Showing papers in "Open Journal of Philosophy in 2014"

Interpretivism in Aiding Our Understanding of the Contemporary Social World

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to critically discuss the extent of interpretivism to understand the contemporary social world. This paper firstly highlights the roots of interpretivism which can be traced back in the ancient history of philosophy. It then discusses the concept of interpretivism and gives a critical commentary on the Weber’s construction of ideal types to help explore the contemporary social world. The paper then further discusses the concept of “verstehen” and explains how it can add to our understanding of the social world phenomena. Following this analysis and tackling some philosophical debate, finally, this theoretical paper confirms that interpretivism has influenced the development of the social science and has helped our understanding of the contemporary social world to a great extent.

The Meta Energy of Dark Energy

Abstract: This short note gives philosophical background for the rationale behind regarding the dark energy of the cosmos as meta energy.

Kant’s Emergence and Sellarsian Cognitive Science

Abstract: The paper argues, against current views that see Kant as giving abstract descriptions of cognitive mechanisms (after the fashion of functionalism in cognitive science), that Kant sees mental phenomena as akin to emergent phenomena in a sense traditionally opposed to mechanism. After distinguishing several relevant notions of emergence, the paper distinguishes several of Kant’s basic emergentist theses, including his emergent materialism in chemistry and a species of mental emergence modelled on that chemical emergence. However, Kant’s doctrine of the epigenesis of pure Reason is argued to be Kant’s most fundamental emergentist thesis. The paper argues that Kant’s notion of mental emergence sheds light on some very puzzling aspects of his remarks about the unity of intuition and concept emphasized by Wilfrid Sellars. The paper sketches some of the problems in contemporary cognitive science and shows how a Sellarsian emergentism inspired by Kant addresses some of these problems and provides an interesting alternative to the kind of mechanistic positions that have tended to dominate the field. Finally, the paper locates the present emergentist reading with respect to the perspectivist reading of Kant.

The Role of Philosophy in Modern Medicine

Abstract: th , 2013; revised January 28 th , 2014; accepted February 6 th , 2014 Copyright © 2014 Mbih Jerome Tosam. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights © 2014 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property Mbih Jerome Tosam. All Copyright © 2014 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian. In this paper I argue that contrary to what some philosophers think, there exists a very close link between philosophy and medicine. From ancient Greece with Hippocrates to the modern era, philosophy has been at the basis of medicine. This is especially true of Western medicine which greatly depends on the philosophies of Bacon and Descartes. Although the two disciplines seem to pursue two disparate goals— philosophy being the quest for truth while medicine is the quest for health, they are in complementary ways striving for the enhancement of human wellbeing. While medicine seeks to fight diseases of the body like bacteria and viruses, philosophy seeks to fight the diseases of the mind like half-truths, prejudices, woolly judgments and uncritical conceptions of the world, health and disease, which have direct impact on health, and health delivery. Using substantive examples, I show that the practice of medicine raises questions beyond the scope of medicine, questions to which only philosophy may provide answers because they fall within its scope. Daily, physicians are confronted with questions in such philosophical areas like metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and logic. Moreover, I argue that one of the weaknesses of modern Western medicine is its over-dependence on the Cartesian ontology which considers human bodies as machines which need to be studied using scientific logic, and the physician as a technician whose job is to repair dysfunctioned bodies. This modern metaphysical outlook resulted in the neglect of the patient as a subjective being. This deficiency cannot be overcome without reviewing the Cartesian reductionist worldview which is at its foundation.

Parallels between Confucian Philosophy and Quantum Physics

Abstract: A scientific relationship between the Eastern Confucian philosophy and quantum physics is not clearly known in science and philosophy because of lack of concrete data that would substantially enable us to clearly explain it. Recent findings and discoveries in quantum physics and other relevant science, and the Eastern Confucian philosophy are reviewed in this study. The review of Confucian philosophy, quantum physics and personal experiences of precognitive dreams of the author and others reveal considerable parallels between Confucian philosophy and quantum physics from the ontological perspective.

