a vocal masturbation of a gory feeling of
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disenchantment. It is because of this that integrativism comes to beam the light of revelation of spiritual truth as complementary to our scientific truth and other truths as the only way out of the morass of hopelessness which have stupefied man these many years of beating about the bush. The scripture says that he who wanders away out of the way of understanding, will find himself among the congregation of the dead (Prov. 21: 16). Post-modernism is a twin brother to anarchism and suffers all the shortcomings of the latter. However, it has the point of strength in allowing a hundred flowers to bloom and in granting freedom to the individual however, without the needed empowerment of truth for continued survival.

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CHAPTER THREE
VISION, SCOPE AND APPLICATION OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM INTRODUCTION The attempt here is to work out a philosophical paradigm that will serve as a standard bearer in our philosophical efforts at achieving a qualitative humanism that draws inspiration from humanistic theories and spiritual insight. This, we hope will enrich our

philosophical endeavors whether in ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, science, politics, aesthetics, etc. We are concerned with providing a

method for the analysis, explanation, resolution and repositioning of our philosophic enquiries in order to achieve the needed insight into the complex nature of reality which is both spiritual and human. This paradigm is to be seen both as a method and a propaedeutic for the need for adopting philosophical methods in our contemporary

philosophizing.

Our method is therefore concerned with resolving

conflicts, enlarging the frontiers of knowledge, for comparative and integrative studies. It will also help us in fathoming the reason for disagreements and divergencies of opinions, seeking of missing links and in identifying meeting points of ideas and facts. This papers is Proposing a method of doing philosophy which we have called integrative humanism and we have shown that if we apply this method we will overcome the apparent conflicts in philosophy. This work is set to serve as a philosophical method for the analysis, explanation and interpretation of works in philosophy and for unraveling the intricate maze of reality in all its realms which the
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philosopher is called to address. hermeneutical studies, in

The confusion we have in inquiry, in ethical

epistemological

theorizations and in political engineering, all stem from inarticulate philosophical method and the hazy nature of the philosophical handle used in exploring the vast and intricate nature of reality. Our concepts Spiritocentric and humanism may not be new terms in the philosophical and literary vocabulary of our time. What is new is the emphasis, the articulating into a philosophical framework, a method and a propaedeutic for all intellectual engagements. It is a realistic

theory that is based on synthetic, analytic, eclectic, syncretic, complementary and agglutinistic tendencies. By this we mean that all tendencies, orientations, methods, emphasis, visions and mindsets are harness able in achieving what we have called balanced

insighting By the above string of words,

we are emphasizing the

importance of exercising sensitive openness in the process of inquiry, explanation, critique or exploration. The user of this method must

understand what the spiritual dimensions and their possibilities are not necessarily intimately but experientially as a perceptive spiritual being. spiritual This approach is averse to premature closure, allergy to dimensional discourse and a monocultural and mono-

ideological mindset. It encourages a multiversity in the examination of philosophical issues. It is the tendency to insidious

regimentation/fragmentation of thought that has led to the break down of philosophy into warring compartments. Philosophy all along has thrived more on analysis rather than synthesis. It is this that has led to the many frictions we have in philosophy. Though these frictions may have been necessary before today, however, the adverse effects
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of these frictions have led to a stalemate in philosophical discourse as we have in postmodern forms of argumentations. These forms of discourse are fast permeating the mainstreams of discourse in virtually all the areas of philosophy be it in politics, epistemology, logic, science, religion, etc. Already the philosophical cum intellectual landscaping has been done. The anatomization of reality has been achieved, though we may be left with the depth of reality yet to be fathomed. The compass is clear; the possibilities are obvious that there does not exist any conclusiveness in matters of knowledge. The depth, the scope, the intricacy and the many-sidedness of reality calls for double pronged approach to which should include spiritocentric and a materialistic approach in explaining and understanding reality. The idea here is not to restrict research potentialities and the explorative ranges, but to equip us with the mindset that will liberate, deepen, balance and enhance our capacity for a broadened enquiry. Inquiries in the past have fallen into the invidious divide of idealism/realism,

spiritualism/materialism, divide.

This has led to the decimation of

each of these divides. For example, the Hegelian transcendentalism of Absolute Spirit was replaced by the Marxian dialectical materialism, Berkeleys idealism/Spirit-ism tried to replace the Lockes Materialist philosophy all we have had is truth in each case standing on one leg. The tradition of insisting on being on either side of this divide should be over. Each has saddled us with half truth as in secular humanism or as in spirito-centric transcendentalism. The method of integrative

humanism is calling for a more complementary approach in our philosophical inquiry and research. The different insights our different
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divides have provided us must be put together in rational and selective integration. The fact of Post modernistic cul-de-sac is a clear

testimony that each of the divides leads to nowhere. We defeat our inquiry, our method, our aspiration, our vision when we fail to adopt a broad based approach in our philosophical inquiry. Our attempt is to see how this approach will fare when applied in any area of philosophical inquiry. This we have done in the areas of ethics and epistemology. The idea will be to outline the principles of the theory and its practical usefulness and explanatory fecundity. Our goal is truth and our vision is increasing comprehensiveness of truth bearing in mind human cognitive limitation while not loosing sight of the absolute dimension of truth. We begin by examining the key terms namely; Spiritocentricism and Humanism, then, we outline the basic tenets of the Method and its Modus Operandi. epistemology. We apply it within the domains of ethics and

We then, highlight possible limitations and show the

way forward and finally the conclusion.

Definition of Terms Some of the terms we would want to define would include Spirito-centricism, humanism, integrativism, agglutinism, and

eclecticism as they apply to our theoretical exposition.

Spirito-

centricism is our key word in this intellectual exploration. It is most likely a term of initial repulsion and denigration. But using the counsel of Berkeley in his Principles, all readers and hearers of this discourse should suspend judgment until they have gone through what the
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author has to say. thinkingly as

Again, we are enjoined to approach this expose thinking readers and hearers (Berkeley,

Principles:introduction.p1).

Readers and hearers are further enjoined

to apply Husserlian philosophical bracketing of prejudices and biases if they are to get the best from what the author is saying

(see,Husserl,1931:107). Spiritocentricism for the author means the disposition, the willingness, acceptance and the application and consideration of the spiritual component in our cognitive quests in all areas of human endeavour. It is more than a readiness to accept that every reality has a spiritual component; rather, it entails the necessity to endeavour to seek out the spiritual component in our philosophical discourse. Spirito-centricism is therefore both an urge and an

imperative for contemporary philosophizing. It is therefore the attitude of mind that any realistic epistemological cogitation should include a passionate and a penetrating unmasking of the spiritual component. For humanism, we refer to the vision of man as the agent, agenda and the agency of knowledge. We mean man as the means and end, the subject and predicate of knowledge. This means that even when we are studying about God for instance it is for the sake of man and mans place in Gods programme. Our study of plant and animal life should be as they relate to man. The second aspect of our humanism relates to releasing the potentialities in man in our cognitive quests and the need to leave an open-ceiling as to what man can know. This means that knowledge

should be open-ended (bearing in mind that more cognitive exploits are possible). Admission of human limitations should be temporary

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and guided and never from the point of premature closure. strides of science and technology confirm this.

The

Integrativism is another name for our method Spiritocentric humanism. By integrativism we mean harnessing, processing through engrafting of the different components of knowledge. Philosophy is a discipline of creativity. To be creative is to be an engineer of ideas. Integrativism is therefore the method of circumspective inquiry with the sole end of systematic and purposeful welding of ideas,

interpretation of facts and the explanation of presenting realities. Agglutinism is a syncretic approach of joining ideas, facts, worldviews and philosophical propositions in a meaningful sequential order. Agglutinism does not countenance haphazard assortment of

ideas or facts. It is based on the disposition that nature is made up of possibilities and different moulds of presenting reality. And each

mould has its parts and their fittings. It is a kind of epistemic holism and Quinean coherentism (Quine, 1961:97). Quine avers that it is meaningless to inquire into the absolute correctness of a conceptual scheme as a mirror of reality, rather than the standard for appraising basic changes of conceptual scheme must be, not a realistic standard of correspondence to reality, but a pragmatic standard.(P.97). Eclecticism as the last major concept in the explorative expose of our method is concerned with systematic joining of ideas or facts for the purposes of meaningful picturing of reality. It involves borrowing, Like

networking, sifting and gluing of ideas or facts together.

agglutinism, it insists on fittingness of ideas or facts into a believable and a coherent whole. Our method is saying that a truly Spirito-

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centric approach does not accept positive negation Reality if properly understand as negation comes as an anti-thesis to provide us with the synthesis. Negation is never the end of the knowing process. I am not saying for instance that there is no good and evil but rather that the apparent evil should be harnessed for greater good, the activities of the devil should lead to the positive action of godliness. It takes

positive and negative to produce electric current; this means that the relationship is not that of opposition but complementarity and integration. Eclecticism has a globalizing trait. principles of autarky or isolationism. It is against the

The Basic Tenets of our Method As we have said, Spiritocentric humanism or integrativism is the method of philosophizing which approaches philosophical issues without prejudice, bias, suspicion, aspersion or preclusion. It is a

philosophical approach that is open-minded without being outlandish, freely speculative without being free stylist, systematic without being fixed and pigeon-holed, versatile without being vacuous. It is rather open-ended, systematic, coherent, rigorous, eclectic, penetrating, comprehensing and integrative. The word comprehensing means

tending towards comprehensiveness. Having surveyed the gamut of my philosophical writings over the years, by this method of spiritocentricism and humanism, I am therefore articulating and and recommending method for this doing as a rigorous, A

penetrating,

systematic

philosophy.

philosopher should be known by his method and a methodless philosophy is a philosophy that leads nowhere.
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The tenets of Spirito-centric humanism or integrativism will include; 1. Searching for the Kernel or substance of every philosophical position and seeing how it can fit with the substance of other philosophical positions to enhance a better understanding of reality. 2. Understanding the necessity of positive aggregation of supposed opposed positions to supply the missing-links and the perceptive or propositional gap(s) that have necessitated the misgivings and to fill it. It is a method of conflict resolution through integration. 3. Appreciating that knowledge has two components the spiritual and the physical or humanistic Note that we are not using humanism in the sense of an ideology, a movement, a set of doctrines or elevation of humanity as a god. Human is conceived here from the point of view of the being for which knowledge is sought and the being who can limit himself in terms of cognitive engineering. Here, we are heir apparent to Quine and Heidegger but transcend them because we hold that knowledge should not be limited to the knowledge that improves mans existence on earth. Territoriality and eternity are a continuum of existence Human knowledge should also be eternally

projective, prospective and proactive.

Within the limits of

cognitive possibilities allowed for mans good in life and eternity, all inhibitions, artificial barriers and ideological chauvinistic
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partitioning should be broken to make way for an emancipative truly humanistic understanding of reality. 4. The essence of philosophy is to marry theory with practice. Our method holds that philosophy should not be wholly a theoretical discipline. But a discipline of theory and practice which should

lead to ever heightening existential utility in terms of earthly and eternal happiness. Our interest is to show that this method can be applied in all the fields of human endeavour with fruitful results.

Integrativist Methodology Integrativist methodology thrives on the principle of honesty, charity, openness and positive compromise on the part of discussants, inquirers and ideologues. Knowledge is achieved through integration of the spiritual land natural dimensions. It is a process philosophy

rather than a finished philosophy we are talking about increasingly enlarging comprehensive frontiers of truth through a multifaceted approach. The search for truth is a humanistic endeavour and that

means that ought as we say should always mean can But the can embraces potential can and actual can, knowledge and truth as epistemic concepts are both progressive and momentary, they are temporal and eternal. It means that we are making efforts to scoop all the many manifestations of truth and knowledge in their fecundities, potentialities, that is, temporally and eternally as we glean insights from the intrusions of the absolute in the domain of the temporal or in the unspoken, subterranean, hidden pervasiveness of the absolute in the reality of the human conception of reality.
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In this integrativist method whose chief aim is to integrate the spiritual and the humanistic components of reality, we are not concerned with spiritism, spiritualism, mysticism, religio-centricism, or speculation borne out of day-dreaming nor are we concerned with secular humanism, neo-humanism or new humanism or ideological humanism or any of the theories in humanism. Rather, we are

concerned with a method of drawing useful rational, reasonable, believable, consistent, coherent philosophical insights from all areas that will enhance the knowledge of our world and man as a continuing eternal entity. It is not for or against any ideology but is concerned with closing up ideological partitioning. It is a globalizing methodology which seeks to integrate the rich and poor nations by showing why inhuman disparity cannot survive long, why the politics of zero-sum gameness (winner-takes-it-all) is both unspiritual and inhuman. The logic of subversion will necessitate the logic of transposition we need to apply the logic of balancing. Our method of integration is therefore corrective and based on the principle of harmony.

Application of Our Method in Ethics and Epistemology We are concerned with the need to ensure that philosophical discourses are not drowned in the sea of theory but made relevant through praxis. Praxis is the practical application of theory. Our

major assumption is that the ought of theory should imply the can of praxis. What we have in mind here is to show that when our method is applied in the study of ethics, we should be able to show the humanistic applicability of the method in the realm of ethics.
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According to Paul Newsberry in Theories of Ethics, the Dominican and the Franciscan orders dominated Christian scholarship of the 12th and 13th centuries. During this time, the Franciscans notably St.

Bonaventure declared Aristotles teachings as half truths or outright falsehoods. He thought that since Aristotles views were opposed to

those of St. Augustine whom he (Bonaventure) revered that Aristotles view could not possibly be right. But applying our method without

knowing St. Thomas Aquinas who was Dominican took an integrativist approach by showing that the views of Aristotle were reconcilable with the views of St. Augustine. He reconciled the two views by making

room for two kinds of ethical principles namely relativism and absolutism to co-exist integratively or to be harmonized on the altar of the higher method of Spiritocentric Humanism. While Aristotles Moral philosophy was relativistic, St. Augustines was absolutist grounded in faith and Gods grace. For Aquinas, the moral theory of Aristotle

evinced a naturalistic ethical position while that of St. Augustine was theological. Aquinas showed that for man to live in the light of both temporality and eternity, he has to embrace the two positions. While Aristotles position leads to earthly happiness, St Augustines position leads to eternal happiness. We can see from the example given above that the source of our ethical conflicts is given rise to by unwarranted ethical cleavages and bifurcations which have created artificial warlords fighting imaginary conceptual enemies through the application of our method

philosophers will know the truth and the truth will set us free.

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When

we

apply

this

method

in

our

understanding

of

deontologism and teleologism, intuitionism and utilitarianism, legalistic formalism in ethics and situation ethics, objectivism and emotivism, we see that the error is caused by our pugnacious posturing. There is nothing like duty for duty sake, it is always duty for the sake of humanistic end. There is no intuitionism that is not for the sake of

happiness and it involves the spiritual (the mind) and the human (mans interests and good). Situation ethics must be balanced with

some form of legalism. In Ghana, a lady sought to justify prostitution on the grounds of hardship arising from unemployment, retrenchment, etc, but legalism says thou shall not commit adultery. Our method will say that neither situation ethics nor legalism is right.

Integrativism will insist that the problem is an economic one and it revolves around governance. The government of Ghana should be

made to create jobs for her youths and there should be moral education to conscientize and enlighten the citizens on the adverse effects of prostitution our method is not speculative but solution giving. Again, on the question of determinism and indeterminism it is clear that we are both determined and free; it all depends on our locus of consideration. indeterminism. battles ensue. Reality is an endless chain of determinism and

When we partition them, our conceptual and moral This is what led G.E. Moore, W.D. Ross and H.A.

Prichard into the battles of whether the primordial ethical concept should be the good or right needless muscle flexing (Moore, 1960, Ross, 1975, Prichard, 1912.). However, we needed to pass through

this excruciating conceptual moral tangles in order to get to this point

55

of realizing the futility of using anarchistic, pugilistic and countervailing methods of divide and rule instead of harmonization, dispersion instead of dialoguing in our intellectual and truth searching ventures. If for instance as intuitionism holds, it is futile to seek to produce an ethical theory from the facts of reality, then, how do we employ the obvious inputs of facts into our moral engineering. Reality is a give and take, not a one sided issue (never monolithic). On the application of our method in moral issues we see that while the situational approach entails a relative, non absolute and variant or non universal nature of moral action, judgment as Fletcher contends. For him, we cannot build a bridge from facts to values and from is-ness to oughtness. The question that may be asked here is

whether value is inherent or a contingent? Is the good and the evil of a thing intrinsic or extrinsic? For Fletcher right and wrong depend on the situation. The only norm that is good intrinsically is love and malice is intrinsically evil. His position is but one side of the coin. Immanuel Kant on his own part enjoins us always to treat all men as ends and never as means. For him, only the goodwill is good without qualification. We must see moral commands as categorical imperatives which we must obey without considering the situation (Kant, 1969:422). But like Fletcher he accepts that the principle of

love issue from the good will and is a moral imperative. To reconcile the two views (Kant and Fletcher) we must understand that situation does not justify our action in all cases otherwise our principle will be that it is the end that justifies the means. The question of moral

responsibility demands that we assess the actions of individuals

56

through the standard of their uniqueness, autonomy and best available human actions and not necessarily through fabricated apriori moral rules (Fletcher. 1966). The truth of integrativism is that we must consider the human earthly ends and human eternal ends where and when we have conflict in moral evaluation. The human dimension will consider human immediate benefit while the eternal will consider mans eternal wellbeing. In this case, one must weigh the earthly and eternal consequences. In a practical situation, if one is faced with a situation where one has to commit adultery to secure the release of his wife or risk the death of his wife. The path of honour, fidelity and true love is to

refuse the offer of adultery even if one has to loose his spouse. This is based on the knowledge that through the adultery, you may contact the dreaded AIDS which will lead to your death and that of your wife which has not solved the problem. Men must see death as a

necessary end and should prepare spiritually for it so that the fear of death which is regarded as the greatest evil will not lead us to unacceptable decisions. But there are also instances where it will be wrong to apply Kants position without discrimination. The ethics of

duty is usually associated with the position that principles of ethics are universal, absolute and invariable, applying to everyone and in all circumstances. It is the duty of lecturers to give their lectures to their students but if two lecturers are indisposed and one decides to keep to his duty by giving his lectures and the other keeps away for fear of collapsing in the class, both are right. Strict deontological rules cannot apply here because placing deontologism side by side with

utilitarianism, it is better to err on the side of caution and utility

57

especially where it is possible for the lecturer to give a make up lecture when he recovers than to take a risk that may lead to his death and the perennial loss to himself and his students. In conflict of

duties, we have to weigh the duties and consider their utilitarian and eternal realities before we make a choice. This is why Jacques

Maritain has stated that if philosophical ethics is not governed by moral theology, it is bound to lead to falsehood and improperly considered actions (Fagothey, 9). H.A. Prichard in his article Does

moral philosophy rest on a mistake says that in a situation requiring a moral decision, we are either immediately aware of our obligations or we are not. concurred, This may not be in all cases but as W.D. Ross has we have an intuitive understanding of our moral

obligations, which feature as prima facie duties or self-evident duties like paying just debt, telling the truth, respect for elders, keeping of promise, beneficence, fidelity, reparation, etc. Ross disagreeing with Kant holds that all moral obligations are not absolute (Ross, 1930). Having said the foregoing, we now beam our searchlight on epistemology. Epistemology in spite of Rortys pronouncement of the euthanasia of an epistemologically centred philosophy, it has refused to die, many thanks to the possibility of an integrativist, methodology. Quinean, Rortian, Sellarsian, Goldmanian naturalistic cum pragmatic philosophy has failed to destroy epistemology that is seeking for basic beliefs non-inferential, non-mediate, direct and infallible. We have shown in (Ozumba 2002) that there is always a background language (theory) which serves as the rock bottom of theory, belief upon which we base our search for truth. We cannot avoid some self justifying

(Chisolm, Pollock) basic beliefs which we have to depend on,

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foundationalism from the spiritual and humanistic point of view can only be as deep as our physical world and as high as heaven because we need to ensure that it can sustain us on earth and make it possible for us to qualify to attain eternal truth which is part of the continuum of mans existential reality. Epistemology has moved from Heraclitean fluxity, Parmenidean permanence, Platos forms, Aristotles hylomorphism, Baconian Induction, Descartes Cogito and deduction, Lockes substance,

Berkeleys idealism, Humes impression, Kants synthetic apriori, Leibnizian Monads, Traditional criteria of justified true- belief to the whole complexification of Gettiers problem, Radfords

counterexamples, to the discourse on doxastic and non-doxastic theories (internalism and externalism) coherentism, correspondence, foundationalism, non foundationalism, reliabilism, probabilism, direct realism and so on. We have been embroiled in a tug-of-war for epistemic rationality which encouraged or prescribed proceduralism in epistemic (cognitive) justification we applied that to perceptual, propositional, inductive, deductive, intuitive, conceptual knowledge and we reached a dead end because the concept rationality itself needs to pass the test of rationality. We have no option but to discard talk about epistemic

rationality in our method- since cognitive quests, truth, knowledge and other categories of knowledge making components are both temporal and eternal. Knowledge and truth acquisition is processual and the question of rationality can only come up at the end of the process which is in eternity. We can only have rationality on the basis of

59

background theory or distinctive paradigm boundaries (see Pollock and Cruz, 152-173 and Paul Moser, 269-301). The question that may be asked at this juncture is whether our method is not presupposing one method of doing philosophy. Our

method will remain one of the methods of doing philosophy. One may also insinuate whether through the process of harmonization of apparently opposing world views we are not whittling down the scope of philosophy thereby hamstringing the essence of the philosophical enterprise which is criticism in permanence? Our method permits a

hundred flowers to bloom but it is concerned with the application of integrativism in seeking out the best philosophical meaning for a position, or reconciliation for a seeming opposition. It is akin to the Lakatosian research programmes which is ongoing. without dogmas, no sacred cows and no underdogs. It is philosophy The hallmarks

are sincerity of intention, honesty as a researcher and thoughtfulness in determining the best option in tackling a given position. This makes it pragmatic; it is also about versatility which provides the intellectual resource base for possible criss-crossing of ideas to get the desired result. We are to continue the proliferation of theories which constitutes multi-dimensional approach to issues of knowledge; the integrativist method is to be applied in effecting, richer, truer, more comprehensive and more coherent epistemic horizon without necessarily laying claim to absolute but humanistic truth as part of the repertoire of absolute truth. For instance, 2+2=4 is true but it is not the whole truth it is part of the repertoire of absolute truth. P q, P, then q, is a logically

60

valid (true) notation but it is not the whole truth.

Truth should no

longer be seen as a fixed pictorial category with definite boundaries; rather, truth is a diversified property of propriety against humanistic and spiritual standards. Epistemic truth therefore is truth arrived at

through the process of pure human reason which is in accord with revealed truth. We cannot know what God has not exposed to us. It will be against the rule of our method to measure epistemic truth against the background of a speculative absolute truth that is unknown. It is the attempt to attain this level of truth that gave bite to the skeptics challenge. We are the wiser and this tantamount to

declaring the skeptics challenge as spurious lacking in Locus standi but relevant only as instigator towards honest and purity driven investigation. Epistemological methodology should therefore be concerned with theories ad methods that give general accounts of right reasoning. This has to do with internalizing the epistemic norms which guide us in justifying our beliefs. These norms could be private, communal or

universal (Pollock, 158). Philosopher (as individuals or groups) should arrive at a consensus as to what these epistemic norms should be (under the conditions of sincerity and honesty) internalize them and comply with them in the process of our epistemic business. This will necessitate the cueing in of our epistemic quests into the broad sphere of naturalized epistemology with its pragmatic, conversational,

procedural and problem solving schema. Depending on the sphere of knowledge, the stringencies of our method will be applied to arrive at the fruit of right reasoning.

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Conclusion What we have here consists of the outline of our method (Spiritocentric Humanism or Integrativism). Its tenets can now be

applied to see the extent of its usefulness in providing us with the epistemic springboard for achieving knowledge in its spiritual and humanistic dimensions for the purpose of positioning man as a temporal and an eternal being. Our attempt is to navigate the

epistemic shores in order to identify the bottlenecks that hinder knowledge and progress in our epistemic endeavour. The philosophic polarities (which albeit) are necessary have led us to the philosophical dark waters of postmodernism which on its own leads to nowhere but which through integrativism we can decipher what inexonerably led to it, what it is responding to, what its fears are and what it is discreetly (unobtrusively) proposing. An amenable integration can be done and the philosophical frustration of postmodermism can be turned into a philosophic fountain for human knowledge. Integrativism is that

synthesis which fulfils the inner yearnings of post-modernism, that of how to overcome logocentricism in philosophy. From the age of

postmodernism we are now moving to the age of integrativism. This paper welcomes severity in criticisms which will lead to its refinement and better application. Our trade is about conceptualization,

refinement and further reconceptualization.

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REFERENCES Berkeley, George (1982), A Treatise Concerning The Principles of Human Knowledge, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. Boss, A. Judith (1999): Analysing Moral Issues, London: Mayfield Publishing Company. Chisolm R.M. (1989), Theory of Knowledge, New Jersey, Prentice Hall Inc. Fagothey, Austin (1976), Right and Reason: Ethics in Theory and Practice, Saint Loius: The CV Mosby Company. Fletcher, Joseph (1967), Moral Responsibility: Situation Ethics at Work, London: Westminster Press. Goldman, Alvin (1986), Epistemology and Cognition, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Hare, R.M., (1961), The Language of Morals, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Husserl, Edmund, Ideas: General Introduction to phenomenology. Translated by W.R Boyce Gibson. London: Allen and Unwin Ltd.,1931. Kant Immanuel (1969), Foundations of the Metaphysics of Indianapolis: Bobs-Merill Pub. Morals,

Moore, G.E. (1903), Principia Ethica, Cambridge: Cambridge University of Press. Moser, Paul K. (1996), Empirical Knowledge, London: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Newberry, Paul (1999), Theories of Ethics, Mayfield Publishing Company. Ozumba, G.O. (2001), A Concise Introduction to Epistemology, Calabar: Jochrisam Publishers.
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Ozumba, G.O. (2001), A Course Text on Ethics, Lagos: Q.O.P Publishers Ltd. Ozumba, G.O. (2002), Understanding the Philosophy of W.V.O. Quine, Calabar,Samroi Publishers. Ozumba, G. O. Spiritocentirc Humanism: A Pareadigmatic Method for Theory and Praxis in Contemporary Philosophizing. Drumspeak: International Journal of Research in the Humanities. Vol 2, No. 1, April 2009. Pp 56-76. Pollock, John and Cruz, Joseph, Contemporary Theories of Knowledge. Prichard, H.A.,Does Moral Philosophy Rest on A Mistake? In Mind Vol.21,1912 Quine, W.V.O. (1953), Ontological Relativity and other Essays, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Quine, W.V.O. (1953), From a Logical Point of View, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Ross, W.D., (1975). The Right and the Good.Edited by Mary Gregor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stroud, Barry (1984), The Significance of Philosophical Skepticism, New York: Clarendon Press.

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CHAPTER FOUR
REPLY TO CRITICS It should be noted that some criticisms have been levelled against integrative humanism and they include the following: UNNECESSARY ECLECTISM: critics opine that integrative humanism drags so many things into its domains without stating how the sifting is to be done for effective formulation, application and use as a method. TOO-METAPHYSICAL: They accuse integrative humanism of being too metaphysical, and of not taking heed to the warning of Kant that we cannot depend on reason to guide us into apodeictic certainty about things beyond the phenomena. This means that integrative humanism tries to get into the realm of the noumena. Kant had warned that any attempt to delve into the noumena, we shall be faced by the limitation arising from parallogism of pure reason where we are only sure of our own experience (the cogito) and the problems of antimonies. Kant had clearly said that a science of metaphysics is not possible because the claims of pure reason to have the capacity to penetrate the nature of things in themselves is not possible. BIBLIOCENTRICISM: Dependence on the bible is criticized since not every philosopher is a Christian. It is argued that most philosophers have only very passive interest in the bible. Others argue that the bible is one of those relics of the dark ages which should never be allowed into philosophy again. Their position is that philosophical development has transcended the Medieval Scholasticism of the

65

Church fathers like St. Anselem, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure and others. They see the introduction of the scriptures into philosophy as a drawback. PEDESTRIAN AND UNSCIENTIFIC: Some critics of integrative humanism claim that it is pedestrian and unscientific. They claim that the method is ordinary and unengaging. They fault the method for being unscientific and theological. They say it is a method meant, only for those that are born again in the Christian faith. They ask what happens to the atheists, unbelievers and adherents of other faiths. TOO MORALISTIC: Quite some claim that integrative humanism is too moralistic and as such is out of touch with secular humanism, post modernism, libertarianism and the scientific spirit which rule our present world. For such persons, moral considerations should be kept at the back of the burner. We may answer that the above positions reveal that the critics have not taken time to study the philosophy and method of integrative humanism. Metaphysics is the heart of philosophy and Immanuel Kant could not have been right because his entire philosophy is a composite philosophy of transcendental aesthetics, transcendental Analytics and transcendental dialectics. He ventured into cosmology, psychology and morality. Kants moral deontologism is an exercise in moral

metaphysics. Again, it is important to mention that metaphysics is not all about the transcendental. Metaphysics is about being (ontology), existence and the interconnectedness of being. It involves both the visible and invisible, physical and spiritual, phenomena and noumena.

66

Philosophers like Fitche, Schelling and Hegel have since shown that the concept of idea of an unknowable thing-in-itself is a misnomer. Whatever exist, is knowable even though it may not be known for now, we therefore need to transcend the level of supposition or partial ignorance at which Kant left us and move forward. Ecleticism is at the heart of integrative humanism. Its strength lies here as well as its beauty. Any theory that is isolationist and derisive of other methods is bound to be myopic, philistinic and narrow in scope and relevance. The method we adopt is selective and appropriate eclecticism. We use what is there to soar, to attain height that may not have been reached. Though the version of integrative humanism enunciated here is bibliocentric, it does not foreclose articulation of integrative humanism from other sacred texts like the Koran, Tripitaka, Pentateuch, Upanishads, Bhagavadgita, Brahma Sutra, Veda, the Doctrine of the mean, etc. I have only espoused the tenets of integrative humanism from the point of view of my religious affiliation. Adherents of other religions and faiths should feel free to weave in understandings from their sacred books to achieve the desired result. In line with Kant who said that two things confront him with wonder: the starry heaven above and the moral law within, I submit that all humans are endued with conscience which carries with it a sense of Morality. Religion without Morality is vain. Morality is ethical guide of sort which helps man to know what is good and what is bad, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. Integrative humanism has as chief end that of ensuring than mans interests within the here and in the hereafter are

67

taken

care

of.

This

means

mans

world,

ecosystem,

politics,

economics, spiritual well-being and all spheres of human knowledge. So called Atheists do not therefore lack ethical/moral codes and guides which order their lives. In articulating the different methods of philosophy I clearly stated that integrative humanism can adopt any of the methods of philosophy including the scientific method. So the accusation of being unscientific is therefore out of a misunderstanding of what integrative humanism stands for. It is also not a common place or pedestrian philosophy. Rather it is a rigorous, painstaking, encyclopedic, visionary, rationalistic and scientific though not without a guided speculative tinge as every philosophy involves some level of abstraction and speculation. The merits of integrative humanism can be found in its forward looking and eschatological dimension. There is the moralistic

dimension which makes it a theory with a genuine care about how humans are faring in his world of evil and grave uncertainties. True human worth is emphasized and pursued. It implores wisdom in action, complementarity in research and the need to explore and exploit the gold mines in the scriptures and other sacred books. It attempts to unify all cleavages and divisions that characterize all hitherto existing philosophies and postmodernism and to reduce the tension and frustration that attend the postmodern position. This is why we encourage philosophers not to be myopic or one-sided but to be many sided. The motto of integrative humanism is Analysis for Synthesis.

68

REFERENCES

69

Berkeley, G., The Principles of Human Knowledge and three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous edited by Warnock, G. J. London: William Collins Sons Ltd., 1962.

Kant, Immanuel, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. Indianapolis: Bobbs Merril Pub. 1959

CHAPTER FIVE

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SITUATION ETHICS AND KANTS DEONTOLOGISM: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO CONTEMPORARY EXISTENCE INTRODUCTION In this paper, our goal is to tease out what we consider the core milestones of situation ethics and to show how they can fit into the framework of Kants deontological ethics. It may seem that situation ethics is opposed to Kants deontological ethics, but when we understand the subject matter of ethics, that is, morality as conceived from the standpoint of rational agents, we then, will appreciate why a rational agent situationist should act from the point of duty even in the different situations that confront him. Our approach, therefore, is

integrative, because, we are seeking a framework where the innocuous aspects of situation ethics and Kants deontological ethics can be integrated to achieve a more practical way of making our choices in the different moral situations we find ourselves in existence. Handling of any discourse wishing to relate situation ethics to Kants deontological ethics may be beset with initial oppositions and reactions based on the assumption that the two ethical orientations are poles apart and therefore can neither be integrated nor reconciled. My attitude in this paper, is that, this natural reaction is partly out of the misunderstanding of what the spirit of the two ethical orientations consist and also could be because of the run-of-the-mill Ethics or moral

characterizations of what the purpose of ethics is.

philosophy is a serious (rigorous) human inquiry into what should constitute the universal principles which should guide man in his moral choices in order to bring about a net balance of good over evil in mans

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overall interaction with one another and in the ultimate conformity to the will of mans creator. This means that man is faced with a double pronged relationship namely; to his fellow human beings and to his creator. This network of relationship takes for granted mans relationship with other members of his ecosystem (including plants, non-human animals, inanimate objects and other unseen forces which populate mans universe). The basic assumption is that neither Kants deontological ethics nor situation ethics will make any meaning if they are not grounded on the rationality of man as a moral agent. Acceptable decisions (moral) are those which are not to appear, but are to be seen to have been taken on the grounds of rationality and reasonableness. The

immediate cavil will be that all human beings do not have the same measure of rationality. And we shall answer that, this is why ethics is important, so we can continue to purify or refine our standards of rationality so we can have a common standard of weighing our actions. Kants deontologism appears to have assumed too much (in line with Aristotle that, the essence of man is rationality). Kant contrary to

Aristotle asserted that all men are not rational. This position is true. This is however because original depravity corrupts the will but regeneration is possible through the grace of God. It only behooves men to take advantage of the grace of God so we can attain the level of rationality which Aristotle took for granted. Kant says in his Metaphysics of Morals that It is only to a moral / rational man that the moral law comes as categorical imperatives (Kant: 1785: 293).

