Introduction

The finest practices for a great Chapter 4: Data Presentation and analysis are covered in this guide. This chapter is the culmination of all of your laborious data collecting, careful analysis, and research narrative. Consider it the great reveal of your results, when you can impart the knowledge you’ve learned from your research. The general structure of the chapter four is;

• Introduction (which contains the Overview of the Research Design and introduces the chapter)
• Data Analysis and Presentation
• Discussion of Findings
• Conclusion and Transition to Chapter 5

Don’t worry, this guide will help you through the process of presenting your data such that it is understandable, captivating, and apparent even to someone who hasn’t read the earlier parts of your work.

Assume we are talking about the best approach to present your results while seated across from one another. The organisation of this chapter as well as the details of data presentation—tables, figures, and narrative descriptions—will all be covered. When this guide ends, you’ll know how to write a Chapter 4 that not only stands alone but also emphasises the importance of your study.

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Transition from Chapter 3

Getting from Chapter 3 (Methodology) to your data presentation should go effortlessly. For your readers, this establishes the scene and offers continuity. Reminding your readers of how you gathered and analysed your data, begin with a quick summary of the study design. Though brief, this summary should be thorough enough to jog readers’ memories.

For example:

‘We described the quantitative techniques used to gather data from a sample of 200 participants in Chapter 3. Using these statistical tools, the data were examined to find connections and patterns pertinent to our study topics. We provide the conclusions of this analysis in this chapter.”

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Brief Overview of the Research Project

Next, provide a synopsis of your study endeavour. This has to contain a synopsis of the goal of the study along with a restatement of your research questions or hypotheses. Because it makes sure your readers are aware of the background of the data being provided and links your results with the study goals, this part is essential.

For instance:

“This research sought to find out how college students’ use of social media affected their academic performance. How does college students’ academic performance relate to their use of social media was the main study topic. ‘What kinds of social media do students use most often?’ was one of the secondary questions. and ‘Is the amount of time kids spend on social media related to their GPA?’”

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Organization of the Chapter four

Clearly describe the chapter’s organisation. This facilitates simple navigation of the material by your viewers. Summarise the primary parts, such:

• Introduction (which contains the Overview of the Research Design and introduces the chapter)
• Data Analysis and Presentation
• Discussion of Findings
• Conclusion and Transition to Chapter 5

Offering a road map guarantees that your readers can follow along without becoming lost.

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Data Analysis and Presentation

This becomes the main idea of Chapter 4. You will logically and orderly display your results here. The secret is to make sure the facts speaks for itself while still being succinct and precise. Your presentation will vary somewhat depending on whether your study is qualitative or quantitative.

Quantitative Research

An explanation of the sample should open your data presentation in quantitative research. Add specifics such the sample size, the demographics, and other pertinent features. This gives the information that follows perspective.

Sample Description:

“200 college students made up our sample, which was divided 60% female and 40% male. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 25; the average age was 21.”

Deliver the descriptive statistics next. This comprises the means, standard deviations, frequencies, and percentages. To help readers understand the important ideas, summarise this material using tables and figures.

Descriptive Statistics Example:

Take up each hypothesis or research question one at a time after the descriptive statistics. Explain the procedure followed, provide the findings, and indicate if the null hypothesis was rejected for each hypothesis.

Hypothesis Testing Example

“To test the hypothesis that higher social media usage is associated with lower GPA, a Pearson correlation analysis was conducted,” the paper says. Assuming that more social media use is linked to a lower GPA, the findings showed a significant negative connection (r = -0.45, p < 0.01).

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Qualitative Research

Presenting themes and patterns that sprang from your data is the main goal of qualitative research. Initially, provide a quick overview of the data collecting procedure and the analytical techniques.

Data Collection and Analysis example:

“Twenty people participated in semi-structured interviews that yielded the data. Themes analysis was used to code the data and find recurrent themes once the interviews were transcribed.”

Narrate the results, emphasising important themes and bolstering them with participant quotations. Subheadings help to arrange the topics and improve readability of the section.

Themes and Patterns Examples:

Theme 1: Impact of Social Media on Study Habits

“Participants noted that, social media prevented them from concentrating on their schoolwork. ‘I find myself going around Instagram when I should be preparing for exams’, one participant said. Many others agreed, suggesting that social media may be a major distraction.”

Theme 2: Positive Uses of social media

“Some participants brought out the advantages of social media in spite of the distractions. ‘Social media helps me stay connected with classmates and access study resources,’ one student said. This implies that academic help may likewise benefit much from social media.”

Theme 3: Social Media as a Stress Reliever

“Many interviewees said they used social media to unwind and escape the pressures of schoolwork. ‘I spend a few minutes on YouTube watching hilarious videos when I feel overburdened with my homework,’ one student said. That restores me. This emphasises how social media may both support and impede academic output.”

Theme 4: The Influence of Social Media on Peer Relationships

“A number of kids spoke about how social media affects their friendships with classmates. ‘Social media helps me remain in contact with peers, particularly for group assignments,’ said one. ‘I feel left out sometimes when I see my pals hanging around without me,’ said another participant. This paradox highlights the nuanced function of social media in student social relations.”

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Discussion of Findings

Discussion of your results is crucial after data presentation. The findings should be interpreted in this part and related to the body of current literature and your research questions. Talk about and weigh any surprising results.

Interpretation and Implications:

“Higher social media use can have a detrimental effect on academic performance, as the negative correlation between social media use and GPA suggests. According to earlier study by Smith et al. (2019), who also discovered a comparable correlation, this result is consistent. Still, the encouraging comments on utilising social media for academic help emphasises how social media can serve as a resource as well as a distraction.”

“Qualitative data highlighted even more the complex experiences of the pupils. Social networking is a stress relief and a way to keep up peer connections, even if it can also be a distraction. These results indicate that the effect of social media on academic achievement is not clear-cut and varies according to personal use habits and goals.”

Think back on your study’s shortcomings and recommend new directions for investigation. This demonstrates your critical interaction with your data and thought through the wider consequences of your work.

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Limitations

“The use of self-reported data in this research has several drawbacks, like social desirability bias. Further limiting the generalizability of the results may be the very small sample size for the qualitative interviews.”

Future Research (optional):

“Future studies may look at how certain social media platforms affect academic achievement and how these impacts vary over time. Examining methods for juggling social media usage with school obligations might potentially provide insightful information.”

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Conclusion and Transition to Chapter 5

A synopsis of your results should close Chapter 4 and lead into Chapter 5, where you will go over the main conclusions of your research and provide suggestions.

Conclusion:

“In conclusion, our research revealed that there are both good and negative effects of social media use on academic achievement. The results emphasise the importance of students using social media in moderation. We will go into the wider ramifications of these results and provide suggestions for teachers and students in Chapter 5.”

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Tips for Effective Data Presentation

These more pointers will help you make sure your Chapter 4 is interesting and successful:

1. 1Use Visual Aids: Charts, graphs, and tables may help you visualise your results and simplify difficult information. Be sure the content references and labels them appropriately.
2. Be succinct and clear; stay away from jargon and too technical vocabulary. Seek for simplicity and clarity to ensure that a wide range of people can grasp your results.
3. Consider your data presentation to be a story. As you lead your readers through the material, emphasise important details and make links between disparate bits of information.
4. Be Honest: Include all pertinent results, including those that contradict your theories. Research needs transparency.
5. Draw in the Reader: Write in a conversational, interesting style. Imagine sharing your results with an interested but non-expert friend or coworker.

Chapter 4 may be made interesting and understandable as well as instructive by adhering to these recommendations. Recall that the objective of data presentation is to produce an impression on your readers that lasts a lifetime and emphasises the importance of your study.

RELATED RESOURCES

WRITING CHAPTER 1 OF YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

How to Write Literature Review for your Final Year Project (Chapter 2)

WRITING CHAPTER 3 OF YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT

WRITING CHAPTER 5 OF YOUR RESEARCH TOPIC

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THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL A PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATION

CHAPITRE ONE

1.1 PHILOSOPHY AND ITS QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE

Philosophy arose from man’s thirst for knowledge. It is a reasoned pursuit of fundamental truths, a quest for comprehension, and a study of ethical values. Philosophy tries to set evidentiary standards, give logical conflict resolution strategies, and develop tools for evaluating ideas and arguments.

It enables one to experience the world through the eyes of other inch vandals (Plato, Aristotle, Thales, Anaximander, Socrates, and so on) and various groups and cultures.

It improves our ability to perceive the relationships between diverse subjects of study, and it broadens one’s understanding of the meaning and variety of human experience.

Philosophy is the only discipline that investigates questions in all aspects of human life, and its techniques can be applied to problems in every field of study or endeavour.

Religion, psychology, sociology, law, machine learning, education, and other fields of study place a high value on philosophy.

Philosophy is the mother of all subjects and is unlike any other field. It has no commonly accepted definition; it is distinct in its methodology, nature, and application.

However, while understanding man’s existence is not as difficult as understanding God’s, it is one of the world’s greatest miracles.

This factual injunction is backed by one of completion’s statements that there are numerous wonders in the earth and that man is the greatest of all miracles

1. The search for the true nature of man has resulted in a great deal of philosophical debate, opposing viewpoints, and hypotheses.

1.2 CONCEPTIONS OF GOD

Xenophanes was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who awoke metaphysicians and theologians from their dogmatic slumber by criticising God’s anthropomorphism; ever since, there has been an endeavour to grasp God’s character.

Various religious philosophers have claimed that God is apart from finite beings, and that he must be regarded as a mystery beyond human comprehension, the philosopher to the God of thinking.

God is largely conceived of in terms of transcendence, personality, and the Hebrew Scriptures, in which God is presented as the creator.

God created the Heavens and the Earth in the beginning1. This God has an anthropomorphic personality. He possesses finite intelligence and epistemic unit, as evidenced by his sadness at the creation of man.

This God is tribalistic, as seen by his unwavering support for the Jewish race over all others. Malinky’s point of view. He writes, ”

The Hebrew concept of God is, to put it bluntly, authromorphic. He made both promises and threats. He had the ability to be angry, and his attributes included righteousness, justice, mercy, truth, and faithfulness.