Public Sector and Corruption in Nigeria: An Ethical and Institutional Framework of Analysis

Abstract: The paper examines the imperatives of good ethical conduct in the conduct of government business in Nigeria. As government business grows in complexity with the adoption of technological innovations in government, governance in Nigeria’s public sector becomes more problematic and ethically tasking as a result of endemic corruption. An evaluation of the collapse of institutional measures and codes of conduct puts in place to ensure high standard of behavior, using institutional theory suggests that moral contradictions in institutional behavior expectation from the public deepen daily. The perceived lack of an effective ethical organizational framework to coordinate the activities of various institutions has astronomically worsened unethical practices such as corruption in the Nigerian public service. The paper recommends a more realistic African traditional approach to ethical restraint of public servants from indulging in corrupt behavior by subjecting them to customary oath taking based upon the theistic values of fear of sin against mother earth (Ani Casimir, 2009), (a departure from the western style, which sees public service as no man’s business: Ekene, 2012). These core African values that emanate from theistic humanism should also permeate the various anti-corruption organizational frameworks in Nigeria to coordinate the national fight against corruption in the public sector. The behavioral and errant departure of civil servants and Nigeria’s public service from the core human values that ensure transparent private and public conduct of individuals have resulted in underperformance and underdevelopment. It is perceived furthermore that this lack of public service commitment to human values which would have enabled them to consider others above selfish interests, fear divine retribution, dishonor of a good family name, distaste for greed and stealing of public good has weakened the fight against corruption and turned it into a pedantic and cosmetic exercise without results. Therefore, unethical practices and the systemic abandonment of core African human values by the Nigerian public servants oil the wheel of public sector corruption in Nigeria.

The Church and Gender Equality in Africa: Questioning Culture and the Theological Paradigm on Women Oppression

Abstract: Pope John Paul II made a historic apology to several groups oppressed by the church since its inquisition started. The late pontiff’s apology to women as a group was as a result of the obnoxious and oppressive denial of women’s human right by the Church and the greater society because of the wrong interpretation of the “submission” clause in the Bible. The subsequent re-interpretation of the submission clause in the Letter to the Ephesians strongly confirmed and affirmed the equality of man and woman and established the theological and philosophical basis for questioning oppressive cultural ethos in Africa and demanding for a theological paradigm shift which will help Africa to address the centuries old inequities, inequalities and injustices suffered and still borne by women in the 21st century. This article captures the religious role and position of the church and defines the basis for calling for a new gender approach within the Church that will achieve gender equality in Africa.

Heidegger's Ereignis and Wittgenstein on the Genesis of Language

Abstract: The paper argues that the orthodox readings of pgh. 608 of Wittgenstein’s Zettel (hereafter Z608), which holds that Z608 suggests the possibility that language and thought may emerge out of physical chaos in the brain (connectionist processing, causal indeterminism, a pile of sawdust, etc.) cannot be correct. Among Wittgenstein’s signature views are that the philosopher “must not advance any kind of theory” and that everything must be “open to view”. Despite this, the orthodox readings not only attribute theories about hidden processes to Z608, but quite extreme one’s at that. What the commentator should infer is that the kind of centre, chaos, and “arising” of language from chaos inZ608 must be of the sort that is already “open to view”—that is, a “phenomenological” reading, broadly construed. The paper argues that Heidegger’s account of the Ereignis (the opening of the Open, or “primordial truth”), provides a far better model of Z608 than the orthodox neurological interpretation—illuminating both Heidegger and Wittgenstein in the process. Against this background, it is argued that the central point in Z608 is precisely that the centre of a language referenced in Z608 cannot be the neural centre. Just as Copernicus replaced the old centre of the universe, the sun, by a new centre, the earth, so too, the aim in Z608 is to replace the old view that language is centred in the brain with the new view, reflected on virtually every page of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, that language centres around the everyday arena of human behaviour which is “always before one’s eyes”. Z608 is not stating theories about the brain, but is proposing a new “Copernican” paradigm in the philosophies of language and mind, a paradigm which is also found in Heidegger’s account of the Ereignis.

