Preliminary Statement This address is anchored on the assumption that Decree Number 13 of 1993 is not yet a landmine deftly deployed to demobilize us in our collective resolve to actualize our manifest destiny as a nation. Thus, inspite of a fledgling collectivity of some Nigerians with the amorphous title of elder statesmen and women…

Preliminary Statement This address is anchored on the assumption that Decree Number 13 of 1993 is not yet a landmine deftly deployed to demobilize us in our collective resolve to actualize our manifest destiny as a nation. Thus, inspite of a fledgling collectivity of some Nigerians with the amorphous title of elder statesmen and women…

Introductory Remarks A common belief has been reached by mankind that human rights must be recognized, respected and protected. Although substantive discrepancies still exist regarding various kinds of concepts of human rights owing to different political, economic and cultural backgrounds, a cultural climate has appeared, at least since World War II, in which those…

It gives me great privilege to give the keynote address at this important gathering. It is a good opportunity to gather with people of ideas to engage, as we ought to continuously do, on issues bordering on the state of our nation at this significant point in time when the social fabric of our country…

Introduction The issue of the nature of beauty is a focal point in the philosophical inquiry into aesthetics. For some time, it has attracted the attention of aestheticians whose answer has remained largely unconvincing, either because of its idealistic assumption or due largely to its transcendental presupposition. Because of the scientific mode of cognition, historic…

Introduction In this discussion, we are requested to interrogate the place of man in the shaping of the movement of history. This is contradistinguished from what some would regard as the role of ‘factors’ in determining the course of the endless match of civilization. Thus man’s consciousness as a living being who necessarily experiences the…

Introductory Remarks The word ‘philosophy’ is not easy to define, even though it belongs to everyday language. Yet, if we are going to understand what someone means by it, we do not require a definition. Nevertheless, though the term ‘philosophy’ is one with which we already have some familiarity, it is not a simple…

Introduction Perhaps no issue is more central in moral philosophy than that concerning the relative merits of the claims made upon our conduct by our self-interest and by the interest of others. Debates have centred not only on the question of the extent to which each of these claims ought to govern our conduct, but…

Introduction How odd will it be for someone to ask us to disbelieve our common sense experience to the extent that we are almost convinced that what we take for granted as existing outside us or independent of our perception is not really so.  That is, all that we think and know for sure exists…