He attaches himself to his people by covenant and therefore limits himself3

It is sufficient to remark that the concept of God in the New and Old Testaments differs. They are not identical. The God of the New Testament, sometimes known as the Christian God, is a universal and all-loving God who is fundamentally omniscient.

As much as this concept is open to interpretation, this God is portrayed as a triad consisting of God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit.

Christians preach that God is almighty and has sovereignty over all that is in heaven and earth, that God is righteous in judgement over good and evil beyond time, space, and change, and that “God is love”

4. He is the personification of love. The creation of the world from nothing, as well as the formation of the human race, were manifestations of that love, as was the coming of Christ

5. This God is a God of miracles. He is either imperceptible or incorporeal.

In Islam, God is viewed as one, prefect, uncreated, eternal, omnipotent, and creator of the most gracious, merciful, the only owner, and the only ruling judge of the day of recompense

6. In monotheistic religions, the charge has frequently been made that the Christian concept of trinity, in particular, is at odds with the oneness of God. God is viewed as the cause and creator of everything, and he knows and foresees everything. He is a manifestation of justice. According to Gerald Hawting, “this God is one, there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of God”.

7. The concept of God differs in African traditional religion, particularly in the Yoruba socio-cultural Millie. God (olodumare) is more Old Testament-like. Yahweh’s demand for honesty and uprightness. God is the creator; He is the source of both good and evil. He is the most powerful of all beings.

His methods are incomprehensible. According to J.S MBITI, the Yoruba regard God as the ultimate judgement. J.A.I BEWAJI states about Olodumare, ”

8. There is no doubt that God is the most powerful creature and that he possesses every supernatural characteristic imaginable, but the Yoruba do not believe that such a deity cannot do or cause evil. The ability to use all things is one of the supreme being’s attributes.

In a similar spirit, E.B Idowu asserts:

He is the most powerful being, the creator, the wise and impartial judge who wields absolute power over the universe.

J.A.I. Bewaji also believes the following:

The origins of evil are God-created, and they aid in the maintenance of high moral standards. The Christian God is ever forgiving, slow to anger yet quick to forgive.

In fact, he desires that sinners repent and be rescued rather than their death. Whereas the Yoruba Olodumare is a morally upright God who administers justice here on earth rather than in the afterlife, where we cannot be certain that anybody will witness and learn from it10.

God, according to Nicholas and Cusha, is a mix of good and evil. Whitehead and other process theologians saw and the world as sharing the same process and being dependent on each other for growth and development. God is also thought to be dipolar,

with one element of his essence that is dependent on his world and another that is entirely absorbed in the world process and suffers as a result of it. As hinted, he explains the exercise of evil and suffering by providing to every level of creation the freedom to respond or fail to respond to God’s persuasive command.

The process philosophy idea of God addresses two fundamental issues confronting Christian philosophers. These issues include how an immaterial person or spiritual being can be the source of matter. To this end, philosophy explains the process by attempting to eliminate the dichotomy between God and matter, which is an essential aspect of the divine being.

The second problem that the concept of God solved through the process of philosophy is the problem of evil. According to this school of thought, God simply means that he is not the author of evil.

God, according to Sigmund Freud, is a creation of delusion. God is an illusory construct designed to fill the 100pholes of security left by maturity above parental care. These numerous interpretations of God demonstrate that God is open to interpretation.

1.3 ARGUEMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

Immanuel Cant claimed that the existence of God cannot be demonstrated, but it also cannot be denied. Kant viewed God to be an objective topic, one that is unquestionably a subject of interpretation.

He claims that the concept of God underpins moral ideas, therefore we can make the practical assumption that God exists to ensure the link between virtue and happiness.

Frederick Nietzsche dismissed believing in God as weak and untrustworthy. Philosophers such as Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud attempted to understand the personal motivations and origins of beliefs, pointing out that this is insufficient to prove the existence of God.

We have various arguments for the existence of God advanced by various philosophers from Aristotle to Spinoza, and from one philosophical age to the next.

We also have a theistic view of God. Theists believe that God’s knowledge, or omniscience, is limitless. He is regarded as almighty and omnipresent. God is likewise considered sexless, but he is generally addressed with the masculine pronoun.

Augustine, Duns Scotus, and St. Thomas Aquinas all sought more specific and substantial evidences for God’s existence. According to Plato, God is transcendence; that is, the highest and most perfect being, and on who uses everlasting forms or archetypes to make an endless and uncreated universe.

From the beginnings of philosophy to the present day, philosophers have attempted to provide reasonable arguments for God’s existence in a variety of methods.

They attempted to describe the nature of God in the grand scheme of things. The following argument for God’s existence will be discussed.

1. Cosmological Case

2. Design’s Argument

3. The Ontological Case

1.Cosmological Argument: Typically linked with Thomas Aquinas, this argument contends that the objects we perceive around us today are the result of a chain of preceding causes. As a result, there must be some initial reason that was not caused by anything else.

And that initial uncaused cause was caused by God. It is also known as the causal argument or the initial causes. In its most basic form, the argument goes as follows:

The universe exists because something other than Itself causes everything to exist. So the universe is caused by something other than itself, and whatever originated the universe is larger than the universe11.

There is also the experiential argument, in which people broaden their personal religious experiences of God to argue in support of his existence. Finally, there is the argument by reason and moral MgvffiaerA.

2.Design Argument: According to this argument, animals, plants, and planets show evident indicators of being designed for certain purposes, implying that there must have been a creator.

The designer’s argument is often known as the theological argument for God’s existence. Proponents argue that the design or order found in the universe proves the existence of an intelligent designer, sometimes referred to as God.

Here, William Parley contrasted the complexity of living beings with the lesser complexity of a timepiece, which we know was constructed by an intelligent being.

A watch would be meaningless without a watchmaker. Parley contended that living things could not exist in the absence of an intelligent designer.

Because watches are intelligent design goods, and living organisms, like watches, have sophisticated me chansons that have a function, living things are most likely intelligent design products as well.12

3.Ontological Argument: An ontological argument is one that points to the existence of God through the type of being. God exists because he is a perfect being, that he is all knowing, all powerful, and all good.

According to this argument, everyone but the fool thinks in their hearts that there is a being superior and perfect, which is God. As a result, the fact that man can conceive of a being greater than himself indicates that God exists in actuality.

And, without a doubt, that man, of whose nothing better can be envisaged, cannot exist solely in the understanding. For example, if it exists just in the mind, it can be imagined to exist in reality, which is greater.13

This thesis was advocated by St. Anselm, who claims that for something to be conceived in our understanding confirms its presence in reality.

1.4 ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE EXISTENCE  OF GOD.

Various philosophers have objected to various arguments for God’s existence at some point. These arguments are presented in the form of a counter-argument to the numerous reasons in favour of God’s existence.

Atheists are philosophers or schools of thought who argued against the existence of God. We will explain this in terms of the world’s sorrows and evil.

1.PAIN: According to Friedrich Nietzsche, “God is dead.” Nietzsche’s claim that God once existed and is now dead is incorrect. He made this statement to make it plain or to imprint on the minds of religions that the presence of pain, natural disasters, disharmony, and chaos in the universe proves that there is nothing as God’s existence. According to Nietzsche:

All people with an ounce of intelligence would recognise that the universe has no intelligent plan or rational Order unit: they would now understand why things happen one way and not another, and that the harmony and order we imagine exists in the universe is merely pasted by the human mind.14

The argument contends that because God allows pain, disease, and natural disasters to occur, he cannot be all-powerful, loving, and good in the human sense. Religions people, according to Nietzsche, are pitiful, dominated by the view instilled by religion, science, and philosophy, a vision that makes them impotent losers.

They see the world as a place regulated by national law, and they adhere to a slave mentality or morality that celebrates the man who serves his followers with meekness and self-sacrifice.

He postulated a morality based on the creation of a tough type of human being. Such a being will accept existence in all of its forms, including pain, and will thereby make living an art form.

According to Blaise Pascal, the universe’s discord and misery are strong indicators of the absence of a divine being:

I would remain calm in my faith. But, knowing that there is too much to deny and too little to be certain of, I am pitied: thus, J have wished a Hundred times that if God preserves Nature, he should testify to him unequivocally.15

All of the arguments from injustices assert that God is partial in the distribution of destiny, if he ever was. The argument from multiplicity asserts that based on the contradicting testimonies of numerous religions regarding God, only one or even none can be correct about God.

Religion, according to Sigmund Freud, is an exercise in mass decision-making that primarily helps to keep people in a state of psychic infantilism. Because of life’s difficulties and difficulties. Man conjured up the image of an elevated parent, who, like our own father, tells us that all will be well soon.

The reality is that if he is as powerful as he claims, problems should have been solved by now. Freud thinks that humans would be happier if they kept a semblance of truth in their thoughts and tended to their own gardens.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The dilemma of God’s existence is as old as man, and it is a major topic that man raises in his thinking either consciously or unconsciously. Philosophers are deeply concerned about this issue.

The question of God’s existence has virtually become a part of every being, and one who holds these beliefs will be labelled an atheist, which today connotes a black sheep of the family.

Man has many characteristics with other living things, but the reality remains that man is completely unique. Man has been endowed with qualities that other beings do not have, one of which is rationality, or the ability to reason.

Unlike plants and lower animals, which respond involuntarily to external stimuli, man is capable of deciding consciously which stimuli he should respond to and which he should disregard.

People in the field of religion are so certain of their beliefs that they presume, as with other areas of knowledge such as technology, culture, and ethics, that there must be a means to prove the presence and nature of God.

Others feel that seeking intellectual reason for the existence of God is superfluous and even wicked, and that it should be accepted without any attempt to prove its existence.

Man’s rationality has automatically made him responsible for whatever action he performs after conscious evaluation of the fact that behind every action performed by man, there is a motivating principle.

1 It is equally important to know and understand the meaning and purposes of everything that exists, despite the serious mystery in which things are strictly bound up. A philosopher will never be content with anything less than a good explanation for choosing a belief or any phenomenon at all.