Religion, Violence, Poverty and Underdevelopment in West Africa: Issues and Challenges of Boko Haram Phenomenon in Nigeria

Abstract: Violent conflicts in emerging democracies or societies in transition threaten the stability of state governance institutions, which brings about insecurity of lives, property and deepens the vicious cycle of poverty and criminality in Africa. The first responsibility of any government is to provide security of lives and property. At no time since Nigeria’s civil war has the country witnessed the resurgence of violence and insecurity that claims hundreds of lives weekly. It is a sectarian insurgence of multiple dimensions. This article makes the case that Boko Haram is not just a religious phenomenon but a reflection of a so- cio-political, economic and ethnic problem caused by bad governance. As a result, Boko Haram has witnessed a cross-border influence and impact which has expanded its frontiers beyondNigeriato neighboring countries in the West African region. The theoretical framework employed in this article posits that Boko Haram has its roots fundamentally in poverty caused by bad governance in the Northern Moslem bend, in Nigeria and the West African Region where corruption, human rights violations, marginalization of cultural, political and religious groups have created the situation whereby weak state structures have abysmally failed to deliver on the development promises made during elections. So the emergence of Nigeria’s Boko Haram violence, as a result of the street poverty and the rise of unemployed street beggars, popularly known as Almajiris, and their use for electoral and party violence, was encouraged by the neglect and abandonment of the masses by the governors and other elected leaders. The expansion and consolidation of the Boko Haram insurgence to other parts of the country and neighboring West African nations was made possible by the already existing failed state institutions, bad governance and corruption and the existing band of small criminal sectarian groups that depend upon their survival on aids from Al Quaeda, drug gangs and sea piracy. The religious dimension is a marginal factor fueled by fundamental socio-economic and political variables which have been thrown up in the first place by bad governance and leadership in Nigeria.

Identity, “Identology” and World Religions

Abstract: Identity serves as a vehicle for World Religions (WRs), and WRs are indispensable in the study of identity—Identology. The concept “identity” itself has become an overly used deflationary term that has lost some of its connotation, authenticity, or effectiveness. The claim for a persistent identity is slowly becoming scarce or often illusory. This paper explores the meanings and manifestations of the terms “identity” and “identification,” and then reintroduces “sense of identity” as a more evocative construct for the 21st century, especially in the context of WRs. Sense of Identity is then operationalized into three primary components: 1) personal beliefs, 2) communal attributes, and 3) sociopolitical attitudes, or for the sake of brevity, beliefs, attributes, and attitudes. These three key components furnish a concentric model with beliefs at the core, attributes surrounding that core, and attitudes at the periphery. But this theoretical model is incomplete without a second pivotal structure of concentric circles drawn from different perceptions of Sense of History, with the personal view of history at the core, the communal view of history surrounding that core, and the dominant historiography inhabiting the periphery. These two structures may differ in their configuration from one person or community to another, and from one time to another, but they interact with, shape, and are shaped by, each other. Eventually, the two structures merge into one coherent, sensible, and emancipatory model for any discourse on WRs.

Anthropology as a Natural Science Clifford Geertz’s Extrinsic Theory of the Mind

Abstract: Clifford Geertz set forth interpretative anthropology as a natural science, based on “the extrinsic theory of the mind”. Observation of the use of words and cultural symbols will determine theory meaning. Symbols are models or templates, and enter into the constitution of every perceived object or event we recognize or identify. We do not perceive what others perceive, but what they perceive “with”, “by means of”, or “through”. But the objects and events we or others perceive are already and from the first symbolic. Thoughts and emotions are articulated, generated and regenerated by words and other symbolic objects. Without, or before, words and symbols, there is only general, diffuse, ongoing flow of bodily sensation. This essay criticizes these theses in the light of the philosophy of mind and the phenomenology of perception.

Philosophy of Education: A Tool for National Development?

Abstract: This paper is an exposition on the theoretical and practical relevance of educational philosophy to national development. It postulated that philosophical ideas have been responsible for shaping the development of societies through the channels of education. Contextually, the concepts of “education”, “philosophy”, and the nexus between philosophy and philosophy of education were articulated. The term “development” was analyzed. The paper examined philosophy of education as a tool in the development of the nation from the perspective of men’s capacity to think more critically and reflectively. Seen also from men’s pursuit for wisdom, the good life, educational policy formulation and the intellectual development of the teacher and the learner in their educational practice, relevant implications and recommendations were proffered based at the end of the paper.