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This means that there are other human beings that are not rational. He goes further to state thus A metaphysic of morals is therefore indispensably necessary, not merely for speculative reasons, in order to investigate the sources of the practical principles which are to be found a priori in our reason, but because morals themselves are liable to all sorts of corruption, as long as we are without that clue and supreme canon by which to estimate them correctly. Kant, 1785: 267) This means that for Kant we must begin moral investigation from the metaphysics of moral, that is the pure principles upon which morality is based and then from there strive to impregnate our moral world views with these, pure moral principles. When this is done we shall

understand that situation ethics which seek the priority of situations in our moral choices will be able to move on within the framework of the metaphysics of moral which is the cornerstone of true morality. The much touted argument is that situation ethics is based on some utilitarian or consequentialist suppositions while Kants deontologism is based on duty or obligation. The corollary being that while situation ethics is subjective, Kants deontologism is objective. There is also the argument that morality is relative and normative and as such that it cannot be universalized from the stand point of Kantian deontologism. The position as argued by Asher Moore holds that ethics cannot be both universal and normative. She says that the notion of such a

principle is a self contradictory notion (Moore, 1953: 235). This flies against Kants purport in his ethics. He was merely lifting up those

with the good will who have been impregnated with the metaphysic of

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moral as exemplars for others to emulate. It is from here, he hopes to achieve a more and more inclusive universalism and not necessarily a comprehensive universalism which is not impossible but highly improbable. What we are doing in this paper is to analyze the view points of situation ethics and, then, Kants deontologism and to show that proximate suppositions of the two theories is rationality of the moral agent and to show that Kants deontologism can be integrated into situation ethics because his principle of categorical imperative enjoins the moral agent to observe his actions in different situations to find out whether the consequence can be willed to become a universal maxim. This will make both situation ethics and Kants deontological ethics as consequentialist in practice not necessarily in theory. After this, we shall apply integrative humanism in order to spell out how these two theories should be integrated for meaningful contemporary existence. ANALYSIS OF THE ETHICAL THEORIES OF SITUATION ETHICS AND KANTS DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS We begin with the analysis of situation ethics. Situation ethics or new morality as the name goes is new, because, it postdates such moral orientations like Divine command theory and Hedonism,

Utilitarianism. It is a new way of looking at morality strictly from the point of view of situations. Fagothey specifies that actions are assessed as moral or immoral, right or wrong, praiseworthy or blameworthy depending on certain circumstances. He says that these circumstances will include
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(1) the nature of the act itself (2) the intention or the motive of the act and (3) the circumstances, that is, the how, the where and the when of the action. The timing, the place and the manner in which an action is done may affect the morality of the action. (Fagothey, 1976: 147-148). Situation ethics in said to have had a religious rather than a moral beginning. More recently, it has been popularized by Bishop A. T. Robinson in England and by Joseph Fletcher in the United States. However, we can trace the views of situation ethics to the views of the following Martin Buber Karl Barth, Rudolf Boltzmann, and Nicolas Berdyaev, Emil Brunner, Reinhold Niebuhr, Dietrich Bonheoffer, etc. (Fagothey, 152, Fletcher, 1967: 232). Situation ethics is proposed as a middle ground between two extremes legalism and antinomianism. Legalism is the abuse of law; it makes prefabricated rules and abstract prescriptions of the law unto such absolute that the real good of man is sacrificed to the rules. It is about the letter and not the spirit of the law. Antinomianism on the other hand, takes the extreme position of supposing no rules or laws. It is based on spontaneous inspiration

without reference to laws or rules. Situation ethics stands in between these two extremes, it arms itself with principles, maxims which it uses as guides and decision heuristics but is not bound by these maxims and principles. The situationist does not see any law or

principle as absolute. It is part of our moral responsibility to be able to courageously consider every situation as unique and decisions concerning different actions in different situations or the same action in different must be done bearing in mind that there are no predetermined or prefabricated rules which must apply as we are
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taking our decisions.

Situation ethics acknowledges its affinity with

pragmatism, relativism, positivism and personalism. (Fagothey, 153). Joseph Fletcher in his book Moral Responsibility: Situation Ethics at Work identifies six principles namely; (1) that the only thing that is intrinsically good is love (2) that the ultimate norm of Christian decision is love (3) Love and justice are the same for justice is love distributed (4) love wills the neighbors good whether we like him or not (5) Only the end justifies the means (6) Decisions ought to be made situationally, not prescriptively. It is love abounding more and more in knowledge and judgment (Fletcher, 1-28). This means that

no action is good or bad in itself. It all depends on whether it hurts or helps people or whether it serves loves purpose. Having seen the foregoing, we can safely say that situation ethics professes one thing and does another. It professes to do away with the suffocating fist of law but ends up in the iron-control of the law of love as the only measure of the morality of our actions. Situation

ethics no doubt expresses aversion for the non-law regime of the pharisaic version of the Jewish religion but somewhat compatible with the more liberal and yet strict guidelines provided by Jesus. The law of love is also Christs version of Christianity. This is borne out by the following scriptures; Owe no man anything, but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law the law is briefly comprehended in this saying namely, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself Love Worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. 13:8-10)

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Other Scriptures that point to the centrality of love in Christian ethics will include; Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Mathew 22:37-40) When we consider the above quotations, it becomes clear that situation ethics captures the spirit of the law and the teachings of Christ in the New Testament: what the apostles of situation ethics, seem to have failed to grasp is that the law in its naked form can be given rigid and flexible interpretations. In its rigid frame it is almost impracticable. In line with the thoughts of Fagothey, we are not to

forget that divine or natural law are absolute when considered from their central position, that is, in their most general principle, it is like saying that one should do good and avoid evil. But as one passes

from the centre to the periphery, from the general to the specific, from theory to practice, the situation comes in more and more (Fagothey, 155). The law takes general form because it is impossible to depict

and capture all human situations in their varieties, forms and shapes. It is in actual decision making situations that we experience the feasibility of the law vis--vis human ability and divine grace. As Jesus reiterated in Marks gospel chapter two verse twenty seven, The Sabbath (the law was made for man and not man for the Sabbath (law). The law is to be a guide, a heuristic, a flexible principle which has to be applied to maintain and promote the spirit of the law. But the Pharisees in Jesus days insisted on the letter of the law which
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made the observance of the law burdensome. It should therefore be clearly stated that it is the legalism and formalism employed in the enforcement of the laws that made the laws anathema to situation ethics. This means that there is nothing substantially different According to

between situation ethics and Kants deontologism.

Fagothey, situationists quote Kant with approval when he says that we must treat each human being as a person and not as a thing, as an end and not as a means (Fagothey, 155). However, we must add that the consideration of the human dignity and uniqueness is not to be done to the point of indulging man in his moral weakness and outright disrespect for the moral law. Certain minimum standards of morality must be maintained while trying to accommodate the uniqueness of man and the peculiarities of the different situations that confront him.

KANTS DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS Kant in the preface to his Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals stated clearly what he was out to achieve. We can capture his objectives in the following lines; the present treatise is, however, nothing more than the investigation and establishment of the supreme principle of morality and this alone constitutes a study complete in itself and one which ought to be kept apart from every other moral investigation A Metaphysic of morals is therefore indispensably necessary, not merely for speculative reasons, in order to investigate the sources of the practical principles which are to be found a priori in our reason. Only in a pure philosophy, that we can look for the moral law in its purity and genuineness We must therefore begin with pure philosophy (Metaphysics) and without it, there cannot be any moral philosophy at all. That which mingles these pure principles with the empirical does not deserve the name philosophy (Kant, 1985: 267).
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What I understand Kant to be saying in the foregoing is that for any body of truth to qualify as philosophy, it must, first be a specialty, then, studied in its pure form and its pure principles clearly

delineated. It is in this sense that he identified the a priori principles of pure reason as compartmentalizable into material or formal rational knowledge. The material component of these he classifies as those

that concern the laws of nature which he calls physics and those concerned with the laws/ principles of freedom he calls Ethics or moral philosophy. The formal part of this rational knowledge which has no empirical component, he calls logic. Logic is the canon for the and capable of

understanding or reason valid for all thought

demonstration. These are purely a priori rational principles of thought. What Kant is insisting here is that ethics or moral philosophy should be seen as a purely a priori enterprise for the following reasons (1) Man by nature is half rational and half sensual (2) Morals themselves are liable to all sorts of corruption (3) There is need for a supreme canon by which we can estimate the correctness of our actions and judgment (4) This will then aid some form of

universalisation.

These pure a priori moral principles belong to the This I may call the first order

province of pure speculative reason.

form of morality. But Kant also was aware that moral philosophy that ends in abstraction will be useless for man. In writing his work, he

adopted an analytical approach which moves pure reason from common knowledge to the determination of its ultimate principle, and then, descending synthetically from the examination of this principle and its sources to the common knowledge in which we find it

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employed. This means moving from the metaphysic of morals to the critique of the pure practical reason (Kant, 268). The second order consideration for Kant will consist in the role of pure practical reason in trying to conform to the principle of pure a priori reason. A critique of practical reason establishes the necessity for a pure speculative reason as a way of supplying the pure principles against which our judgements are to be weighed or should seek to appropriate. Kant went on to state that it is only the possession of the good will that can lead to the performance of good actions he says; Good will is good not because of what it performs or effects, not by its aptness for the attainment of some proposed end, but simply by virtue of the volition, that is, it is good in itself and considered by itself is to be esteemed much higher than all that can be brought about by it in favor of any inclination (Kant, 268). The good will is unaffected by misfortune, disfavor, it always, like a jewel shines by its own light, as a thing which has its own value in itself (269). The good will should be taken to mean a rational will

which operates freely in conformity with the moral law and for the sake of the moral law. This means operating from the point of view of duty and out of the inviolable sanctity and obligatoriness which the moral law enjoins. Duty is therefore the necessity of acting from

respect for the moral law. From here he speculates that the good will act in conformity to what he calls the categorical imperative. All

imperatives are expresses by the word ought, and thereby indicate the relation of an objective law of reason to a will, which from its
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subjective constitution is not necessarily determined by an obligation. Categorical imperative is an imperative which commands a certain conduct immediately without having as its condition any other purpose. It is an unconditional command based on objective necessity and which is consequently valid (pp 278-279). The will is considered as practical reason. If reason infallibly

determines the will, then, the actions of such a being which are recognized as objectively necessary are subjectively necessary also, that is, the will is a faculty to choose that only which reason independent on inclination recognises as practically necessary. But if reason does not sufficiently determine the will, then, the will may become obligated to choose what is not objectively in accord with the principles of reason. (p. 277) Kant emphasizes that there is one categorical imperative namely this Act only on that Maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law. This is a Maxim which should inform our actions. He defines a Maxim as a subjective principle,

namely, practical law (p. 281). From categorical imperative, he enjoins human beings to act from the virtue of respect for persons respect for oneself and others, then, to treat human beings always as ends and never as means. He says so act as to treat humanity whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only (p. 285). Finally, he counsels that every rational being must act as if he, by his maxims, were at all times a legislative member in the

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universal realm (kingdom) of ends (Kant p. 286, Michael Bayles and Kenneth Hanley; 1989: 62). For the will to be said to be good, its autonomy must be vouched. A heteronymous will cannot be good because it is under the influence of diverse inclinations. Autonomy of the will is that property of it by which it is a law to itself Here the volition of the will comprehends the maxims of our choice as a universal law. considers this the sole principle of morality (p. 290). Having delineated the outlines of Kants moral philosophy as we have in the Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, suffice it to say that Kants theory of morality is a fairly complicated theory of morality and it has received almost indenumerable reactions from philosophers from the time of Kant himself. Notables and He

philosophers like W.D. Ross, H.A. Prichard, G. E. Moore, A.J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, John Rawls, Henry Sidqwick, R.M. Hare, J. S. Mill, Thomas Hill, J.J.C. Smart, Bernard Williams and a host of other contemporary writers like Peter Singer, Marcus Singer, Asher Moore, H.J. Paton, Jonathan Harrison, E.W. Hirst, Onora ONell, Margaret Paton, Patricia Kitcher, Paul Guyer, Geoffrey Scarre, Robert Audi, etc. The above scholars have examined Kant upside down, in and out from his concept of the good will, categorical imperative, autonomy of the will, intuitionism, duty, respect for persons and offered their critique of Kants moral theory. My lot is simply to give a rendering of Kant which brings analysis to bear on simplicity. I understand Kant to be saying that ethics is the formulation of pure principles against which we are to base our actions and
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judgments. There are or seem to be some importations from Plato of a natural capacity for rationality which we inherited in our pre mortal existence. Our coming into physical existence brings some form of

corruption upon us making us half rational and half sensual. But with the articulation of pure principles of morality we can purify our will to attain the original state of innocence which may help us in spite of the many inclinations arising from desires. We can rise above inclinations to answer the call of duty out of respect for the moral law. And when we fall below the standard of the good will, we become aware because the pure rational objective moral principles are impressed on our wills as rational human beings. If we are able to attain the level of pure rationality we then, can perform truly moral actions. And since human beings are imperfect, it does seem that we are not able to approximate this lofty standard which Kant has postulated. However, it is important to note that for Kant the metaphysic of the noumena is to be seen purely as regulative concepts which are to aid man in achieving better and better moral decisions as they continue to keep their gaze on the a priori concepts of pure reason. However, there is a temporal level of application of Kants moral philosophy. This is the level of categorical imperative and its various formulations. Here, we are enjoined to use maxims to judge the

rightness or wrongness of our actions. Those actions which cannot be universalized without becoming self contradictory or self-defeatist are to be considered as wrong and those that can be universalized without contradiction deontologism are to considered the level as of good. This of reduces acts, Kants

consideration

motives,

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circumstances and situations.

It is at this point that I find, Kants

deontologism integretable with situation ethics. SITUATION ETHICS AND KANTS DEONTOLOGISM: AN INTEGRATIVE HUMANISTIC APPROACH Having carried out the examination and analysis of the theories of situationism and deontologism from the points of view of Joseph Fletcher and Immanuel Kant, the task of applying our integration, humanist approach becomes very simple. Integrative humanism as

we have expounded in (Ozumba 2009), says that we interprete theories to make them innocuous for mans temporal and eternal well being since man is a being unto eternity. We can therefore say that Kant has done well in articulating pure ethical principles which are akin to the precepts and laws found in the Decalogue. In both cases an abstract framework of morality is put in place but we stated that Kant has gone a step further to descend from the Olympian height of abstraction to the practical subjective platform or framework of the individual man through categorical imperatives and the formulation of the maxims. These maxims are to be seen as guides in helping the individual to test the moral worth whileness of his actions. I see this as integratable with the position of situation

ethics where principles, rules are used as guides and not as abstract prefabricated impositions on man. This means that both Fletcher and Kant are insinuating similar moral principles Fletcher is concerned about love as the primordial principle while Kant is talking about duty from the point of view of objective moral principle in accord with rationality. Fletcher is talking about Agape love grounded in rationality.

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These two positions tells us that there is inevitably an objective a priori and pure rational standard which is universal which all human beings should appeal to in taking decisions in the peculiarity and uniqueness of the different situations that confront them. The only limitation of

both theories from the point of view of integrative humanism is that they stopped at the level of urging men to do what is right and good from the standards of love and duty. They both failed to explore the reasons why man in the midst of centripetal and centrifugal forces of desires and inclination, it is difficult to approximate the high standard of rationality which they have set. The scripture is not an abstract

imposition of laws which are inconsiderate of human frailty but a charter of rules, prescriptions and provisions of enablement to attain the noble goal of the good will and obedience to the call of duty. If we consider the following scriptures in Micah chapter six, verse eight and Johns gospel chapter one verse twelve. scripture says; He hath shown thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God (Micah 6:8). This apparently is where situationism and deontologism (Kants) stop. They emphasis what man should do duty and the content love and justice. The difference is that while Kant does not focus on In Micah, the

consequences, albeit he knows that if we follow truly the dictates of the objective moral principles, the consequences are bound to be good (a back-hand consequentialist theory). But for Fletcher, he insists

on assessing the quality of good that will emerge or accrue to the

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parties concerned when we act based on love (this I call front-hand consequentialist theory) nevertheless Kants deontologism and

Fletchers situationism are forms of consequentialist theories. However, the Holy Writ goes beyond mere prescriptions to provide a backup power to enable human beings to be in positions to put into effect their rational desire to act out of respect for the moral law. The book of Johns gospel says But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12). This is the power of regeneration which comes through the gospel and the grace which God imparts into those who believe. When we are regenerated or born again, we

receive power to act right in conformity with the rational law. This is what Kant was trying to say when he postulated the maxim that we see ourselves as members of eternal kingdom of ends. When we are regenerated we become members of the city of God on earth and therefore, live according to the principles that govern, that Kingdom. There must be a transition from the city of the world to the city of God for us to consistently adhere to the principles which both Fletcher and Kant have enunciated in their wonderful theories.

CONCLUSION We have tried to examine Kants deontologism and Fletchers situation ethics to understand what the theories set out to achieve. We have noted that while Kant set out to set a moral tone which insists on very high ethical standard, Fletcher on his part sought to ameliorate the iron-clad legalism that characterized conventional moralizing (pharisaical moralizing) and also to decry the recklessness
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that characterize antinomianism which borders on liberal lawlessness. At the end of the day both Kant and Fletcher set moral goals which if man must actualize he has to need some supernatural help or relapse into moral actions that are determined by subjective interests. Or

worse still, end in a frustrating position of knowing what to do but not having the power to do them. We, therefore, introduced integrative humanism to harmonize the two theories and to show how they should be understood and what provisions God has made to enable man to live morally in this life and also to prepare him to qualify to live with Him eternally after earthly existence is over.

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REFERENCES Kant, Immanuel, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals in Theories of Ethics Paul A. Newberry (ed). London: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1999. Boss, Judith, Analysing, Moral Issues, London: Mayfield Publishing Company 1999. ONell, Onora, Kantian Ethics in A Companion to Ethics, Peter Singer (ed) Malden: Blackwell publishing, 1993. Bayles, Michael D. and Henley Kenneth, (eds) Right Conduct. Theories and Applications. Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies, 1989. Fagothey, Austin, Right and Reason: Ethics in Theory and Practice. Saint Louis: The C.V. Mosby Company, 1976. Fletcher, Joseph, Moral Responsibiltiy Situation Ethics at Work. London: SCM Press Ltd, 1967. Paton, Margaret, A Reconsideration of Kants treatment of Duties to Oneself in Journal of Social Philosophy. Kitcher, Patricia, Kants Argument for the Categorical imperative in Nous 38:4 2004 555-584. Willaschell, Marcus Right and Coercion: Can Kants Conception of Right be derived from his Moral Theory? in, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Vol. 17(1), 47-70. Scarre, Geoffrey, Interpreting the Categorical Imperative in B.J.HP 6(2) 1998, 223-236. Audi, Robert, A Kantian Intuitionism in Mind Vol. 110.436 July 2001. Garnett, Campbell, A New Loot at The Categorical Imperative in Ethics, Vol. 74 No. 4 July 1964 pp. 295-299 http//www.jstor.org /stable/2379454 26/03/2009.

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Ebbinghaus, Julius, Interpretation and Misinterpretation of the Categorical imperative in The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 4 No. 15 (April 1954) pp. 97-108. Moore, Asher, a Categorical Imperative? in Ethics, Vol. 63 No. 4 July 1953, pp. 235-250. Singer, Marcus, The Categorical Imperative in The Philosophical Review, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Oct. 1954) pp. 577-591. Hare, R.M., Could Kant have been A Utilitarian? in Sorting Out Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997 Brown, Stuart M. and Paton, H.J. The Categorical Review in The Philosophical Review Vol. 58 No. 6 (Nov. 1949) pp. 599-611. Harrison, Jonathan, The Categorical Imperative in The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 8 No. 33 (Oct. 1958) pp. 360- 364.

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CHAPTER SIX
COHERENTISM AND PRAGMATISM: AN INTEGRATIVE RECONSIDERATION INTRODUCTION This paper seeks to compare coherentism with pragmatism. Coherentism and pragmatism are both epistemic theories of truth which play important roles in our articulation of reality. There is the confusion that pragmatism and coherentism being purportedly nonfoundationalist theories are similar in their orientations and tenets. Again, there is the claim that while pragmatism applies the principles of coherentism in its domain, coherentism has nothing to do with pragmatism. This paper looks at different tenets of coherentism

Seeking and pragmatism and draws the conclusion that though both theories have many milestones in common but are nevertheless different epistemic theories instantiating different epistemic world views. The question of knowledge is a controversial one. This stems

from the fact that if we must avoid the pitfalls of life lived in ignorance, then, knowledge is the way out. And yet, knowledge as an epistemic concept is nebulously inaccessible or unamenable to an objective definition and conceptualization. Knowledge is about something which is real, true, observable, justifiable, and believable and perhaps a category of the factual or unfactual, objective or subjective, temporal or spiritual, etc.

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The above possible categorization of the concept of knowledge is what made it a subject one controversy and an object of the skeptics cavil. Knowledge is said to be opposed to opinion and belief and more in line with thinking and the appreciation of the forms (Plato: The Republic). This means that knowledge must be certain, indubitable, It is this that sparked off the

apodictic and incontrovertible.

arguments as to whether we can have knowledge without a noninferentially indubitable and basic beliefs serving as a foundation. In an attempt to answer the skeptics, some foundationalist theories have emerged. We have radical foundationalists like Plato, Aristotle,

Descartes, Locke, C.I. Lewis, and moderate foundationalists like Chisolm, Quinton, Armstrong, Dretske, etc. (Bonjour: 1996: 97-110). Attempts to resolve the problems associated with knowledge led to the traditional concept of justified True Belief criteria of knowledge. Yet, each item in the criteria is loaded and problematic. How do we establish a belief, a justification and truth? This led to the traditional theories of truth seen as the correspondence, the coherence and the pragmatic. However, the focus of our paper is on the latter two, which is coherence and pragmatic theories of truth. Our attempt has been to compare the theories, noting their convergencies and divergencies and then showing how we can work them into an integrative framework which will fulfill the integrative humanist purpose of this work.

Conceptual Analysis of Key Terms Before we embark upon the analysis of our terms, namely coherentism and pragmatism, suffice it to say that there are many
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ways of viewing our terms. All coherentists are not in agreement as to the framework from where we are to situate the main tenets of coherentism. This is so because while some apply coherentism to Yet, others apply

beliefs others apply it to non belief states.

coherentism to propositional, observational, non-propositional, sensory states, etc. Others like W.V.O. Quine (1969 p.60 ) talk about

background theories, empirical evidence, etc., as we schematize the different definitions of coherentism, we shall discern a running thread that holds all the versions together. Coherentism is an epistemic position that holds that the truth of a theory is dependent on coherence or agreement with the body or system of already accepted theories or beliefs. According to coherence theory of truth, an empirical belief is true if and only if it coheres with a system of other beliefs, which together form a comprehensive account of reality. To cohere means to agree, to fit into a logical

system or system of beliefs. Different systems have different beliefs and these beliefs cohere, are linked up in acceptable manner in different ways. A proposition which may not cohere in the work of

mathematics may cohere in the world of religion. In Christianity the proposition one plus one equal to one coheres, where one plus one represents husband and wife. The scripture says that the marriage

union makes two equals to one, whereas in mathematics one plus one gives two. What is needed in coherence theory is that the system of propositions, each one is supported in a greater or lesser degree but some or all of the other propositions in the system. The difficulty is

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that this whole system of mutually supporting proposition need not be true of anything. This means however that no matter how complex it is and however coherent it is, it might still be a complex and coherent fiction (Price; 1969: 68). It is in this vein that Joseph Margolis sees coherence as reducing to internal consistency and therefore sees it as absurd. He says that we must differentiate between ascriptions of

truth as in coherence theory and reality of truth as in correspondence theory (Margolis, 1973: 208). However, for Hamlyn the concept of coherence implies truth because a new proposition is considered true by cohering with another proposition considered to be true by the means of which the latter (new) proposition or belief draws its truth. Otherwise one may ask, what is the basis of acceptance of the first belief against which others cohere? Is it not truth? That is, a foundational truth / belief against which others cohere. For Hamlyn, coherence theory must need a

foundation of sorts for its validity. (Hamlyn, 1970: 117). Coherentism claims that every belief derives some of its justification from other beliefs. mutually reinforcing. This means that all theories are

There are however some propositions that are

more difficult to dislodge because they provide more support for the other propositions and are more supported by them (Klein, 2000: 247). Bonjour, on his part, talks of coherence in terms of how tightly unified or interconnected the system is by virtue of inferential connections (including explanatory connections) between its members. He says that for coherentism, justification need not be foundational (Bonjour, 2000: 439).

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A coherent system of propositions is presumably a given system such that if any one proposition in it is true, it strengthens the probability of the rest whether it is itself true or not (Price, 1961: 183). On Quines part, what is needed is an evidential support He

through observation and the contextual matrix of the theory.

borrows the idea of contextual definitions from Bentham and gives a linguistic tinge to his coherence theory by insisting that coherence is made meaningful within the context of background theories. This view is captured in his assertion that; It is a matter really of showing how we propose, with some arbitrariness, to relate terms of the object theory to terms of the object theory to terms of the background theory, for we have the inscrutability of reference to allow for (Quine 1953: 73). What Quine is saying, is that, meaning should be sought within the coherence provided within a given theory. Taking the analysis further, Pollock and Cruz see coherence theories from the point of view of the totality of ones doxastic state. This means what one already holds as true. As new beliefs come, we compare them with our body of doxastic system, if it coheres, we accept them as true if not they are false. For them, all beliefs are

epistemologically at par with one another. (p. 24). A belief is justified not by being linked to a basic belief which justifies it ultimately but by agreeing with a body of beliefs that are already accepted by the relevant community or individuals sets of beliefs. When we are The

talking about doxastic theories, we are referring to beliefs.

question is whether coherence is all about the coherence of beliefs?

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Do we not have non-doxastic coherence theories, like agreement that exist among theories, behaviours, personalities, ideologies, world views, propositions, etc? Pollock and Cruz go further to define

coherence theory as any doxastic theory denying that there is such an epistemologically privileged subclass of beliefs, that is, any

foundationally basic beliefs.

For them, coherence theories confer on

all beliefs the same fundamental epistemic status and the justifiability of a belief is determined jointly by all of ones beliefs taken together. (Pollock and Cruz 1999: 24). From what we have done so far, it is clear that there are many ways of looking at coherence theory. In fact, it is better to talk about coherence theories. Coherence can be viewed in terms of beliefs

(doxastic), theories (background theories) propositions, justifications and in terms of other non-epistemic frameworks like personalities, ideologies, behaviours, etc. It is therefore imperative to specify the

context in which we are looking at coherence theory. In this work, we are considering it from the point of view of truth which is more all embracing. We want to find out how coherence can lead to truth and how pragmatism can yield truth from the point of view of integrative humanism. Before we do that we examine and analyze the concept

pragmatism from the pigeon hole of its foremost advocates namely Charles Sanders Pierce, William James, John Dewey and Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller. Pragmatism is derived from the Greek work pragmata which means acts, affairs, and business. It was first employed by Charles

Sanders Pierce (1839 1914) as standing for a way of making our

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ideas clear or a method of logic, that is, a method of determining the meanings of intellectual concepts, that is, of those upon which reasoning may hinge. 413) For Pierce, pragmatism is a method of clarifying and determining the meaning of signs. He says that all thoughts whatsoever constitute a sign and are mostly of the nature of language. It is a method of (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 18, pp. 412-

ascertaining the meaning of hard words and abstract concepts or a method of ascertaining the meanings not of all ideas, but intellectual concepts, those upon which arguments concerning objective fact may hinge (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 412). In his article How to make our ideas clear and the Fixation of Belief, he says that the meaning of a proposition or an intellectual conception lies in its practical consequences (Audi, 2001: 657). What Pierce is saying is that when one knows how an object will react to experimental handling, one has achieved a clear idea of that object. Pierce was concerned with the practical criterion of determining clarity and distinctness. Truth for Pierce must have a public character. He sees truth as the opinion which is fated to be agreed upon by all those who investigate. This means truth as it shows up in the practice of

inquiry. (Audi, 657). Pierce in How to make our ideas clear declares that the action of thought is excited by the irritation of doubt and ceases when belief is attained. The production of belief is seen as the sole function of thought. For him, belief is that which establishes in our nature a rule of action or habit. His pragmatic maxim says consider what effects
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that might conceivably have practical bearings, which we conceive the object of our conception to have. Our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object. Pierce goes further to enunciate two senses of what is real namely; (1) The real is that which is not whatever we happen to think it, but is unaffected by what we may think of it. (2) The real as the opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate. (Moore, 1961: 59) For William James (1842 -1910), regarded as the chief

popularizer of pragmatism, pragmatism arises out of empiricism because Nothing shall be admitted as a fact except what can be experienced at some definite time by some experient. Every thing

real must be experience-able somewhere and every kind of thing experienced must be some where real (Moore 1961: 145). In 1898

before the Philosophical Union of the University of California in Berkeley, William James delivered the lecture Philosophical

Conceptions and Practical results and in it he publicized the term pragmatism and acknowledged Charles Pierce as the founder of pragmatism. He cited Pierces article How to make our ideas clear which appeared in the popular science monthly in 1878, as the first publication of the pragmatic principle. He dedicated his book Will to Believe to Charles Pierce (Reck, 1967: 46). It was probably in their metaphysical pragmatism. club of 1870s that Pierce introduced the term

Members of the club included Pierce, James, Wright However, as

Abbott, John Fiske and Oliver Wendel Holmes (p. 48).

Ayer noted, Pierce and James pursued their pragmatic ideals on different platforms namely logic and metaphysics respectively (Ayer, 1968: 49). Dewey says that Pierce wrote as a logician while James
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wrote as a humanist (Thayer, 1967: 430).

And while James was a

nominalist, Pierce was a realist. James reworked Pierce pragmatism to soothe his temperament (Audi, 2001: 651). This means that while

Pierce was not concerned with effects in use, James extended pragmatism to effects in particular situations and in use. While Pierce was concerned with the empirical significance of language (more positivistic) consequences James of was will, more concerned and with the practical

our

thought

actions

(Encyclopaedia

Britannica, 412). Pierce borrowed much from Kant. He like Kant saw truth as a

regulative idea which functions solely to order, integrate and promote understanding (Encyclopaedia, 413). James was less Kantian. For

James, we bathe in an atmosphere traversed by great spiritual currents. He says that all conceptions of truth as absolute, in facts of existence, in the mind as the organizing organ are unacceptable. He rather sees truth as a flow of phenomena, truth is any affirmation which in guiding us through moving reality, gives us a grip upon it and places us under more favourable conditions for acting. If we see truth as static, we will be tied to stagnancy and we shall be swept away by the torrential fluidity and dynamism of truth, as flowing phenomena. Since reality flows we need to flow with it. (Bergson, 1968: 255). He says that we invent the truth to enable us utilize reality, in the same way we create mechanical devices to utilize the forces of nature. He says that for other doctrines a new truth is a discovery but for pragmatism, it is an invention (p. 256). This does not follow that truth is arbitrary. It is an organized coherent development through human ingenuity. He says that the value of a mechanical invention lies solely
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in its practical usefulness. In the same way, an affirmation, because it is true, should increase our mastery over things. Truth according to pragmatism has come little by little into being through the individual contributions of a great number of inventors. If these inventors never existed and others put in their place, we would have had an entirely different body of truths (p. 256). Another important pragmatist worth examining is John Dewey (1859 - 1952). He is said to be more fitted to develop the empirical and scientific spirit of pragmatism. He sees the chief characteristic

trait of the pragmatic notion of reality as precisely that no theory of reality in general is possible or needed. He redefines his general

conception of philosophy as a criticism of criticism. (Lippmann 1966: 251, Schilpp, 1951: 67). For Dewey a belief is something like a map which if it successfully leads you home, then, you accept it as true. This led him to develop his version of pragmatism as instrumentalism (Moore, 1999: 564). Dewey talks in the main about opinion which fits the situation, validation of ideas, cognitive usefulness, and warranted accessibility. Dewey says that when James was talking about

pragmatism as a new name for an old way of thinking, he was talking about Baconian scientific method. He sees Francis Bacon as the

prophet of a pragmatic conception of knowledge (Dewey, 1957: 38). Deweys instrumentalism is a theory of the general forms of

conception and reasoning. His view is a coherent expression of Pierce and James. He employed Pierces logic and James Principle of ethical analysis and criticism. (Thayer, 1967: 436).

