Written by Douglas Anele
Sunday, 01 June 2008
Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9263&Itemid=71

IN this connection, and echoing the view of Karl Popper, criticism, which is at the heart of philosophical reasoning, is essential in helping people attain truth.

It is only through criticism that we can examine those cherished beliefs which we find most painful to doubt. In this way, the acerbity associated with personal disagreements would lessen dramatically, a major gain for interpersonal relationships.

Ethical generality, either through abstract thinking or generalized emotion, is also one of the positive concomitants of philosophy.

The essential point of interest to note at this juncture is that we should learn to think in abstract terms in matters which involve us and those who we do not like, for one reason or another. We also need to cultivate, through philosophy, the ability to feel distant evils acutely.

Nowadays, in Nigeria and all the countries of the world, the frenetic hankering after money, power and material things has drastically reduced people’s concern with those purely theoretical questions which are of personal and passionate interest, and which science is unable to deal with satisfactorily at present.

Some of the questions are: Is there any sense in which human beings survive death, and if so, do we survive death temporarily or permanently? What is mind? What is matter? What is the relationship, if any, between the two? Is there a divine plan behind the universe, or is it the product of the blind operation of cause and effect?

What is man? Do humans have, perhaps, limited freedom of the will or are they completely determined by their biological make-up and environment? What is the ultimate fate of the universe and all its contents?

No one knows the correct answers to these and related questions, but human life would be impoverished if they are completely ignored, or if the proposed answers, such as those contained in religious texts or scripture, are accepted uncritically without adequate evidence.

It is one of the functions of philosophy to remind people of the significance of these questions, and to evaluate suggested answers.

Throughout human history, groups of people have dogmatically accepted views for which there is scant evidence.

There is a natural craving for certainty, and those who prefer quick and definite answers to the most troubling existential questions of life may scoff at philosophy, a discipline that reminds us how fallible we are, a study which seems to encourage what might be considered time-wasting occupation with tentative contemplation of insoluble problems.

The consequence is that mankind has remained divided into rival groups of fanatics; each group utterly convinced that its own version of hogwash is divinely inspired, whereas, the other side is satanic heresy.

Christians and muslims, communists and capitalistic imperialists, Israelis and Arabs, ethnic chauvinists and irredentists, etc., have, for more than two thousand years, fought in vain, when some philosophical knowledge would have demonstrated to everyone concerned that none had any good reason to believe that their opinion is right.

Dogmatism is a mortal enemy of peace and truth. In this country, we have heard northerners cry “Kill all the Igbo and Nigeria will witness unparalleled progress”. “Liquidate all the Christians and sharia law will reign supreme.”

“Exclude northerners from the top echelons of politics and the south will triumph.” Beyond Nigeria, we have the following: “Destroy the ‘axis of evil’ and America will be secure.” “Obliterate the Jews and the Arabs will be free.”

“Eliminate the Arabs, because their existence threatens Israel , the holy land”. These are some of the propaganda slogans that have been widely accepted in our time. But a moment’s reflection would show that these bloodthirsty views are untenable.

But, as long as people are not trained to suspend judgment when relevant evidence to an issue is unavailable, they would be misled by cocksure wicked prophets, and it is very likely that their leaders will be either ignorant fanatics or dishonest pretenders and hypocrites.

As a discipline, philosophy is supremely fitted for inculcating the virtues of skepticism, for dissipating the feeling of certainty. Beyond this, philosophy should teach the importance of acting on the basis of the best hypothesis available in any situation, without believing in that hypothesis dogmatically.

If a matter is one that requires empirical evidence, for example, it is best for you to look for the evidence yourself. When it is difficult or impossible to do so, you should appeal to the opinions of experts in the relevant fields, rather than cling fanatically to the views of your pastor, imam or elder.

Where the experts disagree, the best thing to do is to suspend judgment. Bear in mind that it is always wrong, everywhere at any time, to believe something without sufficient evidence. If the attitude of skepticism, which can be imbibed from philosophy, were to become more widespread world-wide, the paradise, which people dream of and which religious adherents hope to enjoy in heaven, would become a reality on earth.

Obviously, it is evident that a large number of men and women in human societies must devote considerable time and energy to acquiring the technical knowledge and skill needed to maintain our standard of living.

Nevertheless, as Russell argues, even in “the time that can easily be spared without injury to the learning of technical skills, philosophy can give certain things which will greatly increase the student’s value as a human being and as a citizen.”

A good number of Nigerians, either because of poverty, physical disability, or vicissitudes of life, lack essential self-confidence, thereby making themselves easy preys to scoundrels masquerading as “men and women of God.”

A little acquaintance with existentialist philosophy will dispel the illusion of being a sinner, or of being singled out by unknown cosmic forces to suffer, by showing that human existence on earth is fundamentally existential; that is, that human life only has meaning within the context of those challenges that individuals face and, eventually, overcome.

Philosophy can help those who study it acquire a habit of precise and careful thought, not only in the exact sciences and mathematics, but also in handling questions of large practical import.

Some of the throbbing questions raised above demand open-minded philosophical treatment which allows for the “weapon of criticism and the criticism of weapons”, so to speak.

It can give an objective impersonal scope to the conception of human nature and the proper purpose for living. In addition, philosophy can assist one to arrive at a level-headed measure of himself or herself in relation to society, of human beings in the present to those who lived in the past and those who will live in future, and of the whole history of man in relation to the astronomical universe.

By expanding the objects and horizon of thought for those who study it, philosophy, says Russell, “supplies an antidote to the anxieties and anguish of the present, and makes possible the nearest approach to serenity that is available to a sensible mind in our tortured and uncertain world”.

I conclude this essay with the tantalizing words of Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher: “Let no one, when young, delay to study philosophy, nor when he is old grow weary of his study. For no one can come too early or too late to secure the health of his soul.” Those who have ears, let them hear!

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9263&Itemid=71

ROFLMAO!!!! Leave it to huxley to start part two of a thread where pple nearly came to blows and izal disinfectant got free advertising.

Huxley!!! You a case!!