The Gospel of Self-ing: A Phenomenology of Sleep

Abstract: Sleep is consciousness naturally folded back to itself in the self-come-home-to-self, to find life nourished, renovated, and vitalized, all beyond objective management. Sleep can never be understood with direct conscious approach, but must be approached indirectly, implicatively, and alive coherently, as tried here. Sleep (A) is Spontaneity, (B) Self-Fullness, and so (C) sleep is life’s Gospel of Self-ing.

Philosophical Theory-Construction and the Self-Image of Philosophy

Abstract: This article takes its point of departure in a criticism of the views on meta-philosophy of P.M.S. Hacker for being too dismissive of the possibility of philosophical theory-construction. But its real aim is to put forward an explanatory hypothesis for the lack of a body of established truths and universal research programs in philosophy along with the outline of a positive account of what philosophical theories are and of how to assess them. A corollary of the present account is that it allows us to account for the objective dimension of philosophical discourse without taking recourse to the problematic idea of there being worldly facts that function as truth-makers for philosophical claims.

Energy, Matter, Life, Mind, Disease, Death and Humanity in the Universe: A Universal Approach

Abstract: A concise summary of my thinking on some important main concepts is provided becoming now to my mind from inner self reflections, and memories. The influences of several figures of the last century in biology, medicine, higher physics, higher mathematics, first philosophy and wide center politics whom I personally treated were of capital importance as well the nurture from the past great sages.

Towards an Ethics of Technology: Re-Exploring Teilhard de Chardin’s Theory of Technology and Evolution

Abstract: Defining the mechanism of evolution is a controversial issue that, until now, divides the scientific community. Some have argued in the strictest Darwinian terms that evolution’s primary mechanism is necessity—“survival of the fittest”. Other evolutionists followed in the footsteps of Jacques Monod, the French biologist, who argued for a mixture of random chance and necessity. Teilhard de Chardin, it is widely believed, took Monod one step further by asserting that evolution is the fundamental motion of the entire universe, an ascent along a privileged and necessary pathway toward consciousness—thus, evolution was guided chance and necessity. However, if evolution is being guided, what is doing the guiding? And where, ultimately, is it going? His bold answers brought Teilhard to the heart of a widely perceived scientific, as well as religious, heresy. A heresy that was effectively silenced, and soon would re-emerge as the world began witnessing exponential advancements in Science and Technology (specifically, on computing, nano-technology, robotics and genetic engineering). Almost half a century after the publication of Phenomenology of Man, many futurist thinkers have began noticing that the super-fast acceleration in the passage of time for evolution is moving in a very different direction than that for the Universe from which it emerges. This paper puts forward the thesis that the philosophical underpinning of a “human-sponsored variant of evolution” (i.e. evolution towards convergence of biological and non-biological intelligence) finds support and meaning within Teilhard de Chardin’s theory of evolution (i.e. evolution towards consciousness). It specifically covers 1) the implications of advancing technologies in human evolution and consciousness within the context of Teilhard’s theory of evolution; 2) how, after homo sapiens silently emerged around 500,000 years ago (with larger brains, particularly in the area of the highly convoluted cortex responsible for rational thought), and after they develop computing, the story of evolution has progressed exponentially paving the way for the possibility of turning Teilhard’s controversial ideas (such as the Noosphere) more than a poetic image; and 3) how the grandest creations of evolution—consciousness and intelligence—provide for the very tool that may allow homo sapiens to take over the course and direction of their own evolution—without necessarily shedding their desire to search for spiritual truth in a secular universe.

Epistemological Limits to Scientific Prediction: The Problem of Uncertainty

Abstract: A key issue regarding the reliability of scientific prediction is uncertainty, which also affects its possibility as scientific knowledge. Thus, uncertainty is directly related to the epistemological limits of prediction in science. Within this context, this paper considers the obstacles to scientific predictions that are related to uncertainty. The analysis is made according to the twofold character of the limits of science, which is characterized in terms of the “barriers” and the “confines.” In addition, the study takes into account the presence of internal and external factors related to the epistemological limits of science. Following these lines of research, the analysis is focused on two steps. First, there is a characterization of the coordinates of Nicholas Rescher’s approach, which is particularly important regarding the epistemological limits to scientific prediction. Second, there is a study of uncertainty as an epistemological obstacle to predictability. Thereafter, the consequences for the future are pointed out.