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Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller (1864 1937) is the unwearied champion and defender of English pragmatism. He has remained its persistent advocate to the first half of the twentieth century. For

Schiller, philosophy is not a matter of learning rather it is the expression and outpouring of a fresh and free personality. It is more of a sport or game than learning, research or profession of faith (Metz: 1950: 458). His pragmatic stance can be derived from the following declaration; An assertion; must approve itself within the context in which it is set forth; it must be serviceable, applicable and useful. It must promote the aim which knowledge has proposed to itself in the given case. It must be victorious in the contest with other less suitable assertions (p. 463). For Schiller ,with every question that we put, whether in science or in life, we conjoin a certain purpose or a certain interest. In every science, we want to know something. If the answers satisfy our

questions, if they lead to fulfilment of our purposes and the satisfaction of our interests, we evaluate them as true, otherwise as false (p. 462). True and false, therefore are relative to our aims,

relative to the purpose for which we put the question. Assertions are to be evaluated in terms of consequences or effects and according to their influence upon the investigation in which we are interested. For Rorty, following the traditions of Dewey holds that truth is measured in terms of serving our purposes and coping with situations we have to face. Truth is seen only from the point of view of

satisfaction of human needs and interests. Rorty, says therefore, that

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since nobody knows what truth is (and since Nietzsche and James) hammered the need to be suspicious of the reality / appearance distinction, it is now safer to talk about a distinction between less useful and more useful ways of talking (Rorty, 1999: 1) in his

Philosophy and Mirror of Nature, he refutes philosophys ability to provide us with privileged representations ( Rorty, 1979:174 ) and in his Objectivity, Relativism and truth, and he talks (1) of By

antirepresentationalism,

ethnocentrism

liberalism.

antirepresentationalism, he means any account which does not view knowledge as a matter of getting reality right but rather as a matter of acquiring habits of action for coping with reality. (1). Rorty says that truth is not the goal of inquiry for the pragmatist because a goal is something you can knowledge that you are getting closer or near to or farther away from. But there is no way of knowing our distance from truth. For the pragmatists including Rorty justification is the only And justification is

criterion we have for applying the word true. always relative to an audience (Rorty, 1999: 1).

Rorty agrees with Dewey that philosophy can proffer nothing but hypothesis. Dewey is said to have anticipated Habermas by holding

that there is nothing like the notion of objectivity save that of intersubjective agreement, that is, agreement reached by free and open discussion of all available hypotheses and policies (Rorty 1999: 7). Rorty, therefore, avers that philosophy makes more progress not by being more rigorous than other fields, but by being more imaginative (8).

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Hilary Putnam identified four characteristics of pragmatism (1) the rejection of skepticism (2) The willingness to embrace fallibilism (3) The rejection of sharp dichotomies such as those between fact and value, thought and experience mind and body analytic and synthetic, etc. and (4) the primacy of practice (Putnam, 1994: 1). Hamlyn on a similar note sees the pragmatic notion of truth from the point of view of leading to successful predictions other than leading to true predictions. Pragmatism from all we have seen so far is not concerned with truth but success, workability, predictability, usefulness and credible assertibility (Hamlyn, 1970: 118).

UNDERSTANDING PRAGMATISM AND COHERENTISM WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM Integrative humanism is simply a theory which counsels that philosophical theories and orientations should be understood from the point of view of human interest as a temporal and an eternal being. (Man is seen from the spiritocentric perspective as a being unto eternity. Man should be seen as the centre of all intellectual Here, we mean man and his ecosystem. Integrative

endeavours.

humanism or what we have called elsewhere as spiritocentric humanism is concerned with taking serious notice and admission of the spiritual component of reality. Philosophical orientations for the

most part end up in agnosticism if they try to pursue their goal solely, from the point of view of reason. Kant tried and ended up in

phenomena and had to accept the impermeableness of the noumena. Husserl tried through phenomenology and ended up equating

appearance with reality.

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Our position is that for knowledge to be consummated, then, there is need for a conflation of reason and faith. When we seek the truth only by the means of reason, we are bound to get stuck somewhere. But faith provides us with the wings with which to cross the borders of phenomenality into the domain of reality. This does not mean that faith gives us the comprehensive picture of truth or reality, but provides us with the outlines, which, at least assures us of the reality of eternal existence. A scriptural reference makes our view

clear, God says Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee (Prov. 22:20-21). God through the holy writ has revealed certain truth to man (Deut. 29: 29) and as philosophers seeking the truth and the knowledge of reality, we are expected to make use of these revealed truths. If we dont, it means we are

deliberately courting ignorance which means working consciously against the basic ideal of the philosophic enterprise, which is quest for knowledge. The confusion we have is basically linguistic. Language is a

facility of describing our perception. And since we perceive differently, we also describe differently. Since human life is dominated by the use of language, there is no way we can avoid those pitfalls which makes pragmatists think that there is no point talking about absolute truth. Man is a social, scientific, political and religious animal. In the moral sphere, we have tried to establish some form of objectivism but the relativists and subjectivist have fought this possibility. While the

relativists as we have in existentialism, situation ethics, emotivism

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may have some good points, we cannot rule out the fact that we have certain objective moral predicates like thou shall not kill without acceptable cause, Thou shall not steal; Thou shall not covet thy neighbor wife, etc. In the scientific world view, we talk about the sun rising in the East and setting in the West, we talk about boiling point of water at 100oc etc. In epistemology, we talk of direct perception, like seeing the book on my table; I see the fan rotating in my sitting room, etc. In religion, we understand that there is heaven, hell, angels, life after death and the punishment of the wicked. We see that coherentism emphasizes that our views agree with some validating prior views or system of views and beliefs. It makes good human sense that a man is paid for what he has done just as a laborer deserves his wage. The theory of punishment as we have in the temporal realm coheres with the concept of punishment as we have in the spiritual realm depicted in the concepts of heaven and hell as abodes for final reward whether for good or for bad respectively. As we have seen, pragmatism is talking about what is practicable, useful, workable; etc. We see that when we view man as a being

unto eternity then, we are going to appreciate in line with William James who sees the truth of a belief as being determined by verification. He says that vital benefits determine the truth of

metaphysical and theological beliefs. (Moore, 1999: 564). This is in line with what Kant calls regulative concept. The optimal truth that

mans life is not ending on this part of eternity is supposed to regulate human relationships, our aspirations and goals, the way we lead our lives, our science, our politics, economics, social and intellectual life. If we see what we do here as subject to eternal scrutiny, we are going
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to ensure that what we do cohere and pragmatize with what will be acceptable ultimately. Rorty integrates different world views and the moral intuitions inherited from our intellectual forebears, he does this however, only at the temporal humanist level. We counsel that we extend his insights into eternal level because knowledge must equip us to live well as Citizens of the earth and of heaven. Truth is about getting closer to the truth as we are getting closer to eternity. It is also about getting closer to truth in another sense, because, we are knowing more and more through processual truth and more and more as we receive more divine insights as to how things are and will be in eternity. For example, the Scripture talks about moral pervasion, war, earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, Tsunamis, pestilences, famines, economic down turns, etc., towards the end of the age. This is truth in process and that is, what I have called processual truth. Today, we are glimpsing into the possibilities that were hitherto unraveled. If we must serve as competent under laborers to philosophy la Rorty, then, we must as social workers cleanse the philosophical stable of filth, cobwebs and anti- transcendentalism which dogs it: 2009). Integrative humanist approach gives us the best of the two worlds, the city of God and the city of the world (St. Augustine). Greatness is not found in either Plato or Aristotle but in both. Goethe was asked whether he or Schiller was the greater poet, he answered, just be glad you have both of us (Rorty, 10). Paul the apostle said that if it is only in this life that we have hope in Christ, then, we are (Rorty, 1999: 10, Ozumba

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of all men most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19).

The famous

theologian Paschal counseled that it is better to err on the side of caution by living as though eternity were real. Our integrative humanism rejects the tenets of Blackburns Theses of humanism namely; that man is on his own, that this life is all he has to contend with, and we are responsible to ourselves (Blackburn, 1968: 13). Man is answerable to himself, others, society and God. It is only when we philosophize bearing the pragmatic

usefulness of these in mind that we shall appreciate the imperative necessity of integrative humanism as a more profitable way of applying coherentism and pragmatism in our philosophical enterprise. Philosophy must go beyond the explication of concepts to show how the concepts bear some relevance to mans existential situation as being unto eternity.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRAGMATISM AND COHERENTISM To differentiate pragmatism from coherentism it is important to note that there are ways of looking at the two theories which make them to have much in common and other ways of looking at them which make them poles apart. If we examine the philosophy of W.V.O Quine in his Word and Object, Web of Belief, Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, Ways of Paradox, From a Logical Point of View, among others, we see pragmatism and coherentism simultaneously, at work. We are tempted to think that one implies the other. As we have

shown already, Quine was looking at coherentism from the point of view of anti-foundationalism and within designated background

theories.
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Karl Popper talks of coherentism based on his concept of verisimilitude gradual unveiling of truth through conjectures and refutations. For Keith Lehrer, coherence involves acceptance of belief, justification, reasonableness of belief, evaluation, convergence and high probability (Lehrer, 1996: 121-129). From our analysis so far, we can say that while pragmatism is concerned with the workability, usefulness and practicalness of its subject matter, coherentism is concerned with agreement,

compatibility rather than sheer workability or usefulness. Pragmatism is concerned with on-going, dynamic reconstruction of reality for meaningful interpretation of nature. Coherentism on the other hand courts interpretation only to seek compatibility with already accepted stock of theories. This means that its world view is

determined by the world view of background theories or other more validating beliefs. Pragmatism is more pro-science and experimentation directed, while coherentism is more linguistic and theory directed. Pragmatism is concerned with theories as instruments of discovery or invention, while coherentism is interested in integration and aggregation of theories to expand the horizon of what is acceptable not necessarily what is true. Pragmatism is not concerned with truth as correspondence of any sort whereas It coherentism sees does not as repudiate applicable correspondence to purported

completely.

correspondence

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objective reality but with reality from their relative background perspectives. Pragmatism is concerned with examining the human ingenuity in transmitting bare facts or ideas into their useful modes for human use and profitability. Here, knowledge is the enlargement of frontiers of

nature. Coherence theory may be useful in understanding nature but not from the external point of view but from the internal coherence of the system of beliefs. Coherence theory has the following problems which do not affect the pragmatic theory; namely; (1) If we have more than one or multiple internally coherent systems that are contradictory or some of which are contradictory, will they be true in spite of their contradictory positions from the point of view of logic? (2) (3) How do we select from among alternative systems. What guarantees the truth of coherent system? Is there any internal guarantor or is itself justifying? (4) How is the internal coherence connected to external reality? Whereas, with pragmatism, the above issues are not salient problems. The pragmatist sets his own goals and guarantees them

from the point of usefulness and utility. (Moore, 1999: 564). While coherence theory can be said to be more suited to mathematical statements, pragmatism is more germane within the

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domain of science however, both can stilled be used in either of the domains. (Hamlyn, 1970: 117).

THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PRAGMATISM AND COHERENTISM Pragmatism and coherentism as we have said earlier appear to have more in common than with correspondence theory. Especially when we note that both theories emerged as a response to the correspondence theory of truth. The problems which came with

interpreting reality as truth by correspondence and the problem posed by the skeptics as to the need for infallibility in matters of knowledge provided a congenial occasion for the development of coherentism and pragmatism as alternative theories of truth. This means that both coherentism and pragmatism are against the correspondence theory of truth. foundational. Apart from that, both are anti-

They do not insist on absolute truth or apodictic or This makes both fallibilist. Both pragmatism

infallible foundations.

and coherentism will see the skeptics challenge as spurious and diversionary since truth in absolute sense is not critical to human inquiry. We can also say that both are in agreement in their acceptance of relative truth. Both thrive on make believe. This means that

knowledge is increased through a form of instrumentalism and coherence simultaneously worked out within the limits of human experience and reason. This means that both are key factors in Both, therefore, adopt rather than on non-

naturalizing and humanizing epistemology. tentative foundations as starting

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points

inferentially basic beliefs that are certain, incorrigible and infallible. They both reject dichotomies such as those between fact and value, analytic and synthetic. We, however, can say that coherentism as a principle can be applied by the pragmatists in the process of their investigation. But the coherentists do not have to apply pragmatism in their effort to seek out which theories; beliefs cohere with the background theory. In coherentism, the advocates may have a fair idea of what is needed to make a belief to cohere with a system of beliefs whereas pragmatism is more or less an exercise in serendipity, that is, on chance discoveries. For both coherentism and pragmatism, truth has many faces. Truth is endless, fluid and relative.

CONCLUSION In this work, we have examined the pragmatic and coherence theories of truth with the sole aim of analysing their different versions and then to see what constitute their differences and similarities. We have also seen how we can use pragmatism and coherentism within the framework of integrative humanism. Our main point is to show

that pragmatism and coherentism, though, anti-foundational theories must need some form of foundation if they must be able to get off the ground. According to Stace quoting Price, there is always a type of He says that theory

given which all theories must originate from. pragmatism constructs from the given,

correspondence

corresponds to the given while coherence must not be contradicted by the given. He says that pragmatism will need to progress on

coherence to ensure credibility. (Stace, 1970: 436).

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Finally, we stress that our integrativist method does not countenance anything like useful useless distinction. useless or even less useful except relative to a context. Nothing is From the

point of view of integration, every aspect of reality is useful and complementary to achieving a more comprehensive whole. And since reality is physical and metaphysical, temporal and eternal, we have applied our thoughts about man and his existence to include these two sides of reality.

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REFERENCES Rorty Richard, Truth and Progress: Philosophical Papers Vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Rorty, Richard, Objectivity, Relativism and Truth Philosophical Papers Vol. I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Rorty, Richard, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. Moser, Paul, Empirical Knowledge Readings in Contemporary Epistemology, Boston: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1996. Lehrer, Keith, The Coherence Theory of Knowledge in Empirical Knowledge Paul Moser (ed) Boston: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1996. Moore, Noel Brooke, and Bruder, Kenneth Philosophy: The Power of Ideas. London: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1999. Bergson, Henri, The Creative Mind. New York: Green Wood Publishers 1968. Margolis, Joseph, Knowledge and Existence. An Introduction to Philosophical Problem. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. Price, H.H., Belief. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1969. Hamlyn, D.W., The Theory of Knowledge, London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1976. Stace, W.T., The Theory of Knowledge and Existence, Westport, Connecticut: Green Wood Press, 1970. Ross, Jacob Joshua, The Appeal to the Given: A Study in Epistemology, London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 1970 Price. H.H., Perception. London: Methuen & Co Ltd. 1961. Putnam, Hilary, Words and Life, Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1994.
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Reck, Andrew J., Introduction to William James Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967. Audi, Robert (ed) The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Lipmann, Walter Rational Humanism in Philosophies Men Live By, Robert F. Davidson (ed) New York: Holt, Rine Lart and Winston Publishers, 1966. Dewey, John, Naturalistic Humanism in Philosophies Men Live By. Robert F. Davidson (ed) New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston Publishers, 1966. Dewey, John, Reconstruction in Philosophy. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957. Stumpf, Samuel Enoch, Philosophical Problems 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. Huemer, Michael, Epistemology Contemporary Readings. London: Routledge Publishers, 2002. Hartshorne Charles and Weiss Paul Collected Papers on Charles Sanders Pierce. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965. Schilpp, Paul Arthur. The Philosophy of John Dewey. New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1951. Encyclopeadia Britannica Vol. 18 Metz Rudolf, A Hundred Years of British Philosophy, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1950. Blackham, H.J. Humanism, Harmondsworth Penguin Books, 1968. Moore, Edward C., American Pragmatism: Pierce, James and Dewey. New York: Columbia University Press 1961. Quine, W. V. O., Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. Harvard: Harvard University, 1953.
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Quine, W.V.O. From A Logical Point of View, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ozumba, G.O., Understanding the Philosophy of W.V.O Quine. Calabar: Samroi Publishers, Pallock, John L. and Cruz, Joseph, Contemporary Theories of Knowledge. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999. Klein, Peter D., Epistemology in Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York: Routledge Publishers 2000. Bonjour, Lawrence, Knowledge and Justification, Coherence theory of in Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York: Routledge Publishers, 2000. Ayer, A. J. The Origins of Pragmatism. London: Macmillan Publishers, 1968. Thayer, H.S., Pragmatism in the Encyclopeadia of Philosophy Vol. 6. Paul Edwards (ed) New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967. King James Version Holy Bible.

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CHAPTER SEVEN
ANALYSIS OF BODY/MIND PROBLEM BY RAYMOND OSEI FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM INTRODUCTION This book begins without pretensions on the position the author wants to defend. The opening statement says the position I intend to support is the belief that there is a material world and that this is all there is. The author also acknowledges the fact that we have many reasons to question his option. The inherited conventional wisdom which harps on the existence of at least two diametrically opposed realities namely the physical and the spiritual as characterizing realities of different natures, the body and the mind (soul) are the real issues around which this inquiry is set. The author has shown his awareness of the seriousness of the controversy and the pessimism of arriving at a conclusive solution to the problem. The problem is the necessity to explain, granted the existence of two opposed entities, their interaction, how and where this interaction takes place. We have the body which is a material entity and we have the soul which is a spiritual entity. The first is said to be in space, to have some weight, to be observable, temporal and as consisting of parts. The second, the soul on the other hand is not locatable in space and time cannot be weighed, is not observable, elusive and intangible. The soul has been assigned the properties of thinking, reasoning, willing, desiring, affirming, etc, while the body has the property of walking, handling, jumping, running, eating and doing all kinds of jobs but only on the prompting of the first which is the soul. The bone of
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contention therefore is, how the soul (mind) which is not physical (not locatable in space and time) affect the body which is a physical entity. The controversy leads to both epistemological and metaphysical problems. Epistemological problems are gnoseological and conceptual. On the gnoseological side, the question is, how do we know the nature of the soul and the nature of the interaction that exist between it and the body? On the conceptual side, we ask how do we handle the conceptualization of the soul and the body so that we do not end up with a put-up-job or a theoretical linguistic posturing of our own proclivitistic creations borne out of culture, belief, ideology and indoctrination. Oseis book The Mind-Body Problem in Philosophy: An Analysis of the Core Issues, is a work set within, the tradition of analytic philosophy with its distinctive esoteric and abstruse linguistic genre which makes it fairly difficult for the uninitiated to understand. Yet, the details are dotted with the delicate fine lining of clarity and persuasive arguments drawn from hard core philosophy ranging from the traditional classical positions of Plato to the scholasticism of St. Augustine and Aquinas, to the Modern Methodic Mindset of Descartes, the critical philosophy of Kant, the analytic spirit of Russell, Moore and Ryle, the linguistic subtleties of Sprigge, Shoemaker, Strawson and Davidson and the Scientific Spirit of Bohr, Churchland, Duhem and Schrodinger, the phenomenology of Husserl, the Vitalism of Bergson and the psycho-behaviorism of Skinner. This makes the work at once very elastic and accommodative of the major traditions in philosophy and comprehensive in its treatment of the mind-body problem. It indeed covers a broad spectrum of the issues, concerning body/mind
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and to that extent is an important addition to the stock of extant literature in the controversy of Mind-body interaction. But the university education is a process of initiation into the many esoteric provinces of knowledge. Oseis work therefore serves the purpose of inducting the student into the labyrinth of the analytic tradition of inquiry, in this case inquiry, into the Mind-body problem. It should therefore be approached as a necessary condition for qualifying as a thorough-bred scholar in philosophy. Our aim in this review is to attempt a simplification and a deconstruction of the book from my own point of understanding. An attempt will also be made to point out areas of disagreement with the main arguments presented in the work. The idea is to provide this review as a useful companion in the easy ingestion of the book considering the rather turgid and fairly difficult way the book is presented especially for a new comer into the precinct of the hall of Philosophy. My two cardinal objectives are to achieve simplicity and a deconstructive synopsis of the text (Deconstruction is used here in the sense of reading the reviewers meaning into the authors possible, intended or actual meaning). The author is aware of the analytic-cum-ideological dangers potentially inherent in the text and this is why he sets out to provide us with a background to the problem of body/mind (soul) interaction. The possibility of the existence of an unempirical entity called the soul, the possibility of its interaction with the body and the nature of the soul itself as an existent entity constitute the metaphysical problem which the author seeks to address. Though the author has taken his

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position from the onset, the problem cannot be escaped by merely taking a position. Every philosopher looking at the issue of Body-mind problem cannot approach it casually, it has to be approached with valve and rigour before ones position can be seen to attract any merit. This, then, became Oseis lot as he needfully must traverse the length and breadth of the tortuous terrain that characterise the discourse on body-mind enigma. The author has done this by examining the many theories that have attempted their hands in the pie of proffering enduring solution to this seemingly intractable problem. Before we delve into the theories and their limitations and the reason for Oseis opting for a materialist conception/solution to the problem, we shall carry out this review under four subheadings, namely; Background to the problem of Body-Mind interaction, different theories that have been proffered in an attempt to tackle the problem, then, we shall look at Oseis materialist position (agnostic materialism) and I shall conclude with my personal thoughts on the body-mind problem.

Background to the Body-Mind Problem Within the setting of Western philosophy, Osei begins his discourse of the mind/ body problem by examining Platos treatment of the issue of the nature of the mind and the body. In the Phaedo, Plato talks about the existence of two distinct entities, the mind and the body. For him, the mind is concerned with reasoning and

understanding while the body deals with our sensations and passions. He sees the body as a great hindrance to the minds accomplishment of its true functions, to wit, that of contemplation of truth (forms) while the body is seen as a meddlesome entity tailored towards
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craving and appetitiveness. This is a dualistic picture of reality namely the mental and the bodily. In the Republic, Plato gives us a tripartite conception of the soul. The human person is seen as a soul consisting of three parts, the rational, the spirited and the appetitive. The rational represents the spiritual component with wisdom as its attendant virtue, the soul is another spiritual component with courage as its attendant virtue, while the body is the physical component with temperance as its attendant virtue. This boils down to the fact that man as an existent reality is a composite of material reality and immaterial reality, that is, physical and the spiritual dimensions of reality respectively. For Plato, the nature of the mind (which is represented by the rational and the appetitive parts of the soul) is quite different from the body. While the former survives death, the latter disintegrates at death. The next philosopher he examines is Aristotle, who in De Anima sees body and mind as intricately interwoven in a relationship of complementarity and ontological fusion (as one existent reality). It is only the intellect which is known as active reason that is distinct from, and operates independently of the body. This means that the faculty of sense perception and the faculty of reason, though go on in the individual, have different ontological bases. Thomas Aquinas, on his own part, insists on the need to demarcate between powers that function through the body and those that do not Those that do not, namely, those of intelligence and will, constitute the body. This means that for him, there is a divide between mind and body. Osei thought that this could pose a problem for the angels who being spirit beings and lacking bodies, do not have bodies through which they can enjoy
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psychological feelings of joy, happiness, ecstasy, etc. The truth is that angels have their bodies different from ours. First Corinthians chapter fifteen verses thirty-six to forty-four (1 cor.15:36-44) tells us that there are bodies terrestrial and others celestial. This means that angels have bodies and also enjoy the psychological states that are proper to their celestial nature. The next to be examined is Rene Descartes who in his Meditations rejected the idea of splitting the powers of our psychical endowments between the body and the mind. He went a step further to bifurcate the mind and the body along distinct lines. The mind performs some functions which include doubting, affirming, denying, desiring, knowing, hating, willing, etc, which means that mental experience covers both sensory experience and all that goes on in reasoning, understanding and imagination. This leaves the body with the quality of extension and as the executor of the will of the intellect in the physical realm. While the mind is represented by the quality of thought, body is represented by the quality of extension. This presents mind and body as mutually opposed entities. While the former is intangible, the latter is spatio-temporal. This brought to the fore in its sharpest outlines the conflict between mind and body as opposed entities. We are then called to account for how we could have interaction between a spatio-temporal entity and a non-spatiotemporal entity. Descartes, through the cogito argument, proved that the existence of himself as a thinking substance is epistemologically prior to the existence of himself as extended body. It is therefore the epistemological divide that grounds the ontological divide (cleavage) between the thinking substance and the extended substance (the
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incorporeal and the corporeal respectively). This further provides grounds for Descartes alleged incompatibility between mental and physical properties which fuelled the mind-body problem. At this jointure, Osei employs the views of Paul Churchland and D.M. Armstrong to counteract the certainty of a dualism of mind and body independent realities. Armstrong employs the possibility of deception about our awareness of mental experiences, (Via Introspection and memory). He also stresses the need to keep separable the subject of the awareness and the object of the awareness which Descartes insists constitute the same substance it is consciousness being aware of itself, that is, direct self-awareness. It must be pointed out that Descartes must be understood on his own terms. The concept of memory which Armstrong brings in to ground the possibility of error in awareness does not come in, because, memory is not synonymous with consciousness; it is a mental faculty for the store of information. At any time we are directly self conscious and aware of our own consciousness we cannot be in error. Any time we are in error about the consciousness of our consciousness, then, it means that in truth we are not conscious and as such our language must be restructured to reflect our state of uncertainty about our consciousness. So, with this bit, I stick to the plausibility of Descartes Cogito position. Further to the above, Osei uses Herbert Feigls position to incite that physical does not mean merely perceptual, coming from quantum physics where perceptual qualities are only indications of a more intricate (complicated) underlying reality in which case, the physical must be seen as more than the perceptual. The truth still remains that we cannot move from the perceptual via quantum to reach mind
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distinctive qualities. It will be logically a slippery slope to move from perceptual qualities to anchor on mind defining qualities. This will be a dangerous and an uncertain transition whose intervening logical space and gap cannot be logically and scientifically proven (justified or substantiated). Whether we construe the physical as constitutive of the experiential and non-experiential, cannot by that token become embracive of the mental thereby making the mental an aspect of the non-experiential-physical. This will be a kind of marriage by adoption or coercion which will be illegitimate. Grover Maxwells rejection of naive realism as the representative view of physicalism in yet another grand design to co-opt the mental into the physical by hook or crook, this meets the same rejection as Armstrongs. This, therefore, leaves unfettered the position of dualism as the most plausible option open to us in the discourse of mind-body problem. All we need to do is to understand, explain and specify their different qualities and continue to seek clarification on their interaction instead of any frivolous attempt as circumvention of the duality reality.

Some Of The Theories Put Forward To Address Mind-Body Problem Oseis book The Mind-Body Problem in Philosophy is quite exhaustive in examining the theories that feature in the discourse on mind-body problem. The mind-body problem lends itself straight forwardly to dualist and monist theories. This means theories that claim (assume) that mind and body are distinct entities and those that claim that they are one substance but may have double qualities. Here, we have physicalism (materialism, realism) and idealism. He

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captures the theories under mentalist and physicalist theories. Under mentalist theories we have idealism, mentalism and neutral monism. It does seem to me that under mentalist-theories that emphasis is on the purely immaterial nature of our mental life and those theories that look at it from the point of view of psycho-physical attributes or both. Mental life could be constitutive of both the material (psycho-physical aspect and the immaterial (wholly spiritual) aspect. Under mentalist theories he treats Berkeleian idealism, Humean idealism and pure process idealism which does not permit actual distinction between the process and the contents. It rather construes the ideas as intrinsic qualities of particular processes. He maintains that what makes these different positions all form of idealism is their commitment to the view that what exists must either be definable by reference to what we are aware of in perception or introspection or are capable of being constructed from these by the exercise of our imagination and reasons. Consequently, the physical world for

idealism, is something that exists in the mind, as object of perception, its being is its being perceived (50). Apart from the above theories, we have panpsychism which is

an ancient theory that is derived from animism, the view that all existent things are suffused with spirits. This means that the talk about wholly materialist reality is unacceptable (untenable) since all things are made up of spirits which animates them. It is therefore a philosophical articulation of animism as a mentalist theory.

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An important dimension is noted here to the effect that, in line with Kant, matter is composed of the phenomenal and noumenal aspects. While the phenomenal aspects is perceivable and in line with idealism, exists in the mind as ideas, the noumenal aspects since it exists unperceived, exists outside the mind. This position is bought by T.L.S Sprigge as constituting a type of existence which exists outside the mind thereby refuting the idealist position that nothing exists unperceived. However, our claim to have knowledge about the noumenal world is merely speculative and not substantive as it cannot in any way be grounded in experience. It will therefore be harmful for the phenomenalist to pressure us into accepting a noumenal

existential arrangement. Materialist/physicalist positions are used to critique the idealist theories notably we have what Sprigge calls the independent existence of physical things outside their occasional presence in perceptual situations. This means that we do not need the ever abiding and sustaining presence of Berkeleys God for physical things or their ideas to exist. Sprigge therefore rejects what he calls phenomenalist instrumentalism as the cause of the belief in the existence of extra-mental reality. Sprigge further attributes our craze for extra-mental existence to our addiction to the necessity of pragmatic device in our approach to understanding reality. He describes it as a useful pragmatic fiction. He calls it a fiction because we have no means of fleshing out the determinate character of extramental reality without recourse to the concepts and vocabulary that figure in experience (64). What Sprigge has striven to achieve is to show the incoherencies involved in the postulation of unperceived

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physical object as the extra-mental entity. For him, the phenomenalist approach is internally incoherent and intuitively unfulfillable. (97) Other lines of argument against Idealism could be seen from the absurdity of maintaining the non-existence of an organized coherent physical existence independent of the minds perception of it. Again, it may be seen as preposterous to grant the unseen mind existence and then deny existence to what is seen. This flies against the common parlance that seeing is believing. From here, Osei examines some physicalist theories notably logical behaviourism, functionalism and Mind-Brain identity theory. Talking about physicalist theories, Osei sees them as giving reductionist account of the mind. An example is the reduction of macro object into their micro equivalent as we have in physics through atomic and subatomic theories. Since physics, for instance, is committed to an ontological primacy of micro properties such as protons, electrons, quarks, leptons, etc, it must fashion out theories that will aid in explaining macro objects via micro properties. Apart from ontological reduction, we have another form of reduction known as conceptual reduction also called analytical reduction (85).

Conceptual reduction claims that the very content or subject matter of our ordinary statements about higher level objects turns out, on conceptual analysis to be referring to micro entities (86). It is like saying that when we talk about the unobserved entities we are indirectly referring to the observed the unobserved, here, seen as signs of the existence of the observed which the scientists can make meaningful through what they call correspondence rules (see
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Ozumba,54-59 and Suppe,27-29) or bridge principles (Osei, 125). By so doing the unobserved is made observable through some form of reductionism. This is what Behaviourism does when it reduces mental life to bits of overt behaviour, in this case, what is important is not mind or consciousness but mans responses to stimuli within an environmental setting By assuming a reductionist posture, it denies the existence/reality of mental life. While scientific behaviourism of Skinner does not countenance dispositional properties because of its disdain for suggestive mental life possibilities, logical behaviourism provides room to account for dispositional properties. This is so because logical behaviourism is concerned with determining the status of mental concepts in our public language. It is concerned with articulating a reductive device which will help explicate mental concepts like thought, belief, perception, image or memory into sentences about publicly observable behaviour. It is therefore a linguistic reductionist thesis. This means that every mental occurrence for it to be meaningful must have its equivalent expressible in publicly observable behaviour. This may be why people like Gilbert Ryle talk derisively of the Ghost in the Machine. But the truth remains that no matter what we try to do via behaviourism we cannot dispense with mental terms altogether by using behavioural equivalents as

substitutes (Kant and Quine express this view). The basic truth here is that we cannot solve the mind-body problem merely by dissolving the concept of mind as scientific behaviourism attempts to do. We therefore cannot deny the phenomenology of the reality of mental life. Functionalism on the other hand is concerned with a process of individuating mental states by reference to their causal relations to
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input stimuli to other mental states and to output behaviour (95) This means that our mental life, sensory experiences and other undetermined events are responsible for, or are causes, or functions of our behavioural responses in given situations. In functionalism, the reductionism is causal and functional. This means that if we

understand all the component inputs (mental, sensory and others), we can determine the direction of behaviour. It is therefore concerned with the functional role of mental states in causing our behaviour. The problem with functionalism is that it is based on unsupported assumption that we can carry out a reductive causal implication of mental states on behaviour. This is too bogus and unscientific. The problem of absent qualia charge levelled by Sydney Shoemaker readily comes to mind here. This means that, perception of mental states is indeterminate and as such its exact causal input cannot be determined. Galen Strawson says that the concept of pain is logically independent of the concepts of cause and effect as Shoemaker had tried to analyse. We can have pain that is not decidedly causal. Mind-brain Identity is also a reductionist theory that tries to reduce mental states to equivalent brain states. This means identifying mental state types on one hand and the brain state types on the other and then trying to correlate mental events with brain events. The occurrence of a mental event and the firing of fibre in the brain is said to be correlated. By so doing, mental life can be made identical with brain processes. Another name for this theory is Causal Theory of the Mind (CTM). Its chief advocate is D.M. Armstrong. His idea is to define mental state types in terms of the causal role they play in being the effects of stimuli or being the cause of behaviour (107).
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In his discourse of token physicalism, he mentioned the tokentoken identity theory and epiphenomenalism. Token identity theory states that for every token instance of a mental state, there is some token neural event with which that token instance is identical (122). Token identity theory is therefore different from type identity theory because while type identity theory tries to pick out the property intrinsic to a physical system that makes a given physical state type identical with a certain pain type, token identity theory is concerned with a token instance of mental state that is identical with neural state. This means that while type identity is concerned with mental state pain state identity (as types) while token identity is concerned with mental state neural state identity (as tokens).This means that while type identity refers to a specific type example, pain or any other property. Token identity is less specific as it concerns neural states, example firing of a neural fibre or any neural event. The major problem with both the token identity theory and the type identity theory is their inability to overcome the challenge of multiple realisability argument which Quine calls the twin problem of indeterminacy and multiple decidability/compatibility theory. This means that the mapping of the identity between the mind states and the neural or pain states can be done in multiply compatible ways with each incompatible with others. At the end of the day we cannot reach an identity relationship that is conclusive. There is also no way of determining with finality as token identity theory claims that every mental state/event has a corresponding neural state that instantiates it. How are we sure that the case of instantiation is not in error, that multiple other (invisible undetermined)
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mental

states

are

not

responsible for our instantiation which we are attributing to a particular neural state. We cannot rule out the possibility of error in both type and token identity theories. The erroneous assumption here is that the use of bridge principles or correspondence rules translates to a one to one correspondence between micro predicates and macro ones or between mental states and neural or physical states. This is a pragmatic make-believe, an explanatory device contrived to bridge the gap between the observable (observed) and the unobservable (unobserved) entities of the world of science. There is no neutral arbiter to justify the perfectibility of the substitution instances involved in the various reductive exercises. This means that we cannot be sure when asymmetric or symmetric correlations hold

for mental states and physical states (Brain or neural states). Fodor thinks that event identity is preferable to property identity hence that token identity should be preferred to type identity. In my judgment, they are both vulnerable to the same pitfalls. The assumption from Fodors point of view is that the weaker the reductiveness of a theory the less vulnerable to error it becomes. Since token physicalism is weaker than type physicalism, in terms of their explicitness in reductiveness, then, token physicalism should be preferred to type physicalism. But the truth is that every event is not a physical eventthere are strong indications that spiritual events condition/ influence or control physical events. Token physicalism which is built on solid physicalistic assumptions may not be right after all.

