Tag: Modern

Introduction  Man, compared to some machines, is a creature of very impressive powers. He can do almost anything conceivable – read, write, speak and understand. He can calculate, remember, selectively forget, he can imagine, ponder, solve highly difficult theoretical problems, he can create and enjoy music of all genres and so many other things.1 However,…

Introductory Remarks Plato (427-347BC) is a major example of a philosopher who undertook to formulate a comprehensive vision of the world and of man’s place in it. Plato’s impact on the history of Western thought is immeasurable. He has lived through the centuries; his writings have been studied and used in different ways by various…

Introduction History is crucial in the life of everything that exists in geospatial realm, both physical and social. Man’s quest to understand the past for itself and as a way to understand the present for a guide to the future has always been at the centre of historical studies. And historians have never been modest…

Introductory Remarks Here, we are confronted with the vexed issue of the need to respond to the National Question with respect to the development agenda for Africa. In a letter conveying the request for my modest intervention to me, I am enjoined not to do an advocacy for a particular ideological spectrum. Rather, as a…

Abstract The objective of this study is to review some of the claims to knowledge against the challenges of scepticism from the pre-Socratic era when a theory known as sophistry disclaimed any possibility of objective knowledge as it canvassed for subjectivity as the basis of the knowledge.  Thus, according to the sophists, what is real…

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…

Introduction  In social science, as it is in historical studies, accounting for peoples, events and phenomena has faced daunting challenges.  A unified explanatory model known as the ‘covering law thesis’ is deemed appropriate both for physical sciences and social studies. Recommending the ‘covering law’ model, proponents are assured of ‘objectivity’ since explanation is anchored on…

Introduction  It is often suggested that a functionalist approach to society might be defensible if we were able to accept that a society underwent a process of evolution whereby group selection gave rise to its allegedly functional organization. Other writers, however, have turned this argument on its head. If societies are subject of evolution, then,…

Introductory Remarks Let me thank members of your association, the Student Historical Society of this university, especially the organizing committee for finding me worthy to deliver this very important lecture, being part of your association’s annual ceremonies.  I felicitate you on this auspicious occasion.  Your invitation is worthy of note for one reason; history is…

Introduction  In the logical progression of modern Western ethical thought, it is not difficult for one to discover that the early modern rationalist ethics of Kant and the modern existentialist ethics of Sartre are like two juxtaposed peaks. Each, with its own characteristics in the history of the founding of humanistic philosophy ethics and like…

Introductory Remarks It is difficult, if not impossible, to talk or invite a correct and indisputable lecture on Socrates because it is difficult to attribute most of what is known of him to him.  This is because as a philosopher, Socrates is known to have written nothing as his philosophy is anchored on a discursive…

Introduction What are the themes that should be considered as ‘African philosophy’? The question here is, is there an ‘African philosophy’ and how does an African know what he claims to know? What are the basic assumptions that guide his knowledge of what he claims to know? Thus, we should not ask such question as,…