"Do Not Weep" (Luke 7: 13): In the Footstep of the Compassionate Jesus

Abstract: The divine image, which every human being bears as a result of God’s benevolence at creation, attracts us to the Divine. Human beings are religious by nature and in order to fully realise themselves as humans they have to be and live out the divine qualities instilled in each of them by the Creator. The opposite is often the case when human actions are critically evaluated. One of the divine qualities, which we ought to acquire and practice in order to enhance good human relationship, is compassion. This singular divine feature characterised Jesus earthly ministry in words and deeds. In this paper, the writer focuses on an episode in the life of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel according to Luke 7: 11-17. Jesus had compassion on the widow who lost her only son; he consoled and restored her son back to her. In following Jesus’ footsteps we can make our world better and be able to bear and live with others.

The Epistemological Double Standard Inherent in Christian Metaphysical Beliefs

Abstract: This paper uses comparative religion to critique Christian claims of possessing exclusively true metaphysical beliefs. In so doing, this paper takes a different approach than most other challenges to Christian metaphysical beliefs. Instead of directly responding to Christian arguments supporting their views, this paper challenges the Christian by pointing out that their grounds for rejecting the metaphysics of other religions will necessarily undermine the grounds of their own beliefs. Specifically, the paper takes the metaphysical beliefs of Hinduism, which has a metaphysics that appears both significantly different from and contrary to Christian dogma, and demonstrates that the same types of epistemological arguments that a Christian would almost certainly have to use against a Hindu can just as fruitfully be used to demonstrate the weaknesses, inconsistencies, and lack of evidential foundation that are prevalent in Christian metaphysical beliefs.

A Critical Analysis of Empiricism

Abstract: Empiricism is a philosophical theory which argues that human knowledge is derived entirely from sensory experience. As a branch of epistemology, empiricism disregards the concept of instinctive ideas and focuses entirely on experience and evidence as it relates to sensory perception. Empiricism is a philosophical school holding that knowledge can only be (or is primarily) gained from sensory experience. Accordingly, it rejects any (or much) use of a priori reasoning in the gathering and analysis of knowledge. It rivals rationalism according to which reason is the ultimate source of knowledge. The philosophy of empiricism was first put forth in John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke argued that the only way by which human acquire knowledge is through experience. Locke firmly argued that humans are incapable of formulating or possessing inherent ideas. The aim of this paper is to explain that the traditional empiricist standpoint in the fields of epistemology and then try to show that it is not adequate for explaining some things relevant to these fields. For that the traditional empiricist methods needs to be supplemented by extra-logical principles that are not strictly empirical.

Philosophy of Conceptual Network

Abstract: The article formulates the philosophy of a conceptual network and defines a concept as a unit of meaning. According to the proposed idea, the substance of our mind (subjective psyche) is constituted by a conceptual network which is composed of continuous concepts which have meanings through connotation. The conceptual network is an epiphenomenon of the neural network that is based on a dynamic structure of a complex of neurons interconnected in a functional way. Language is a secondary phenomenon in relation to the conceptual network: the words of language correspond to the best-distinguished concepts, and their meaning is determined by their conceptual “lining”. The conceptual networks of logic, mathematics and, especially, philosophy are not perfectly determined and specified. The “Absolute Truth” not only does not exist, but in fact it does not have any sense. (Self-)consciousness emerged as a result of recurrent self-reference of the neural/conceptual network.