2 In religion, as in all other areas, philosophers seek answers that can be justified by sound arguments.

The fact that everything in nature has meaning and can be understood to constitute certain meaning towards the realisation of certain ends, and having equally grasped it to the extent that all other things as well as lower forms of life are meant and designed for human purposes and convinces, the word it becomes somewhat comprehend the meaning purpose and the end for which human existence is meant.

The existence of God cannot be proven simply by considering the term “GOD” as in the ontological argument. God’s existence cannot be shown solely by investigating what it is about nature that makes it clear that it requires God as its original cause.

Some pessimists consider human existence as a walking shadow full of fire and fury signifying nothing.

3 That is, human existence counts for nothing except emptiness and meaninglessness.

Other thinkers, such as St. Augustine, believe that everything exists to serve a purpose. According to St. Augustine, God is a God of purpose who cannot create anything without a reason. This is life’s greatest tragedy, according to him, because it is dangerous to be alive and not know why one was given life.

4 Because the deepest and ultimate craving of the human existence is the search for a sense of significance and relevance to life, fundamental questions such as “Who am I?” What am I here for, and why am I here?

And so forth has continued to perplex the minds of deep-thinking philosophers. The reality that God’s existence can only be shown by his role and purpose in nature, as evidenced in Thomas Aquinas’s argument for God’s existence.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The goal of this essay is to critically evaluate the case for God’s existence in light of the dilemma of evil. We’ll also take a quick look at St. Thomas Aquinas’ case for God’s existence. To disprove the logical, empirical, sceptic, and theoretical determinism approaches to the problem of evil.

THESIS

This essay’s argument is that the facts of evil put into question God’s phenomenal characteristics of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence. But, beyond that, our thesis asserts that everything that exists is the result of something other than itself.

Whatever generated the cosmos and everything that exists is larger than the universe and everything that exists. Because God is the only being larger than the universe, God created both the universe and God.

METHODOLOGY

Our approach will be historical, explanatory, and analytical.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

The subject of this essay is limited to proofs of God’s existence and the presence of evil. We will critically and extensively investigate the problem of evil in its different manifestations, with special reference to Thomas Aquinas’ argument for the existence of God.

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AN EVALUATION OF KARL MARX IDEA OF CAPITALISM

ABSTRACT

The history of man demonstrates that at some point in time, people got together to build society. The reason for this is that in order for humans to coexist peacefully, society must be created.

How can a society be deemed just? These are questions that demand answers and are of major significance to political philosophers. Capitalism originated in the West and is widely practised in the Euro-American world.

Capitalism as a societal principle spread so quickly that it is now practised all across the world. On the surface, capitalism looks to be insignificant, as it appears to bring about quick progress and development in society.

However, Karl Marx, widely considered as the inventor of socialism, strongly opposes capitalism in all of its forms. Capitalism, in his opinion, can only be regarded as exploitative. In this context, this study will assess Marx’s concept of capitalism in order to answer the above question.

CHAPITRE ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Capitalism is an extension of feudalism. One of the fundamental contradictions or defects of capitalism is that it generates and depends on social inequality. What distinguishes capitalism is not its industrial technology, but rather the way it organises interpersonal relations in the workplace.

It is worth noting that the capitalist system is fundamentally about exploitation and alienation, and Marx held that when workers’ income, wealth, prestige, and power are not equal to those of the owners of the means of production, the relationship between workers and owners of means of production becomes one of exploitation.

Marx argued that the social interaction between workers and owners in the organisation is alienating, workers are dehumanised, and the concept refers both to the social situation in which people find themselves (alienating work situation) and the perceptions of individuals in those situations (a feeling of being less human).

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem with capitalism is its proclivity for exploitation. What is critical in this regard is to highlight Marx’s issues with capitalism in an attempt to abolish the system of capitalism.

As stated in the preceding backdrop, capitalism is fundamentally based on exploitation and alienation. With these problems of capitalism, Marx wanted to give a solution in the form of a revolution.

The issue here is how to build a classless society while maintaining the commonwealth. This topic poses a significant obstacle, particularly in the experiments with socialism and communism. Another issue is whether socialism can actually be a state of classlessness.

In other words, we face the challenge of bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Another key issue to consider is whether revolution will result in advancement or regression.

1.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Despite the fact that this essay analyses capitalism in relation to Karl Marx, it will also discuss the notion from a broader perspective. However, it will both praise and criticise Karl Marx’s view of capitalism.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The goal of this study is to highlight Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism in order to demonstrate that the postulation of socialism does not inevitably mean the end of class division.

In other words, the purpose of this research is to demonstrate that socialism and communism may be worse socioeconomic and political agreements than capitalism.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

According to the study’s goal, the significance of the study will demonstrate that we cannot exclude capitalism from socioeconomic development and growth.

Again, it will assist economic planners and leaders in deciding and implementing economic policies that will lead to the expansion of the nation’s economy for the benefit of all citizens rather than just a few.

In line with the preceding, the study will serve as a call for the government to control the practises of capitalism where it has been accepted in order to preserve workers’ rights. Finally, the research will make an intellectual contribution to the advancement of the capitalist and socialist economies in order to achieve a synthesis.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

This essay employs both analytical and critical approaches. At the outset, it will outline in full Karl Marx’s perspective on the subject of capitalism, as well as his profound solution to capitalism’s annihilation. It will gradually criticise Karl Marx’s notion of capitalism.

1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW

The first book reviewed here is “The Theory and Practise of Communism” (London: Penguin Books, 1950), which was authorised by R. N. Caron Hunt. From a very critical stance, the author gives us a brief history of Marxism and its consequences in Russia in this book.

The author plainly stated that present Marxian thought is a synthesis in which the basic principles of Karl Marx and Engel’s have been modified to match the twentieth century by Lenin and Stalin.

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ARISTOTLES’ PERSPECTIVE ON CHANGE AND PERMANENCE

CHAPITRE ONE

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The philosophers are distinguished by their sense of astonishment. Aristotle stated that “all men by nature desire to know”1.

On the same note, intellectually and otherwise, man must find a way to make sense of the mysteries that surround his finite existence. As a result, it is not surprising that we are drawn into the notions and reality of change and permanency.

This constant truth of change and permanence presented a perplexing challenge to thinkers from ancient Greece to the mediaeval and modern periods, and finally to the contemporary age. To put it succinctly, the problem of change and permanence is as old as philosophy itself, as Popkin, R.H:

The two essential elements of the world that captivated Greek thinkers were the occurrence of natural change and the persistence of certain seemingly permanent situations. 2

The oldest Greek thinkers attempted to explain reality by claiming that beneath all seeming changes, there is a genuine, unchangeable substance. According to Mullin E., the motivation for this investigation was that

…If the many could be seen as examples of one, grasping the one would be sufficient.3

Thus, reality is one object that appears in several guises at different periods.

Against this backdrop, some philosophers engaged in action and reaction, developing ideas in response to the conundrum of change and permanence. The difficulty they were attempting to solve was driven by the fact of material change, and the principle they proposed was reached via observation and contemplation.

“Reality was water for Thales, the ‘boundless’ or infinite for Anaximander, and air for Anaximanes.”4

These early thinkers were known as pre-Socratics in Greek thinking history. Copleston noted in reference to them,

…We can already see the concept of unity in diversity and difference as entering into unity in them.5

As a result, Heraclitus prioritised change over permanence, whereas Parmenides believed that “absolute change is impossible and unthinkable, and by nature things are permanent.”6

According to Heraclitus, all things flow; nothing remains, and hence “one cannot step twice in the same river.”7

Whereas Parmenides claims that change, becoming, or motion are all impossible since they include both non-being and being, which cannot both exist. Thus, Parmenides asserts, “Being is; non-being is not.”8

The positions of these two champions sparked the great debate on change and permanence, which arose as to how things could change while remaining the same.

Aristotle developed his principles of act and potency, Hylemorphism, and categories (substance and accidents) in an attempt to overcome this ‘excruciating’ difficulty in philosophy.

However, with change, neither destruction nor creation occurs, but rather a shift of being from one state to another. Wherever there is change, it implies the actuality of what is changing. As a result, there is both permanence and change.

1.2 DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM

The philosophical debate over whether change or permanence will win out is a topic that cannot be ignored at all times in philosophical study. As a result, the issue at hand is how true it is that what we term change actually occurs.

And why will things remain the same in the face of change? This core inquiry sparked many more, thus how can one and the same entity transform into something that was not previously? Could there be any permanent, true, unchanging aspect of the cosmos if everything changes all the time?

And, if reality were truly unchanging and unchangeable, how could it have anything to do with the seeming world of change, let alone explain it?

Egbeke Aja comments on this, saying,

When early philosophers investigated these issues, it appeared to them that change and permanence were contradictory, and that reality had to be either continually changing or utterly permanent.9

This arose as a result of a conflict between our sense perception and that of the intellect. The intellect perceives reality as one,

whereas the senses perceive reality as numerous and constantly changing. But how do we explain this seeming disparity between our sense view of reality and that provided by our intellect?

Overall, this topic raised two fundamental issues, namely

1. Must we take both plurality and oneness of being seriously, or may we accept one while dismissing the other as a mere appearance, illusion, or mental projection?

2. If we take both perspectives seriously, how can they coexist? What type of togetherness is at stake? How can unity and variety be balanced?

Aristotle proposed his idea of act and potency, Hylemorphism, and categories as a solution to the philosophical issue of change.

Thus, these theories developed from Aristotle’s attempt to find a long-term answer to the issue of change and permanence, which had plagued philosophy for a century and a half. But did he ever succeed? This is the issue that prompted this investigation.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this paper is to find answers to these plethoras of thought-provoking topics. It is the pursuit of the most fundamental truth about the universe. The truth about reality never fully manifests itself in a single event, but rather through a process of slow unfolding.

This study investigates the origins of the problem of change and permanence before delving into the perspectives of two timeless thinkers, Heraclitus and Parmenides. Furthermore, it delves deeper into the solutions proposed by one of history’s greatest thinkers, Aristotle. Finally, the enormous impact of his philosophy on practical life will be examined.

