Can philosophy really offer us all we need to know?

The systematic progression of the dialectics of human evolution and the psychological development of human society is owed largely to various factors which cannot be obliterated or expended into a single factor. In the same way history is brought about through multifaceted dimensions of events, everything we need to know about ourselves as human beings as well as reality as a whole, cannot be sourced from a single source of knowledge unless all those dimensions are reduced or combined into a single template.

Philosophy as a gargantuan science (not in the same sense as experimental sciences, but as a body of knowledge) is often seen as the science of itself and the science of other sciences. The implication of this substantive understanding of philosophy is that, all the chunks of sciences are under the aegis of philosophy which on its part checkmates the activities of these sciences. With this simple picturesque cognition, a layman may hastily conclude that philosophy is a capture of all the epistemological truths that are realisable in reality. Hence, the philosopher possesses the intellectual prestidigitation and he can exhibit componential intelligence which enables him to think and reason abstractly towards the realisation of the truth. Yes, this may sound prettily fabulous to the layman, but the most needed question at this juncture is to ask whether philosophy has done much to expend the varying perennial problems besetting the various fields of science as well as its own field.

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The many criticisms which philosophobians often use to bastardize the claims of philosophy are generally centred on its abstractness and the critical nature often found among philosophers. Also, another pejorative or objection to philosophy is its epileptic, if not static evolvement in the trends that are often stereotypical to the enhancement of human evolution to a more geometric advanced progression. Even in philosophy, the 18th century intellectual climate, and the existentialist philosophers were critical of traditional philosophy because of its anchor on the abstract investigation of reality without any concessive conclusion.

Overtly, though philosophy may not give substantive answers to the very intricate questions it asks, kudos to its efforts! Through critical reflection into the avalanche of postulations and propositions, philosophy has helped save man from dogmatism. In addition to this, critical reflection develops human intellectual horizons and helps to give alternative or tentative answers to enigmas. No wonder H.S. Staniland presents philosophy as the critical examination of the ideas man lives by.

Having examined some of the many issues surrounding philosophical discourses, this discipline cannot be viewed as an idle tale or a stereotypical engagement. However, despite the abstract attitude of philosophical prestidigitation, philosophy has continued to contribute extensively and immensely to the acquisition and the development of human knowledge: philosophical inquiries are applicable to human social conditions hence it is a practical discipline. But in all, we cannot say that philosophy offers us all the knowledge we need; it has its own limitations.

Written by Akwakwa Sunday

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