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The Theory Of Non Reductive Materialism This section deals with the theory of non reductive materialism which is the last theory the author treats. It is very crucial to the last chapter which talks about neutral monism; agnostic neutralism and agnostic materialism. In the conclusion, the author points out that the basic premise of his book is that a metaphysical theory worthy of its name must do two things: first, it must posit a fundamental entity with which it can explain the fundamental properties and laws of the universe; second, it must be able to explain the ostensible feature of the universe. Though physicalist and mentalist theories strive to achieve these by adopting either physically fundamental entity or a spiritually (mentally) fundamental entity, but each fail in explaining why and how each is reducible to the other, or events in one sphere can be said to be identical with events of the other sphere. Again, the problem of the nature of interaction between them necessitated theories like occasionalism, parallelism, epiphenomenalism, double aspect theory, action at a distance as ways of obviating rather than explaining realistically the nature of the interaction that exists between mind and body. Non reductive materialist theory made frantic efforts at solving the mind-body problem by using the principles of coexistence, coextension, non-entailment, non exclusive mutuality and non causal interaction. At the end, we had a non-reductive specie of token identity theory which boils down to a kind of double aspect theory where mind and body can be said to denote the different aspects of the same ontological reality. This again failed to account for how the transmission of values across the two domains can be adequately
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explained. This means inability to account for how interaction takes place between the mental and the physical. This view is anchored on the belief that in perceptual experience we are faced with mental activity which simultaneously needs a physical medium like the appropriate sense organ. This means that mental events occur in the body and this shows that body and mind are intimately related and can be seen as a wholly physical process which either begins as a mental act or a bodily act with both constituting a physical experience. This also means that we do not have two events, a mental event and a physical event; rather, there is just one event but which seems to instantiate two distinct event types the mental event type and the physical event type (153). This is a kind of ontological identity, that is, identity of object with different properties. Here we agree with Osei that the ground of coexistence of the properties is not enough to deal with the mind-body problem. The author goes further to show that neutral monism will not also do because it holds that though there is a fundamental entity, it is itself neither physical nor experiential. Absolute neutralism will also fail because it professes total ignorance of any fundamental entity that grounds our experiences (mental or physical). But agnostic neutralism suggests that there exists a certain

fundamental stuff and that this stuff has a certain structure unknown to us and this stuff manifests its existence to us through mental and physical properties akin to Spinozas substance known through its attributes and modes or better still, through the attributes of thought and extension. The author defends agnostic monism thus:

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The strength of agnostic monism lies in the recognition that humans do have some cognitive access to a portion of reality; but it recognises in the same breath that the concepts which we deploy in our understanding are inadequate for delivering a comprehensive picture of reality. (209-210). This brand of monism he calls agnostic materialism. He kowtows to agnostic materialism because he sees it as being grounded on the empirical evidence of the subsistence of matter. The question one may ask at this juncture, is, agnostic with respect to what? Matter or mind? Is it not reasonable to be agnostic with respect to mentalism than with materialism? However, the truth is that mentalism is less problematic when related to brain processes or what goes on in the mind. Mentalisms problematicity stems from its relationship with soul or spirit.

Reviewers Concluding Thoughts It may be apposite to conclude this exciting, tasking, painstaking and loaded book by sparing some thoughts. The question is why mindbody problem? What is the genesis of mind-body problem? Of what purpose will the solution to the mind-body problem serve? Are there spiritual undertones to this intractable, interminable controversy? Yes, the origin is spiritual and the goal is spiritual. The genesis is the need to ascertain whether man had a soul, and if yes whether it was mortal or immortal. It was to determine the veracity that there is life after death and to know how to prepare for it. For the Greeks, the existence and immortality of the soul gave hope of possibility of reminiscence (recollection) and the fact of a return to the abode of the
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gods after earthly sojourn. For the Hindus and Buddhists it is all related to Karma and union with the Brahma the universal soul after we have been acquitted through accumulation of good Karmas and attainment of enlightenment. For the Jews, Muslims and Christians, it is about seeing the soul as using the body to live out a probatory life on earth with the eventual eternal existence in hell or paradise depending on how ones life was lived. It does seem to me that all the above goals are quite expressive of the fact of immortality of the soul and this paints the picture of the soul as the active principle quite different from the body but which operates through bodily organs to achieve its aim. This then puts paid to the fact of dualism as the preferred perspective in understanding soul-body problem. My position is that mind is not synonymous with soul, but rather is the animated (activated) portion of the physical component of a man which coordinates the brain, the heart and other organs of the body to fulfil the physical and spiritual functions of the body as directed by the spirited-soul. The much hullabaloo we have in our intellectual discourse on Mind-body problem is symptomatic of; (1) (2) An exercise aimed at distracting man from the truth. And attempt at quietly toning down any emphasise on the immortality of the soul, the reality of the after life and the attendant judgment of our earthly actions. (3) An effort to reduce the soul to brain processes and to buoy up the theory of annihilation and decomposition as the final end of man.
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(4)

To deny the existence of God and His ownership of man as His Creature and the fact of final account of mans earthly

stewardship. Suffice it therefore to say that, with the above possibilities in mind, the path of wisdom is to toe the line of dualism and emphasise more the reality of the soul over the body. This is the whole import of Berkeleys arguments in his book A Treaties Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, where he strove to prove the primacy of spirit over matter. For as the holy writ says all that is in the world are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and all these shall pass away with the world but only he that does the will of God shall abide forever (1Jn. 2: 15-17). We are therefore to understand the weight of significance of material and spiritual realities and accord them the importance they deserve in a prioritized order. Any constructive theory which fails to take into consideration the spiritual necessity of dualism will to that extent be deemed a partial view of reality. Just as we feel the air with out seeing it, so do we feel the spiritual though we may not be able to bring it to agree with our physicalistic theories. The danger with agnosticism is that it may

withhold us from desiring to seek out spiritual truths and then leave us on the threshold of spiritual indifference to the peril of our souls inevitable accountability in eternity. My submissions therefore are as follows; That the preferability of dualism is anchored on the following points.

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1.

The fact of Scriptural Revelations that man is a living soul made up a physical body and a spiritual soul.

2.

The Uniform testimony of the major religions to the effect that the soul is the spiritual component of man which continues to exist after death whether as in eternal existence, reincarnation, transmigration, reunion with the Brahma or as in the case of ancestral spirits as we have in African traditional religion (ATR).

3.

The obvious distinction between the living and the dead. The living is animated by the spiritual soul and the dead is left wholly physical because of the absence of the soul.

4.

The undeniable presence of spirit originating activities like thinking, willing, reasoning, desiring, affirming, etc, which are absent at death.

5.

The activities of the spirit-soul as in dreams. The body lies completely listless and insensitive while the soul having left the body continues its interactive commerce in the dream world.

6.

The inviolability of the distinction of Mind (soul) and body by all philosophical constructs whether they are mentalist theories or physicalist theories.

7.

The failure of science to use micro-physical predicates to explain or explain away the concept of mental life the applications of neuro science, psychology, bio-genetics, etc, have not been able to disprove the discrete existence of the mind. Physics has rather further confirmed the existence of the unobserved through quantum theory.

8.

Cartesian dualism which adopts a realist stance in respect of psychophysical interaction but experience has shown that the
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autonomy of mind from body is only conceptual and not ontological interaction still goes on because of intimate relationship and functional complementarity due to coexistence. 9. From the regulative standpoint, a world that is configured wholly from the materialist stand point will yield a robotic existence with scant regard for sanctity of human life since there will be no vision of responsibility for our actions in the afterlife. The motto with be let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die and shall be dissolved into nothingness. But this is life complacency at the great risk of confronting the reality of the after life with irredeemable shock and consternation. For regulative purposes `a la Kant, there is the cautious need to adopt dualism as a more rational perspective. 10. The ancient truism about the fact of opposites found in Anaximander, Anaximenes, Empedocles, Heraclitus, etc., still hold good today, as we see day and night, black and white, life and death, male and female, tall and short, head and tail, etc, so do we have mind (soul) and body. Similarly, we have good and bad (evil) heaven and hell, pure and defiled, weak and strong, rich and poor, (the list is endless). 11. The established fact that consciousness works outside the domain of quantum mechanics (according to Steven Wigner). This establishes the apartness of the physical and the nonphysical reality. The dualism that exists is not simply that of coextensive, intimate discrete properties of the same substance but the existence of conceptually distinct but functionally

cooperative existences known as mind (soul) and body.

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For deeper perspectives and criticisms of the theories treated by Osei, it is better grasped by reading the text. What we have done here is to offer a general review of the text. I must state that the text is a product of painstaking research work as it critically examines the different sides of the issues involved in a philosophical understanding of the mind-body problem. I may not agree with Oseis conclusion but he has striven within the ambit of his preferred framework to defend his position which he calls the Theory of Agnostic Materialism. I remain a die hard dualist. This may be because of my spiritual and religious orientations. The fact of the distinctive existence of mental and physical realities is as clear the noon day to me. Man is a composite of two complementary (not opposed) but ontically different entities. One is more earth bound and the other (mind/ soul) is more spiritual bound. My inspiration is drawn from the scripture which says that God created man (his body) from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul (an embodiment of body- physical and soul -spiritual). (Gen 2.7) Spiritual things belong to a different form of life (Wittgenstein, Peter Winch) and can be fully understood within that form of life. And in

Ecclesiastes 12:7 we have the account of the immortal nature of the soul. At death, the body returns to the dust (earth) and the soul returns to God who gave it. There may be nothing wrong at the level of academic exercise to theorize and speculate on the nature of the soul and the nature of interaction that exist between it and the body, however, we must note that there is a divine limitation imposed on mans epistemological capacity as is borne out by the scriptural wisdom that revealed things belong to man while secret things belong
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to our God (Deut 29:29). This is why we cannot question the rationality of creating dogs with better perceptual capacity than man. The creator of all things endows upon each creature such capacities and abilities as are appropriate for their functional existence. Quoting from Berkeleys Principles: We should believe that God has dealt with the sons of men, than to give them a strong desire for that knowledge, which he had placed quite out of their reach ... upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to ourselves. That we have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see (8). Berkeley goes further to say But no sooner do we depart from sense (revelation) and instinct to follow (purportedly) the light of a superior principles, to reason, meditate and reflect on the nature of things which before we seemed fully to comprehend, prejudices and errors of sense (reason) do from all parts discover themselves to our view... and endeavouring to correct these by reason we are insensibly drawn into uncouth paradoxes, difficulties and inconsistencies which multiply and grow upon us as we advance in speculation (7). All these, is not to suggest intellectual inactivity or settlement in the vineyard of forlorn scepticism or agnosticism but offers a counsel on the need to always apply what I call the integrativist approach in tackling philosophical problems. This is done by bearing in mind that most problems have their spiritual and physical dimensions. It therefore necessitates the following of the inner light of the spirit
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through meaningful search corroborated by divine revelation so as to avoid unnecessary dissipation of intellectual energy in the pursuit of spurious understandings or enervating intellectual wild goose chase. Now we know in part and in the life to come we shall know all things as they really are (1 Cor. 13:13). Suffice it to be content with the knowledge of a mind/soul which is for now intangible, non spatial and spiritual and its interaction with a body that is spatio-temporal and subject to the laws of physics and nature. We can do nothing against the truth of dualism but to accept it willy-nilly or continue to poke at it to our intellectual exhaustion and frustration. On a final note Oseis book is no doubt an ingenious work in content, outlay and in its analysis of the subject matter. This makes it a crucial must read for students, practicing philosophers, psychologists, scientists and the general reader who needs to understand the many sidedness of the conundrum/controversy surrounding the mind-body interaction. That is, the epistemological cum metaphysical debates. Oseis ingenuity is borne out of his mastery of the many intricate issues that characterize the mind-body problem as is evinced by the confidence of expression, the breadth of literature and the facility of discourse of the relevant issues. The test of the pudding is in the eating. I welcome you to go through the text yourself.

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REFERENCES Berkeley, George, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1982 Osei, Raymond. The Mind-Body Problem in Philosophy: An Analysis of the Core Issues. Ibadan: Hope publications, 2006

Ozumba, G.O. Logical Positivism and the Growth of Science Calabar: Pyramid Publishers 2001. Suppe, Frederick. The Structure of Scientific Theories Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1974 The Holy Bible Kind James Version Winch, Peter. The Idea of a Social Science and its relation to Philosophy. London: Routledge Publishers, 1990 ed. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Pub. Ltd. 1953.

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CHAPTER EIGHT
POLITICAL EDUCATION AND NATION-BUILDING: AN INTEGRATIVE HUMANIST APPROACH INTRODUCTION Our todays world is democracy driven and democracy if it is not to continue to suffer all manner of adulterations and misconceptions, its substance, principles, modus operandi and characteristics have to be clearly outlined in a very structured form to yield to easy understanding of what it is and what it is not so that the confusion we have in so many so-called democracies can be straightened out. This paper therefore insists that these structures, modus operandi,

principles and characterizations must be taught to a literate citizenry. This leads to the necessity of education. Democracy, if we must practice it the way we shall articulate it, then, there will be need for our nation to wage war against illiteracy. A component of this education, therefore, should be political education. It is when this is done that the concept of genuine nation-building will become realistic and achievable. What we are advocating therefore is that a thoroughgoing political education must not be a humdrum, prosaic, ineffective exercise, it must be characterized by enthusiasm, dynamism, analysis, theory, praxis, dialogue, activism and implementation. The essence of political education in nation-building cannot be gainsaid and need not be overemphasized. The Greeks of the 6th century BC knew the importance of political education as was exemplified in the frequent political concourse and discourse at the agora. During the time of Socrates and the Sophists, the art of erisitics
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and public speaking were taught as means of preparing the Athenian youths for vibrant political life. In spite of these teachings, politicians of that era failed the Athenians because of moral dislocation which the teaching communicated. Political education, if it is to yield

administrative fruit, must be all embracing, taking care of the morals, religion (spirituality), psychology (mentality), the value system, metaphysics, logic of action, economics and the social existence of the nation and its citizens. It is because of these, that it has become imperative to articulate genuine blue prints for a fruit-bearing education that will lead to progressive nation-building. Nation-building is a complex of many facets including the human, environmental and other resource factors like non-human resources. But the truth is that it is only the human resource that possesses the dynamics for the meaningful turnaround of inputs which will bring about nationbuilding; every other resource remains inert until acted upon by humans. This is why the subject and object of political education is the citizen. In this paper, attempt is made to show how the human citizens of our society can be disposed to favourable political education. Pessimists might say that the average citizen has been so

disheartened that there is no patriotic vein for a patriotic contribution towards nation-building. Again, as we shall see, the human psyche whether positive or negative can still be mobilized towards the task of nation-building. If we study the history of nations, we see that at times nations are built when the morale of the people is at its lowest ebb. Look at Germany after the First World War. The people were totally downcast and discouraged, but there arose a Hitler, an orator, a
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leader and a mover of the discouraged and before the Germans could know what was happening, Hitler had raised a formidable army with which he prosecuted the Second World War. Though his mission was negative; born out of an ungodly ambition, but the truth remains that his example shows that with the right leadership, we can derive strength, zest, patriotism, valour where in the past we had weakness, despondence, lukewarmness and apathy. Other countries like America forged the American spirit, through the travails of wars and oppositions coming both from the colonialists and the aborigines. We see the case of Eritrea. After their war of independence with Ethiopia, the citizens through proper mobilization received the spirit of self-help which saw them through the ravaging and crippling effects of the war. This tells us that political education is never too late for a people that are ready for change. All we need is the right leadership and followership to have the needed input for nation-building. This is why in this work we shall be examining the definition of political education and nation-building. Then we shall look at the contents of political education, the personnel and their qualities fit for political education. After this, we shall look at the people, citizens amenable for political education. Then, we shall look at the wheeling impetus or drive for political education. At the end, I shall attempt an integrative approach to the issue of political education.

What then is political education? The component words here are politics and education. These words are loaded but not without their distinctive marks. Politics can be seen as the art and science of good organization and running of the
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polis with the aim of encouraging mass participation for the overall good of all. The polis is a complex of multifaceted realities. Politics has to do with the proper consideration, insight into and perception of these realities to ensure that these different realities are harnessed for the common good of all. It is the attainment of the interest of all through proper coordination and implementation of decisions. We should therefore think of politics from the point of view of polity, policy and programme implementation. Politics is about integration of forces which lend to good governance. This will involve distribution of power, dividends of governance/democracy, handling of conflicts, control of public property, maintenance of peace (security) and development of infrastructure and provision of amenities for improved standard of living of the citizens. Education on the other hand, has to do with any instrumentation and process of enhancing knowledge, creating awareness, ensuring the propagation of positive values for the general equipping of the citizens to better play their roles as citizens. Education is all about knowing the appropriate values and seeking ways of inculcating them or transmitting them to the citizens or may have to do with drawing out the latent qualities which individuals may have and showing how such can be used for the benefit of the generality of the citizens. Education involves learning to acquire knowledge, learning to act, learning to live with others, learning for life (www.dedalos.org). Political education will therefore mean the transmission of political values; in the form of responsibilities, expectations, rewards
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and punishments. This will entail communicating different forms of governance and reasons for choosing one in preference to the other. This will include the knitty-gritty involved in politics. Political education as has been outlined by Ragner Muller will include involvement in politics, independent opinion as well as consensus opinion,

understanding the political gimmicks/rules, ensuring that the good of politics is attained. As Ragner Muller opines, the aim of political education is to get people interested in politics and to lay the foundation which will allow pupils to become responsible citizens by teaching how to analyze and assess a given political situation. This entails the mastery of the political system and how it works. Knowledge will include knowing the political systems, their structures, the way they are run and their functionality and

procedures. Political education means inculcating appropriate skills which will help people to participate in politics in a way that is profitable to all the citizens. This means thinking strategically, broadly, sacrificially, patriotically and actively with an eye on social fairness and solidarity (Ragner Muller: www.dedalos.org).

What is nation-building? Another important concept here is nation-building. Political education done in a vacuum will be a worthless exercise. A worthy political education must be done among other reasons but most importantly for nation-building. This is why we have to consider what we mean by nation-building and what it is all about.

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Wikipedia defines nation-building as the process of constructing or structuring a national identity using the power of the state. This process aims at the unification of the people or peoples within the state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long-run. It goes on to define nation-building in the sense of enhancing the capacity of state institutions, building state-society relations, and also external interventions. The concept of nation-building is often interchanged with statebuilding. Though both have their meeting points, but they are not exactly the same. While state-building expresses more the

strengthening of state institutions in a more gradual and systemic way, nation-building conjures up the idea of a drastic process of regaining nationhood after a colonial rule, war, serious breakdown of national sovereignty and unity, national crises of monumental

proportions, deep ideological crises needing a change, corrupt and inept leadership leading to dilapidated infrastructure and institutions, rudderless government that leaves the ship of state to tether on the brink of total eclipse, welding of many nation states into one as we have with the partition of Africa and the welding of different ethnic nationalities together. As Wikipedia has also noted, nation-building includes the creation of superficial, national paraphernalia such as flags, anthems, national days, national stadiums, national airlines, national languages, national myths and national identities. All

emergent African nations were involved in nation-building in eras succeeding colonial rule. Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Congo, Senegal, Gambia, etc., were involved. All African states, because of the misfortune of colonial rule and bad leadership are still
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engaged in nation-building to different degrees. While some like Ghana, South Africa, Botswana are on the right track, others like Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Congo, Somalia and many others are hanging precariously on the tethers of state failure and superficial survival. This is however, not to say that all hope is lost. Their misfortune can be turned around to become a stimulant for national greatness. Nation-building is again seen as a normative concept that means different things to different people. The latest conceptualization is essentially that nation-building programmes are those in which dysfunctional or unstable or failed states or economies are given assistance in the development of governmental infrastructure, civil society, dispute resolution mechanisms as well as economic

assistance, in order to increase stability and viability. Nation-building is both evolutionary and revolutionary. All nations by age undergo a gradual and often imperceptible evolutionary process of nation-building. Others, because of one crises or the other, need a revolutionary act of nation-building to save a failed or failing state from the brink of total/complete collapse. Revolutionary measures including interventionist and other means are employed to stem the drift into anarchy or complete destitution. Nation-building can be cultural, political, infrastructural. Kennedy School of Government defined nation-building as

Equipping first, nations with the institutional foundation necessary to increase their capacity to effectively assert self-governing powers on behalf of their own economic, social and cultural objectives. Four core
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elements of nation-building identified by them include (1) Genuine self-rule (2) Creating a highly reputable judiciary (3) Cultural identity (4) Strategic orientation and progressive development impetus. Nation-building at times is viewed wholly from the standpoint of the democratization process. This is American and most third worlds views increasing democratization means more effective nationbuilding. It can also be seen as militarization, reconstruction and peace-building. To have a political education curriculum, there is need to have an ideology within whose confines we define the goals and aspirations of the education. Education is about the transmission of worthwhile values for the achievement of set goals (Peters, 102). This means that there has to be sets of specified values which education has to be directed. The ideology sets the ideals of the people is it welfarist, communist, capitalist, naturalist or a mixture of two or more of the above? When this is done, the parameters will be set. Then, we know the broadband on which to begin to establish our ideological frameworks Do we need a system of equality or that of the survival of the fittest? How do we use education policy, ministries, instruments, religion, propaganda, the press, the schools, etc., to achieve this? In Nigeria, there is no systematic political education. This is why the Nigerian polity is so vulnerable to manipulations of cash and carry politicians. This state of affairs is often blamed on the docility of the average Nigerian. But the truth is that the docility and indifference shown by most Nigerians is rather an indication of the absence of political education which would have stimulated consciousness in the
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minds of Nigerians. Nigerians are so apolitical because they have been dazed by repeated disappointments by the ruling class that they now either resort to prayers or take their destiny in their own hands. The political class instead of seeing the inherent danger in this adverse political temperature, are rather exploiting it to their selfish

advantage. The undeveloped nature of civil society makes it even more difficult to articulate a vision and forge an army of sensitive and radically minded civil society the self-appointed civil society leaders are at best opportunists who are waiting on the wings of those in power believing that sooner or later their own turn to exploit will come. This means that we are yet to have true leaders of the people. Those now in the saddle are half-baked and unready to pay the price of unrelenting resistance of misrule. Effective political education can be achieved through external interventionism, or through sincere government planned, sponsored and executed political education or alternatively, it has to be through the opposition of mass national movements organized and led by sincere patriots it could be through the organization of the working class and the non-working class of the oppressed and down trodden. In recent times, we have witnessed the protest of a group known as Save Nigeria Group (SNG) led by Prof. Wole Soyinka, Pastor Tunde Bakare and others. This is the beginning of something remarkable in the polity. This project is snowballing into a mass protest which is likely to see a positive turn of events in Nigeria.

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Any way, before we undertake political education, there must be political space for free speech, there must be political organs of dissemination of information like Radios, Televisions, Seminars,

Workshops to which the mass of the people have access. There must not be recriminations and governmental actions which tend to intimidate and stifle freedom of speech and association. In Ghana, for instance, every University has its own Radio Station, Radio ATL in Cape Coast University, Radio Universe in University of Ghana, Windy Bay Radio at the University of Education Winneba, Focus FM is located at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Eagle FM at the Cape Coast Polytechnic, Ghana. This makes it possible for students who are the future leaders to participate both at the information-receiving level and at the policyinput level to contribute to nation-building. The average Ghanaian seem to be more politically conscious than the average Nigerian. This state of affairs must change.

The Concomitants of full and sound political education include the following: Full Adult Suffrage, Voting Rights, Right to aspire to any office, Freedom from electoral intimidation, Exclusion through fraud, Freedom from tribal marginalization,
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Principle of fairness/Rotation and Zoning, Freedom from prejudice, Principle of Election not selection, Truly independent Electoral Commission unbiased umpire, Non-politicized military and paramilitary forces, Quick dispensation of electoral justice by unpoliticized judiciary, Need for a Council for Political Education, Mass Literacy Campaign, etc. To achieve the type of political education we are yearning for, we must like Eisenhower Dwight, who was President of Columbia University in 1952 insist that education must be placed on the front burner (Political Education: National Policy comes of age Christopher T. Cross). This will entail a proper supervision of what goes in our schools. This will mean ensuring that teachers teach the right things. It will go beyond the routine visit of National Universities Commission to Universities. It will include direct intervention/inspection by the National Assembly by going to see facilities in schools and recommending quality assurance policies and facilities and instilling maintenance culture in Chief Executives of Schools: Provision of internet facilities, office electricity, pipe-borne water, good roads, and

classrooms,

accommodation,

equipped

laboratories

language studios, equipped libraries, hostels, are a must if our tertiary institutions countries.
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must

catch

up

with

sister-institutions

in

developed

Political Education For National Defence Political education should go beyond mere rebranding. It has to include a conscientious attempt to instill true patriotism in the citizenry through the provision of democracy dividends. How many Nigerians will be ready to die for Nigeria? There is therefore need for reeducation, reevaluation of our present values, reeducating the educators. Creating both conducive and enabling environment for our students. Our children should be mobilized to have a stake in national survival by getting them involved in the political process. Such issues as principles of bargaining, interests and fairness, should be inculcated. The electorate must be taught the uses of referendum It could be used as an excellent barometer to test the political atmosphere for knowing the wishes of the people puts the voter in a position to give his considered opinion/judgment on a given political issue (Appadorai, 543).

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VORTEX OF POLITICAL EDUCATION

Bertrand Russell writing in his Principle of Social Reconstruction, sees education as the strongest force on the side of what exists and against fundamental change. The power of education in forming character and opinion is very great and very generally recognized. Education should be accessible to both children and adult as a way of fashioning their minds in line with the needed ethos of the society (Russell, 100). We wish to recommend that any viable political education will include the following; 1. 2. 3. Constitutional Education. Citizenship Education (Rights and Privileges/Responsibilities). Crime against the nation, citizens, humanity and the punishment commensurate to each offence. 4. On the electoral process.

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5.

On voting rights/the inviolability of voters as deciders of who rules.

6.

Laws against corruption Nepotism, imposition of candidates, favouritism, godfatherism, sit-tightism, oppression, suppression of freedom of speech, bribery, compromising of standard values, corruption of the judiciary, etc.

7. 8.

Monitoring of rulers performance through participation. Constructive criticism and getting involved in political change.

Why do we need political education? The inherited atavistic colonial mentality of Nigerian indigenous bourgeoisie have continued to dog our development strides. The small seemingly harmless crop of Nigerians to whom the Colonial Masters handed over the baton of leadership soon discovered the honey that is latent in leadership hence Sarduanas counsel to his Northern kindred to always seek the political kingdom from which other things will be added unto them. Ever since, this small cabal of black exploiters of the black have continued their deleterious proselytization and

evangelization of the Nigerian people. Their ranks have continued to grow that today we have a grand swell of this almost indomitable new class of Nouveau riche that are fast entrenching themselves firmly on the polity of our nation. And through political evangelization, indoctrination and nefarious conscription, Nigeria is fast becoming the patrimony of these multi-ethnic cabal represented by the ruling party. Worst still is the growth of this cabal through in-breeding. Nigeria is becoming a legacy to be transferred from parents to their offspring.
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Already one of their kingpins has mooted that there is nothing wrong in decimating the 20 million Niger Deltans if only to allow the remaining 120 million to have peace By slippery slope the argument will soon be taken to the ludicrous level of wishing that the mass poor be eliminated so that the rich can enjoy their loot unmolested. Already this plan is already being canvassed through the government policy of deregulation which simply means starving the poor so that the rich will have more money to share. It is in this urgency that the mass of progressives must rise up to counteract these moves through massive innocuous political education so that the docile, disenchanted and feeble mass of our people can be mobilized to shape an onslaught against this impending catastrophe of total emasculation of the poor. It was Mandela, who in his book, No Easy Walk to Freedom wrote that freedom is never secured on a platter of gold. It is through strategic and unremitting resistance of the oppressor. All progressives must use all means within their power to educate our people on the need to fight this new level of impoverishment and starvation. If Nigeria must survive, then innocuous political education must confront deleterious political education headlong.

Democracy Its Ought and is in Nigeria Democracy cannot be defined but definable in practice by the quality of human operators of it. This is why we have different variants of democracy. To have the ideal type of democracy that is, government run by qualified (in terms of having the moral education, spiritual, political and societal) operators in trust of the majority who elected them in the interest of all and sundry.
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Democracy is an ideal which is so because of its insistence on freedoms, egalitarianisms, fraternities, equality and fairness. That freedom of speech, association, movement, etc, equality before the law, access to the highest position of ones qualification without prejudice, discrimination or rejection on the grounds of birth, colour, race, sex or political affiliation. There is the expectation of freedom to participate in politics to ones highest ability. Again, there is the expectation and knowledge that ones continued retention in political position is founded on continued performance. A nonperforming candidate can be voted out in any season of fresh elections. The ideal concept of democracy is the ought and this is different from what is actually practiced. Efforts should be made to make the is to approximate the ought as much as possible. By so doing we are able to achieve the fairness and good governance which democracy is supposed to provide. The electorate expects to reap the dividends of democracy through the exercise of their franchise. In Nigeria, democracy is the rule of the mighty and privileged, for the privileged at the expense of the majority whose votes do not count. Any meaningful political education must equip the citizens with the psychology, power and confidence to assert their rights and to ensure that those who rule do so in trust and to the satisfaction of the majority or all for whom government is instituted in the first place. The brazen robbery of mandates, public funds and political structures to the dismay of the ruled is unacceptable.

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Political

education

therefore

needs

to

be

systematic,

comprehensive, reinforcing and progressive. As new issues surface in the polity, they should be discussed and ventilated to obtain the response of the people. For this to happen, there has to be free and compulsory education, at least to secondary school level, while tertiary education should be made accessible and affordable. The following features should be put in place as a way of facilitating our practice of democracy;

Mass media There should be a well organized, funded mass media newspapers, Radio, TV., etc., through which the citizens can ventilate their views on national issues and these should be received as ingredients by appropriate bodies for the formulation of ideas, policies, programmes that lead to the better delivery of democracy dividend to the people.

Local Assemblies - Since the Nigerian polity is still politically undeveloped, there is the need for frequent enlightenment

programmes targeted at keeping the masses abreast with the activities of government. This should be handled at the ward levels. This is actually what the huge Constituency votes collected by the honourable members of the National Assembly should be used to achieve among others like infrastructural development and

sponsorship of indigent students in their constituencies.

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Vibrant Opposition - Democracy is democracy only if it allows for divergent opinions and provide room for constructive opposition. No party in power should through a deliberate programme stifle the opposition of the critical voice necessary for balanced administration. A minimum of two and maximum of four political parties should be allowed. It is also important that the fewer the better in order to forge a strong and virile opposition which will make the party in power to remain steadfast in the execution of its programmes for the people. Political education within democratic setting should therefore address constitutional issues like the Supremacy of the Constitution subject to constant reviews because Constitution is made for man and not man for Constitution. Perceived lapses in the Constitution can be corrected provisionally by the Legislature. A situation where a sitting and ailing President refuses to transmit a letter for his Vice to act on his behalf is an aberration especially when the Constitution is used as the excuse. Fundamental objectives of State policy must be clearly expressed, the fundamental rights, the operatives and limitations of the legislature, elections, power and control over public funds, the functions of the Federal Executive Council (this all important Council should not be appointed by the incumbent President but membership should be for all ex-Presidents and their Vice, ex-Chief Judges of the nation, ex-Inspector Generals of Police, ex-Chief of Army Staff and notable Sectional Leaders who can defend their people) and have a sense of national priority in their outlook. The functions of the judiciary and all the anti-corruption bodies these provisions should be included in what we teach (1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria).
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Political education is not static but dynamic. It is part of the total evolution of a people and a nation. It evolves from the experience of the people. It therefore behoves the people to articulate, record and pedagogize their experiences for solving present problems and in facing and possibly averting future challenges. The challenges Nigeria has borne in the course of statehood and in nurturing a viable democracy is both stupendous and variegated. I am optimistic that if Nigeria will patiently go through her present travails, she is sure to come off the stronger for it. The Holy writ rightly says Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations but let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. And there is an Igbo adage that says that a mighty iroko is only established by the variety and fierceness of winds it had withstood in its process of growth.