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Recognising Aristotle’s extensive contribution and debate in philosophy, the focus of this study is on his mediation on the problem of change and permanence. The merger of the Parmenidean and Heraclitean stances is his crucial concept to this realisation.

His concepts of Act and potency, Hylemorphism, and categories, however, should be underlined in relation to the perspectives of Parmenides and Heraclitus. The nature of change and permanence will be explored in order to make the subject scientific and easy to understand.

METHODOLOGY (1.5)

The work is both explanatory and analytical in nature. The thoughts and arguments of Heraclitus and Parmenides on change and persistence will be presented. The concept of change and permanence in Aristotle’s perspective will then be examined in light of these expositions.

This topic is broken into four chapters to make it easier to understand. The first chapter describes the study’s history, purpose, scope, problem, and approach. The concepts of change and permanence will be examined in chapter two, with a focus only on the etymological derivation of the two terms, as well as their explanation and explication.

In the same chapter, the historical perspectives of Parmenides and Heraclitus, who were radicals in their treatment of the topics of change and permanence, will be examined. Aristotle’s notion of Act and Potency, matter and form (Hylemorphism), and substantive and accidental change (Categories) mediates between the two perspectives in Chapter 3.

The entire exposition will be reviewed in chapter four, which will also touch on the impact Aristotle’s philosophical mind’s resourcefulness had on practical life. Following that will be a general conclusion.

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NOTION OF FREEDOM AND LAW IN ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

CHAPITRE ONE

1.0 THE GENERAL NOTION OF FREEDOM

The concept of freedom is analogous, predicated in various ways on creatures of various types. To some extent, the many forms of attribution are determined not by specifying the same precise content, but by establishing the same formal relationship. This relationship might be seen negatively or favourably.

Negatively, freedom involves not being bound to a particular entity or law, being independent of anything, and not being decided by a given principle of determination.

Because every finite being belongs to a world and is related to the other beings in the universe, this negative concept is likewise relative. It may be free of this or that direct link, but only because others have taken their place.

A creature entirely free in the negative sense could not exist in the world; without a wholly separated relationship, it would be founded on nothing and be nothing.1

As opposed to the negative, relative concept of freedom, there is a positive, absolute concept of freedom. A being is positively free insofar as it is in possession of itself and possesses the sufficient condition for all of its being and relations in this relationship. In this context, freedom means being entirely present to oneself and self-sufficient.

According to Maslaw,

The fundamental recognition is freedom.

that the person is more significant

than his culture.2

Human freedom, on the other hand, is plainly neither purely negative and relative, nor totally positive and absolute. Man has authority over himself and so over parts of the world. He is, nevertheless, a part of the world and is dependent on the beings with whom he interacts.

The fundamental way of human freedom is known as transcendental freedom, and it is the essential propriety of man by which he alone can claim to be.

As a result, man can never be stripped of his transcendental freedom, which is a necessary aspect of his life. However, its emptiness and significance lead to another way of freedom.

Man is not merely there, he does not simply grow; he has to be, he has to decide whether he will be himself or something else, and there is no way for him to avoid this decision.

This paradigm is known as decision freedom or existential freedom. This immediately implies freedom of choice because arbitrary freedom is not freedom; a guy free in this sense will leave his actions to the whims or chance of his mood.

In general, freedom can be defined as

the absence of impediments to realisation

a desire.3

1.1 WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN?

Freedom! Everyone desires it; it is what makes a man human; artists admire it; and politicians promise or proclaim it. Some have devoted their lives to win it for themselves or others, but what is it exactly?

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, it is the lack of coercion. Coercion or compulsion affects external action and is equivalent to the lack of external coercion. This is known by numerous names depending on the type of action engaged.

Thus, we have physical freedom, civil freedom, political freedom, self-realization freedom, choice freedom, and self-perfection freedom. Psychological freedom, often known as freedom of choice, is the absence of internal constraint, or the ability to will something or not.

External freedom is dependent on interior freedom because the former has no significance without the latter, but the opposite is not always true.

A survey of Yves R. Simons’ work ‘Freedom of Choice,’ which disagrees with St Thomas Aquinas’ view of freedom to some extent. For example, he conducted research on freedom and voluntariness and concluded that “there is no unqualified voluntariness without freedom”4

1.2 KINDS OF FREEDOM

Man is a dynamic being, and his activities are no exception. As a result, his concept of freedom varies according to their various pursuits. Man’s activities are not solely determined by external causes such as a moving stone or a computer game moved by the pads.

It sometimes stems from his understanding of his own freedom and ability to make his own decisions. Among all of these, freedom remains a difficult concept to grasp at any given time; yet, for clarity, I shall analyse the various types of freedom in the following order.

Human Liberty

Accepting the Universe because you grasp its mathematical necessity is all that is required. When you finish this, you will have peace of mind, be free of passions, and be able to return good for evil.

This human freedom indicates that man has the innate potential to act for an extended period of time without causing harm to others.

Religious Liberty

Freedom of religion can be defined as a person’s freedom to practise religion freely and without constraint or coercion.

He is free to worship whatever he wants, whenever he wants, according to his conscience. Murray stated that religious freedom is “…an immunity from coercion in what concerns personal relationship with God”5.

Many societies adopt religious freedom in order to ensure the legitimacy of religion.

The Right to Choose

This is the action principle that allows man to freely judge. Aside from that, Aquinas held that freedom of choice is a capacity that comes from man, not a habit. He referred to it as an election. He contrasted’man’ and ‘animal,’ claiming that man acts out of reason, whilst animals behave out of inherent instinct.

Because man acts out of comparism, he acts with free judgement and preserves the ability to be predisposed to various things. As a result, man possesses free will.

Freedom of choice can relate to either the act of will or the object of will. There is freedom of exercise in the first case, and freedom of specification in the second.

The will has the freedom to choose whether or not to choose, to operate or not to operate. The key element to remember here is that one is not forced to act.

Self-Perfection Freedom

St. Thomas believed and taught that man should tamper and train his Soul, and that man’s dignity resides in self-mastery. Now, the nature of man is such that reason and will must always lead and steer his acts. In doing so, man demonstrates self-control, which is what distinguishes him as a person.

Any man who allows love, money, power, and so on to overtake him is not free, since he appears to be free on the outside but is inwardly bound to vice, greed, power, pride, and ambition.

Fulton Sheen emphasised in his book ‘On Being Human’ that freedom is a long process that continues until one achieves the pinnacle. Man is not supposed to become an angel, because man cannot be flawless in an imperfect world, which is his ontological vocation.

Self-Awareness Freedom

Each man is a microcosm, or a miniature scale representation of himself. He holds a crucial and essential role in the entire cosmos. He is a being with a purpose in the world. And completing this task is the realisation of himself. Every man is a bundle of possibilities.

When these potentials are realised or actualized, they constitute the individual’s contribution to the overall development of the human family.

According to Anthony Storr, self-realization is:

The most complete phrase in

the innate potentialities of life

the realisation of the individual

This individuality as a personality.6

It is characterised by productivity, spontaneous activity as opposed to compulsion, affection, and active solidarity with humans. Accepting oneself as the bearer of human potentialities and being willing to evolve through creative effort constitutes it.

The man who uses his abilities is the one who answers the fundamental question of his individual life. Self-realization freedom is only attainable in and through the facticity that surrounds each individual; it cannot be more than this. Height, colour, strength, intelligence, sex, race, and other characteristics are examples.

According to Karl Rahner:

Only freedom in the sense of

in a concrete sense, when all of those

Liberties are combined.7

Aquinas, for his part, stated,

Freedom is not synonymous with independence.

from an absolute standpoint, but as independent

From the family.8

Freedom has a special function in the history of philosophy and social thought as a moral and social notion to relate either to circumstances that develop in the relations of man to man or to certain conditions of social life.

The legitimacy or convenience of a particular application of the term is the focus of philosophical debate over the definition or nature of freedom.

Bertrand Russels frequently held that freedom in general means the lack of impediments to the fulfilment of one’s aspirations.

1.3 AQUINAS’ CONCEPT OF FREEDOM

This mediaeval theologian defined freedom as the concord of will and action. And the divine influence and will are taken into account. Freedom is implied by the relationship of harmony, divine influence, and will.

As a result, rather than a decision of the will, the assent of the will becomes a free act. It follows that this cannot be defined as freedom as self-determination.

Perhaps the closest Aquinas term in meaning and usage to the modern term freedom is liberty9.

But what about John Locke?

It is to be free from the constraints and brutality of others, which cannot be achieved in the absence of law10.

Freedom may be defined as the absence of limitation, which is appropriate for man. There is no rational person who would support limitations. Being liberated from limitation entails being liberated from choice incarceration.

1.4 LIMITS TO FREEDOM

While we reject the notion that man is not free or that freedom is an illusion, we must reject Sartre’s overblown concept of freedom.

Man, according to Sartre’s book ‘Being and Nothingness,’ is completely free. He claimed that man is condemned to be free, and that man’s actual existence is realised to the extent that he exercises his freedom.

Yes, man is free, but his freedom is restricted by factors such as his body, will, surroundings, desires and passions, pressures from genetics, society, and so on.

In his book ‘A Companion to Summa’ vol.iii, Walter Farrel utilised the analogy of a wild bird banging its life against the windows of a forlorn house into which it has wandered in order to awaken sympathy on us. Also in man, who is restricted to a physical area and is imperfect and limited, striving day after day to be unlimited and free.

We find ourselves in this scenario as a result of science’s constant discoveries to see if it can give meaning to human life, but what happens is that we still experience some sort of imperfection in all of this.

Also, as a social person who is required to be sociable by nature, man is compulsorily constrained to being where his body allows him to be. The existentialists emphasised this by claiming that man, as a social creature in the world, is subject to natural laws.

We cannot say that limitation is the essence of human freedom because man’s insatiable desire for the absolute and good is infinite; rather, as an incarnate being, a being in the world, his body, which situates him in the world, limits his freedom. As a result, man is not completely free, as there are some constraints.

