PHILOSOPHY AND ITS CONCERNS WITH

OTHER DISCIPLINES

Introduction

The Nature of Philosophy

Philosophy is an academic discipline in which all ideas are

subjected to critical interrogation.It is done through the

asking of questions, in the search for understanding, about

human beings and their relationship to the world around,

and about the universe in which we have found ourselves.

Asking questions lead to the production of rational answers

in an attempt to provide glides to how one should perceive

and relate to the phenomena one engages in the world.

Philosophy is a rational inquiry into the fundamentals.It

questions and provides answers regarding the basis and

foundations of phenomena around us and the universe we

inhere in.

In undertaking the rational inquiry,philosophy requires

us to box our prejudices.And there are a lot of them:religion,

which sets certain limits on what can be questioned or not;

ideologies,which shapes our persectives about our outlook to the world;ethnicity or

race,which constrain how we

perceive others;emotion, which reveals our predisposition

to things;and even education,which has given us some

orientation and views of life.

There is no limit to what the subject-matter of Philosophy

can be.It raises questions about celestial beings;wondering

about the origin and possibility of their existence,the

relationship among them,and their relationship to the

universe and terrestrial beings.Questions are raised about

all facets ofhuman life and endeavpurs,about our relationship to the world around us,and
about our destiny and purpose here on earth and in the hereafter.Philosophy concerns
itself

with the origin,the nature,and the problems confronting

our knowledge claims.“Why should Ibe moral? How should

I conduct myself, in the workplace,in society,in relation to

other living things and the environment? “are questions raised

and answered in Philosophy.There is also concerns with rules

guiding our thought process in order to guard against

fallacies.

Finally, philosophy is also concerned with the theoretical

basis of other branches of knowledge.Thus,branches of

Philosophy like Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Science,

Philosophy of Education, Philosophy of the Social Sciences,

Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Culture, Philosophy of

Art, Philosophy of Language, among other philosophies of....

which are categorized under Philosophy as a second order

discipline undertake critical inquiries into the nature,the

assumptions, the methods and implications of these other

academic disciplines.

Philosophy's Interest in Other Disciplines

Before we delve fully into the subject-matter of this work

which centres on how philosophy interrogates science,it is

important that we consider,briefly from a broader

perspective,why philosophy is interested in other disciplines.

It is characteristic of the history of philosophy that new

branches of the subject are created in response to intellectual

developments both inside and outside of philosophy.!

Philosophy has,since its inception in ancient Greece,

metamorphosed from a discipline which deals with

fundamental issues of reality and existence,knowledge,

human conduct and thought into a discipline which not only

deals with these afore-mentioned issues to a discipline that

had to grapple yith many other issues like politics,law,

religion,science,education,social science,and others.J.0.

Sodipo,in this vein,conceives philosophy as "reflective and

critical thinking about the concepts and principles which we

use to organise our experience in morals,religion,in social

and political life,in law,in history, and the natiral sciences."2

Olusegun Oladipo makes the same point in the following

words,

“in addition to their role in the examination of the

ideas, values and principles which societies, and

even individuals,live by, philosophers also

investigate the theoretical foundations of other

disciplines, just as they raise issues about the

plausibility of certain forms of explanations in

these disciplines. This is the basis of the existence

of branches of philosophy, such as:philosophy of science, philosophy of the social
sciences,

philosophy of religion, philosophy of education, and so on."

“An unexamined life, “says Socrates. "It is not worth living."

In the light of this, philosophy provides the essential

conceptual and analytic tools for the examination of these

other disciplines in order for them to realize their essence.

Philosophyis interested in other disciplines in order to ensure

that dialogues exist between philosophy and other disciplines

so that the practitioners of those other disciplines remain

faithful to the essence of the disciplines in their original

conception." The interest that philosophy has in the

interrogation of other disciplines has given rise to branches

of philosophy in the second order enterprise like:philosophy

of law,philosophy of education,philosophy of social sciences,

and philosophy of science,among others.Apart from these,

the field of ethics, a subfield inphilosophy has been

instrumental in beaming its searchlight on other disciplines

to ensure that the practices of these discilines conform to

certain moral norms.We have,for instance, medical ethics,

which focuses on certain noral issues which arise in medicine

as a discipline.

In the case of Africa, there is an additional reason why

philosophy needs to be involved in other disciplines and itis

to ensure that ideological underpinnings of theories generated

in other disciplines are properly examined in order to separate

bad ideology from good ideology.As Olusegun Oladipo says:

another aspect of the critique of ideology which

African philosophers should not neglect is the critical cngagement with other academic

disciplines,whether in the social sciences,the

humanities or even the natural sciences,as a way

of exposing the ideological underpinnings of

received,usually moribund, thcoretical models

or research programmes which are dominant in

African academic establishments....This kind of

critique shoullbe pursued more vigorously,given

the widespread tendency in African academic

establishments to regard received theoretical:;

models or research programmes as ready-made

tools which can only be applied, not examined.”