Integrative Humanism and Its Place In Political Education The Nigerian experience has exposed the many sides of a Nigerian. He can be docile to the extreme but can be very reactive and forceful when pushed to the wall. The saga of YarAduas ill health has taught Nigerians many lessons. It is a lesson in integrative humanism. A lesson in human ambivalence. It teaches the place of political expediency and the permanent interest in the political permutations that go on in human society. We have learnt that there is a place for the divine and a place for humans. We first prayed for YarAdua and then took decisive political actions to bring about the wind of change that is blowing across the nation now.
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We have learnt the limitations of docility and the need for us to take our destiny in our hands. It therefore behoves us to articulate the worthy lessons and teach our youth so that they do not repeat the mistakes of their forbears. We have learnt the fruitlessness of taking the masses for granted and the unwisdom in squandering the goodwill, love, magnanimity and religiosity of the people as YarAdua has done. A seasoned political actor must learn to throw in the towel before the anticlimax sets in. Also, we have learnt that it pays to be on the side of truth because we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. Notables like Prof. Soyinka, Prof. Akunyili, Pastor Bakare, and others have acquitted themselves well as being on the side of truth. Our political education curriculum should take note of the selfishness of man, mans proneness to the attitude of State of nature, that of self preservation, tendency to domination. Our Constitution should be reviewed from time to time to take care of lapses discovered in the course of nation-building. It is pathetic that a minority Vice President cannot be allowed as Acting President not to talk of becoming a substantive President. This is a sad lesson in political education and has to be reversed. To solve this problem, the principle of rotation should be enshrined in the Constitution. The need to break the hegemony of Hausa-Fulani dominance and the tiny cabal that holds the whole nation by the jugular should be consciously pursued by the civil society and the true democratic forces of our dear country. Or in the alternative, we should route for true federalism with a weak centre so the state will
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go back and harness the resources with which they are endowed. The true application of integrative humanism is to always bear in mind that at times man may need to be forced to embrace what is best for him. This is only possible if man can through ratio-spirito-centric perception come to understand what his true happiness consists in. YarAdua for instance, does not know that taking a bow out of government to take care of his health is in his overall interest. Other saner (more reasonable) beings should force him to toe the path of honour.

Conclusion: We have tried to show the ambit (scope) of an ambitious political education curriculum. It remains for policy makers to ensure full implementation. Political education must therefore be fully articulated and made compulsory from the primary to the tertiary levels of education. A conscious, enlightened, spiritually energized and politically mobilized electorate will stand for their rights anywhere, anytime. It is only such enlightened and proactive citizenry that can see ahead through the smoke-screen of bigotry, fanaticism, divide and rule, chicanery, manipulation, nepotism, self interest, hypocrisy and unpatriotic

measures that is the stock in trade of our present political leadership. We must be enlightened and politically active to insist that it is one man, one vote, that rigging is unconscionable, that godfatherism is a taboo and that corruption is anathema if we are going to build the nation of our dream. Nigeria has the potentials of becoming the most
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powerful, successful, prosperous and progressive nation if through political education people are made to play by the rules. Democracy is a game and like other games, has its own rules. If the rules are followed, we are going to reap the dividends of democracy. Our lesson in integrative humanism is teaching us that man is both a physical and a divine project. Physical and spiritual laws govern what happens to him. It is ignorance of this fact that leads people to resort to rigging and other devious ways of achieving success. We see politicians who use fellow human beings for rituals falling by the assassins bullets, others who rigged having different political

challenges it is therefore very obvious that it is what a man sows that he reaps. Man is a being unto eternity, he must consider his probationary sojourn on earth as only a transitory test ground to determine his wisdom as he engages in existential decisions. This truth should be drummed into the hearts of men to effect a more harmonious earthly existence.

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References Agi, S.P.I., An Approach to the Study of Organization of Government, Calabar: Wusen Press, 2003. Akinpelu, An Introduction to Philosophy Macmillan Publishers, 1981. of Education, London:

Appadorai, A., The Substance of Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 (ed). Bassey, Celestine, Ozumba Godfrey, Political Science: An Introductory Reader, Calabar: Wusen Press, 2006. Cohen, Jean L. and Arato, Andrew, Civil Society and Political Theory, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1994. Dukor, Maduabuchi, Philosophy and Politics. Lagos: Obaroh and Ogbinaka Publishers, 1998. Harris, Kevin, Teachers and Classes: A Marxist Analysis, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. Irele, Dipo, Introduction to Political Philosophy, Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press, 1998. Joseph, Richard A., Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Kukah, Matthew Hassan, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria, Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 2002. Mandela, Nelson, No Easy Walk to Freedom, Edinburgh: Heinemann Educational Books, 1990. Nwagugo, J.U., Comparative Education, Lagos: Obaroh and Ogbinaka Publishers Ltd. 1999. Ozumba, G.O., Eteng Felix, Okom Mike, Nigerian Education, Aba: AAU Vitalis Book Company, 1999. Citizenship

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Peters, R.S., Education as Initiation, in Philosophical Analysis and Education, Ed. R.D. Archambault, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972. Peters, R.S., The Concept of Education, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973. Rooney, David, Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy. Accra: SubSaharan Publishers, 2007. Russell, Betrand, Principles of Social Reconstruction, London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1980. Schofield, Harry, The Philosophy of Education: An Introduction, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1972. Woods, R.G. and Barron, R.C., An Introduction to Philosophy of Education, London: Methuen Publishers, 1997.

Internet Sources
Cross T. Christopher, Political Education, National policy comes of age, http://books.google.com, 8/2/10 Muller, Ragner, The Fundamentals of http://www.dadalos.org/politic, 8/2/10 Wikipedia, Definition of Political Education. Political Education,

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CHAPTER NINE
NEOCOLONIALISM AND IMPACT ON NIGERIAS ECONOMIC GROWTH
INTRODUCTION Our concern in this paper is to delineate what we mean by neocolonialism and to see what impact it is having on Nigerias economic growth. We must say that the question of economic growth is very paramount as that determines whether Nigeria is making progress or not, whether she is marching forward or atrophying economically. We are taking for granted that we understand that economic growth is not an autonomous sphere but the key sector that bears the welfare burden of the populace though having socio-political, legal, and religious underpinnings. The concept of neo-colonialism is also an important concept in understanding both the dynamics and the dialectics (logic) of

development and underdevelopment of third world countries and Nigeria in particular. However, our approach in this paper is to situate the issues on critical platform so as to apportion blames and praise appropriately. Then we shall try to show the way forward to be able to achieve a balanced development and growth among the different nations of the world whether they be poor or rich, colonized or colonizer, dependent or independent. To have a good grasp of the discourse we shall explicate our concepts for better situationing in the matrix of our discourse. We shall
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throw light on the following concepts, namely; neocolonialism and economic growth.

NEOCOLONIALISM Leon Baradat in Political Ideologies, defines neocolonialism as a condition in which wealthy nations gain control of developing states by making vast economic investment in those states (287). We can also define neo-colonialism from its root words neo and colonial meaning new form of colonialism. It is the socio-economic and political relationship between the colonies and the colonizer(s) which keeps alive the exploitative and control mechanism in favour of the colonizers. We have three distinct stages in theories of

development and underdevelopment of third world countries. We have the pre-colonial, the colonial and the post colonial. Neocolonialism is the post-colonial control of colonized nations economies so that profits can be repatriated to the metropolitan countries thereby engendering capital flight and underdevelopment in the colonies. V.I. Lenin calls neocolonialism the highest stage of imperialism. Imperialism is the over lordship of the colonies through neocolonial mechanisms put in place for effective control and exploitation of the colonies. Lenin goes further to state that neocolonialism is not limited to the relationship between owners of colonies and their colonies but also the diverse forms of dependent countries which officially, are politically independent but in fact are in the net of financial and diplomatic dependence (Sterling 222). This means that imperialism and its operative system called neocolonialism in the post colonial era

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did not end with the dismantling of European empires after the end of World War II. In neocolonialism the colonial masters depart but in their place we have indigenous link men who work hand in hand with erstwhile colonizers to continue the exploitation and control of their own countries. They are economic and political saboteurs aiding the exploitation of their countries for their selfish pecuniary benefits at the expense of their countries. They are called petit bourgeoisie or comprador bourgeoisie or middle men or the elite or the agents of neocolonialism. For Sterling, neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism are one and the same thing in so far as they are concerned with the rule by one group over another for the benefit of the ruling group albeit indirectly. These concepts are profoundly germane to the dynamics of

contemporary international politics. These are subtle infiltration of the economy of dependent nation in manner that makes the weak nations more vulnerable and dependent while pretending that the relationship benefits the poor or weaker nations. It is the pursuit of the interests of a developed country in a less developed at the expense of the latter and under the guise of mutual or benevolent consideration (428-425). Lenin and Hobson assert that the flow of capital rather than the course of military conquest are the essence of imperialism and this is still congenial to neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism which Lenin described as the highest stage of imperialism is a situation where diverse forms of dependent countries

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which, officially are politically independent but are in fact in the net of financial and diplomatic dependence (222). The core issue of neocolonialism is the issue of dependence and independence. The question is whether Nigeria and other colonial states can shed their status of semi-colony and achieve authentic national sovereignty. Fidel Castro, Kwame Nkrumah and others had warned against the symptoms and dangers of capitalist-produced neo-colonialism. Today these fears have become a reality. We have seen that behind official western profession of respect for national sovereignty in the underdeveloped world lies concealed the intent to persevere in a policy of domination

indistinguishable in substance from the old imperialism (223). Lenin and Hobson see every export capital as an unambiguous evil that has no redeeming social value. For them, there is nothing like capital without strings- there are always strings between donor and recipient nations. For them capital accumulation on world scale is an expression of greed. This is why Lenin sees private property as evil because it entraps its victims into a net of insatiability which leaves a kleptomaniac of national and unmitigated dimension. This is the bane of Nigeria. The rich have become incurably greedy and the poor are forsaken. This means that neocolonialism confers on the Nigerian people two deadly and implacable enemies, the distant and the near. The distant are the imperialist nations and the latter are home grown imperialists who feature as politicians, contractors and government agents. How then do we escape from these deadly enemies? They are entrenched and so determined that it will take supernatural

intervention to be delivered from their clutches. Schumpeter advances the irrational nature of man as the prime cause of imperialism and
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neo-colonialism. He defines imperialism as the objective disposition on the part of a state to promote unlimited forcible expansion. It is a purely instinctual inclination towards war and conquest (225). It is only spiritual antidote of universal human salvation and regeneration that can deliver man from imperialism, neo imperialism or

neocolonialism and their inherent dangers. This leaves genuine religious bodies to do serious work to bring about a new heart in men both in the developed and less developed or underdeveloped nations. For Nkrumah, neocolonialism represents imperialism in its final and perhaps its most dangerous stage. The essence of neocolonialism is that the state which is subject to it is in theory independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside. (Nkrumah qtd in Echezona 310). Echezona sees the replacement of traditional colonialism by neocolonialism as a concession wrenched from the imperialist by the young nations, but neocolonialism is also an aggregate of more perfidious and hidden methods of imperialist exploitation and an attempt to keep the developing countries within the world capitalist system. The economic basis of neo-colonialism is monopoly capital and the system of state-monopoly capitalism (311). The concept of economic growth is not a

ECONOMIC GROWTH:

simple one to define. This is so because it has many shades and components. One may want to define growth from the point of view of accumulation of capital or from the point of view of Gross Domestic

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Product (GDP) or net domestic product or the growth in real income of workers and citizens. Economic growth can be measured in terms of per capita income, calorie intake, employment capacity, etc. According to Walter Rodney, a society develops or grows; economically as its members increase jointly, their capacity for dealing with their environment. This capacity is dependent on the extent to which they understand the law of nature (science), on the extent to which they put that understanding into practice by devising tools (technology) and on the manner in which work is organized (10). In this work we are using growth and development

interchangeably though there may be some kind of growth that may not amount to development and vice-versa depending on the context of application. But, suffice it to say we want to examine how neocolonialism has impacted on the economic growth or development of Nigeria. We shall also refer to the concept of balanced growth and not one sided or partial sectoral growth. It is only when an economy grows in a balanced way that we can say that meaningful growth has taken place.

NIGERIAS NEO-COLONIAL EXPERIENCE Nigeria like other third world countries was colonized and subsequently integrated into the world capitalist system. What began as a harmless, mutual and cooperative trade relationship in precolonial period later metamorphosed into a colony/colonizer

relationship and subsequently into neo-colonial status. At the precolonial level, relationship was among equals, during colonial period it

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became that of master/servant relationship and in neo-colonial period which is contemporary and current, we are experiencing

inferior/superior relationship with the inferiors deferring to their former superiors more out of fear rather than respect. The erstwhile master now uses carrot and stick approach namely; intimidation, economic and political subterfuges to keep the old colonies still subservient. The artificial formation of Nigeria as a nation state through amalgamation by Lord Lugard in 1941 was the first formal

establishment of a nation ruled by the British crown. The British colonial rule continued until after the gaining of independence by Ghana in 1958. By this time the fire of nationalism had spread across Africa, West Africa and among other colonized nations of the world. The evil of colonialism was becoming by the day too evil to be condoned. Through agitations, demonstrations, non violent protests, violent skirmishes, political propaganda, conscientization, mobilizations and other nationalist movements aggregated to demand the exit of colonial overlords. For Nigeria, this fight came through the spirited fight of nationalists like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, Herbert Macaulay, the Zikists and a host of other nationalists. The gaining of independence in 1960 only secured Nigeria political independence while remaining economically tied to the bootstrap of colonialism. As Frantz Fanon has noted in his The wretched of the Earth, the apotheosis of independence became transformed into the curse of independence and the colonial power through its immense resources of coercion condemns the young nation to regression (77). He continues, in plain words, the colonial power

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says, since you want independence take it and starve (77). Initially the nationalist mustered the will to look inward and to mobilize their people to gear up for self rule and for self determination and sufficiency in food production and self government. This was not to last for a long time because though the colonial masters left, they left stooges behind-this led to the neo-socio-economic and political relationship called neo-colonialism. The stringent economic consequence of withdrawal of western rule and their finance capital began to bite hard that many colonies decided to go back to their former colonial masters to renegotiate terms of economic dependence. This was joyfully granted with exploitative conditionality. This conditionality was viewed by the new indigenous rulers (now elevated from the middle class to the upper class) as a lesser evil which will enhance their private economic interests though will negatively affect the mass of their people and their net national economy. Edwin Madunagu has the following to say, the resultant economic boom of the 1970s made the love of Nigeria an ideological imperative for those who are in the position to plunder it collectively (12). Through the manipulation of western powers this ephemeral nationalism and patriotism became negated by the imposed framework of neo-colonialism. To buttress this ambivalence of the Nigeria bourgeois, Madunagu declares that; the nationalism of the bourgeosis can only be described as contradictory and ambiguous.. its commitment to foreign

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investment is the outcome of its concrete dependence on neo-colonial political economy (12). The above state of affairs has created a monstrous hegemonic bourgeoisie that are controlling the national resources in proxy for the erstwhile colonial masters. This is why Nigerias military and politicians collude with multinationals to cause capital flight. How else can we explain the madness of stashing millions and billions of naira in the

foreign countries while millions die in abject poverty? Frantz Fanon, in what he calls the geography of poverty shows how nations with political independence have nothing to show for their independence but hunger, underdevelopment, inhuman treatment with the European nations sprawling in ostentatious opulence (76). The colonial masters withdrew their capital, technicians and then mounted economic pressure on these poor third world nations to cause capitulation and the need to go cap in hand begging for aid, investment and assistance. This request is granted on favourable terms of trade for the European nations. Rich nations get richer while poor nations get poorer. The indigenous bourgeois collaborations also get richer while their Kith and Kin get poorer but with the same adamant heart inherited from the Europeans watch their kith and kin die in hunger and penury. Samir Amin in his Accumulation on a world scale, systematically analyses the mechanism of the exploitation of the colonies by the metropolitan nations from trade, slave trade, manufactured goods, to the establishment of multinational cooperation and the resultant accumulation of capital on world scale.

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He began by talking of unequal international specialization and the international flow of capital. This is what he calls the capitalism of the centre and the capitalism of the periphery. This is the taking over of pre-colonial mode of production by a more exploitative colonial and neo-colonial mode of production. Here monopolies are formed at the centre while the periphery serves as the supplier of under valued raw materials and the consumer of the expensive finished product. From raw material to finished product, there is exploitation and there is unequal exchange (37-136). Because of this unequal international division of labour, the periphery of which Nigeria is among has been inhibited from devising its technology which can make it self-reliant and economically viable and independent. The consequence is the disarticulation of our economy. There is no systemic productive holism which can dispose Nigeria to articulate or fashion a technology that can start and finish a productive process without reference to western assistance. Attempt to transfer, borrow, steal technology has failed because it is culture bound and necessity driven. Chase Dunn on his own part theorizes about the capitalist world economy, he uses the Wallersteinian world system approach.

Wallerstein assumes that each world system has only one mode of production. Our present world system therefore has only the capitalist mode of production. This means that all nations of the world are willynilly integrated or incorporated into the capitalist world system or mode of production. This means that Nigeria is already integrated into the world capitalist system. He talks of state centric exploitation, that

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is,

the

mechanism

through

which

states

serve

as

predatory

accumulators of wealth or capital-this is done through taxes, levies, payment for service, rendered, through buying and selling of goods from and to private individuals or states (116). Chase Dunn talks about core-periphery relations all these constitute neo-colonial

relationship. Quoting Amin he describes core capitalism as selfproducing relatively integrated capitalist accumulation whereas

peripheral capitalism is understood as a disarticulated regional economy which is highly dependent on imports from and exports to the core (208). With what has been said so far, it is clear that Nigeria has been peripherialized and subjected to a position of dependency in world capitalist system.

THE ROLE OF NIGERIA ELITE IN PERENNIAL SUBJUGATION OF NIGERIAN ECONOMY TO NEO-COLONIAL WORLD CAPITALIST SYSTEM The elite are simply defined as a group regarded as superior, favoured connected, learned or well positioned in the socio-economic and political strata of the society. The elite may also come from powerful but no-so educated strata of the society. These are people that through their wealth have become well connected and committed to remaining economically and for politically relevant in the scheme of things. These include business merchants, contractors, big time thugs and political godfathers. In Nigeria the middle class is fast disappearing. People now either belong to the elite class or the impoverished class. The working class has become impoverished and so are the small scale business
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men and women. The polarization has been accentuated by the get rich syndrome which has been made easy through politics. This is why today many Nigerian are leaving their trades, careers, businesses and other professional callings to answer the uncalled or self-call into politics. There exists a hotchpotch of criminality ranging from (419) advanced fee fraud, illicit trade on hard drugs and narcotics and the contractors- swindlers and their political kingpins who award phony contracts to their agents all as means of systematic and unremitting drain pipe for embezzlement. These elite now collaborate with imperial powers to dupe and milk our economy through petrol-dollar business. The heightening incidence of oil bunkering and the destruction of our refineries only to import refined oil are all sabotaging illicit deals the elite accomplished with their imperial overlords who supply the technology while Nigerians supply the criminal enabling environment. The present political dispensation has opened our eyes to the network of neo-colonial links that has bolstered capital flight. This is found in oil sector, solid mineral, privatization of Nigerian public utilities, communications industry and in the supply of military and paramilitary hard and soft wares. Tell magazine of September 2005 presents Orji Uzor Kalu as accusing Obasanjo as being corrupt. He specifically accused Obasanjo as using fronts to make money for himself from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) through the sale of crude oil (21). This is probably why this administration is not in a hurry to repair the nations refineries. Orji
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Uzor Kalu described the presidents anti corruption crusade as a charade. He alleged that Obasanjo has similar fronts who collected commissions on the sale of Ajaokuta steel company and Delta steel company under the privatization exercise by the Bureau of public enterprises (BPE). He was also accused of using tax payers money to build Bells secondary school and Bells University of Technology (Tell 21). If the president can be stupendously corrupt then what about his followers- ministers, governors, local government chairmen and other politicians. It is simply like father like son. Today, we hear of government officials involved in money laundry-governors

Alamesiagha and Dariye are cases in point. Others like Saraki have been accused by buying multimillion dollars housing apartments in London and other places. The nation has already been milked to death. And the hands of our politicians are dripping with cash and the blood of the innocent masses. Governors Ladoja, Turaki have been dragged to EFCC (Economic and Financial Crime Commission) for having the chief

foreign accounts (Tell 27). The massive corruption of

security officer of the nation Mr. Tafa Balogun is still very fresh in our minds. With the putting in place of the EFCC and the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices Commission), one may ask whether this is another subterfuge to hoodwink and confuse the mass of our people that something is done about corruption. What happens is that the thieving EFCC agents catches the thieving politician and steals from him and the thieving continues unabated.

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One may ask how neo-colonialism comes in, in all these corrupt practices. We must mention that if there is no buyer, the seller will go into extinction. Our incorporation into the world capitalist economy has created the appetite and thirst for western life style and ostentatious existence. Western banks collaborate with these thieving elite to encourage money laundering and stashing away of our monies out of the country, multinational corporations encourage looting of our economy for dual purposes, namely to keep us perpetually dependent and as capital support for their already developed nations. In third world countries, they use internally generated profits for the

operations of their businesses since they are afraid of bringing in their capital because of political instability. They also sell their finished products to Nigerians who have stolen their nations money- it is a vicious circle of the thief and the supplier of weapons of stealing or providers of wares to be bought with stolen money. In the second and third Republics, a lot of debt was owed the world bank, the Paris club, the London club, international monetary fund all through subversive loans granted wilfully to thieving governors and agents of

governments by these bodies. These bodies knew the hungry Nigerians will steal them but gave them to tie us to their economic apron string.

THE WAY FORWARD Prescriptions will not do, for we know the root cause of our national woes. They are two major causes namely, bad leadership and corruption. It is those that have given rise to other vices like lack of patriotism, ethnicity, nepotism, poverty, etc. A good leader will stamp
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out corruption and as corruption goes, then our abundant resources can be well utilized to supply the need of the masses, this will create spontaneous patriotism and eliminate embezzlement of public funds and other vices. This means that the prayer of Nigerians should be that God should send us a God fearing leader who knows his onions and has courage, the will, illuminations, the integrity and morals to lead by example by decimating the giant of corruption which has dogged our steps from colonial times.

CONCLUSION We have seen that neo-colonialism is the aftermath of a colonial economy with a reluctant colonial master who is unwilling to let go his erstwhile colony. This control is now done through subtle, convert and overt, manipulation which leaves her colonies still dependent on her. Nigeria is one such nation, can we break loose? Can we stand alone? Can we, inspite of the consequences maintain an autarkic relationship with our colonial powers? Having been integrated into the capitalist system, can we survive independently? The answer is no, but we can burst the shell of over dependence and retrogression through good leadership, prudent management of resources, and equitable distribution of resources among citizens which will heighten patriotism and dispose the citizens to meaningful collective hard work which will bring about the needed growth with development as against our present growth without development.

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CHAPTER TEN
THE IDEOLOGY OF THE SUPERPOWER AND INFRINGEMENT ON NATIONS SOVEREIGNTIES INTRODUCTION This work attempts to analyse the ideology of the superpower nations and how this leads them to infringe on nations

sovereignties. Our position here is that most superpowers originally in the cold war era saw rationality from the spectacles of their ideologies either as capitalism or communism. Today, with the collapse of communism, rationality is seen from the point of view of vested interests and the desire to have allies. We argue that though the dangers of the cold war years seem to have been attenuated by the present day multilateral alignments among the nations, the invidious cancerous finger of the cold war dangers are still very much with us. We, therefore, advocate a serious political and military consensus on the reduction of strategic arms, Armaments, warheads, and dangerous weapons. Also, there is need to provide the United Nations

Organization more veto powers to superintend over world affairs without being manipulated by any or some superpowers as is currently the case. The ideology of the superpower and the infringement on nations sovereignty is a phenomenon that has always been there having its root in depraved human nature. Man by nature is a dominating, self assertive being. What are nations but congeries of men sharing different national boundaries? What is latent and expressive in man is the same among nations.
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According to Thomas Hobbes, in his Social Contract Theory, man in the state of nature is guided by one law, which is the law of self preservation. The state of nature as he painted it was characterized by strife, conflict and war. It was a period when might was right. This

turbulence left men in a disquieting state where life was brutish, nasty, poor and short. This depraved innate human nature is reflected in mans tendency to dominate, oppress, alienate, subdue and Lord over others. Inherent in this psycho-social trait is the tendency to fear, suspicion and proactive measures to counter real and imagined fears. If we go back into history, we shall find that the history of the world is nothing but the account of wars among nations, the ascendancy and supremacy of nations and their eventual decline and degeneracy. We know that we had the periods of Assyrian, Medo-Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Roman ascendancy. All in their turn dominated world politics and exercised over-whelming control over world affairs-but true to the apothegm that no condition is permanent they took their turn in attaining their apogees and the decline that came inevitably. True to bible prophecy no nation has been able to muster enough weight to singly dominate world politics. What we have today is multicentric core, that is, super powers with the United States of America, exercising a somewhat high influence. At the centre of world politics, we have world powers like United States of America, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, Canada, etc. This means that no one nation can unilaterally lord it over the rest.

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What this paper seeks to explore is the ideology behind the policies of the superpowers and how they result in the infringement of the sovereignty of other less powerful nations. The world can be broadly partitioned into three; namely; the world powers or the developed nations, the medium ranged powers or the fairly developed and the underdog nations or less developed (or appropriately described as underdeveloped because their present state is not accidental but created by the exploitative machinations of the imperial powers/colonialists that exploited the now called less developed nations). We call them the first, the second and the third world countries. These exploitations, marginalizations, subjugations still continue today in diverse but highly electric and computerized manner that the more the third world nations try to extricate themselves from the tenterhooks of the exploitative machinery of the western powers, the deeper they sink into the mire of

underdevelopment and entanglement. To have a proper understanding of the subject matter of this discourse the following, terms are in need of concise explication, namely; ideology, superpower and sovereignty.

Explication of terms Ideology as a term of various meanings is said to have been coined by Antoine Destutt de Tracy an aristocratic sympathizer of the French Revolution. It means science of ideas concerned with

unprejudiced study of ideas. (Edim. 76) Mannheim in his Ideology and Utopia sees ideologies as situationally transcendent ideas which never succeed defacto in the realization of their project contents (P. 239).

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Ideologies direct people to political action and give them a general guide to what must be done (Bateman et al, 68-69). According to Ukpe, Ideology is a form of belief about man and his society. The term ideology was first used in the late eighteenth century to mean the study of ideas (Ukpe 8). Rodel quoted in Ukpe defines ideology as ideas that are logically related (idea-logic) and that identify those principles or values that add legitimacy to political

institutions and behaviours (8). Ideology is said to give unity of thought, interest, knowledge, judgment and action to members of a given polity. Ideology is therefore the systematization of ideas, world views, practices and beliefs in order to provide a fuller, broader and more comprehensive view of reality with the view of achieving a better appreciation of, and tackling of problems incidental to human existence. The problem with ideology is that it has suffered bastardization more than any political term or concept. Its meaning and political conveyance flowing from two extremes of acceptance to nonacceptance, virtue to vice, positive to pejorative and seen as a political conceptual tool for political gerrymandering. What a group calls ideology, its opponents call fascism and conservatism. Ideology is therefore the articulation of the class in power for the purpose of self justification. For example, the Marxists, look at capitalist ideology in a derogatory way. In the same manner, the capitalists look at Marxism, socialism and communism as an unrealistic, Utopian contrivance produced to serve the empty dreams of radical ideologues.

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This means that ideology has no fixed meaning but rather is a reflection of the interests of the definer. For example, a Marxist seeing a female prostitute on the street will see her as a victim of capitalist exploitation while a capitalist will see the prostitute as a quintessence of capitalist liberalism.

SUPERPOWER By superpower, we refer to all nations that have attained a high measure of world prowess in terms of economic, political and military capability, independence and influence. We mean nations that can stand their own militarily, economically and politically. It can be seen as those nations that have acquired weapons of mass destruction or that have acquired advanced technological know-how which has placed them among developed nations. Technological process in terms of military height is one of the sure parameters for designating a nation as a superpower. For example, Russia is not economically as viable as the United State of America but it is a world power because it has the milito-technological might that makes her a force to be reckoned with in the world scheme of things. This is why nations like Iran, North Korea are bent on joining the rat race to become powers to be reckoned with. This is evinced in their building of nuclear reactors, testing of their warheads, etc. The next concept is sovereignty.

SOVEREIGNTY: sovereignty simply means harbinger of supreme authority. Ogbinaka defines sovereignty as a political concept as follows:

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As the supreme political authority and power of the state or its agents over all other institutions, persons or materials within the given state (257). For Jean Bodin, sovereignty is a supreme power over citizens and subjects unrestrained by law, however, the sovereign is limited only by the law of God (257). The question is where does this sovereign authority or power reside? Is it in the state, its agents, institutions or in the masses? The question can only be answered from the point of view of the kind of political arrangement that is in place. For Appadorai, sovereignty means supremacy and may be defined as the power of the state to make laws and enforce them with all the means it cares to employ. It means independence from foreign control (p. 12). For John Locke, sovereign power resides with the people while for Hobbes it is with the absolute monarch. For Marx, it is with the proletariat or the working class. For Rousseau it is in the general will of the nation. For Plato, it is in the philosopher king and for Aristotle, it is with the aristocrats. In a democracy sovereignty is exercised in trust by the three tiers of government but final sovereignty still rests with the people who voted their representatives, into power. We, therefore, have dejure (possessor as of right) and defacto (possessor of execution). One may have sovereign power without knowing it or putting it into effect. Again, we must note that the concept of sovereignty is multi-applicative as it applies to individuals, groups,

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communities, nations, institutions, etc. But in this concept, we are looking at it from the point of view of nations. Having defined the terms we shall examine the ideology that informs the infringement of nations sovereignties by superpowers.

THE IDEOLOGY OF SUPERPOWERS As we have already hinted in the foregoing section, ideology is a set of ideas that condition the thinking and practice of a people, a nation, institution or group of people or comity of nations. Here, we are talking of the kind of reasoning, justification, postulation and assumption that underlie the overt mannerisms and actions of the superpowers. It is proper at this juncture to state that to achieve the superpower status is not a simple feat. It takes, sheer will, hard work, assertiveness, educational attainments, military conquest and

challenge, political engineering, economic emancipation and fecundity and achievement of generally high standard of existence, prowess and invincibility. No nation attains this height by accident or by consensual conferment or honorary award; it is by dint of hard work, struggle, vision, patriotism, courage, purposefulness and a conscious effort by the leader and members of the nation to seek and pursue the honour of world recognition, acclaim and prominence. It therefore stands to reason that no nation having attained such a hard won recognition will support, encourage or provide leverage for any other nation to walk, as it were, leisurely into the bracket of the coveted position. It is through fire and brimstone. As soon as a nation
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is able to pay the price; it automatically admits itself into this club of the mighty and invincible. The corollary of the attainment of the world power status is to 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Look down on other nations. Dictate to other less privileged nations. Have them as allies to bolster their superpower status. Exploit them. To extend their economic political tentacles to other To control, manipulate, infiltrate and create a nations. dependent

status. 7. 8. 9. Ensure that the less privileged nations do not grow economically. Brain wash them into thinking that they are never-do-wells. Dislocate (MNCs). 10. Tie them to their apron string through aid, grants and loans with suffocating conditionalities. 11. Checkmate, police and dictate who rules in the dependent nations. This shows that the superpowers deal with the less powerful nations with the psyche of superiority, master-servant relationship, rational versus irrational interpretation. They see the poor or less privileged nations as ordained to serve and provide satellite services
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their

economy

through

multinational

corporations

for the sustenance of their colonial masters. The colonial master knows what is good for the colonies. The colonies are not fit to handle intricate matters, technologies, politics and other issues, rather, they must be dictated to, helped, bullied, chastised, tinkered into shape when recalcitrant, since, the colonies do not have the military might, they are only to be seen and not heard. The superpowers of our time are now evincing the same mentality and they decide the worlds fate without seeking the opinion of the poor independent nations. The ideology of the superpowers must be seen from the point of view of superiority complex, divine ordination to rule and as being in possession of the objective canons of rationality which they feel mandated to use in their relationship with other nations. Superpower nations (the G8) of America, Britain, France, Canada, Russia, Germany, Japan and China see themselves as blessed among nations, as and having the prerogative to determine how the world should be run. This is why they are each struggling to become regional powers and to draw to themselves smaller nations as allies. We have witnessed the unsolicited infringement of some of these nations upon the sovereignties of poor nations. We can trace the infringement experienced by nations like Azerbarjan, Kazakhstan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Croatia, Montenegro, Estonia, Serbia, Georgia, Slovakia,

Slovania, Tajikistan, Turmenistan, Ukraine, Uzlekistan, etc., from Russia. We have America trying to control all the South American and Central American nations like Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, and others like Mexico, Jamaica,
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Elsalvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela. We have Japan and China wanting to control countries like Tibet, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. We have

Germany, exercising some form of overlordship over Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, etc. France is still having a firm hold on her colonies like Cameroon, Togo, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Sudan, Niger, Algeria. Britain is still controlling her former colonies Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Egypt, etc. The above state of affairs notwithstanding, each of these world powers seeks outpost countries for strategic reasons. We see America doting on Turkey, Georgia at the door steps of Russia. We see Russia controlling Cuba at the door post of United States of America, we see Britain in Falkland in South America and in far away Hong Kong and Taiwan. India as an emerging power is gradually closing up on nations around her like Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka, Nepal. The above picture shows that the World is divided into blocks of superpowers and their stooges, their allies and outpost countries. This clearly displays mans natural tendency to posture for war, to subdue, rule and Lord it over others and above all to ensure that it keeps its possessions in the spirit of the first law of human nature that of self preservation. From self preservation we have the quest to conquer as a more proactive weapon towards self preservation. The problem is the inherent contradiction involved in self preservation- it leads to a

situation of tension, suspicion, intrigues, which results in conflict and war as the anti-thesis and then, a simmering faade of peace as the

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synthesis and then the circle of preservation, conflict, war and peace continues.