1.5 THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF FREEDOM.

Freedom is inherently part of man since it is transcendental distance and transcendental spontaneity. However, this primordial freedom is only the foundation for existential freedom, the realisation of man as person, it is not yet this personal being in actual reality, transcendental and transcendental freedom are actuated only in the decision of existential freedom for its own essence – as basic form. However, R.S. Peters maintained:

Freedom is not being able to do everything one wants.

without limitations but accepting

the law or the community’s true will.11

As a result, human freedom can never be a simple state of man or a specialised propriety, nor can it be merely the actuation of selfhood, nor pure act without history, as divine freedom is. Human freedom, on the other hand, is history by definition.

The activities to be done and the states to be attained completely claim man. He becomes a true person by stepping outside of himself and immersing himself in the task at hand.

Thus, human freedom is not a state of independence from this or that compulsion, as it is in things, nor is it a pure act of self-consciousness, as it is in God.

The history of a person’s coming to terms with himself culminates in fully conscious self-possession. Only the individual is with himself in the strictest sense; self-possession can be predicted only analogously of a society or a people.

All of these criteria are repeated in the concept that governs the way of realising freedom, the freedom of subsidiary. Acting freely is synonymous with a person’s personality. It is a person’s way of being.

This state of existence is both individual and supra-individual, conditional and unconditional. Conscious selfhood, as an act possible only to the self, distinguishes the individual as a person.

These common works are expressions of self-realization, of the reality of freedom and the individual. However, there are forms that freedom has taken, and they preserve their meaning and purpose only through being referred back to the individual and its actuality.

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WESTERN CULTURE YORUBA

CHAPITRE ONE

YOURBA & WESTERN ETHICS

1.1. ETHICS

There are many actions that we will condemn as morally wrong and should not be done by anyone, such as stealing, murder, bribery, aimed robbery, and corruption, and so on.

However, there are certain actions that everyone considers to be morally good, such as kindness, honesty, respect for elders, hospitality, and so on.

Now, why do we state that some activities are good or right while others are terrible or wrong? How do we determine the goodness or rightness or badness of specific actions?

To answer these and other problems, we need a science that deals with human behaviour. Ethics is defined as the science that studies human behavior1. Thus, ethics is a metre for comparing the goodness or rightness and wrongness or badness of various actions or behaviours.

1.2. ETHICAL UNIVERSALISM

According to ethical universalism, all ethical judgements, regardless of degree, should be universalisable. Thus, ethical universalism asserts that a single ethical standard of judgement should be applied everywhere.

With an ethical Universalist, all behaviours are to be viewed as universal. This theory or concept asserts that an action that is regarded “right” or “wrong,” “good” or “bad,” “praiseworthy” or “blameworthy” in Western countries should be accepted by the Yoruba people in Nigeria.

1.3 ETHICAL RELATIVISM

“Ethical relativism demonstrates the diversity or variation of a group or individual’s morality.” In this situation, mortality is determined by individual human behaviour.”2.

However, it is critical to understand that ethical relativism is dependent on a number of other fundamental variables. These include an individual’s or society’s cultural history and social distinctions.

Ethical universalism holds that one single ethical or moral standard of judgement should be upheld throughout the universe, whereas ethical relativism holds that whatever action is judged to be praiseworthy or blameworthy is relative to an individual or a society in a given time or circumstance.

1.4 CULTURAL UNIVERSALISM.

Culture has been defined in a variety of ways, including: ”Every broad general principle of selectivity and ordering — “highest common factor” —- in terms of patterns of and for and about behaviour in every various areas of culture content are reducible to parsimonious generalization”3.

According to the preceding description, culture can evolve not simply from a society’s traditions and conventions. It could also be adopted and assimilated into one’s existing culture in a variety of other ways.

Other methods include the process through which a person or group of people obtains from contact with another person or group of people. This philosophy, like ethical universalism, asserts that all civilizations must be universalizable. Cultural universalism emphasises that if a country ”A” argues that practising culture ”Y” is justified.

If the claim of country ”A” or society ”A” is consistent, it must be agreed that other societies or countries ”A1′, ”A2”, ”A3”, —-, ”An; would be equally justified to practise culture ”Y” in circumstance ”R”. To do otherwise would be an unusual claim.

1.5 CULTURAL RELATIVISM

Cultural relativism asserts that all values are functions or products of their culture and reflect their society’s and culture’s interests. It is a culturally conditioned fact of human experience.

When we analyse societies that are distinct from one another. Some Eskimos, for example, believe that it is preferable to send their elderly people to wastelands to die rather than keep them alive in their old age to suffer.

This is an example of parricide; others include abortion, euthanasia, human sacrifice, and cannibalism. These instances demonstrate that the rightness or wrongness of human activities can signify different things to different societies or even individuals.

That is, no set of moral or ethical norms can exist. Everyone should accept as globally legitimate or individually valid.

1.6 A  BRIEF GENEOLOGY OF THE YORUBAS

The Yoruba society or kingdom encompasses modern-day Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun, and some other areas of Kwara and Lagos states, as well as the Republic of Benin.

Because of the homogeneous remains in their language, Yoruba community is commonly seen as a single entity. Despite its numerous varieties, this language is the primary proof of a shared origin and cultural legacy.

A second clue to a shared origin of Yoruba culture is the existence of a cycle of myths and its people throughout the country, as well as the foundations at ”Ile-Ife, the world’s centre of the first kingdom.

1.7 THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF YORUBA.

In all Yoruba kingdoms, the ”Town,” or ”Ilu,” was the primary political unit upon which government was established. Each kingdom is made up of several towns, but that does not imply that each town or kingdom has multiple distinct governments.”4.

The capital’s government acted as the kingdom’s central government, while the governments of the subordinate cities served as local government units. The system of administration was monarchical, that is, it was governed by an Oba (king) who was entitled to wear a crown at both the central and local levels.

The Oba was divined and served as the town’s political and religious leader. The Oba was considered as a celestial ruler as the head of the administration, and in theory he held absolute power of life and death over his subjects.

His attribute was ”Oba, alase, ekeji Orisa” — monarch, ruler, and god’s companion. He was also addressed as ”kabiyesi” a phrase which is thought to be shortened from of the sentence ”ki-a-bi-o-ko-si”. That is, no one is going to challenge or question your authority.

In a nutshell, the Oba possessed the power of life and death over his subjects and was regarded as a divine sovereign who was not accountable to them for any of his actions.

When the Westerners arrived, the entire Yoruba political ethics shifted and was viewed in a different light. Some people believed that the powers of these divine kings were gradually eroded under the guise of an indifferent rule system,

and that the king’s powers were completely eroded after western Europeans granted the Yoruba people independence and politicians took over the chair of leadership from them.

The traditional roles of Obas and chiefs were alternated, and various forms of loyalty were declined. The moral or ethical implications of this were clear and are still felt in the current interaction between political rulers and Obas in contemporary Yoruba society.

Other observers saw these adjustments as a kind of political re-organization that nonetheless honoured the old system and placed the Obas in positions that they had traditionally held.

After all, they claimed, Obas are still recognised as the chief priest in all religious and ritual rituals across Yoruba territory.

1.8 RELIGIOUS CULTURE

The concept of God was not introduced to the Yoruba people by western missionaries. They believed in the existence of a single ”Great God” who was an integral member of society, as opposed to the western Christian concept of God remaining in heaven, in the community of good Angels.

The Yoruba believed in the existence and power of Deities (spirits) led by an all-powerful God. Wherever you locate a Yoruba man, you will also discover his religion.

Although Yoruba religion is not as sacrosanct as the ”Bible” of western Christians, all chapters of Yoruba religion are inscribed everywhere in the Yoruba people’s lives. There are no unbelievers among the Yoruba.

According to professor John Mbiti, “being without religion or not living a religious life amounts to a self-communication from the entire life of the society,”5

and “Yoruba people do not know how to exist without religion.” To the Yoruba, man’s character is supreme, and it is this that Oludumare (God) judges.6n, Just as man’s well-being on earth is decided by his character, so his place in the afterlife is determined by Oludumare. The Yoruba ethics is a transcendental ethics.

This is due to the fact that it is ultimately based on an objective transcendental moral order. Order that is beyond man’s control and cannot be changed

Although Yoruba religion has not been written down like the precious ”Bible,” Yoruba people believe that it is not enough to embrace a faith that is restricted to a church building that is closed up six days a week and opened only once or twice a week.

Western missionaries were able to generate catechists, pastors, teachers, priests, church wardens, and converts through education. As a result, Yoruba traditional religion was viewed with disdain by missionaries who connected it with ”idol” worship and saw it as a barrier to Christian evangelism and conversion without regard for the moral qualities the people ascribed to it.

According to some Yorubas, this was the beginning of moral laxity among modern Yorubas. Others saw Western religion as the great hammer that abolished immoral practises such as human sacrifices, death of twins, euthanasia, cannibalism, and so on, which resulted in Yoruba traditional religion and ethics without or with little respect for ethical relativism.

Furthermore, some regard western religion as a method for re-integrating Yoruba youngsters who fell victim to social destabilisation and subsequently were socially designated as a result of rural-urban migration.

Finally, the global moral attitude of western religion has so many transcendental moral or ethical qualities that it builds and maintains social solidarity among Yorubas.

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CONCEPT OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

CHAPITRE ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Jacob Friedrich Fries considered the development of philosophical idealism by philosophers like as Hegel, Fichte, and Schelling to be a major flaw. According to Fries, the philosophical tendency should have continued in the Kantian tradition.

According to Coqueston (248), his simple rationale for this is that “we must investigate the nature, laws, and scope of knowledge before we can tackle problems about the object of knowledge.”

What Fires says is that the question of the Corkinty of an item of knowledge can be handled by analysing its nature, laws, and scope. In this regard, Fries shares a connection with the father of British empiricism, John Locke.

As a result, Fries and his co-believers were among the first opponents and sceptics of metaphysical idealism. Another critic was Christian Hermann Weisse, who said that Hegel overestimated the significance of logic in attempting to deduce reality from abstract forms of being.

Immanuel Herman Fichte, the son of the famed idealist, emphasised the individual human individuality on his own. Fichte was vehemently opposed to Hegel’s desire to submerge the individual in the universal, where personality, the end of creation assored of immortality, was depicted as a period in the life of universal spirit.