The Cognitive Gap, Neural Darwinism & Linguistic Dualism —Russell, Husserl, Heidegger & Quine

Abstract: Guided by key insigths of the four great philosophers mentioned in the title, here, in review of and expanding on our earlier work (Burchard, 2005, 2011), we present an exposition of the role played by language, & in the broader sense, λογοζ, the Logos, in how the CNS, the brain, is running the human being. Evolution by neural Darwinism has been forcing the linguistic nature of mind, enabling it to overcome & exploit the cognitive gap between an animal and its world by recognizing environmental structures. Our work was greatly influenced by Heidegger’s lecture notes on metaphysics (Heidegger, 1935). We found agreement with recent progress in neuroscience, but also mathematical foundations of language theory, equating Logos with the mathematical concept of structure. The mystery of perception across the gap is analyzed as radiation and molecules impinging on sensory neurons that carry linguistic information about gross environmental structures, and only remotely about the physical reality of elementary particles. The most important logical brain function is Ego or Self, guiding the workings of the brain as a logos machine. Ego or Self operates from neurons in frontopolar cortex with global receptive fields. The logos machine can function only by availing itself of global context, its internally stored noumenal cosmos NK, and the categorical-conceptual apparatus CCA, updated continually through the neural default mode network (Raichle, 2005). In the Transcendental Deduction, Immanuel Kant discovered that Ego or Self is responsible for conscious control in perception relying on concepts & categories for a fitting percept to be incorporated intoNK. The entire CNS runs as a “movie-in-the-brain” (Parvizi & Damasio, 2001), at peak speed processing simultaneously in a series of cortical centers a stack of up to twelve frames in gamma rhythm of 25 ms intervals. We equate global context, or NK, with our human world, Heidegger’s Dasein being-in-the-world, and are able to demonstrate that the great philosopher in EM parallels neuro-science concerning the human mind.

Re-Examination of Igbo Values System, and the Igbo Personality: A Kantian and African Comparative Perspective

Abstract: The primordial Igbo personality is subsumed in a world view of metaphysical reality in which God, as the Supreme Being, plays a central role. The construction of the model Igbo personality starts with an adequate appreciation of the communal role of the individual in maintaining societal balance, peace, prosperity and moral transparency. It is impossible to think of the individual as different from the community. There is a pre-existing metaphysical and social bond that inextricably links one to the other. The interests of the individual are concomitant with that of community. His aspirations, dreams and hopes for a better future and a fulfilled life are dialectically tied to the communal apron strings of what is good for the community. Thus it is “alu”, “nso ani” and “ajoomume” (evil and evil conduct in the Igbo moral sphere) for the individual to even think or act against the metaphysical and cosmological position of his indigenous Igbo community. With this attunement between the individual and his community, it becomes easier to build personalities who see themselves as members of the community. Most importantly, these personalities do exhibit values and virtues which strengthen the spiritual, ethical, social and economic heritage and resources in the Igbo communities. The conception of the Igbo personality, primordially speaking, is a conception in which the individual radiates, as it were, communal values. These communal values are the structural principles and powers that define the identity, integrity and inner self of the Igbo person. When an Igbo man reflects a personal behavior pattern filled with these action-values he is seen to be on the path of a dignified existence. He becomes, as it were, the embodiment of the universal merited dignity of humanity as we say in Igbo lore—“Onyenkabummadu” (this person has human dignity and lives it in his conduct). We can then re-examine to what extent the Igbo communal values are in attunement with the Kantian concept of human dignity. This paper posits that the Igbo communal system has the best indigenous ethical and environmental structure for the restoration of man’s dignity as posited by Kant and, has, for ages before Kant, been at the forefront of this restoration, ethicalization and construction of values for human dignity.

Everyone Vegetarian, World Enriching

Abstract: This essay advocates global vegetarian diet. Firstly, seven personal health benefits and four global benefits of vegetarian dinners are specified to enrich the entire globe, and then, secondly, I explore concretely how to overcome internal hurdle and external hurdle, so as to effectively propagate vegetarian dinners throughout the world. Everyone wins, including animals!