CASES OF INFRINGEMENT OF SUPERPOWERS ON NATIONS SOVEREIGNTY It is evident and crystal clear that the world has indeed again split into two classes, the-haves and the-have-nots, the rich and the poor, the colonizers and the colonized, the strong and the weak, etc. The strong is seen as a colossus trampling on nations with reckless abandon. There is threat, intimidation, coercion, outright war,

extermination, sabotage, economic sanctions, blockade, etc., as some of the weapons of infringement of superpowers on the sovereignty of weaker nations. Examples abound in todays world of the dastardly infringement of superpowers on the sovereignty of other nations. Nazi Germany under Hitler exterminated 6 million Jews without feeling a hoot about it. The war of attrition in Iraq is another case in point. There is war in Afghanistan, there was war at Nicaragua, there were wars in parts of Africa namely; Sudan, Eritrea, Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Niger, Chad, Namibia, Angola, etc. with western countries masterminding it all to keep these nations subservient and also as avenues to sell their weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was accused of having weapons of mass destruction. On this trumped up charge, Iraq was besieged and humiliated and the conflagration is still on. Afghanistan has been decimated in the chase of Osama Bin Laden and the army of Bin Laden. The consequences are that innocent lives are lost, infrastructure destroyed, fear, uncertainty are entrenched.
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The worst is that the pervading atmosphere is that of fear, terror, uncertainty and the introduction of unorthodox warfare (suicide bombing) polarization along religious lines Christian and Muslims, theists versus atheists. These are very dangerous trends in world politics. We are fast leaving the shore of balance of power to balance of terror. The world is becoming increasingly unsafe. The face-off between Israel and Palestine is another very dangerous development in these issues of infringement on the sanctity of a nations sovereignty. The most ridiculous part of what is happening is the blindfolding of parties to these very unhealthy schemes to the increasing unsafety of the world. Each nation sees rationality from its innocuous standpoint and blames its opponents as being in the wrong. It should be noted that if this state of affairs is not checked, we may not be able to escape another worldwide Holocaust. There is therefore need for caution, restraint, objective rationality, consideration and fair play and justice if we are going to have a world that will be free of strife, catastrophe and wars. This is where the principle of integrative humanism comes in. We now ask, what do we stand to gain, as humans, from these intrigues and wanton destruction of human lives. Are our earthly and eternal well-being bettered by this senseless display of mans inhumanity to fellow human beings? In every war situation both the aggressor and the aggressee suffer as human beings. The way out should be persuasion dialogue and negotiation with possible compromises on either sides of the divide.

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PHILOSOPHIC EVALUATION OF SUPERPOWER/THIRD WORLD RELATIONSHIP: AN INTEGRATIVE HUMANIST APPROACH. We must say that a philosophical evaluation is very germane if we are going to have a balanced analysis of world politics. Man is a political animal and so are nations. It is important to point out that the relationship between the superpowers and other nations is not one without pros and cons. Inspite of the superpower mentality, it is a matter of utmost objectivity to say that the relationship between the superpower nations and other nations is not characterized through and through by exploitation, highhandedness, marginalization and divide and rule. In philosophy, we depose that every situation contains positive and negative contents. It is a mark of great philosophical acuity to be able to discern, separate and crystallize the different bearing and realities that are inherent in a given complex situation. Analysis of relationship between nations is multidimensional and profound.

Though every nation acts from the point of view of its interests, as Hegel has pointed out, still, nations are the epitomes of their spiritual beingness. Nations have the spirit which guide, direct and control their level of attainments, spiritually, socially, politically, and economically. He saw the Russian state as epitomizing the highest levels of the development of the absolute spirit. All states/nations habituated by the rationalism of the age dictates the tune of the world politics. It is seen as the embodiment or the carrier of the will of the absolute and is seen as the instrument of actualization of the will of the absolute. This is what Hegel calls the

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cunning of the spirit. Nations only act as protgs of the undergirding spirit inadvertently. To this extent, one can shift blames from nations and penetrate the faade of appearance to reach the reality

masterminding the events and the tenor of relationship among nations. Apart from the above, Holy Scripture says give wisdom to the wise and he will yet be wiser and give wisdom to the foolish and he becomes more foolish. We see wisdom in preemptive and proactive foreign policy measures to stem the tide of hooliganism and wanton destruction of lives and property as we find in the suicide bombing orchestrated by Muslim Jihadists and radicals. There is the overarching need to have a police-nation in whose bosom resides rationality and value for human life, America and her allies appear to possess this moral quality. However, the military excesses of America may need to be check mated by other nations to avoid riding rough-shod on other nations of the world or viewing rationality purely from the point of view of Americas interests. We also have the need to contain the expansionism of Russian communism and the rise of third world despots and human rights abusers. A part from the above, it is pertinent to note that foreign polices of different nations are built on permanent interests perceived, imaginary or real and this disposes nations to multilateral alignments. This means no permanent friend or permanent enemy but permanent interest. This means multi-lateral checkmating of possible

imperiousness on the part of any superpower. All these lead to reciprocal, inverse and converse containment of the innate proclivity to
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bellicosity and belligerency of super power nations. Since they know that opposition can come from within their ally block, as they infringe on the interests of any of their allies, this will engender more carefulness. The concepts of balance of power, balance of terror, political engineering, brinkmanship along ally lines and the international dialogue through world and continental bodies like United Nations Organization (UNO), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), African Union (AU), War Saw treaty Organization (WTO), South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), etc, have been playing stabilizing role in world politics. The foregoing positive implications of superpower interference in other nations not withstanding, it is important to note that there is need for caution because power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely. To avoid a slippery slope whereby rational justification slips into irrational justification, there is need for a more effective and objective supervision of super power activities by the United Nations. That is, where a super power who may have very good reasons in interfering in other nations affairs may stretch the avante garde role too far to the point of taking unnecessary and unacceptable liberty in the affairs of sovereign nations. C. O. Bassey has captured these dangers in his book

Contemporary Strategy and the African Condition when, he said that American way of war which is encapsulated in their policy of unilateralism and preemption will lead to arrogance, imperiousness, terrorism and the building of a world empire by a rogue state (309194

325). He further asserts that the inherent danger is that domination can never ultimately be truly total without its antithesis, which is resistance, that is, to say that, the inevitable logical antithesis to moments of hegemony is counter hegemony or act of resistance. This could lead to serious strife among the core powers of the world namely America, Britain, Russia, France and Germany. The invasion of Iraq by America, Britain and their allies is still giving other super-powers heartache-Americas near-unilateralism in the war against Iraq is food for thought for other nations. Americas military expansion and selfappointed police agent of the world may soon attract very serious antithetical opposition from other superpowers who may be seeing Americas ascendancy and domination as a direct threat to their sovereign and superpower status. The possibilities and dangers of this state of affairs for global peace can only be imagined.

CONCLUSION With what has been said so far it requires only a minimal stretch of rationality to understand that all is not well in global affairs. The need for objective understanding and global settlement of the sore points identified in the way super powers are infringing on other nations sovereignty is very urgent. No logic will justify or validate unwholesome interference in other nations territory without dialogue, reason and sufficient explanation. Intervention is good if it is in response to a distress call from citizens of a weak nation to a strong nation to deliver it from the hands of a tyrannical ruler who is oppressing and dehumanizing them.

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My proposal is that the superpower nations will need to sit down and draw up a guide line for the achievement of the most humane and acceptable charter for permissible interference in other nations affairs. The United Nations as an umbrella organization should be given more teeth to be able to control the belligerence and shear bellicosity and selfish interests that motivate most of such interference in the affairs of others nations. Inspite of differing and conflicting interests of nations, world peace, justice, fair play and a sympathetic philosophy of being our brothers keeper and helper should be our watch word in world politics and international relations. This is what Fotopoulos calls rational/inclusive democracy where all nations enjoy the same

participative status in world affairs.

REFERENCES Appadorai, A. The Substance of Politics Delhi: Oxford University Press 2001 (edition). Baradat Leon P. Political Ideologies: Their origin and Impact. New Jessey: Prentice Hall, 1994. Bassey, C. O. Contemporary Strategy and the African Condition, Lagos: Macmillan Publishers, 2005. Bateman T. M. J. Mertin, M. Thomas, D. M. Braving the New World Readings in Contemporary Politics. Ontario Nelson Publishers, 2000. Bateman, Thomas M.J., Mertin, Manuel, Thomas, David M. Braving the New World Readings in Contemporary Politics Ontario: Nelson Thomson Learning, 2000. Edim, Osam Osam, A Survey of Some Political Ideologies in Political Science: An Introductory Reader. Eds C. O. Bassey and G.O. Ozumba, Calabar: Wusen Press Ltd, 2006.
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Fotopoulos, Takis. Towards an Inclusive Democracy: London Classell Publishers, 1997. Mannheim, K. Ideology and Utopia London: Routledge and Kegan, 1966 Harris Kelvin Education and Knowledge London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979. Ogbinaka, Karo, The Military, Sovereignty and Democratic Dispensation in Africa Philosophy and Politics (ed) Maduabuchi Dukor Lagos O. O. P Publishers, 1998. Sterling, Richard W. Macro Politics International Relations in a Global Society. New York: Knopf, 1973. Ukpe, E. Ukpe. Ideologies for Government Nigeria: Citizenship Education (ed). G. O. Ozumba et al Aba: A. A. U. Vitalis Book Company. 1999.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN
WHITHER INDIGENOUS AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE GLOBALILIZING WORLD: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH INTRODUCTION During the International Conference held at the University of Cape Coast Ghana on the 4th of March 2009, the conference organized by the Faculty was IN A

of Arts in conjunction with centre for

indigenous knowledge and organizational Development (CIKOD). The theme was very apt and is titled Revitalizing Indigenous KNOWLEDGE in Ghana for Contemporary Development. Some of the papers presented include: (1) Setting the trajectory for Africas Development: The value of

indigenous knowledge, (2) Descending the Ivory tower: In search of an Afromorphic University for Africa (3) Some foreign systems: Their influence on Ghanaian indigenous values (4) The efficacy of

indigenous practices: Oriented science teaching approach of improved science learning outcome of the junior high school level of Ghana (5) The Desparacidos: A study of local knowledge and forest culture in the development agenda of Ghana. (6) The Impact of science and

technology on observance of taboos- A case study of UCC staff and students. (7) The Repository of indigenous knowledge: Refocusing scholarship on African folklore. (8) The scientific bases of some Ellembelle Nzema Indigenous knowledge forms (9) African Tradition religions & Health Delivery: some lessons from the past (10) Cultural

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diversity in music education: Indigenous Ghanaian music in the curriculum of a higher institution in Ghana. What appears to be the main contention of the above papers is that it was high time Africans reverted to their time tested pristine values, practices and knowledge forms. In as much as some African practices, norms and values are unquestionably very effective in maintaining law and order, healing, sanctity of the human life, harmony of the body, soul and spirit of community members. The presenters did not take time off to consider that our todays world is intricately and almost inextricably interwoven in a mesh of

globalization. The most any group of people can do

is to identify a

missing link in the global chain and seek relevance by providing the expertise for strengthening the missing link or the point of

comparative advantage in the nexus of interculturalism that defines globalization. It is only through a regional approach from the point of view of comparative advantage that we can pull a fast one and upstage the present global arrangement thereby impregnating the global scenario with African relevance and importance. Multiculturalism, intra and interculturalism are therefore normal state of affairs among comity of nations. What we should be asking is how do we make the best out of the apothegm that variety is the spice of life. The agenda we have to set for our self is to minimize dependence on imported luxury goods, then, begin to depend on our manpower in attaining whatever height we wish in science and technology while making use of whatever is of

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currency and needful for running our socio-economic and political systems. However, we need to address the following questions. 1. How do we discriminate between innocuous indigenous

knowledge and those that are anachronistic. 2. How do we access this indigenous knowledge amidst irrational secrecy that seem to pervade Africas traditional knowledge base- the sages, the mystics, native doctors. 3. How are we going to teach these indigenous knowledge that may come to be harnessed or extracted from the nativesplace of indigenous language in teaching and learning. 4. How do we integrate this knowledge with the pervading the

western knowledge which is presently esteemed better than our indigenous knowledge. 5. Knowledge that border on indigenous science and technology How do we get the government to catch the vision and create conducive environment for the testing and use knowledges. The NGO needs to create a link of through these which

documents, memoranda and communiqu can reach policy makers. 6. How do we prioritize areas of immediate need in our target of indigenous knowledge to tap from. 7. How do we check the stultifying of our African values amidst the cascading torrents of Western values and life patterns that are fast taking over our lives.
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8.

What solution can indigenous knowledge give to the present global economic recession? Is there any way out from the application of African indigenous knowledge?

9.

Another important question is where does Africas traditional religion and religion in general stand or fit in all these. I think what we should be interested in is not a paradigm shift

because there can be no innocent shift in our todays world which will not cause more harm than good. The whole countries of the world have become ineluctably sucked into the global socio-political and economic system of the world. The best any country can do now is to see how to integrate her best practices, values and developments with what goes on in the global system. This will mean seeing how it can keep her head above water amidst the current global economic recession. To do this, we have to be ready to tackle the political and leadership problems that dog our steps as developing nations. Because not much can be achieved without a massive mobilization of human and non-human resources in the attainment of the good life for our people. Our country like most countries of the world are doing currently should be concerned with the deploying of resources to the crucial areas of our economy to negate any negative impact of the global recession for the well-being of the mass of our people. Like Marx had said, it is the material substructure of existence that determines our social consciousness and not vice versa. Vital areas like cushioning the effects of recession by supporting our young industries,

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increasing the purchasing power of workers, thinking of social welfare packages for the unemployed and boosting of the agricultural sector are immediate important steps which must be taken to alleviate the effects of the recession. Africa, Britain, France, South Korea, China, Japan are already doing something in this direction to settle looming internal tension within their countries. Also, important, is the

stabilization of local currency against the strong currencies of the world namely the dollar, pounds and the Euro. This means that there will be need for those in the relevant ministries and the central bank to swing into action to know what micro and macroeconomic steps should be taken to protect our currency from the current erosion it is being subjected to. This leads us to the issue of protectionism.

PROTECTIONISM Protectionism is any socio-economic contrivance or device which will help us to shore up our economy and prevent it from being unwittingly affected by the cascading effects of the global recession Protectionism can be internal, or external it may involve policies that will protect external markets, internal business or that might protect the economy from the undue vulnerability to the seismic wave of economic recessional ripples. While the wise countries of Europe and America are busy

brainstorming on how to stem the tide of the recession and start-jump a new era of economic survival and revival, African countries through their leaders are busy sharing their booty from office with scant regard to what is happening and will soon happen to the majority of citizens under their charge The West, while neck-deep into protectionism are crying wolf against it only loud enough for African leaders to hear
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because they must not as a matter of slavish submission shut their doors against Western-made goods. Already the import of Chinese goods have started plummeting and the Chinese have begun to lament and are now encouraging their people to shun the age-long value of thrift and begin to savour consumerist disposition towards Chinesemade goods. It is therefore time for African leaders to turn inwards and begin to trim their bogus expenditures which are directed on luxury goods from Europe and America and then see how such resources can be channeled towards the instigation of a continental technological revolution which will help Africa to emerge even stronger after the recession. It is only when this is done that the recession will be a blessing in disguise. We are to look inward to vital areas of greatest comparative advantage like agriculture cocoa, timber, cash and food crops which are vital for the survival of our people. The crises that may soon afflict the world is that of food supply and its affordability. If nothing is done, cognate evils like armed robbery, kidnapping, militancy, and general insecurity may become the order of the day. The government must therefore take deliberate steps to put in place back to the land programme and then to ensure that the rich arable land at the nations disposal are put to proper use through the mobilization of the human resources, labour and the supply of seedlings needed for the green revolution. Then, we begin to talk about storage facilities and bilateral and multilateral arrangements for export of the finished farm products to other neighbouring African countries to stem wastage.

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Our philosophy should be one that deals with issues as they arise and not that which trifles with post-mortem or is interested in moribund discourse of issues that have no relevance to the survival of our people. Today, we are talking about the need to revitalize indigenous knowledge for contemporary development. There is need to take a holistic look at our present state of need and then see how to prioritize our needs and with that hindsight see what areas of our indigenous knowledge can be harnessed for integrative enrichment of our solution-arsenal for the eventual application of its visions for tackling our social, political and economic malaise. The economy surely should be the most sensitive then, science and technology which will include health and the productive capacities of the nation and then we talk about education (now in its restructured form) as the citadel of sensitization and mobilization of patriotic citizens for the implementation of national ideals and goals. Thoughts on Africas path to progress in this globalizing world: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Rational Protectionism Economic diversificationism Self-Sustainable Scientific/Technological Development Rational Integrativism Cultural distinctiveness without hypocrisy.

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Africa it does seem to me is blessed with abundance of natural and human resources which also constitute capital resources. The question then, is why the wretchedness and the lack among the majority of her population in the midst of plenty? A number of factors may be held responsible for our

backwardness namely European activities on the soil of Africa ranging from slavery, exploitation of resources, unequal exchange, the expatriation of profit through the multi-national corporations,

manipulation of the volatile boundary situations in Africa to excite war only to turn around and sell their arms to us. It does seem that every form of relationship with Europe, America and the rest of the world is exploitative and always at our disadvantage. Every attempt is made by the imperial powers to shortchange Africa and to depress, marginalize and exploit her. The above is done with the complicity and duplicity of African leaders and members of the international business community a clientele of bourgeois comprador, local exploiters who liaise with the west to orchestrate a maddening exploitative scheme of their father land all in the name of riches. This has prompted many Africans to begin to ask questions, what must Africa do to disentangle herself from this inimitable relationship with the West? And how would she dislodge the self serving cartel of African leaders and neo-colonial lackeys of the western world who are sabotaging our efforts on all fronts?

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Solution does not seem to be easy in coming because when a mans enemies become those of his own household, it takes supernatural intervention. If Africans are the chief enemies of Africa, then the question is who will deliver us from ourselves? It is only God and our cooperation with Him that can lead to our deliverance. Do we therefore say that the situation is helpless and hopeless? Certainly no. This paper is incited by the fact and the belief that there is still hope that Africa can still be salvaged from the woods of infamy into which she is entangled.

LEADERSHIP Leadership is one most important factor in realizing any meaningful breakthrough in our search for self sustainability in all spheres social, economic, political and all. Leadership however, cannot change of its own accord without the goading and prompting of civil society with the leadership of the intelligentsia. The starting point is a robust engineering of the intelligentsia to alert them to their real leadership role and to wake them up from their soporific slumber. The next stage is through mobilizing of laudable opinions which will be harvested and moulded into a kind of charter of expectations and imperatives which must be followed to reach our desired goals. Then, we have to begin a wide-ranging process of conscientization and raising of consciousness of the people. When people become

sufficiently aroused and sensitized to the need to say no to bad, inept leadership and to insist only on innocuous democracy that is sanctioned by them only then will the will of the people be supreme.

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Democracy is about the peoples general innocuous will which has to be given its rightful place in determining the direction of policies and governance in general. Governments exist because of the people and if the people are no longer served by the government then, such governments have lost their raisond etre. Only a people-guideddemocracy anchored on a rational mobilization that will make our leaders understand the rationale of governance. It is the ability of the people to be consciously involved (soul, spirit and body) in what goes on in governance that will make them the custodians of propriety in governance. What is happening in Nigeria is instructive where those who rigged elections have been shown the way out through the rugged determination of those given the mandate of the people. we see the following cases of Amaechi of Rivers State, Peter Obi of Anambra State, Oshiomole of Edo State and Mimiko of Ondo State. With the support of the civil society and the unflinching objectivity of the judiciary, they have been able to retrieve their mandates from those who stole them. This is the type of

consciousness, alertness, vigilance, knowledge and understanding which must be made to pervade the waft and the woof the conscience of our people. When this happens, it makes rigging unattractive and keeps our leaders on their toes. Leadership is not an all comers responsibility. It is for those who have the calling and the vision to do so. It is for those who have the serving heart that means the person(s) must be humble, visionary,

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sensitive to the plight of the people, a goal getter, upright and sacrificial. Must be one who appreciates the value of unspotted legacy of a good name (in preference to riches). When we have voted in good leaders, it becomes easy to talk about nation-building. There can be no nation-building without good leadership.

AFRICA IN WORLD POLITICS Africa and indeed other continents have become inevitably and ineluctably through human and divine forces wound up in a nexus of relationships, economic, social, political, religious, legal called

globalization. Globalization is the witting and unwitting assimilation of the countries of the world into a nexus of relationships which has produced a global village. The United Nations Organization is the soul of its governance, capitalism, free market economy is its ideology, the World Court at the Hague, its judiciary and the allied forces constitute the global villages army and the Pentagon is the seat of government with distant poles in Britain, Germany, France, Russia, China, Japan, Canada, etc. Where does Africa feature in all these? Probably as hewers of wood and drawers of water. What then must be done? The present global melt-down/economic recession is actually an opportunity being offered to Africa to turn the table to her favour. It is an act of providence to bring the west to her knees and to enable Africa to extricate herself from the iron chain of colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, neo-imperialism and neo-slavery without retaliation or excoriation. What Africa needs is simple adjustment in
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consumption pattern, that is, whittling down her consumption of European-made goods, thereby retaining much of the needed foreign exchange, then concentrating on Agriculture providing storage facilties, employing the surplus of our reserve of labour of all the chains of agricultural processes (thereby providing jobs). Then, changing our ministries into practical oriented not office or desktop oriented. The Ministry of Agriculture will go to the farm and engage in farming such as cash crops, fishing, animal husbandry, plants, vegetables, fruits, trees and all that concerns the faunas and floras of the earth. Those in Ministry of Mining should go to the mining sector to find out what minerals we are endowed with explore and harness them, Ministry of Education to revaluate our curricula from primary to tertiary levels in the light of the new pragmatism Education for what it can produce No longer education as a solely intrinsic good. Intrinsicality will now be weighed against ends, theory against method, duty against value and ideology against

productiveness. There is a lot to be done amidst plenty of idleness in Africa. Those in the engineering Ministry must provide relevant requisite technology for tackling challenges that reside in their domains. Ministry of Health will take charge of the health of the nation/continent, the pharmacological sciences will take care of our drugs in conjunction with the traditional herbalists. The churches must be involved in awakening the people to righteousness for

righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people (Prov. 14: 34). Other Ministries like Information, Transport, Aviation, Police Affairs, Environment, the Army, Navy, Customs are to be reduced and or mobilized to take care of farming, maintenance of
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peace in their areas. For instance, a clean environment will produce a mosquito-free environment which will lead to improved health and better productivity. People must be fully engaged and leaders of the component units and ministries must lead by example for only then can the master of laziness and corruption be completely extricated. All luxury goods should be banned and necessary goods will be imported when this is done there will be sanity in our nation. Economic diversification will make us truly economically

independent. Africa has fertile land for all types of crops all round the seasons exchanges based on the principle of comparative advantage can be used to ensure that people grow what they can at the cheapest cost when people can be fed, clothed and housed because our textile industries are working, the Ministry of Housing is building low cost houses on family basis, then, there will be satisfaction and patriotism becomes a natural by-product. Rational integration is adopting a method of adaptation of what is good from other cultures without losing our sense of initiative, originality and indigenousness. We do not integrate what we do not understand or cannot manage or cannot maintain we must sit down and count the cost. This goes with cultural distinctiveness As Africans, our resolve will be to ensure that there is a torch of Africanness in what we do the cultural and aesthetic departments or Ministries should initiate unique codes, patterns, designs that

distinguish our products This provides the moral boost, cultural solidarity, zest and patriotism. We must be interested in our products.

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Every inferiority complex will be fought through advertising and education. One can go on and on but the message is clear, this is the time for us to step back and do some rethinking, re-evaluation to effect a repositioning of our continent. But to do this, there is need for a sweeping moral orientation which must sweep away our decadent, immoral and corrupt practices and ways of life. The question is do we have the will-power to execute this? Who will bail the cat? This could start from the intelligentsia via the civil society, the masses, then a sweeping change in all countries, stoppage of all wars dogging and retarding the steps of Africa and then get our leadership paraphernalia throughout Africa in shape thereafter, through the instrument of the AU this programme of action can be pursued, invigorated and maintained. Without the political will, it will be impossible to achieve the above feat. We need to subdue the flesh, heighten the spirit, deal with the problem of mutual suspicion between the masses and the intelligentsia.

ON EGYPTOLOGY This piece is inspired by the very exciting, illuminating, erudite and challenging presentation of Professor Small to the Staff and Students of University Cape Coast. Prof. Small through his engaging presentation which lasted for two hours with slide presentation depicted the ancient Egyptian civilization in its raw form. He was able to show the Pharaohs (in their succession), the queen mother, the
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gods the Egyptians worshipped (representing a polytheism) and the Almighty God which they also worshipped (depicting a monotheism). All these gods and God were painted in black properly indicating that God is a black man or could it be that true to the philosophy of Xenophanes different people paint the gods after their own likeness, the Greeks, the Roman, the Africans and perhaps the primates and other animals will paint the gods after their likeness. He went ahead to press that west and east Africa were the original home of all mankind from where they moved to South Africa, Central and to North Africa with their Nubic/Nilistic culture. The whole of Africa was then depicted as Sudan. This Nilistic culture was carried to Spain and then to Egypt from where it covered present day Israel, Egypt, Iran, Iraq up to Turkey. He went ahead to deplore that through DNA scientific test, it has been proven that African DNA and genetic materials run through the veins of men of all races whether they were Caucasiod, Mongoloid or Asiatic. All men were originally black before they became other colours. The fact of differences in pigmentation arose from mutation arising from different ecology/ecosystem. Different weather conditions changed the original colours that is, from black to white, to red, to yellow and other colours. Africa therefore is home to all mankind. After Africa had suffered defeat, pillorization, enslavement, colonization through dangerous weapons. Our captors soon realized to their dismay that they had pilloried their ancestral home, they became too abashed and therefore needed to cover the trail of this disturbing truth. It is

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this that led to the initial urge to distance and obliterate African history. The easiest way to distort history was to carry away

evidence/exhibits like Sphinxes, terracottas, figurines and other materials reflecting and revealing the antiquity of our civilization. The advanced technological/archaeological products in ancient Egypt reveal that the concept of strong and massive pillars and beams were already in use in Egypt. In religion evidences abound that the Egyptians had a clear conception of the Almighty God and other gods. Apart from this, there was the concept of the Mother of god and the Son of god. There was a high level of symbolisms in use in Egypt. The symbol of life which was borrowed by the Roman Catholic priests is still in use by the Catholic priests. There is advanced technology in preservation of dead bodies through the application of chemicals and mummification. In medicine, before the arrival of Hippocrates, the Greek physician on the medical scene, Immhotep the Egyptian physician had practiced medicine for several years. In mathematics, before the flowering of the earliest Greek mathematician Pythagoras and later Euclid, mathematics and Geometry had flourished in the Egyptian mystery schools and temples. The temples were universities where people were schooled and put through the liberal discipleship of the seven wisdom departments of Arts, Science, Mathematics, Astrology, Astronomy, Agriculture and Philosophy. The first writing to come into existence was the hieroglyphics which was very developed and was highly in use before other forms of writing including the cuneiform, the Arabic and much after the Roman and others from France and Europe.

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All these evidences were destroyed and some carried away in order to obfuscate and cover ancient Egyptian history and its African history. Part of the Roman, French and American architecture bear great eloquence of borrowings from Egyptian architecture. Prof. Small also highlighted the fact that the Egyptian pyramids were monumental edifices for the burial of Pharaohs and for smaller chieftains. Today, there are still a host of pyramids in Egypt at various stages of disrepair. These were mathematically designed and the whole idea of right angled triangles were already in vogue/known to the Egyptians. It is worthy of note to footnote that all Greek philosophers from Thales to Aristotle had visited Egypt at one point or the other in their lives which bears testimony to the Egyptian origin of Greek philosophy.

REFLECTION Having achieved such feats in prehistoric times, what then has happened to Africans that they have sunk to the all-time-low of being underdogs in virtually all spheres of human endeavor? Why are we finding it difficult to repeat the feat depicted by advanced Egyptian civilization? Why did Egypt inspite of her advanced technology and powerful pharaohs cave in to external invasion? What lessons do these hold for us? In studying history, we are not to study history just as an end, a compact of events that took place in the past. It should be studied as a means and as an end. This means finding out whether there is an

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unseen hand that is remote controlling or directing the affairs of history. If we take Smalls lecture at face value, it will only create bitterness, revenge spirit and spite for our invaders. It will increase the volume of hate and also create a picture of static developing state of affairs, an inglorious romanticism and hankering after our past and picture that everything there is/was an offshoot of Egyptian

civilization. On the side of religion, even as Small indicated, there is nothing real about the Holy Bible, rather it is all a myth with all that it contains namely; the creation story, the mother of God, son of God, the trinity and all forms of worship. For him all these are traceable to Egyptian civilization. The implication will be that there is no place for dispensationalism in Gods dealings with man. We had the Old Testament part of which history belonged the Egyptian civilization and later the New Testament. The New Testament is the period of grace and redemption of man from the wickedness of sin, bondage to satan and the intolerance that characterizes human existence. Smalls presentation will seem to suggest that Christianity is another ploy by the west to pull another wool over our eyes and as such will suggest that we ignore Christianity and return to Egypt or our ancient way of doing things. This will be another mummification and strangulation of the spirit of history which is dynamic and forward looking than wholly backward looking. The message in Smalls lecture should consist in a challenge to engage in soul lifting endeavours (the heightening of soul) which will restore the creativity, inventiveness,
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the courage, the productiveness and assiduity and intellectual and spiritual fecundity of our forebears. This we should do without losing sight of contributory, complementary achievement of the human race in science, technology, education, art, politics, banking, etc. We are to appropriate these and then apply our proverbial ingenuity in

order to fashion out a more fitting and progressive intellectual and spiritual world view which will turn Africa from a beggarly nation to a prosperous nation which can hold her own anywhere, anytime. We

must be careful to avoid creating a new form of racism in an effort to destroy the old. Eurocentric racism, black racism can be as dangerous. We need to advocate peace, unity, harmony and equality of all humans.

APPLICATION OF INTEGRATIVE HUMANISM Integrative humanism is a philosophical theory which emphasizes the need to explore always in all our intellectual pursuits, the human, physical and the spiritual dimensions of the truth we are seeking. In the light of the above methodology and philosophy, it is obvious that Small was more concerned with establishing the following points namely; that Africa is home to all mankind, that Africa had a glorious past as depicted in Egyptian civilization; that our legacy was stolen, our history distorted to suit the whims of our exploiters and colonizers and that a return to such glorious past will serve or do Africa more good than remaining as appendages of western civilization which is the poor copy of the civilization of our African forebears. There is little or scant reference made about the spiritual essence of the Africans. The eschathological input is limited to the burial of the
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Pharaohs in pyramids and the elaborate ceremonies to ensure a glorious after-life. The truth is that the Bible and its contents are no myth to be read for the artistic enjoyment of readers, especially the Africans. The Bible as it is, is Gods contact point with man, an avenue of revelation of Himself to man. It contains Gods programme for man, His control of the universe (read the book of Daniel), His plans for man in the future (Redemption and restoration) and the recreation of the universe for the benefit of mankind. Parts of the Bible carry spiritual meanings with literal import, others are literal, others are purely spiritual some we can understand now, others we shall understand later (Deut. 29: 29). A study of the eschathological messages of the book of Daniel and Revelation will reveal events of the last days and how all will end in the judgment of the evil world. The rise and fall of nations Egypt, Babylon, Medo Persians, Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans and the soon fall of the Americans and Europe is the Almightys way of showing to the nations that He is in charge. We cannot forget in a hurry the cruelty of the Egyptian pharaohs to the children of Israel, then the Babylonians, then, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, etc As Anaximander says there is the principle of cosmic justice there is reparation for every injustice. This is responsible for the rise and fall of nations. We cannot turn the hand of the clock backwards which the Egyptologists seem to be doing. It is good that we know our past as a challenge for a better physical and spiritual future. It is only as instigator for all round success that history is important to help us not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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Paul the apostle aptly said that I wish I could be accursed for my brethren the children of Israel to whom pertains the adoption but who have gone astray due to ignorance. He said that Israel seeks after God but not according to knowledge. Jesus came for His own and they received Him not and now salvation has come to us according to the foreknowledge and dispensation of God But today, we in Africa, even at the verge of the end of this world, care very little about the destination of our souls at death. Whatever we are pursuing secular knowledge, it is more important that we pay attention also to the spiritual realities of our age. The scripture is fast being fulfilled everyday see Matthew Gospel 24, Timothy Chapter 4 and 2 Timothy Chapter three we have seen the false prophets, wars, rumours of wars, landslides, hurricanes, famines, iniquity abounding, knowledge on the increase, falling away of believers, financial meltdown, etc, all these are indicators of the end of the age.

CONCLUSION While the study of Egyptology is good for historical and reconstructive, physical and intellectual purposes, it is important that the sober spiritual reflection which it enjoins on us particularly Africans should not be lost on us. Yes, Christianity may have originated in Asia then, to the west (Europe and America) a good thing which was fouled and soiled before it got to us. The carrying of the bible on one hand and slavery on the other hand is the worst parody of spirituality ever presented. The western colonizers debased, bastardized a good thing given to humanity. We are to dust off the human unworthy excrescence that
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has polluted Christianity and then embrace its nobility and its soul saving purpose. Africans must not throw away the child and the bathwater. We are, as we have always done, go back to our western exploiters and colonizers and teach them the golden nuggets in the bible which they failed to teach us by their characters, by so doing, we shall be paying back evil with good, which is the true epitome of Christianity the real jewel of Christianity is in forgiving our enemies and doing good to those that hate us. This is the gospel of Christ and the New Testament which has come to replace the tooth for tooth of the Old Testament. What we have expounded above is the truth. According to St. Augustine, the foremost Christian African philosopher of the medieval age, truth is eternal and prior to the human mind, and once the mind discovers it, it has no choice but to accept it, for truth imposes itself on the human mind and leaves it with no choice but to accent to it.