As a result, the chain reaction against idealism persisted and reached Kierkegaard on film. Ludwig Wittgenstein (quoted in Pattison, 1) described this Dane as “by far the most profound Thinkers of the last century.”

Soren Kierkegaard, the founder of modern existentialism

According to Omorveghs (39), this is a loose philosophical framework that concerns with “win, concrete existence as opposed essence.”

With the advent of this theory, philosophy’s focus switched from the study of metaphysical realities, as available in conventional philosophy of the ancient and mediaeval periods, to the study of man’s being and the tangible or concrete realities of life.

Kierkegaard’s job was to disprove Hegskanism, also known as speculative philosophy, as it was distorted by absolute idealism. According to Copleston (335), Hegelianism’s philosophy portrayed human existence in such a way that “man realises his true self or essence in proportion as he transcends his particularity and becomes a spectator of all time and existence as a moment in the life of universal thought.”

The preceding strategy cleansed the food experience of existritialism, causing him to react with scarce sympathy for this radiculity. According to Copleste (336), Kierkegaard developed his philosophical concepts in such a way that it fended to become “a clarification of issues and an appeal to choose, an attempt to get new to see their existential situation and the great alternatives with which they are faced” in his reaction.

This clarification is crucial because, as Copestone (338) puts it, “the important problems of any human being are never resolved by mere thought or speculation, but by this act of choice, on the level of existence rather than on that of detached, objective reflection.”

Kierkegaard often holds that philosophy should be concerned with concerns that confront individuals as living beings rather than abstract conceptions. According to Etim (1), questions like “who am I? What is the purpose of life? How can I live a fulfilling and helpful life?

How can I stay there for myself and others? What exactly does freedom mean to me? “How will I put my freedom to use?” Kierkegaard goes on to say that human existence is more than just an existence; it is a genuine human existence with a paschal relationship with his maker.

The authenticity of these distinct existences prompted Kierkegaard to pose concerns such as “How should a Christian live authentically?”

How does one live a personal relationship with God and respond truthfully to the rigours of that relationship in the same way that…… did? What does it mean to have a trustworthy relationship with God?

According to this definition, existential philosophy is concerned with the ultimate question of the meaning of human existence. In general, existentialists seek to find the meaning and authenticity of…… existence.

As a result, the purpose of this book is to investigate Soren Kierkegaard’s approach to the topic of the meaning of human existence and the question addressing the question: what does it truly mean to exist as a human being?

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The subject of human existence has sparked numerous debates. Some viewed it from the standpoint of its absurdity and meaninglessness. Most of these people are atheists like Martin Heidegger, including Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre who, like Hegel, downplayed the essence of human existence.

However, there is another set of existentialists that consider human existence to be a worthwhile endeavour. Soren Kierkegaard, the major founder of current existentialism, is one of them.

According to Lescoe (9), these philosophers expounded specific existential doctrines aimed at “analysing the basic structures of human existence and calling individuals to an awareness of their existence in its essential freedom.”

The challenge of human existence is inextricably linked to the concept of freedom. Its usage and abuse create and destroy man, accordingly. This is due to the fact that freedom continues to be the pivot around which man exerts himself.

His relationship to this determines whether he is an authentic or inauthentic individual. Thus, determining the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life is extremely subjective, but it is decided by the level of commitment that one invests when he attempts to assert himself through the exercise of freedom.

Another point to consider here is whether it is possible to live truthfully when one has no authentic relationship to the community, which Kierkegaard refers to as the crowd.

And there are existential approaches to natural phenomena like death, dread, anxiety, despair, and suffering. It also considers the issue of freedom and choice, man’s search for existential significance, and Kierkegaard’s explanation of man’s stages on the life path.

In order to elucidate some of these perplexing questions, the researcher seeks to disclose what Kierkegaard regards as the gauge or standard of meaningful human existence.

In this light, the work is a confrontation of man with the raw reality of his freedom and duty, through which he makes the best of his life as an individual.

1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY

It is a huge tragedy of human existence that many people go through life without fully realising their individual potential. On the other side, Fred Baver remarks that some people are so focused on making a livelihood that they forget to live.

This study was inspired by the aforementioned discoveries. The researcher wishes to awaken those who have yet to give in or enjoy the latest possibilities in them, while those who have lost hope in realising meaning out of human existence as exemplified by their excessive obsession or addiction to working so hard are reminded that Kierkegaard was correct when he said,

“until man actualized his essential self in God, his life is full of anxiety” (Ibe 43). It is with confidence that this understanding or wisdom will cause all to regard life’s hardships as things designed to make life better rather than bitter.

Thus, the goal of this work is to make everyone realise that human existence is valuable insofar as it is addressed subjectively through personal experiences, an adequate feeling and use of freedom, and solemn and true fear of the creator.

1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

Human daily struggles have a significant impact on all levels and leave us with so many complexity that we eventually fall into the disposition of ‘following the trends’ for existential survival. Human authenticity flaws in practically every aspect of human existence or civilization cause man to be a near-perfect replica of himself or herself.

Typically, our daily problems exclude us from engaging in self-realization in order to truly comprehend ourselves and deal with questions that impugn our very character in order to realise our purpose in an ever-changing and ever-complicated world.

Man frequently focuses on the thoughts of others at the expense of his distinctive character. Man is otherwise absorbed in the mass, surrendering his identity to abstract objective or societal control, rather than being a real individual who answers the question of freedom, meaning, and meets the existential phenomenon of death, sorrow, dread, despair, absurdity, and so on.

Kierkegaard’s objection to this trend, as well as his replies to the question “what does it mean to be existing as a human being?” influence the stimulating question guiding this inquiry into his concept of human existence. Thus, the rationale for this research is justified in light of its impact on waking modern man to the reality of himself as an existent entity.

1.5 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

Existential philosophy is based on the idea that man must first exist before assuming responsibility for establishing meaning or essence for his existence. The task of producing meaning can be described as immense. To be able to exert such responsibility, man must be at his best.

As a result, issues about the human person arise. Questions such, “Who is a human being?” What is it like to be alive? Or, what is the purpose of man’s existence? Is there complete freedom of choice for man? In this way, this research is important to man as he strives to realise himself. As a result, the relevance of this work can be summarised as follows:

It assists man in realising his purpose for being, thereby shaping his own life via self-realization and reflection by removing oneself from the throng.

Kierkegaard proposed three stages in life that would benefit modern man in coming to the actualization of his essence with the understanding that to exist is to be an individual who strives, considers alternatives, chooses, decides, and makes a commitment more importantly, for ensuring existential commitment, worthy of making the individual sound, critical focused, brave, courageous, and analytically minded in making decisions for his very life.

It is also relevant to modern man in re-orienting the modern world on the fact that self-realization and valuation are only possible if man makes personal decisions based on deep personal reflection and free exercise of his will power while being willing to accept responsibility for his subjective decisions rather than objective crowd following.

Also, keep in mind the scope of epistemology, which is concerned with the nature, scope, and criterion of knowing. The research makes an epistemic contribution by exposing knowledge that qualifies such a judgement about human nature.

It also rouses the dormant man to accept responsibility and develop his essence or purpose, even in the face of existential peril.

1.6 METHODOLOGY OF STUDY

To provide this work with the necessary philosophical underpinning, the researcher consulted a wide range of Kierkegaard research materials. The result of that effort is the accumulation of in-depth knowledge of existentialists’ view of human existence.

However, the Kierkegaardian technique is strictly followed. As the investigation proceeds, some relevant comments or insights from others are used as needed.

As a result, the book incorporates philosophical approaches of analysis, critique, and prescription. Analytical in terms of how it connects existential ideas to subjective experiences.

It is critical in that it does not accept all of Kierkegaard’s assumptions; rather, it evaluates his good points while criticising the unwholesome aspects of his ideas or teachings about human existence.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this work is ultimately derived from Kierkegaard’s attempt to give purpose to human existence through real uniqueness. This entails his concepts of the individual and the way of existence of the individual. Furthermore, the focus of this inquiry includes Kierkegaard’s existential philosophy, specifically his concept of human existence and, by extension, his theory as it relates to modern man.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

The Definition of Human

What exactly is Existentialism?

Existentialism as a philosophical endeavour is viewed differently by different thinkers. Existentialism, according to R. C. Solomon, “is the explicit conceptual manifestation of an existential attitude-a spirit of ‘the present age’.”

It is a philosophical realisation of a self-conscious life in a “broken world”… a world into which we are “thrown” or “condemned” but “abandoned” and “free”…a world that appears indifferent, if not “absurd”…” (ix), existentialism is defined as “an attitude that begins with a disoriented individual confronted with a confused world that he cannot accept.”

(24 Olawonyin). G. O. Ozumba, for one, defines existentialism as “the philosophy of human existence…concerning the individual in the uniqueness of his existence.” As a result, it abandons logic, universality, abstraction, and objectivity in favour of privacy, particularity, unpredictability, and subjectivity.

” (87-88). Idang (99) agrees, writing, “it would seem, man with his problems, is the main focus of existentialism.” It is a style of philosophising, a way of looking at the world, particularly at man and his place in the universe.

” Existentialism, according to Aqulanna (147), “is concerned with the ambiguities and paradoxes that constitute man’s inner being.”

According to the preceding, existentialism is a philosophical outlook that emphasises man’s dilemma and emphasises man’s existence as an individual rather than an abstract being.

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GLOBALISATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

CHAPITRE ONE

INTRODUCTION IN GENERAL

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The human yearning for sustainable development can be traced back to the dawn of time. This explains why human history is rife with varied attempts by man to improve his circumstances at different moments in time.

In our time, this noble ambition has taken on a more generic status in an attempt to transform the entire world into a global village in which humanity can share a common developmental experience.

This evolving global order, known as Globalisation, is a continual process, and no one can claim to understand its full scope or even exist outside of its impact.

While its supporters have emphasised the prospects and benefits of this phenomena, many schools of thought in both rich and developing countries are growing disillusioned with it.

The reason for these shifting ideas and attitudes is a lack of visible benefits for most developing countries, particularly those in Africa.