Are Background Feelings Intentional Feelings

Abstract: I address the problem of the intentionality of “feeling”, considering the study-case of “background feelings” (malaise, tension, etc.) in Damasio (2003, 2010). Background feelings, in fact, are “border case” feelings: These feelings seem lacking intentionality, at least by the meaning that their intentional content is not any object in the world they refer to. Differently from other feelings connected to intentional states (such as emotions, for ex., feelings are mainly considered arising from), background feelings reveal a bodily nature of feeling at its core, while intentionality of feelings, when any, rather depends on the intentionality of the states feelings concern. Background feelings reveal an intimate, immediate relation to our own body we can’t catch considering feelings always and only connected to emotions. The intimate relation to the body, coming in “foreground” in these feelings only, should shed more light on another key feature of feelings, namely their phenomenality, more than their “supposed” intentionality.

Thanatology: The Igbo/African Metaphysics Sense and Value of Death

Abstract: This work aims at exploring the Igbo/African metaphysical sense of death and its traditional value and inter-communality. In this study, I intend to use the Igbo as a paradigm for an African experience of death. I begin by explaining that while thanatology is the systematic study of death, metaphysics is a study of reality as it concerns the phases of human existence from life to death. In doing so, I want to examine the African being in its wholeness. Interestingly, African philosophy conceives of being as dynamic and a force to be record with. The African world itself is best described as one of becoming: it is a world where there are constant interactions between the dead and the living, between the spirit-land and the human world. Thus, existence-in-relation aptly depicts the African view of life and reality. For the Igbo, however, life and death are intimately connected. To the extent that the latter paves the way to the ancestral dwelling, it is an urgent longing to join his forebears. Ultimately, the Igbo/African attaches a great value to ancestral abode which death makes possible. Through initiation the Igbo anticipates death. Only then does death become a phenomenon of life, entering the Igbo ontological being. Thus death for the Igbo does not constitute an end. Rather it intimates an authentic being (another beginning), which expressly embodies eschatology. I argue that eschatology aims at overcoming time.

Philosophical Themes in Mass Effect

Abstract: In this paper we will analyze some decisions a player has to make as Shepard, the main character from the popular video game Mass Effect. We will view those decisions through the lenses of two philosophical positions, utilitarianism and Nietzsche’s “will to power”, and connect those and other dilemmas to our own world today. We will also discuss ways how Mass Effect could be integrated into and be a useful aid for an introductory philosophy class.

The Metaphor of Patina

Abstract: Patina is the word used for the green or brown film formed on the surface of old bronze, an excess of which can mask the true characteristics of the original masterpiece. Filippo Baldinucci used the word patina in a modern sense for first time in his book “Tuscan Vocabulary of the Art of Design”. Metaphors have been part of philosophical speech since the time of Plato. This figure of speech is used to attempt to provide a sensitive presence of an idea to improve understanding and to make a more vivid perception of that concept. On analysing the creative process of contemporary research on health topics and its further dissemination, we defend the epistemological thesis that there is always some degree of patina on an original article and this may obscure the underlying scientific work. Conclusion: We consider that patina in scientific papers is very different from the concept of epidemiological bias. We think that any researcher who reads an original article acts as a restorer of knowledge. If a reader is aware of the existence of scientific patina, that reader will know how to look through it and see the masterpiece hidden underneath.

Philosophical Bases of African Freedom beyond Black and White

Abstract: The aim of this chapter is to philosophically and critically examine and outline the bases of African freedom. The approach will adopt the following sub-headings: Introduction, Metaphysical Basis of African Freedom, Beyond “Black” and “White” to Pluralism, African Philosophy and the Paradox of African Freedom. The philosophical basis of African freedom consists essentially in the categorical assertion and defense of the freedom of man. The philosophical basis of African freedom is to seek the theoretical, metaphysical, ideological and scientific bases or justification for African freedom. Hence the intention is an attempt to establish the universality of mankind and ipso facto examine the propositions and ideologies that justified African freedom. We shall first of all take up the issue that the African race is an inferior race and a different “species” of being from the white man and then assert the common ancestry of man or humanity of man.

Pythagoras and the Creation of Knowledge

Abstract: In this paper, an approach to Pythagoras’ Theorem is presented within the historical context in which it was developed and from the underlying intellectual outline of the Pythagorean School. This was analyzed from a rationalism standpoint. An experiment is presented to the reader so that they, through direct observation, can analyze Pythagoras’ Theorem and its relation to the creation of knowledge. The theory of knowledge conceptualization is used.