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CHAPTER TWELVE
PHILOSOPHY AND AN AFRICAN CULTURE: AN INTEGRATIVE HUMANIST APPROACH INTRODUCTION In this work, our attempt is to give a synopsis of the philosophy that informs and is embedded in an African culture, nay the Nigerian culture. The work will also find out the shortcomings of the philosophy that seem to underpin African culture in general and Nigerian culture in particular. The whole idea is to determine why our philosophical ideals appear not to be yielding the desired developmental

achievements when placed side by side the achievements recorded by other competing continents of the world. Our usual alibi is to point to the achievements of ancient Egypt and to, as it were, hide under it as the achievement of the whole of Africa. The question is why has it become impossible to repeat the feat of ancient Egyptian civilization? Why do we need to continue to cling on to mummified achievements of the past as our only way of proving the virility of our intellectual prowess and assiduity? This paper, therefore, will attempt to highlight some possible causative factors responsible for Africas unstinting performance in the contemporary world scheme of things. We conclude this paper by speculating what Africa Nay Nigeria must do if she must have the chances of standing tall among the comity of continents and nations. We shall be using Nigeria as a representative country from whose culture and philosophy we are going to navigate our ideas. Even at that, it is difficult to treat exhaustively the philosophical phenomenon of a culture as diverse as that of Nigeria. The unwieldiness of our scope is clear; a culture with wide and diverse
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cultural ethos cannot be easily articulated from the pigeon hole of homogenous holism. We, therefore, have the options of discrete

heterogeneous articulation or monolithic aggregative assortment of dominant cultures within the varied cultural realities of the Nigerian nation. It is a truism that Nigeria is a vast nation with over 360

diverse cultural groupings with well spelt out philosophical and metaphysical frameworks and corresponding ontologies as is manifest in their concept of God Religion, Communication Language, dressing, Mannerisms Culture, their political organisation leadership and kingship composition Politics, their dos, donts, mores, customs, rules, regulations Morality, Social stratification and

hierarchicalization-their sociology and their cosmological perspectives and interpretation of nature- their science. This makes it unwieldy to try to capture in a homogenous manner the undulating cultural topography of the Nigerian culture. In pre-colonial times, we had very advanced and self sustained cultural enclaves that could stand their own. We had the Yoruba,

Hausa, Igbo, Nupe, Igala, the Efik, Ibibio, the Ijaw, the Bini, the Urhobo, the Gwari, the Junkun, the Itshekiri, to mention but a few. These were thriving cultural empires in pre-colonial Nigeria. Today, the dominant cultures remain the Hausa Fulani, the Yoruba and the Igbo. Though the other cultural groupings still retain flashes of their cultural distinctives, these are fast being eroded by the predominance of the majority cultures and in deed by the onslaught of cascading and forcefully penetrating European and American cultures. We are today having a sublimation of cultures, the

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scientifically and technologically weak cultures are being sublimated, submerged or even obliterated by the more scientifically and

technologically vibrant and dominant cultures. These are some of the challenges faced by cultures of less developed portions of the globe amidst the inevitable confrontation and exposure to the cultural imperialism of the 21st century made possible and accentuated through unequal exchange and unequal competition engineered by lope sided phenomenon of globalization which is thickened with colonialist bias and fervour. To do justice to this work, therefore, we shall touch on the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial changing cultural scenarios of the Nigerian nation. We shall merely highlight the characteristic

distinctives of these cultures and stress how they have managed to survive amidst inundating and vicious effulgence from other competing cultures. The unity that now exists amidst diversity of cultures and

the concomitant strengths and weaknesses which they engender will be highlighted. Again, we shall navigate a sure way of harnessing the multiplicity of cultures to achieve national strength and prominence. There is strength in well articulated, harnessed, systematized and cemented variety and diversity.

The Philosophy that Underpins the African (Nigerian) culture. Here, we are using philosophy from the point of view of vehicular wisdom, ideals, speculative and practical contrivances which aided our forbears in the management of their environment, handling of challenges and the organization of their society for congenial

existence. Undoubtedly, the historic exploits of our forbears bespeak

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volumes

of

their

perspicacity,

vision

which

undergirded are

their easily

worldview(metaphysical

weltanchuung).This

worldview

percolated through the deep meanings and essences that characterize the cultural life of the people. This will lead us to ask what were the facticities inherent in their cultural existence, what constituted the existentiality, the meaning, the spirit that sustained these cultural enclaves? How were they able to make meaning out their existence and what philosophical attitude did they employ in confronting existential challenges and how were they able to surmount such challenges? The challenges of famine, war from predatory neighbours, mortality, survival, ability to feed their members, entertainment, maintenance of law and order, justice, and harmony, their relationship with other visible and invisible contending forces, dissemination of information, welfare matters and the general reconnaissance of their territories?. The philosophy adopted can be seen as a complicated mesh of humanism, pragmatism, aggregationism, integrativism,

supernaturalism, stoicism and utilitarianism.

The different cultures

evinced sufficient evidence of resilience, inventiveness, pro-activeness and morality based on self interest and aggressive protectionism. This is evidenced in the fact that the different cultures have continued to retain their distinctive traits even in the 21st century in spite of the assaults they have suffered in the hands of imperialist cultures. This shows the protective, aggressive and patriotic nature of the aboriginal cultures of the Nigerian pre-colonial inhabitants.

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In terms of humanism, the different cultures thrived on the sanctity of the collective life force from their cultural and enclavial point of view. It was a communal existence where individualism was only meaningful as part of the whole. They recognized that no one

tree can make a forest and no one individual can be self sufficing. To be a member of the community is a sine-qua-non for survival. For more insights on concepts like African communalism, humanism, personality, socialism, etc., see the works of Kwame Gyekye, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Kwame Nkrumah, kwasi Wiredu, Julius Nyerere, Elechi Amadi, etc. Each culture protected her citizens while exercising

predatory role on the lives of non-citizens this is a kind of exclusive humanism. Humanness is interpreted from each cultures

humanitarian interest. Other humans outside the community could be preyed upon, killed, maimed, sold, enslaved, etc. This gave rise to

several unmitigated internecine wars in the pre-colonial period among ethnic nationalities which existed not as a geographical expression called Nigeria but as disparate empires with great independent cultural traditions. They were pragmatic because, what worked and had utility for them from the point of survival was the best choice of action. It was the end that most often justified the means. An inclusive philosophic, humanistic rationalization was out of the way. Empires, cultural

enclaves, saw reality from their vantage positions and this left little or no room for such grandiose moral excellence like the golden rule of do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. It was more or less the law of tooth for tooth and eye for an eye based on self preservation. Each culture strove to overcome the hamstringing
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limitation imposed on it by nature by way of infertile land, predatory warring neighbours, scarce resources, natural hazards, need for agricultural implements, nature forecasts and prevention, health hazards, etc. Different cultural Communities deployed their ingenuity and inventiveness in overcoming the vicissitudes of existence. Each

culture had its well articulated festivals and other recreational opportunities as ways of reducing boredom, stress and dampening the cutting edges of the vicissitudes and ignobility of human existence. Morality was strictly moored to the stringencies of the demands of guardian ancestors and gods maintained through totems, sacrifices, laws and charters of acceptable conduct. Though cultures maintained levels of independence contests, but through conquests, interactions, intermarriages, assimilations,

wrestling

rare

convivial

borrowings of cultural genres and mannerisms / idiosyncrasies have been reported. Philosophy is concerned with system of beliefs

resulting from the search for knowledge about life and the universe which is eventually deployed in the understanding of events that happen in life and in forming a world view about life together with reaching convictions about certain truths about nature and how life ought to be lived. It is this vision arising from philosophical attitude of mind which keeps the individual and the community moving even in adverse circumstances. Any culture without a viable, proactive,

assuring, motivating and promising philosophy will go into extinction. The fact of survival of these cultures point therefore, to the inevitability of their possession of viable philosophies of existence. The Igbo say Igwe bu-ike, which means unity is strength, this is a viable communalistic philosophy. This does not mean that there was
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no place for the development of distinctive individual personality traits. One distinguishes himself as Dike the strong one by virtue of dint of personal hard work, bravery, courage and daringness. All cultures had their strong ones, sages, the talented and the distinguished. But the value of it all is that talents, skills are not personalized but deployed to the benefit of the whole community. As individuals bring laurels,

fame, achievements or accomplish great feats to the praise of the community, all members partake in the glory of individuals

accomplishments. All cultures had their barrage of wise sayings, proverbs, folklores, rituals, mores, folkways which constitute their culture and embellish or inform their philosophical world views. During the colonial period, these cultures suffered some reverses because of the impositions from colonial masters and the dislocations these cultures suffered as they became forcibly integrated with other cultures. This spelled doom for the autonomies of some of these

cultures. Though these cultures did not go into extinction, but many of them began to atrophy or wither away or at least their growth and development became adversely affected. This led to stagnation and a diminution in the pomp with which members promoted their cultures. This atrophization has continued even with greater crescendo in the face of globalization. In post colonial Nigeria, we have rather a hotch potch of cultural medleys partly a mixed grill of assortment of Nigerian cultures and

the hybrid with other external cultures namely Western and Asiatic cultures. Though there seem today to be a revival of some of the old
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cultures and an attempt to fame them through home videos, it is not Nigerian culture divested of western colourings. What we see is the

standing side by side and a mix code of western and Nigerian cultures, manifested in a fascinating, but disappointing way. Fascinating on the grounds of the creativity, but disappointing on the grounds of the revelation as to the extent to which we are fast loosing our cultural values. This is not to say that every thing about Africa albeit Nigeria were praise worthy but the alacrity at which both the pristine and the anachronistic are being swept away by the deluge of foreign cultures gives great cause for worry. Some urgent measures therefore must be taken to check this slip into infamy and cultural blight and

ingloriousness. According to J.F.A. Ajayi, it is important to note that culture is not solely a historical characteristic but is an embodiment of a peoples religion, art, science and how the people respond to the geography, economic demands and the sociological and moral constitution of their culture. Geographical features of rainfall, vegetation, mountains, hills, valleys, streams, lakes, forests, is it coastal, descent, moderate and extremes of weather all these impact on the cultural modifications of a people (pp.75-76). Ajayi in his A Survey Of the Cultura and Politica Regions Of Africa at the Beginning Of the Nineteenth Century provided us with a brief survey of the regions that characterize Africa. These regions include the Magrib, the Nile valley and Ethiopia, East and Central Africa, South Africa, the Congo basin, the Sudan and the Forest Areas of West Africa (p.75). The North of Nigeria is characterized by scanty rainfall and winter with hot weather. This

leads to desertification and all its accompanying problems of dryness,

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wind and sand storms, heat and scarcity of potable drinking water. The middle belt of Nigeria share in some of the extremes of the Northern climate and some of the moderation of the Southern climate which is a balance of summer and winter, that is sufficient sunshine and rainfall with interjection of harmattan and normal wind. These

determine the type of crops that grow in particular places and what they eat though through trade, people can buy and eat what they do not produce. In the north we have groundnuts, rice, onions, cola nuts, sugar canes, lettuces, tomatoes, garlics, water melon and other products made possible today by intensive irrigation. In the middle

belt we have yams, cassava, fruits, (oranges, mangoes, cocoyam, palm nuts from trees). All these are also grown in the south. A wide range of fruits, cassava, yams, rice, etc., are also grown in the South. In the North we have cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, camels, etc. The cows are normally brought to the South for grazing. In the South,

species of goats, sheep and cows are also reared but not in large quantity. The Fulani of the North are noted for their expertise in cattle rearing. In Nigeria, broadly speaking we can say that we have three major religious characterizations Christianity, Islam and Traditional Religion. The challenge of imported foreign religions, namely,

Christianity and Islam, has been overwhelming and has nearly emasculated the native religion. We now have a coexistence and

admixture of these religions in various degrees in different parts of the country. The challenge to permit these religions to exist independently and to develop unhindered has been one of the major causes of conflicts and crises from colonial if not pre-colonial times. In Modern
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times, the conflicts have been more frequent and sporadic several conflicts have taken place in Kano, Kaduna, Zaria, Katsina, Bauchi States of Nigeria with corresponding reprisals in the Southern part of the country. The first military coup by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu was seen as a coup planned and executed by the Military of the Christian South, and was viewed as a religious putsch to weed out Northerners / Muslims from the central government. This led to a revenge coup

which took place barely six months later, this time, masterminded by Northern military officers seeking a pound of flesh from their Southern Military counterparts. This situation completely aggravated ethnic

mistrust and suspicion and conflicts which led to the civil strife of 1967. Since after the war in 1970, and the declaration of No victor No Vanquished stand by the Federal Government, successive

governments under the umbrella of secular state have been trying to institutionalize a philosophy of consciencism in the words of Kwame Nkrumah to the effect that Nigeria should forge a world view that articulates and weaves into a political tool of action the positive aspects of the three major religions in order to achieve the harmony and peace necessary and essential for political, economic and social emancipation.(see Kwame Nkrumahs Consciencism: The Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization and Development with particular reference to the African Revolution. London; Heinemann, 1964). This

is the philosophy of toleration and accommodation. More dialogue and educational indoctrination is needed to drive home the message into the breast of every Nigerian. As it stands, we have no option, in the face of present day reality of coexistence and fusion into one national

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entity, to learn to live together. A veritable philosophy of assimilation and cohesion is needed to achieve the nation state of our dream. Nigeria Culture: Past and Present Nigeria lies at the extreme inner corner of the Gulf Guinea in West Africa. It is a compact area of 373,000 square miles extending from the Gulf of Guinea on the south to the Sahara Desert on the North, and bounded on the west and North by Dahomey and Niger territories of French West Africa and on the east by Lake Chad and the Cameroons (Coleman: 1960: pp.1-2). In this section, we are taking a shot at the synopsis of Nigerias Culture: past and present. In examining the Nigerias past cultural status, we shall divide it into precolonial and colonial. During the pre-colonial period, the empires that existed in what is known as present day Nigeria were influenced by the Nok Culture which is said to have flourished between 500 BC and 200 AD. These were miners and iron workers. They were also concerned with the unearthing of artifacts. They were known for their famous These were mostly the Kanem

figurines, all crafted in terra-cottas.

Borno Empire and the Hausa-Fulani Empire all in the Northern part of what is today known as Northen Nigeria. The Kanem-Borno empire is said to have ceased to exist in 1846. In the South of what is todays Nigeria we have the Igbo and the Yoruba as dominant cultures with a host of other minority cultures (Encarta, 2008.) The Hausa cultures is said to have flowered around the 7th century A.D. Among the Hausa kingdoms are Kano, Rano, Katsina, Zazzau (Zaria), Gobir, Kebbi and Auyo. They are said to have

migrated across the Sahara. Others migrated from the east or west
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through

the

savannas.

These

cultures

are

characterized

by

intermarriages and acculturation. After, a loose confederation of 30 emirates emerged each recognizing the supremacy of the sultan of Sokoto. Among the Yorubas we have Ife which was one of the Yoruba kingdoms established around the 11th and 12th century. They were

known for their bronze castings and beaded crowns crafted in wood, terra cottas, and ivory. We have the Oyo-kingdom and the Bini

kingdom as powerful kingdoms. Ilorin later broke away from the Oyo in 1796 and joined the Sokoto Caliphate in 1831. have centralized kingdoms. The Igbo did not

We have the Arochukwu Oracle which

exercised some form of central authority throughout the then Igbo Empire. The Igbo is bounded by the Ika-Igbo of Asaba, the Opobo,

the Annang, Efik and the Kalabari / Ijaws of Rivers and Bayelsa State. (Encarta, 2008). Pre-colonial Nigeria in landscape was characterised by Montane and submontane, fresh water swamps, Mangrove swamp, Sahel savanna, Sudan savanna, Northern Guinea savanna, Southern Guinea savanna and rainforest ( Morgan : 1983 : 23). According to Coleman (1960), by the end of the fifteenth century Islam was firmly established in the Northern Nigeria .This meant that Arabic language and culture permeated the North through islamization by Arabs from the Magreb and North Africa . For the Igbo, their

traditional home land lies between the Niger and the Cross Rivers, though a substantial minority lives to the west of the Niger. They are bounded by Igala people, Ibibio, and Efiks, Ishan and the Ijaws.(

Isichei:1973). The Yoruba, consisted of very powerful family of states

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controlled initially by the Oyo empire .The Oyo empire dominated the then Yoruba world. According to Akinjogbin, about 1796 when there was no central authority, led to gradual whittling down of the Yoruba hegemony over Dahomey and gave rise to cracks within the Yoruba Kingdom. This gave rise to the ascendancy of the Owu kingdom, the Egba kingdom, Egbado kingdom and Ketu kingdom.

Colonial Period The coming of the Europeans to Nigeria was made easy by the adventurous exploration of early explorers, traders, missionaries and later slave dealers. Explorers like Mungo Park, High Clapperton, John and Richard Lander of England and Heinrich Barth of Germany charted the Niger River and its surroundings. European influence had been increasing in Southern Nigeria both in intensity and extent since the arrival of the first Portuguese ships in 1472. The Coastal Villages now found that they were not at the

remote terminus of influences from the hinterland but have been pushed to central positions within the new trading nexus of the European adventurers and traders, this strengthened them and made them to occupy strategic position in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. ( Morgan : 1983: 42). Before 1884, came the scramble and partition of Africa, but, in 1884 at the Berlin conference, the Europeans partitioned Africa into areas of political and economic influence. The two amalgamations in Nigeria occurred in 1906 and 1914 (IX). Trade in Palm oil, Palm

kernel, Rubber, Ebony, Ivory, Cocoa from Nigeria and Spirits, tobacco,
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cotton cloth, guns, gun powder, salt, brass rods, Manillas and cheap metallic ornaments from the European Merchants impacted on the economy of Nigerian communities and gradually started affecting their cultures in the area of occupation, dressing, food and architecture (Anene: 1966 : 281). If the Nigerian past Colonial Culture is to become more resilient in the face of global cultural challenges, then, there is need to reexamine its tactics and conservation in the midst of inundating

pressures from outside cultures to extinguish its hold on its peoples. This process can only be done through the harnessing and sifting of our cultural heritage with the view of retaining only the innocuous aspects of our culture and doing away with those with anachronistic taints. This can be done through seminal articulation of those cultural values and the mounting of effective educational indoctrination and enlightenment programmes which will establish the necessity and the patriotic foundation for imbibing these values, and the need not only to propagate them but to defend them. Then, there is the need at the second level to integrate equally worthy foreign cultures with ours with the aim of forging a more profitable, useful and pragmatic pattern of existence for our people. We need to insist on maintaining some form of uniqueness in the midst of multicultural borrowings and

adaptations. For instance, there is nothing wrong in adapting aspects of western clothing materials but sewn with regard to the African pristine value of modesty, simplicity, shame facedness and sexual distinctions of male and female. This we must do if we are to acquire self-respect

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and pride and respect of others. One shared his success with all, and his failure with all. This system of communal relationship favoured the unproductive and the idle hands who left their responsibilities for the hardworking and successful members of their communities to

shoulder, all, in the name of extended-family and brotherhood. This philosophy had its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages

are that unity brings strength, shared burdens become lighter, a sense of belonging is promoted, there is the responsibility of being ones brothers keeper and thus communal progress without leaving any body sorely behind. The disadvantages are equally great, namely;

there is the syndrome of communal draw back, and a community constituted of majority of idle folks is bound to experience recessive retardation in all spheres of life. A progressive man will always be Again,

brought to the level of the unprogressive and unproductive.

there is the side effect of unequal distribution of the responsibilities. Apart from this, there is the inhibition of personal development. A

persons development of inherent traits will be determined by the degree of leverage allowed him by the invested cascading interests of other members of the community. This may generate a lull in

personal zest, creativity, ambition and productivity as ones success may be put to the service of all without commensurate reward. The Igbo say that if one man cooks for the public, they will finish it, but, if the public cooks for one man, he will be suffocated by the food. The evil of this extended family in the post-colonial period is seen in the fact that when a man succeeds as a medical doctor or lawyer, banker, lecturer, etc., he is visited by a horde of extended family members to cater for. Before the young lawyer or doctor knows it, he is struggling
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to make ends meet.

He can hardly stand on his feet financially

because of the overwhelming demands of the extended family. At the end of the day, all the members of the extended family bring that promising person to their level of poverty. This results in a vicious

circle of poverty. To survive, the young graduate begins to cut corners and indulge in some corrupt practices in order to take care of himself while at the same time meeting the high expectation of members of his extended family. Nigerian traditional cultural values include hospitality,

brotherhood, humanity, compassion, generosity, caring for others, interdependence, solidarity, reciprocal obligation and social harmony. These are the hallmarks of native African Cultural values mirrored through their communalism, humanity and brotherhood. As Kwame

Gyekye has remarked; Africans recognize the dignity of the human being and, in consequence, hold a deep and unrelenting concern for human welfare and happiness (23). This however, we must stress is only as applicable among members of close knit communities or people held by blood ties. It does appear that these values are not

extended to antagonistic neighbouring communities. The existence of mutual suspicious arising from land disputes and the inordinate ambition to achieve political supremacy over neighbours and the morbid expansionist tendencies of some kings were responsible for constant inter-ethnic strives and rivalries among traditional

independent Nigerian communities. As Gyekye has rightly pointed out, morality is not a product of religious revelation but a consequence of social interactive

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relationships of members of the community. He says that morality is intrinsically social arising out of the relations between individuals. Morality is therefore defined as a set of social rule and norms intended to guide the conduct of people in a society (55). The extended family philosophy is one of the guiding pillars of the Nigerian community existence. Extended family is the philosophy of tracing blood relation along paternal and maternal lines to the fifth generation with the intent of cementing blood relationship for enduring mutual benefits. This means that one is tied to the interminable chain of members of extended family. The post colonial response to the adverse effects of extended family system is a residual withdrawal from the emasculating influence of extended family through what I callChristianizing individualism. Original Apostolic Christianity resulted in Christianizing Communism, but, today what we have is a type of individualism which affords escape from traditional communalism which is less engrafting. In

present day Christianity, individuals have a community that takes care of them while they pay tithe and offering as a tokens for belonging to the community of Christians. The virtues of Christianity make As an escape route, many This is fast

obligations of membership less exacting.

are abandoning cultural ties for religious communities.

breaking down the old communal ties which held the people together. People prefer to extricate themselves from the rather very oppressive and unloving cultural relationship of hate, envy, jealousy and

divisiveness. Polygamy used to be a front for cooperative action and for providing needed manpower for farming. Today, it has become a crucible for acrimony and infighting. This means that the old good
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reasons for our cultural values do not hold good in the face of multiplying cultural ethos inviting us to kow-tow and imbibe them. The civil society is becoming more and more demanding and the people are seeking for the easiest way out. This has in turn led to very negative attitude to our pristine cultural values like respect for elders, decent dressing, mutual help, love, abstinence from moral corruption, maintenance of virginity, probity, trustworthiness, fear of God or gods (ancestors), upholding of sacred orders and the like. Today, it is materialism at the expense of spirituality and fear of God. Part of the prevalent values in most Nigerian cultures will include respect for proper speech, respect for elders and leaders, ritual remembrance, good behaviour, absence of arrogance, lack of threats, absence of gossip, submission to authority, pursuit of truth,

attainment of justice, generosity, self control, impartiality, avoidance of hasty speech, masking ones inner feelings and good listening skills ( see; Elechi Amadi:2005:50-64, Barry Hallen,6).

Strategies for Stemming the Danger of Cultural Atrophy amidst Global Cultural Challenges A cursory look at the history of our culture as a people and nation would certainly reveal that the entire nation is rapidly undergoing a rudimentary phase of Cultural Revolution. Indeed, this revolution is both positive and negative. Positive because some of our hitherto sacrosanct cultural practices that depict nothing but irrational worldviews and belief systems, outdated customs and practices that constitute a bane to our development are fast becoming unattractive
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and actually phasing out. Thanks to our contact with the West in historical moments of colonialism and current globalization. It has indeed brought about cultural renaissance. Negative on the other hand, because our age long cherished traditions and valuable customs are rapidly going into extinction. If in this so-called global integration (globalization) we lose what defines us, then we are lost as a people, as a continent and as a nation. It is already happening and has generated with it a crisis of identity amongst Africans and Nigerians in particular. As a response to this, scholars have written volumes stating and defending what defines us as a people. To our mind, an appreciable progress has not been made because as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. When we successfully restore what defines us as a people, the world will see and know and definitely that will save us the stress of searching for and defending our identity. How do we achieve this, the restoration of our culture? This is the focus of this section of the paper. We call it. Strategies for stemming the danger of Cultural atrophy. No doubt, Africa and indeed Nigeria needs a cultural renaissance. Our contact with the West through colonialism and globalization has impacted us negatively much more than we have benefited from it. It has been observed that the rapid and aggressive spread of market economies and communication technologies under the influence of Western multinationals bring new impediments to local cultures and values, particularly in Africa and non-western societies at large. Africans are cultivating the materialistic and individualistic habits and

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values previously associated with Western culture. This has come as a result of the structural change in the world economy. Globalization and the alarming increase of goods dumped on African countries that are marketed by mass seductive advertisement which is blatantly

superficial but nonetheless successful in creating desires in peoples of traditional societies (Akande, 2002). Nigeria is the largest country in the African continent. To this end, there is the temptation to argue that Nigeria has had the largest percentage share of the negativities of this global integration on African continent. The swallowing up of African culture by the Western culture has generated the erosion of cherished values and virtues of life amongst Africans. George Ekwuru calls this the evil of forced acculturation (Ekwuru, 1999:131). Usually, in a normal wheel of cultural evolution, when two cultures come into intensive contact, a gradual process of mutual cultural borrowing is observed to take place, whereby each of the two cultures, consciously or unconsciously, tends to take

something of the other. But in a case, where one of the two cultures demonstrate a domineering posture over the other, due to its highly developed techniques and media of expression, the weaker one is lured into an extensive act of cultural borrowing. This process of cultural borrowing in the dynamic process of inter-cultural contact is called acculturation. In a normal process of cultural evolution, acculturation is considered as an essential dynamic medium for crosscultural diffusion and development. But in a situation in which the process of acculturation is forcefully brought upon a society a

situation in which a highly developed society imposes certain elements of its culture on the other, thereby forcing it to derail from its unique
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track of cultural civilization, leads to a situation of cultural disorder. This is presently the Nigerian experience. Through heavy and sophisticated technologies expressed, for instance, in communication technologies of the internet pornography and other media

advertisement etc, Western culture has come heavily on Nigerian culture and the later is ferociously gulping everything without caution. There is therefore urgent need for a cultural appraisal of the Nigerian experience. Be that as it may, in providing the strategies for this cultural renaissance, the role of philosophy cannot be overemphasized. We shall bring to bear the philosophical tools of criticisms and analysis as we chart the strategies for the much needed cultural renaissance that will save our cherished cultural heritage from extinction. However, if we must succeed in this, we should make efforts to remove certain cobwebs in our cultural practices. Certainly, not all our traditional practices are worth keeping in this cultural evolution. There are aspects of our culture that have constituted a bane to our

development. There is no gainsaying the fact that the primary goal of modern African societies is that of development. According to Bodunrin (1985:ix), the key to the realization of this goal in the contemporary world is science and technology. Science and technology are defined by attitudes of the mind such as freedom of enquiry, openness to criticism, a general type of skepticism and fallibilism and nonveneration of authorities (Ibid). Hence, for Nigeria to develop there is the need to jettison or modify aspects of traditional culture that impede the development of these attitudes.

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Part of the weakness of our traditional culture is that it is authoritarian. Being authoritarian it does not, as Wiredu observes, place much premium on curiosity in those of tender age or independence of thought in those of more considerable years

(Wiredu,1980:4). Our traditional culture lacks the habit of exactness, and rigor in thinking, the pursuit of systematic coherence and the experimental approach (Ibid:32). The dearth of these qualities in Africa and Nigeria in particular is largely responsible for her scientific and technological backwardness in comparison to their Western counterparts. Wiredu further illustrated this point well using the examples of a typical African mechanic and the traditional African practice of pharmacology. In these examples, he tried to establish that the lack of a culture of logical precision and accuracy, an essential prerequisite for scientific-technological advancement, in the traditional African way of doing things stands as an impediment to development in Africa and also hinders our ability to benefit fully from technological advancement. Besides, the dogmatic acceptance of beliefs about the nature of reality, man and society, which characterize many primitive cultures also negate the cultivation of an attitude of rational and consistent inquiry that is requisite for scientific enterprise. To rectify this, a good foundation in philosophy and more specifically, logic is needed in at least our secondary and post-secondary school

curriculum. This would certainly facilitate the cultivation of a spirit of rational investigation, rigor in thinking and the culture of logical precision necessary for development. Another deficiency is that our traditional culture is oral. As a result, it does not give much room for the development of the features
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of the scientific mind already mentioned. This is how Hountondji puts it: Oral tradition favours the consolidation of knowledge into dogmatic, intangible systems (It) is dominated by the fear of forgetting, of lapses of memory, since here memory is left on its own resources bereft of external or material support. This forces people to hoard their memory jealously, to recall them constantly to repeat them continually, accumulating and heaping them up in a global wisdom, simultaneously present, always ready to be applied, perpetually available. In these conditions the mind is too preoccupied with preserving knowledge to find freedom to criticize it. (Hountondji, 1983:103). The above mentioned are some of the cobwebs to be cleared from our traditional culture to enable us come out of cultural ridicule, authenticate our humanity in the committee of nations and to contribute meaningfully in the global quest for development. In one hand, we have seen what the critical and analytic tradition of philosophy can do as regards our unattractive traditional practices. Subsequently, we shall recommend the strategies of cultural

selectiveness and alignment, and the promotion of a common language as our national language. Every society is known for and defined by a particular culture or cultural practices. Culture is no universal concept. Culture is

society/geographically based and at the same time dynamic. The destruction of a culture is the destruction of the society which such culture defines. No culture can claim absolute sufficiency. Every culture has what it lacks and so what it needs, thus the practice of cultural borrowing between and among cultures. However, in the process of cultural borrowing, there is need for each society to have
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the right cultural appetite guided by the rational needs of the society per time. The cultural needs of societies differ, therefore, the need for societies to cultivate the right appetite. This will help them to rationally select the right cultures that conduce to their destinies and aspirations in the process of cultural diffusions and borrowing. In our contact with the West, not all their ways of life is culturally harmless. For instance, traditionally, Nigeria cherishes and values communalism, extended family system, and respect for elders, chastity, and modesty in dressing without revealing ones sensitive body parts (especially the women). Traditional Nigeria abhors the idea of unwed mothers, premarital sex and public romance either by married couple or unmarried partners, the phenomenon of foster homes and the presence of street children. And these are virtues that are responsible for moral decorum and rectitude in traditional Nigerian society and vices that are responsible for moral degeneracy in our society. What the traditional Nigerian society abhors and frowns at (with regards to the

aforementioned), is rather what obtains as a normal way of life in the West. Sadly enough, these are fast becoming a way of life amongst Nigerians. In our contact with the West, we have failed as a people to rationally select only the aspects of Western culture that can complement our quest for development. We have rather fallen victims of irrational consummation of all of Western culture and we are not any better for it. We are fast running into cultural extinction if the tide is not checked. We do not only eat their food, wear their clothes, speak their language, but we also eat like them, dress like them, and speak like them.

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We can however strengthen our culture by cultural adaptation and alignment. Instead of copying a foreign culture into to, we can rather do that with modifications and innovations. For instance, when Alexander the Great sacked Alexandria, he took away both materials and techniques back to Rome. A lot of the books taken away from Egypt were unintelligible to the Greeks who were not initiated into the Egyptian mysteries upon which the intelligibility of the books

depended. In fact, the environment was not totally conducive for such ideas since the ordinary Greeks/Romans were not very receptive to strange doctrines. Those, like Socrates and Jesus Christ who tried to popularize strange doctrines were disliked, persecuted and killed. However, the Greeks/Romans grew into a political and economic power because they aligned whatever foreign ideas that found its way into their territory to the culture of the environment. The Greek spirit of free enquiry helped them to refine the little of the Egyptian mysteries they could understand and tolerate and this sent them on the way to greatness. According to Ibanga Ikpe (1999:6), the transformation of America from the rural backwater of Europe into the leader of the world, was by this principle. The Americans did not passively internalize the knowledge that they brought from Europe. Neither did they strive to follow the European footstep in everything they did. They rather introduced the philosophy of pragmatism whereby every knowledge had to prove its worth in practice and this helped them to overtake Europe in development. In the Japanese-Western cultural integration, the Japanese did not passively internalize Western capitalist structures and methods but refined aspects of capitalism with features from its own culture. The cultural passion for efficiency both
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in instrument and technique has contributed to the greatness of Japan. The concepts of Ikigai (what makes life worth living) and Hatarakigai (what makes work worth doing) are concepts from traditional Japanese heritage which play a significant role in contemporary Japanese capitalism. Commenting on one such feature of Japanese cultural heritage that has found its way into modern Japanese capitalism, Charles Sheldon writes that: Paternalism as it exists today in the Japanese economyhas been adopted and adapted from a combination of Confucian ideology, a strong established tradition of ideas and practices and the realization which dawn early in the process of industrialization that benevolence could be advantageous (Sheldon, 1984:34). Again, we should not look down on some aspects of our culture due to castigations and aspersions on us by those who are not part of the culture. To look down on ones culture is to discard what defines one and worst still discards ones capacity for development for ones development is tied to ones culture. This, however, does not mean that obsolete practices should be revived just for the fun of it but rather ennobling aspects of our culture can be promoted to give our culture and identity a lift amongst other cultures of the world. For instance, the relationship of the African (and Nigerian in particular) to time is that of an unsavory comment. The African is always seen as not respecting time. He is seen as neither being able to keep appointments nor relate to time in the same way that the European does. However, we need not drop totally our concept of time because of this unsavory comment. Although this may be true (and to that extent we ought to change our attitude to time), but it is always the

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negative aspect of this culture that is emphasized. Nobody seems to notice that the African farmer leaves for his farm before dawn or that the African trader will sell his wares at any time of the day or night so long as there is a customer. This is however a disregard for time that is positive. By it, the farmer and the trader increase their output and in the case of the trader someone gets service at a time when it would have been impossible in Western cultures. This is a positive aspect we can promote in other to strengthen our culture. More so, the Nigerian culture of the extended family has been a subject of castigation because of its tendency to deplete business capital, yet the fact that the extended family contributes to the psychological comfort of the individual as he ventures into business risks is not considered. There is always the feeling that if one fails at such a venture, the family is there to fall back on. There is also the free labour that one sometimes obtains from the extended family in the course of building a business (Ikpe, 1999:7). These are aspects of our communalist culture that can be promoted to strengthen our culture and our chances of development as a nation and continent. Another way through which we can stem the tide of cultural atrophy is to promote a common language. Language has a very intimate relationship with culture. This attitude is expressed by Daniel Bell when he writes that: particular languages embody distinctive ways of experiencing the world, of defining what we are. That is we not only speak in particular languages, but more fundamentally become the persons we become because of the particular language community in which we grow up. Language above all else, shapes our distinctive ways of
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being in the world. Language then is a carrier of peoples identity, the vehicle of a certain way of seeing things, experiencing and feeling, determinant of particular outlooks on life (Bell, 1993:158-159). If a lost language is a lost culture and a lost culture an invaluable knowledge lost, then efforts should be made to develop a common languageWA-ZO-BIA or strengthen our already existing local

languages. However, the experience in Nigeria today is a gradual phasing away of our traditional languages and the enthronement of the English language in every facet of our lives. English language has become our official language both in private and public life. We are born into it, we are taught with it, we dress with it, we eat with it, we live with it, and we may possibly die with it. Yet we are defending our identity. Can we have an identity in the midst of language crisis? Today, it is rare to have students who willingly enroll to study any of our local languages in the higher institutions unless such courses are given to them against their choices. Those who see themselves studying them are not proud of it. Scholarships and other forms of incentives are never given to them; rather the government can spend millions of naira on incentives to those studying foreign languages such as English, French, German, or science subjects. Consequently, educational qualification in any of our local language has become of less value than qualification in the colonial languages because of the influence the imperial countries exert over us as a result of their science supported civilization. To get out of this misnomer, we recommend that our local language experts (of the three major languages in Nigeria) should
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come together and develop a language to be called WA-ZO-BIA. This language when developed should be taught in all levels of our education system. If such is achieved, it will break the walls of ethnicity, it will make inter-tribal marriages easier and attractive since the language barrier (which is often a major fear and impediment to inter-tribal marriages) would have been transcended. With this we will be able to speak with one voice as a nation and as a people. Equally important (in the bid to save our culture from extinction) is the use of culture and cultural institutions to address global problems facing societies. For instance, tapping on traditional medicine and knowledge systems to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS. We call for people to eat more of our traditional diets instead of expensive, genetically-modified foods that are imported. Our native foods have proved to be healthy, nutritious and accessible. An increase on consumption of our native foods will not only catalyze and increase international trade in such commodities and help to economically empower our people, but will also help to retain our culture and sell it to the world. We therefore call on our governments, NGOs and all concerned groups to sponsor television and radio programmes on the teaching on how to cook our local foods. All these strategies, if vigorously pursued will surely help to stem the tide of cultural atrophy of the Nigerian culture.