As a result, there are various concerns that call into doubt the ideology of globalisation and the veracity of its countless claims and promises. This explains why a critical examination of the complexities of the current globalisation process is not only necessary, but also unavoidable.

1.2 PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Many experts have wondered, and continue to ponder, the overall repercussions of globalisation on the entire human species. These studies are needed not just by the aforementioned dispute surrounding the phenomena, but also by the apparent marginalisation and increasing impoverishment of its less privileged participants.

As a result, I seek to disclose the contents of the current globalisation process through an existential enquiry into its dynamics and philosophical underpinnings.

This would then allow us to extend its potential implications to Africa’s drive for sustainable development.

This study would attempt to analyse the raison d’être of the current globalisation process as a philosophical enquiry. My main point is that sustainable development is all about people, and business is all about ethics.

As a result, the end goal of globalisation should be the holistic growth of humanity in ways that are sustainable for all races and generations.

1.3 METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

In this study, I intend to use both an explanatory and an evaluative strategy. Thus, we will define globalisation philosophy in relation to Africa’s existential situation. These would be the starting points for extrapolating globalization’s consequences for African development.

The work is divided into five chapters in total. The first chapter provides a synoptic overview of the entire work as well as perspectives on globalisation from other authors.

The second chapter introduces and investigates the concept and nature of globalisation as they relate to this study.

The third chapter discusses the concept of sustainable development and its current position in Africa, while the fourth part carefully extrapolates the consequences of globalisation to sustainable development in Africa. Finally, the fifth chapter critically assesses the entire intellectual exposure.

With true humility, I do not want to conduct an extensive investigation of the subject of globalisation and African development. As a result, my study will be complementary to that of eminent researchers on the issue.

1.4 LITERATURE REVIEW

Globalisation is undeniably at the heart of the modern era as a vital aspect in its development. As a result, the purpose of this brief literature review is to investigate how some researchers conceptualise the globalisation process in relation to its implications for sustainable development in Africa.

Many academics clearly regard globalisation as merely an economic phenomenon involving the increasing interaction or integration of national economic systems as a result of increased international trade, foreign investments, and trans-border capital movement.

However, as a significant and integral part of globalisation, one can also refer to the rapid development in cross-border socio-cultural and technical interchange. In this context, prominent sociologist Anthony Giddens characterised globalisation as the “decoupling of space and time.”[1]

He emphasised that knowledge and culture may be spread globally at the same time through rapid communication.

Rund Lubbers, a Dutch political economist, expressed this view more explicitly when he described globalisation as

Geographic distance is becoming less important in the formation and maintenance of cross-border commercial, political, and sociocultural interactions.[2]

In agreement with the aforementioned authors, David Held and Anthony McGrew made a nuanced attempt to characterise globalisation and its consequences on socio-cultural as well as political structures in their entry for the Oxford Companion to Politics.

They saw globalisation as A process (or series of processes) that represents a change in the geographical organisation of social relations and transactions, manifested as transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and power.[3]

A unifying factor among these experts is their optimism about globalisation. It is, according to them, a worldwide process of changing humanity into a single civilization, or what Marshall McLuhan referred to as the global village.

[4] According to Henry Alapiki, this transformation is frequently followed by an amplification of global social links “which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.”

[5] In fact, Jan Scholte elaborated on this viewpoint when he wrote:

Globalisation refers to the processes by which social relations acquire largely distanceless and borderless characteristics, so that human lives are increasingly played out in the world as a single location…

Globalisation is thus an ongoing trend in which the world has become one relatively borderless social sphere in many ways and at a typically accelerating rate.[6]

While some scholars look at globalisation through the lens of “social relations,” others focus on a more specific economic dimension.

The inclination is to see globalisation as a rapid growth in cross-border socioeconomic exchange under capitalism’s conditions. Prof. Oyejide is a typical representative of this school, stating:

Globalisation refers to the greater integration of markets for products, services, and capital across borders. As a result, global economic activity will accelerate, as will the transfer of tangible and intangible goods across national and regional borders. Individual countries are getting more integrated into the global economy as a result of this tendency.

Their trade and investment links become more complex, and cross-border financial flows become more erratic. More crucially, globalisation was developed and is being sustained through the liberalisation of economic policies in several vital areas.[7]

Anti-globalization schools, on the other hand, see the phenomena as a worldwide push towards universal economic dominance by supranational entities that are not answerable to democratic procedures or national governments. Thus, Aja Akpuru-Aja and A.C. Emeribe argue, from the standpoint of international “political economy,” that:

Globalization’s engineering mechanism remains a revolution in science and technology, particularly as it affects transportation and electro-communication networks. As a result, a global community, a single market system, a global factory, and a global office have been established.

Globalisation has resulted in a grotesque and dangerous polarisation between peoples and countries that benefit from the system and others that are only recipients and reactionaries to its effects.[8]

Against this backdrop, it is reasonable to conclude that globalisation appears to go beyond the ordinary flow of trade or social interactions to perpetrate some type of economic, political, and socio-cultural imperialism. This could imply a kind of donor-recipient polarisation.

In this instance, globalisation cannot be a positive force because it would undoubtedly produce a world of winners and losers. This explains why the consequences for developing countries, particularly those in Africa, look to be hazardous.

However, pro-globalization theorists maintain:

There is rising evidence that global income and poverty inequalities are lessening, and that globalisation has played a significant role in this turnaround…

The rich-poor divide is also narrowing in most Asian and Latin American countries. Countries that are becoming poorer are those that are not open to global trade, most notably many African states.[9]

The core idea is that poor countries that have reduced tariff barriers have increased employment and national GDP.

Following on from this, the World Trade Organisation claims that “trade liberalisation aids poor countries in catching up with rich countries, and that faster economic growth aids in poverty alleviation.”[10]

Simply expressed, Professor Ron Duncan of the Australian National University argued unequivocally that:

Although globalisation may exacerbate inequality in some nations, structural measures can mitigate this. Poverty increases in the poorest countries as a result of their refusal to participate in globalisation.[11]

But are we really to blame Africa’s and other underdeveloped countries’ poverty on their refusal to participate in globalisation? This is certainly not the opinion of certain philosophers, who believe that globalisation is even to blame for the increasing impoverishment and marginalisation of the so-called

“Third World.” The UNDP 1999 Development Report data are the most commonly utilised. According to this analysis, the last decade, the decade of the most intense globalisation, has seen an increase in the concentration of income, resources, and wealth among individuals, corporations, and countries.[12]

Yash Tandon, a Ugandan political scientist, claimed in applying these findings to the African context:

Anyone with any degree of intellectual integrity would see that the globalisation of Africa or the integration of Africa into the global economy from the days of slavery to the current period of capital-led integration has been a disaster for Africa, both in terms of human costs and environmental damage…

It is also indicative of their (World Bank/IMF officials’) intellectual dishonesty or ideological brainwashing that they are unable to grasp the link between globalisation and African poverty.[13]

This judgement is harsh, but it appears to reflect the beliefs of many philosophers. For example, Obiora F. Ike, a theologian and social philosopher, affirms the validity of this judgement when he asks and answers the following question:

“Is globalisation good for Africa’s future?” Absolutely not. I would say that its current shape has widened the divide between Africa and the so-called developed world.”[14]

Thus, Congolese academic Mbaya Kankwenda concludes:

Globalisation has a significant theological and ideological component. In this regard, it is about the globalisation of market fundamentalism and its paradigm, which is nothing more than keeping up with developing countries, and hence Africa, by viewing the continent as an object rather than a subject and partner.[15]

As a result, he sees Africa’s globalisation as a forced insertion into the global community via developmental aid conditions, culminating in harsh economic and political reforms in Africa.

Because it sees humanity as a single family, the Church is undoubtedly not passive to the dialectics of globalisation. As a result, the church concludes in Centesimus Annus:

It is vital to remove the barriers and monopolies that keep so many countries on the periphery of progress and to offer all persons and nations with the fundamental conditions that will allow them to participate in development. No. 35 in Centesimus Annus.[16]

This point of view was articulated by Pope Benedict XVI (when still a cardinal), who stated, “The economic inequality between the northern and southern hemispheres of the globe is becoming more and more an inner threat to the cohesion of the human family.”[17]

The risk of this menace is already manifested in new kinds of terrorism in the international arena, which are both products of and a problem for globalisation.

However, the Church appears to be very positive about the feasibility and benefits of globalisation, owing to the fact that its hazardous tendencies are readily avoided.

Thus, in his 2004 World Day of Peace Message, Pope John Paul II emphasised the basic but very simple premise that must govern all of our globalisation discussions. He claims that

God has called humanity to be a one family, despite its many flaws such as sin, hatred, and violence… This awareness has the potential to provide the world as it is today – characterised by the globalisation process – a soul, purpose, and direction.[18]

As a result, he believes that “globalisation, for all of its risks, also offers exceptional and promising opportunities, precisely with a view to enabling humanity to become a single family, built on the values of justice, equity, and solidarity.”[19]

In this approach, the Church addresses the issue of globalisation and its repercussions on human unity and long-term development.

As the above terms indicate, the Church is particularly concerned about inequities as well as the alienation of individuals and communities from economic and social growth. These appear to sum up Africa’s major issue in the current globalisation process.

To that end, we attempted to highlight several schools of thinking on globalisation and its effects on Africa. They undoubtedly add to our understanding of the phenomenon.

However, it is clear that greater clarification is required for us to understand the existential consequences of the current globalisation process for African sustainable development. This will be our focus in the following chapters.

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EXISTENTIALISM OF JEAN PAUL SARTRE

CHAPITRE ONE

1.1 The Self: An Existential Approach.

Existentialism is more of a philosophical style than a philosophy in and of itself. Thus, existentialists have specific mental patterns that correspond to their existential qualities. As a result, they reject the idea that reality can be neatly wrapped in concept or presented as an interconnected system.

“An inquisitive mode of thought that seeks to master the world in relation to man’s life in it.”1 Among existentialist intellectuals, Jean Paul Sartre, Soren Kierkegaard, and Martin Heidegger left indelible imprints. Their primary philosophical style is based on man rather than nature.