Conclusion The need for a cultural renaissance of the Nigerian experience is a product of the current cultural evolution engendered by our cultural contact with the West in historical moments of colonialism and
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globalization. This cultural contact has brought about a forced acculturation that has left our cultural heritage in a precarious condition of imminent extinction. This is the result of our research made possible through the application of philosophical tools of criticisms and analysis. This has shown that philosophy as a discipline still plays an important role in our quest for cultural renaissance. More so, we observe that a lost culture is a lost society as well as an invaluable knowledge lost. To this extent, we recommend certain strategies that will stem the dangers of cultural atrophy amidst global cultural challenges. The need to have the right cultural appetite that will help us to select the right culture that conduce to our destiny as a people, the practice of cultural adaptation and alignment and the development and promotion of a common language are some of such strategies that will help in the right direction. However, we do not claim that these are the only ways through which our quest for the right cultural renaissance can be achieved. Ours is just a perspectivecontribution to the quest. Other ways can possibly be explored. At the end we conclude that a passionate, vigorous and committed

application of these strategies will surely stem the tide of cultural atrophy of the Nigerian cultural heritage.

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References Ajayi,Ade J.F. (1966) A Survey of the Cultural and Political regions of Africa at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Anene,J.C. and Brown Godfrey (Eds)Ibadan: Ibadan University press. Akinjogbin, I. A. (1966) Dahomey and Yoruba in the Nineteenth Century in Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Anene,J.C. and Brown Godfrey (Eds)Ibadan: Ibadan University press. Akande, Wole (2002) The Drawback of Cultural Globalization. Yellowtimes, November 10, 2002. Amadi, Elechi. (2005) Ethics in Nigerian Culture. Ibadan:Heinemann Educational Books. Anene, J.C. and Brown G.(1999). Africa in the Nineteenth and twentieth Centuries. Ibadan:Ibadan University Press.

Anene,J.C.(1966). Southern Nigeria in transition 1885-1906. Cambridge:Cambridge University press. Bell, Daniel (1993) Communitarianism and its Critics. Oxford: Clavedon Press. Bodunrin, P. (1985) Introduction in Bodunrin P. (ed.) Philosophy in Africa: Trends and Perspectives. Ile Ife Nigeria: University of Ife Press. Coleman, James. (1960). Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ekwuru, George (1999) The Pangs of an African Culture in Travail. Owerri: Totan Eze, Emmanuel,(1988) African Philosophy: An Anthology. Malden: Blackwell publishers.

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Hallen, Barry. (2000). A Short History of African Philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press Ikpe, Ibanga (1999) The Culture of Development and the Development of Culture in Viewpoint: A Critical Review of Culture and Society. Vol 1, Nos 1&2, 1999. Isichie, Elizabeth.(1973)The Ibo people and the Europeans:The Genesis of a Relationship to 1906.London: Faber and Faber Ltd. Morgan, W.T.W.,(1983) Nigeria. London: Longman Publishers. Hountondji, Paul (1983) African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, translated by Henri Evans with the collaboration of Jonathan Ree. London: Hutchinson and Co. Limited. Gyekye, Kwame (1997). Tradition and Modernity: Philosophical Reflections on the African Experience. New York: Oxford University Press. Nkrumah, Kwame (1964). Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization and Development. London: Heinemann. Wiredu, Kwasi (1992). Person and Community: Ghanaian Philosophical Studies. Washington: The council for Research in values and philosophy. Sheldon, Charles (1984) The Paternalistic Tradition of Japan: in Persistence and Adaptations in a Changing Economy Gordon Daniels (ed.) Europe Interprets Japan. Kent UK: Paul Norbury.

EPILOGUE CHAPTER FOURTEEN

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INTRODUCTION

APOLOGETICS The term apologetics derives from a Greek term apologia, which means reasons for doing something, a kind of defence. Apologia means speech for the defense Quadratus was one of the early apologists. He was an Athenian who wrote an apology addressed to Emperor Hadrian. We have another Athenian know as Aristides who addressed his argument to Antonius Pius in about 140. Others include Justin Martyr, Melito of Sardis, Athenagoras and the bishop Theophilus of Antioch. For Justin, Christianity was the oldest, truest and most divine of philosophies because it was the wisdom revealed by God himself, through the prophets first of all, but then in his own son (Walker, etal 53-55) Apologetic is a branch of theology which defends Christianity, in the Greek period, a defence which somebody like Socrates might make in defence of his views of defence Paul made for devoting his life wholesale to Christ is a type of apologia. Remember Apostle Peter talks about the need to give a reason for the hope that is in him (1 Peter 3:15). Having said the above, we conclude that the gospel message is true in what it affirms. An apologist is one who is prepared to defend the gospel message against Criticism and distortion and to give evidences for its credibility (Geisler 36). We can say that the whole of the New Testament writings were written for certain apologetic reasons. They were written to commend the faith to people and to convince them of the authenticity of the Christian gospel. Apologetic activities of the early church and in fact through out the history of the Christian Church all done to either answer some gainsayers, Convince the double minded or clear up some puddles in the pathway of the gospel to aid proper Understanding of the gospel. In the beginning it was necessary both to define what the Church believed in the face of heretical tendencies and to offer an explication of its basis in rationality to enquires and critics of difference kinds(36). Apologetics was also needed in order to strengthen the believers against the scathing criticism of adversaries of Christianity, Religious apologetics were intended to wine convert from Judaism and paganism. Some of the practitioners of apologetics include Justin, Clement, Origen, St Augustine, Anselem, Thomas Aquinas, Polycarp, Pascal, etc, and all the apostles, early church fathers and Christians of the contemporary period. Every true Christian should be a defender of faith (Judes) and to that extent an apologist of the Christian faith. From Lurther, Calvin, Wycliffe, to others like Wesley, Whitefield, Spurgeon, William Booth, Wiggles worth, Evans Roberts, Catherine Khulman and a host of others. It must be noted however that Christian apologetics suffered a withering stroke in the period of the Enlightenment in the hands of such philosophers like David Hume, Nietzsche, Kant, JS Mill, Russell and many others down the line. The enlightenment critique was a kind of drawback on the progress of apologetics. In the works of scholars like C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer we began to experience some form of resurgency. Philosophers like Kierkegaard and

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Karl Barth did not apply apologetics in furthering Christianity but appealed to a kind of commitment of faith. Apologetics must answer post modernists like Derrida and Lyotard because if it does not then Christianity as an objective grand-Metanarrative is likely to have problems with the onslaught of post modernism. As CS Lewis has said To be ignorant and simple now and not be able to meet the enemies on their own ground would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren, who have, under God, no defense but us against the barrage of intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. Lawrence Cahoone in his book from Modernism to post modernism sees post modernism as an intellectual movement, which rejects most of the fundamental intellectual pillars of the modern western civilization, which includes Christianity. This is why it has to be answered.

The Bible and how it was formed The bible has a long drawn history stretching into the dim past. The word bible is derived from the Greek word biblio, which means books. The Latin equivalent is biblia. The Greek word papyrus, which was the writing material available at the time, became anglicized as paper. Paprus was made out of a reed that grew in the shallow lakes and rivers of Egypt and Syria. And large shipments of papyrus were shipped through the Syrian port of Byblos. It is surmised that the Greek word biblos came from the name of this port. The oldest papyrus fragment known dates to 2400BC. The earliest manuscripts were written on papyrus and it was difficult for any to survive except in dry areas such as the sands of Egypt or in caves such as the Qumran caves, where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. Papyrus enjoyed popular use until about the third century AD. The scripture have also been preserved in different forms namely, as parchment, vellum, stones, clay tablets and war, tablets, parchment is the name given to prepared skins of sheep, goats, antelope and other animals. These skins were shaved and scraped to make them serve as good writing material, vellum is the name given to calfskin. It was often dyed in purple. The oldest leather scrolls date from around 1500 BC. We have the Ostrich which is unglazed pottery used as writing tablet for common people. It is called potsherd. Ancient writing instruments include chisel, metal stylus, pen, and ink. We had three types of writing namely, uncial writing, minuscule writing and spaces and vowels writing. The oldest and most significant uncial manuscripts are codex Vaticanus and codex sinaiticus (AD 340). What today is called the bible is an array of inspired writings by different authors, written in different dispensations, places and people of different social, economic and religious background. These different manuscripts were complied through many processes over time. 253

First, we have the Decalogue consisting the five books of Moses namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Through series of certifications other manuscripts came to be recognized as divinely inspired. The process took a lot of proofs, argumentation, screening, confirmations and prayers. The path through which the Old Testament and the New Testament became accepted is rigorous and traversed through rigorous, process with the church going through debates and certification processes. This is what is called the process of canonization of the scriptures.

What do we mean by the word canon? The word canon comes from the root word reed the English equivalent for cane, Hebrew form is ganeh and the Greek form is Kanon. The reed was used as a measuring rod, and came to mean standard. It was the third century church, father origin who used the word Canon to denote what we call the rule of faith, the standard by which we are to measure and evaluate. Later according to B. P. Bruce the word canon came to mean a list or index. As applied to the scripture canon means to mean a list or index. As applied to the scripture canon means an officially accepted list of books. It is important to note that the church did not create the canon or the divinely inspired books, the church merely discovered them, recognized them. A book is the word of God because it is inspired by God and not because people accepted it as the word of God. We can therefore say that the church discovered the canon, is a child of the canon, is to minister the canon, is to recognize the canon, witness of the canon, servant of the canon and the defender of the canon. The following tests were carried out before books were included in the canon. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Was the book written by a prophet of God. Was the writer confirmed by the acts of God by miracles Did the message tell the truth about God? Does it come with the power of God? Was it accepted by the people of God

In the New Testament the chief test for divine inspiration is apostolicity. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Apostolicity could mean apostolic authorship or apostolic approval. The New Testament canonical books were collected for the following reasons. 1. They were prophetic 254

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

To direct the church on the books to read The rise of heretics like Marion who complied his own incomplete canon Circulation of spurious writing. To aid to know which books should be translated Persecution was rife and believers needed to know which books were worth dying for.

It was Athanasius of Alexandria that gave us our earliest list of New Testament, - others are Jerome Augustine, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Ignatius, and finally the church council. The synod of Hippo in Ad 393 listed the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. Some books referred to as Apocrypha books were rejected because they enjoyed only temporary recognition, not fully certified No church council included them, limited acceptance. While the Old Testament consists of thirty-nine books divided into three as the law, the Prophets and the writings while the New Testament has twenty-seven bodies divided into the Gospels, the history, the epistles and the Prophecy (Revelation).

The Uniqueness of the Bible The common belief among laymen, the unregenerate, the unscriptured, the unenlightened and unsaved is that the bible is like every other book written by great men like Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, Goethe, etc. All books according to them are products of human inspiration experience, imagination, intuition and learning. For them, there is nothing special, nothing unique and nothing fantastic about the bible. The pity of it all is that those who canvas such views may never have read a page of the sacred book and have not allowed the magnetic and their resistible and life transforming quality of the bible to get hold of their lives. The truth remains that those qualified to evaluate, assess and criticize a thing should be those who have had, the privilege of prying the entrails of their subject or object of evaluation. Again, it must be people who have examined their object without prejudice, bias, unfavorable predisposition, inordinate passion and hate. It must be those who are provenly objective, neutral and propelled by a passion to reach sincere report or account. This is why we make bold to say that only those who have experienced the Mystique and the extraordinary in the bible are the best qualified to render their judgment as to its quality and value. Anybody who has truly read the bible and sincerely appropriated its message cannot but come off in wonderment of its inexplicable revolutionary effect on human life and character. Even those who have not yet yielded positively to its transforming power will either run away from it completely or sooner or later become beneficiaries of its potent transforming power. Even those who withdraw form reading it are not spared the convicting arrows of its residual impact.

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The impact of the bible on human life, world civilization, literature, history, culture, government and knowledge is so overwhelming that any one who has not read the bible can be considered an illiterate irrespective of the wealth of knowledge he or she may have on secular matters. The bibles content, scope, penetration, reality, never-dyingness, application, holisticness, transformation, mystery, propheticness, historicity, comprehensiveness, inspriationalism, salvific effect and relevance puts the bible above every other book written by human authors. The bible though written by humans is authored by God, it contains its internal coherence, defense and justification. It is inspired by God but more than that is the greatest inspirer of other thoughts and books. (2 Pet 1: 20 21, 2Tim 3: 16). The danger is that for those who have not read the bible, they are more likely to misinterpret, misread, misapply and misjudge the contents of other books since most good books are inspired by the contents of the bible. The author of this lecture became more inspired and more prolific after reading and influenced by the bible. Using the words of Josh Medowell in his book The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict states unequivocally that the bible is uniquely different from all other books. It is the book of books. It is unique because it is different from all other books, it has no equal and is no a pedestal higher and richer than all others and in a class of its own. He identified the following areas of uniqueness of the bible, namely, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Unique in its continuity Unique in its circulation Unique in it translation Unique in it survival Unique in its teachings Unique in its influence on literature Unique in its influence on civilization

1.

Unique in its Continuity

The bible is the only book written over fifteen hundred-year span by over forty authors from every work of life including kings (e.g David), military leaders (Joshua), peasant, Fishermen (Peter) Tax collectors (Mathew), Poets (David), Musicians (David) statesmen, Prime minister (Daniel), cupbearer (Nehemiah) scholars, philosophers (Solomon), physician, Historian (Luke), herdsman (Amos), Lawyer rabbi (Paul) etc. The bible is written in different places at different times, during different moods, on three different continents (Asia, Africa and Europe), and written in three different languages Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. It is also written in a variety of literary styles namely (Poetry, 256

historical narrative, song, romance, didactic treatise, personal correspondence, memoirs, satire, biography, autobiography, law, prophecy, parable and allegory (Mcdowell 3-6). The bible addresses hundreds of controversial subjects like marriage, divorce, remarriage, homosexuality, adultery, parenting, events of the last days, sin, etc. The bible unfolds a single story of God and redemptive work among humans. It begins with paradise, lost in Genesis and ends with paradise regained in the book of Revelation. The leading character is the one true, living God revealed through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. The whole bible is therefore Christo-centric. Again, in spite of the array of writers and their wide and differing backgrounds, moods and literary levels the entire bible manifests wonderful unity. Other books are conglomeration, a hotchpotch of ideas but the bible is of single origin, continuing story marked by a wonderful (amazing) unity.

2.

Unique in its Circulation

The bible remains the best seller, unrivalled by any other. It has been sold in millions and millions and is found in almost all the home of professing Christians, in libraries, offices and even in some homes of believers of non-Christian religions.

3.

Unique in its translation

The bible still remains the only book that is most widely translated. It has been translated into over 2,200 languages, out of the worlds 6,500 known languages.

4.

Unique in its survival

The bible has passed through many stages of metamorphosis from the first time it was written on perishable materials and the time of copying and recopying for hundreds of years before the invention of printing press. Inspite of all these stages, the scriptures have never diminished in style and correctness. The bible has more manuscripts than any other known book because of the work of the copyists who have over the years been engaged in copying and recopying the manuscripts. The bible stands as the most persecuted book. Most criticized and most vilified. Many destructive arrows have been short at the bible but it has refused to die. It can be likened to as an anvil that has worn many hammers. Examples are Voltaire, the French infidel who swore that in a hundred years time after his death in 1778, that the bible will be extinct and Christianity extinguished but ironically fifty years after his death his printing press become the centre for the printing of bibles by the Geneva Bible Society. Again, in AD 303 the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to stop 257

Christians form worshiping God and to destroy all scriptures again, ironically twenty five years after Diocletians edict the Roman emperor Constantine issued an edict ordering that fifty copies of the scriptures should be prepared at the governments expense (Mcdowell 10).

5.

Unique in its teachings

The bible is unique in its teachings. Its teachings epitomize truth and reality. It is factual, realistic, pragmatic, prophetic, historical, informative, instructive and transforming, wisdom imparting and knowledge giving. Psalm 19:17-11 encapsulates the usefulness of its teachings. The law of the Lord is prefect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the statues of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes, the fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are their than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is they servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward. According to Wibursmith Mohammedanism cannot point to any prophecies of the coming of Mohammed uttered hundreds of years before his birth. Neither can the founders of any cult in this country rightly identify any ancient text specifically foretelling their appearance. (McDowell 12). Other books claim divine inspiration, such as the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and part of Hindu Veda. But none of those books contains predictive prophecy (13). It is a book that exposes the sins of its authors like Moses, David, Paul the Apostle, etc.

6.

Unique in its influence on literature

The book and its fragments are so pervasive in the gamut of literature that one can easily reconstruct the bible from extant literature if all bibles were to be destroyed. The above is a paraphrase of the view of Cleland B. McAfee. According to Gabriel Swan, No other document in the possession of mankind offers so much to the reader, ethical, religion instruction, superb poetry, a social program and legal code, an interpretation of history and all the joys, sorrows and hopes which well up in men and which Israelite prophets and leaders expressed with matchless force and passion. He further states that since the dawn of civilization no book has inspired as much creative endeavor among writers as the Old Testament, the Hebrew bible. Ehe Wiesel a renowned novelist and Nobel Peace prize recipient, has observed An inspired work, the Bible is also a source of inspiration. Its impact has no equal, whether on the social or ethical plane or on that of literary creation. For Harold Fisch, the Bible has permeated the literature of the Western World to a degree that cannot easily be measured. For Northrop

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Frye, he says I quote him I soon realized that a student of English literature who does not know the bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads.

7.

Unique in its influence on civilization

According to Geiser and Nix the influence of the bible and its teaching in the Western World is clear for all who study history. And the influential role of the west in the course of world events is equally clear. Civilization has been influenced more by Judeo-Christian scriptures than by any other book or series of books in the World. Indeed, no great moral or religious work in the World exceeds the depth of morality in the principle of Christian love, and none has a more lofty spiritual concept than the biblical view of God. The bible presents the highest ideals of the bible influenced or molded western civilization, western civilization, western civilization in turn influenced the culture of the rest of this world. The French philosopher Jean Jacque Rousseau says behold the works of our philosophers, with all their pompous diction how mean and contemptible they are by comparison with the scriptures. A thorough knowledge of the bible is worth more than a college education so says Theodore Roosevelt.

References Norman Geisler. Encyclopedia of Christian apologia. Michigan. Baker books 1999

Allen, Robert. Chambers Encyclopedia English Dictionary Edinburgh. Chambers, 1994

Mcdowell, Josh. The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Nashille. Thomas Nelson Publishers 1999.

Jesus Christ and His Deity To talk about the person and Deity of Christ is to ascertain the historical reality of this personage called Christ. He is so well known that debating or disputing the reality of His historical existence may be an exercise in empty trifling and blind disputation. But for the sake of those who are 259

willfully ignorant and as an apologetical basis for the anchor of our faith it is still reasonable to dwell on the existence of Jesus as a physical reality and not as a mythical contrivance. It will look strange but it is true that such sagacious philosophic genius like Bertrand Russell denied the existence of the historical Jesus or at best remained agnostic. In his book Why I Am Not A Christian, he asserts Historically it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him (p.16). This is indeed a radical and a deafening claim. It is surprising that even the revolutionary American philosopher Thomas Paine who should have denied Christs existence inspite of his holding Christianity in high contempt. Though he doubts the deity of Christ but he was of the view that Jesus was a virtuous and an amiable man. It is a glaring case of historical ignorance for any person to doubt the existence of Christ. As Professor F. F. Bruce has said some writers may toy with the fancy of a Christ-myth, but they do not do so on the ground of historical evidence. The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the Christ-myth theories. Otto Betz in a similar vein holds that no serious scholar had ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus. History, biblical, Eye witness, apostolic, ecclesiastical accounts abound to substantiate that Christ was not a mythical figure but one that had flesh and bone existence here on earth.

1. Biblical account It is instructive to note that the birth of Jesus was prophesied many years before His physical advent. In Gen.3:15 He is the seed of the woman that will bruise the head of the serpent. In Deut 18:18, He is the prophet whom the Lord will raise among the children of Israel unto whom they must hearken. In Isaiah 74:14, He is the son that shall be conceived by the virgin whose name shall be called Emmanuel. In Isaiah 9:6, He is the prophet Isaiah speaks about for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. And He is the incarnate God that was born in a manger in Bethlehem of Judea during the taxing declared by Auqustus Caesar (Matt 2:1, Lk 2: 1-20). This same Jesus was circumcised the eight day according to the Law of Moses with the attendant sacrifice of two pigeons offered for the child. We therefore have evidence of Jesus historicity from Christian sources, secular authorities and Jewish references to the life of Christ.

2. Secular authorities on Jesus Historicity Cornelius Tacitus called or regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome who lived during the reign of over half a dozen of Roman emperors in his Annals and the Histories (Spanning from the Augustus death in 14th century AD to the reign of Domitian in AD 96). He 260

alludes to the death of Christ and the existence of Christians at Rome. He couldnt have written about the death of a non-existence Christ for birth precedes death. Another person, a Greek Satirist of late half of the second century is said to have spoken scornfully about Christ and the Christians. He talked of Christ as a mere mortal whom His followers worshipped as a god. He also mentioned the crucifixion of Christ. The next is Suctonius a Roman historian, a court official under Hadrian who misspelled Christ as Chrestus talked about how His followers were expelled from Rome. This event is referred to by Luke in Acts 18:2 and this episode took place in AD 49. In AD 64, he reported of how Nero punished the Christian on account of the fire that swept through Rome. He described Christians a class of men given to new and mischievous superstition. Pliny the younger was the person (the Governor of Bithynia) who testified to how he was killing Christians for daring to worship Christ as God. Thallus of AD 52 whose work the history of the Eastern Mediterranean world form the Trojan war to his own time talked about the darkness that befell the world during the late afternoon hours when Jesus was crucified. This is instructive because it points to the reality of His crucifixion. Phlegon wrote in his chronicles reported on by Julus Africanus, which fragments still exist where he explains that darkness that took place at Christs cruciflxion was as a result of an eclipse of the sun. Mara Bar- Serapion a Syrian and a stoic philosopher wrote from prison to his son enjoining him to seek wisdom and compare Jesus to the philosophers The Athenians killed Socrates and the Backlash was famine and plague. The men of Samos killed Pythagoras and in a moment their land was covered with sand.The Jews killed Christ and their reward was that their kingdom was abolished. For him, God justly avenged the killing of these three wise men.

JEWISH REFERENCES TO JESUS HISTORICITY Most ancient Jewish sources are said to be unfriendly towards Christianitys founder. The Babylonian Talmud records that on the eve of Passover they hanged Yeshu. He was stoned because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray. Jeshu refers to Jesus while hanging refers to crucifixion. Another Talmudic passage asserts that Yeshu had five disciples though the record of five disciple is wrong but come to truth we glean from he passage is that Jesus existed and had disciples. 261

THE TESTIMONY OF JOSEPHUS Josephus Ben Mathias was born AD 37/ 38 and died after Ad 100. J.P. Meir describes Josephus as turncoat historians who sold himself to the manipulation of the Flavian emperors hence his name was changed to flavlius Josephus. He became part of the emperors inner circle. In Josephus Jewish Antiquities, talks about one Jesus, a wise man, a doer of wonderful works a teacher of such men as receive truth with pleasure. He maintained the reality of Jesus significant followership and the fact that Christianity and Christians are a reality in his day.

CHRISTIAN SOURCES FOR JESUS HISTORICITY The bible from Genesis to Revelation is nothing but the story about God and the personage called Christ either in its symbolisms or in its flesh and blood reality. In Genesis we see the seed of the woman; in Exodus we see the blood of the lamb, in Leviticus, we see the atonement and sacrifice foreshadowing Christ, number we the Nazarite. In Deuteronomy we see the prophet that is greater than Moses. In Joshua we see the captain of our salvation, etc. Luke 24: 34 notes that the savior has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon Rom. 1:3-4 records thus His son Jesus Christ our Lord who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness Pauls account in 1cor. 15: 3-5 I delivers to you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture and that He was buried and that He rose again, the third day according to the scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve, after was seen of above five hundred brethren at once at last He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time . Habermas in his verdict of history focuses on several of the creedal affirmation embedded in the New Testament. We can confirm all these by reading his work side by side the New Testament.

POST APOSTOLIC WRITERS Apart from the New Testament documents, which include the gospels, the history (Acts of the apostle), the epistles and the prophecy ( Revelation), which give as a total 27 books, we have additional evidence from the early church fathers- we have clement of Rome who was a bishop of the church of Rome towards the end of the first century. He owed serious allegiance to Christ and the apostles from whom the article of the Christian faith was handed to him. Others are Ignatius who was the bishop of Antioch, polycarp, Quadratus, the bishop of the church at Athens, church historian Eusebius.

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We have Aristides a second century Christian apologist and Christian philosopher of Athens, we have Justin Martyr regarded as one of the greatest of the early Christian apologist. He was born around 100 AD and was scourged and beheaded in AD 167. He was learned and well versed in the leading philosophies of his day including stoicism, Aristotelians and Pythagoreans, Platonism, etc Hegesippus is confirmed by Jerome and Eusebius to have lived near the time of the apostles. He traveled to Corinth to ascertain for himself the truth about Jesus and his teachings. He became convinced and confirmed in the faith and he became refreshed with the true doctrine. Other additional historical sources include those from Rome emperors - Trajan, Macrobius, Hadrian, Antoninus, Pius, Marcus Aurellus, Juvenal, Seneca and Hierocles.

JESUS DEITY

The deity of Christ more than his existence has attracted more controversy over the ages. It is his deity that makes Christianity outstanding and above all other religions. Most writers avers to Christianity have tried to deny, ridicule, suppress, profane or rebut it the best they can. This is why His resurrection is denied, as that is the most distinguishing mark of His deity. This is what separates the wheat from the shaff, the kernel from the husk of all the founders, of all religious groups non- resurrected. And it is by this token that God has set a difference between Christ and others (Acts 17: 30-31). The story that was fabricated and made the rounds was that when the soldiers guarding the tomb asleep, His disciples came and stole Him away. Christs deity is confirmed through prophecy, fulfillment of prophecy, the confirmation of God, and the Holy spirit, the miracles and teachings, Jesus claims in the scriptures, His authority to forgive sins, receive worship, give life, the testimony of demons, what others said, that trial and the confirmation by the chief priest, the events after the crucifixion and his final resurrection from the death, His immanence in our lives and the spread of Christianity with its abiding potency and the fulfillment of other bible prophesies. Finally, we have the bestowal of deific little. The common philosophic or logical accusation is that Christians use what is in doubt namely the truths of the bible of justify the truth of the deity of Christ, which is also in doubt. We have been as systematic, logical and historical as possible in order to prove and to establish the truth and cogency of every step needed to prove every succeeding episode. The veracity of the scriptures, the historicity of Christ has all already been established. In the Old Testament, Jesus is symbolized by the brazen serpent, Moses Rod, the lamb without Blemish, the sacrificial lamb, etc. The psalmist prophesied about Him as the chief shepherd, the Rock of Ages, the son of God, As one whose hands feet were pierced, etc, in the book of Hebrews Jesus is described as the first begotten of the father, the brightness of Gods glory, the express image of his person, whose name is more excellent than all names Heb. 1:1-6.

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In phil 2: 9, it reads wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. That at the name Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. Many have seen Jesus claim to deity as an egomaniac display of arrogation of power to Himself. This they claim because no other religious leader, Mahavira, Buddha, Laotzu, Confucius, Moses, Mohammed, etc, ever claimed to be God. The question is, how a Man could make others think He was God. According to F. J. Meldau, His teachings were ultimate, final above those of Moses and the prophets. He never added any after thoughts or revisions. He never retracted or changed, he never guessed, supposed or spoke with uncertainty. This is all so contrary to human teachers and teaching. During the trial, the High priest kept asking Him Are you the Christ, the son of blessed. This means that the Jews knew about the prophecy of coming Christ but was only doubtful if Jesus was indeed the very Christ they were expecting. They were expecting a Christ in the mold of a great warrior, conqueror who will deliver them from the bondage of the Romans but here Jesus came preaching peace and submission to their enemies so they could not reconcile this what was for the future dispensation of Christ 2nd advent they supposed for the advent- this is all judgmental historical errors borne out of impatience and the ignorance of Gods timing. Jesus was actually crucified because of His unequivocal claim to deity. Jesus also makes it clear that He is equal with the Father see Jn. 10: 25- 23 I and my Father are one (Jn. 5: 17) they also accused Him of making Himself equal with the Father. In Jn. 8: 58, Jesus told his adversaries before Abraham IAM. IAM refers to the name of God Himself as Yahweh. God presented Himself to Moses as the IAM that IAM (Yahweh), which means Lord. The Jews were baffled at this claim of Jesus. Jn. 5:23-24 tells us that all the honour due to the Father is due to the son also. Jesus said if you know me, you have known the father, Jn 8: 19.we have the case of Philip who wanted to know the Father and Jesus answered He who has seen me has seen the Father. (Jn 14:1). Apart from Jesus claim, we see that He accepted worship from the Leper who came and worshiped Him Matt. 8: 2. The man born blind worshiped Him. Jn 91: 35 -39.The disciples worshiped Him Matt. 14: 33. Thomas proclaimed His Lordship after he beheld Christ - He said my Lord and my God (Jn 20: 27 -29). The centurion in Matt 8: 5-10 called Him Lord. But on the contrary we see that Peter rejected worship from Cornelius Acts 10: 25- 26. The angel rejected worship when John wanted to worship him and instructed John to worship only God (Rev.19: 10). Paul the apostle is the most indefatigable in affirming the deity (Lordship) of Christ as can be seen in the following scriptures Phil 2: 9-11, Col. 1:15- 17, Col. 2: 9, Titus 2: 13. 264

John the Baptist proclaims, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He also bore witness to Christs inducement with the Holy Spirit and the voice of the father which confirmed His sonship thus, this, is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Matt. 3: 16 -17, Luke 3: 22. Apostle Peter in answer to Jesus question who do you say that IAM said Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God Matt 16: 16 see other affirmation of His Lordship in Acts 2:36, 2Peter 1:1 In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn. 1:1-2,14).

Jn 20: 30 concludes the purpose of the scriptures thus, And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that believing ye might have life though His name.

In Mk. 2: 5- 10, Jesus forgave sins and Jn. 14: 6, He declared himself the way, the Truth and the life. In Jn 11:25 He declares I am the resurrection and the life. See also Jn. 5: 11, 12. He has authority and He is the eternal Judge that will Judge all mankind Acts 17: 31, Rom 14: 12. We wish to say that without the deity of Christ our Christianity will be vain and we all who profess and believe in Him will be of all me most miserable (1cor. 15: 19). No other solitary life has affected the life of man throughout life as the life, teaching and mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus. For those who wish to remain ignorant and adamant, the full reality of His deity will be revealed on the Day of Judgment, when He will stand as Lord and Judge but then, it would have been too late for the despisers, the doubters, the scoffers and the unbelieving. Support of His deity in the Old Testament will include appeal to messianic prophecy. Prophecies concerning His birth, prophecies concerning His Nature, prophecies concerning His ministry, prophecies concerning events after His burial. Over 60 prophecies have been fulfilled and many more will be fulfilled and all have been and are being fulfilled to the minutest details and accuracy.

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