A philosophy of the subject as opposed to the object in general. The existentialists’ agenda is set in motion by William Barrett’s description of existentialism:

A philosophy that faces the human problem in its entirety.

wholeness, to inquire as to what the fundamental human conditions are

what they are and how man might create his own

Meaning can be extracted from these events.2

As a result of the aforementioned, an existential approach to self is not difficult to define.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the founder of modern philosophy was the first to make a dialectical change in the history of thinking, ripping off philosophy from the chains of scholastic ‘theocentricism’ to the modern ‘anthropocentricism’.

He sets out in his famous cogito to establish the “I” as the reference point of existence. As a result, the “I” becomes the beginning and finish “terminus a quo and terminus ad quem” of his ontological status quo. The ‘I’ becomes the subject of thought.

However, John Macmurray made a noteworthy attempt to move the straight points of philosophy from the “abstract thinking subject to more concrete base, in the total, multi-dimensional human experience of involving in a world of affairs.”3

Toeing the same line of argument, the existentialists owe their thought in agreement with John Macmurray’s notion of the self as a ‘actor’ as against the traditional understanding of self as the ‘subject’.

According to him, “the ‘I’ act (the self as agent) replaces the ‘I’ think (the self as subject) as the place where existential philosophy finds its beginning.”4

According to him, thinking is an abstraction from the whole of self as agent. After providing a skeletal picture of the overall notion of the existential self as owed to Macmurray by existentialism, it is highly crucial at this point to X-ray what three front-liners existentialists have as their views on self.

In order to emphasise the intrinsic essence of the existential self, Soren Kierkegaard made an allusion to the concept of the ‘anonymous mob’. According to him, “being in a crowd unmakes one’s nature as an individual self by diluting self.”5

He goes on to say:Crowd is an untruth in and of itself since it renders the individual entirely impenitent and irresponsible, or at the very least undermines his sense of duty, vision, and responsibility by reducing it to a fraction.6

From a different perspective, Martin Heidegger boldly turned nineteenth-century continental philosophy away from traditional concerns about theories and towards the concern of the thinking individual (self). He goes out to discover the true nature of himself as an existing creature.

Fascinated by the being question (Zeins frage), he want to investigate the underlying ontology – the phenomenological investigation of the ‘Dasein’.

“Dasein has a pre-ontological understanding of his own being because being reveals itself gratuitously to him,” he says in his core work of de-structuring the essential components of the Dasein.7

The existential approach to self in Heidegger’s stream of thinking is not difficult to expose, suggesting as it may be, by making serious inquiry into the meaning of existence through reasonable and fundamental questions.

Jean Paul Sartre confronts the subject of self as the only unique Consciousness without discarding his phenomenological foundation. He claims that

The manner in which Consciousnesses exist

is to be aware of itself and to be aware of

His consciousness is correct, as is its law of existence.

defined.8

He also thinks that Consciousness is fully absolute insofar as it is conscious of itself. Being and Nothingness, Sartre’s acclaimed work, proposes an existential definition of self “as the unique individual that is essentially free even though in chains, is a master of his own fate.”9

As a result, he projects the self in accordance with Cartesian thought analysis, as an individual human being seeking apodictic certainty as a referential point of departure.

In Sartrian philosophy, the genuine message of self may not be correctly transmitted until there is a cause to “make a veritable insight into the ontological and epistemological variations, wherein the Cartesian cogito becomes essentially manifested.”10

Without his famous remark “No one speaks from nowhere,” Hans Gadamer would have been lost in the annals of intellectual history; consequently, to speak involves speaking from a specific point of view.

Given this, the subject of self in Sartrian philosophy may not be thoroughly discussed without a reference to his phenomenological background.

1.2 Existentialism:A Phenomenological Background.

In philosophy, the term “phenomenology” has a lengthy history. Immanuel Kant used it occasionally to refer to the study of occurrences or appearances rather than things in and of themselves.

Hegel used the term in his phenomenology of mind to describe the manifestations of the phases of the mind, from perception through forms of awareness to the greatest intellectual spiritual activity. Husserl’s Introduction to Pure Phenomenology was sandwiched between,

concerns about reality and prefers to devise methods

for a thorough and comprehensive overview of several types in

Their true essences.11

A brief intellectual tour through the existentialist milieu reveals that it was Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) who initiated the intellectual relay race in German phenomenology. He is enthralled by the Cartesian cogito and intends to establish the self as the existing actor from a phenomenological foundation.

His unmistakable effect on his predecessors, intellectuals such as Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Jean Paul Sartre, propelled the phenomenological relay race forward. Because existentialism owes its definitive origin to phenomenology, most existentialists are phenomenologists.

While this is not always the case, there is an obvious reality of a tight relationship that has arisen between the two forms of thought. “Phenomenology appears to offer existentialism the kind of methodology required to pursue investigations into human existence,”

the fact is evident.12

Fascinated by Cartesian methodic doubt, Husserl radicalised its premises with some success. Transcendental awareness could no longer be defined as a thinking matter, a’res cogitans,’ but as an action matter. He emphasises in his argument that if consciousness only exists as consciousness of something, Husserl’s interpretation of the methodic doubt suggests that the ‘physical ‘I’ would perish along the way,

“because the ‘I’ presents the character of an object.”13

Phenomenology was created by existentialists for their own purposes. The point of departure between Husserl and existential phenomenologists is not difficult to identify.

The former emphasises essence and treats phenomenology as an apodictic science, whereas the later emphasises existence. Sartre’s argument that ‘existence before essence’ exemplifies the existentialists’ devotion to life. They challenged Kantian dualism in this sense, which assumed some hidden ‘noumena’ of which the ‘phenomena’ is only the manifestation.

Maurice Blondel (1861-1949) argues in his work ‘L’Action’ that “the starting point of philosophy should be sought not in abstract ‘I’ think but in concrete ‘I’ act.”14

To support this claim, existentialists emphasise activity, because only through action does existence achieve accuracy and fullness, according to them. Nothing worthy of the label action will exist when thought, passion, and inward decision are lacking.

Despite the importance existentialists place on action, it does not appear that they are pragmatists. A suitable juxtaposition of the former’s and latter’s differences and similarities takes us to the next sub-heading. Without a doubt, pragmatists and existentialists lay a higher emphasis on man as a deciding agent.

However, while the former sees man as a functional being, the latter approaches him from the perspective of “Homo Viator.” The former emphasises optimism from a utilitarian stance to a larger extent.

They are preoccupied with questions of success in all endeavours, paying little or no regard to the tragic and frustrating aspects of life as described in most existentialist texts.

Berdyaev’s words clearly distinguish the two, notwithstanding how similar the latter may be in certain ways to the former:

They differ from them in that they are more interested in

lies in the ferocity of life, in its tragic ferocity, rather than its

“Outward growth and success.”15

Existentialists accept the obvious circumstances of man’s existence as a fact of life. This is what I intend to reveal in the preceding subheading.

1.3 Facticity Of Existence

A simple examination of this statement reveals two opposing concepts: fact and existence. The ultimate tribunal in philosophy of science is supposed to be facts. As a result, there would be no result if there were no facts. The situation is similar in the fields of law and other subjects.

‘To exist’ from its Latin roots ‘ex-sistere’ means, ‘to stand out’, ‘to emerge’. To ‘lay around’ appears to underline a more modern notion of existence- ontological placement. To exist in this context means to be positioned somewhere in the world, to have a place in the real world.

Martin Heidegger alluded to the concept of ‘Dasein’ while conveying the message of what it means to exist. Jean Paul Sartre investigates the ‘Pour-soi’ for-itself. Above all, what are the facts of existence in the existential mind? Existentialists define ‘Facticity’ as the limiting aspect in existence.

The term was coined to translate the German ‘Faktizitat’ and the French ‘Facticite’. It contrasts with the background of the word factuality, which has to do with the objective state of affairs observed in the world. It is an interior existential consciousness of oneself.

Nobody has made the decision to be. “The loneliness of personality in the universe weighs heavily upon us,” Augustine Farrer says, “it seems terribly improbable that we should exist.”16

Man has had some views or even revelations about his origin and destiny since the beginning of time.

It is not clear whether such assumptions are true or valid. The only certainty we have is that ‘we are’. Where we came from and where we’re headed are both shrouded in mystery.

The conflict between potential and facticity is always present in existence. The radical finitude of human existence is revealed to us via facticity.

Robert Cumming provided a greater understanding of facticity as depicted in Sartre’s philosophy. The “for-itself” is, insofar as it arises in a circumstance that it did not choose, flung into the world and abandoned in a situation.”17

According to Heidegger, facticity means that man finds himself in an unavoidable circumstance. ‘Throwness,’ ‘Geworfenheit’ in Heideggerian thought emphasises the intrinsic significance of facticity to a greater extent. “Being thrown into existence without his prior knowledge, the ‘Dasein’ finds himself in a situation that he did not create.”18

Facticity is a direct reveal of the ‘Dasein’s’ limitations. In one example, the ‘Dasein’ realises that some things are beyond his control, something he cannot change even if he wanted to.

Certain variables project unavoidable existential crises. Death, Temporality, Guilt, and Alienation tend to summarise life’s unavoidable aspects. Death, as Heidegger correctly states, is the possibility of the impossibility of existence.

Heidegger is one of the existentialists who never avoided the subject of death. Only upon death could the ‘Dasein’ be properly defined. He regards death as the final possibility, the impossibility of any further potential. Man’s nature as a time-bound being is redefined in temporality. Man, as a temporal being, must pass away.

One of the most devastating features of finitude is the transience of human life. Whatever the circumstance may be, man must be a client of the tribunal of birth and death.

Existentialists, as opposed to pragmatists, may appear pessimistic, yet they have never failed to recognise the evident fact of disorder in human existence. As a result, man feels guilty and often estranged from the world around him.

Karl Marx identified alienation as a feature of revolutionary changes in man’s material position. From an existential standpoint, alienation suggests that one is trapped in an unauthentic existence.

Without facticity, Robert Cumming asserts that “consciousness would choose its attachment to the world in the same way that souls in Plato’s republic choose their condition.”19

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