The philosopher must thus become critical of views

presenting degrading misconceptions of Africa. Helen Lauer

has, for instance,criticised the false ideology of incapacity,

which presents economic rehabilitation programmes based

on the idea that Africa is a deficient continent. This she says

presupposed a notion of economic maturity that connotes a

unidirectional, asymmetric process of development according

to fixed criteria of civilisation,which measures social

progress by how a society approximates to the European

ideal of cultural sophistication known as modernity even

though the European model is not the only ideal operating

model in the world.

Philosophy's Concerns with the Discipline of Science

Philosophy may be defined as an intellectual endeavour,

subjecting to rigorous examination the basic or fundamental

assumptions and/or issues of life.Philosophyinvolves critical

reflection on any issue of life in particular, or life itself in general, in an attempt to have a
deeper understanding of

what it is all about: whether it is meaningful or meaningless,

whether it is the truth or not the truth and whether it is real

or just mere appearances. As such, it is that discipline that

engages its subject matter, whatever it may be, in whatever

field of knowledge, or areas of existence, by being critical,

analytical, logical,argumentative,reflective,rational, and

normative. These features of philosophy, in some ways, have

some effects on how philosophy interrogates science. Let us

consider a few.

Right from inception, philosophy as a discipline "refers

to attempts on the part of serious thinkers to get at the basis

of things. Not the superficial, trivial detail, but the underlying

fundamentals."7 The questioning of the fundamental

assumption of life, therefore, constitutes the main essence of

philosophy. In this regard,GM. Presbey,K.J. Struhl, and

R.E.Olsen,have rightly held that:

“whereas practitioners of a religion or citizens of

a state may take for granted the validity of the

assumptions of their belief system, philosophers

go to the "roof"ofideas by clarifying,questioning

and evaluating our most basic assumptions.

Often, this challenge to accept norms and ideas

can lead to views that are at odds with one's

culture....Philosophy is, in short, a radical

critical inquiry into the fundamental assumptions

of any field of inquiry [idea,concept,belief]:

including itself.

Philosophy achieves this through probing criticism.

According to H.S.Staniland,a person is engaged in

philosophizing if the person is engaged in a train of thought

whose ultimate purpose is the criticism of certain vitally

important ideas. This opinion of Staniland,which defines

philosophy as the criticism of the ideas we live by, rightly

places the activity of criticism as an essential activity in the

act ofphilosophising.Philosophyis a critical discipline.“An

exercise is critical if and only ifit avoids any kind of dogma

however trivial.'10 In philosop1y, we achieve our aim“by

probing criticism-letting loose our entire intellectual activity

in the consideration of a problem and pursuing oir enquiry

with a preparedness to abandon our most cherished beliefs if

reason demands that we so do."

Philosophy as a discipline criticises received opinions-it

is critical of views internal to its field of study and at the

same time critical of views expressed in other fields of study.

This criticalnature of philosophy is directed at making clear

all ideas in order to avoid the esoteric and the mystical, and

in order to provide justification where necessary,or refutation

as the case may demand in certain cases,for all beliefs and

knowledge claims. In this regard,K.A.Owolabi posits that

“"philosophy, by its very nature avoids those ideas that are

mysterious, dogmatic and complicated. It is true that

philosophy mingles witn religion and science. But not for

the purpose of adopting their subjects and methodology. But

for the simple reason of supplying rational arguments for the

justification or rejection of those aspects that deserve either

acceptance or rejection." philosophy is therefore interested,

as a second order enterprise, in criticising and justifying the grounds of the knowledge
claims made in other disciplines

It is interested in interrogating how knowledge is acquired

andjustified in these other areas. In relation to the discipline

of science, philosophy is interested in the evaluation of

scientific claims and or knowledge. Philosophy saddles itself

with this responsibility because the philosophic spirit"leaves

no valuations and aspirations unexamined and no piece of

knowledge isolated; it seeks the grounds for the validity of

whatever is valid.”

Another defining feature of philosophy, apart from

criticism, is skepticism line with its sceptical nature,

philosophy challenges science's knowledge claims and

demands that we be not easily satisfie1 with simple or

superficial scientific evidence. It demands that there is need

to cast doubt on scientific claims and that unless certain

criteria are met,we should deny such claims. The reason

why philosophy makes this demand is because science relies

heavily on sense experience for its claims, which is

unfortunately prone to error. We do know.from experience,

for instance, that our senses are, in some cases,deceitful or

unreliable. And inasmuch as this is true, we are cautioned in

relying on them for predicting the future or even for knowing

the nature of reality. Furthermore, since change is the one

constant thing in nature,scientific claims,knowledge,and

theories can only at best be temporary. They are susceptible

to change.

In fact,change is one thing that characterises science

because scientists in their efforts to provide a better

understanding of nature constantly attempt to make new

discoveries and develop new.concepts, laws,theories, that better enhance our

understanding of natural phenomena.In

doing this,scientists attempt to dislodge or modify old

explanatory models by causing paradigm shift.Of a truth

then,“"the precision and the reliability of mathematics and

the experimental sciences seem to make these the definitive

types of knowledge,"says Rosen,“even though it would be

difficultto say that such knowledge is unchangeable." Derry

therefore rightlyposits,"this body of scientific results changes

from year to year, and may sometimes be unrecognisable

from one generation to another."

The change that we witness about scientific discoveries

is in tandem with what is witnessed in scholarship as a whole.

As Oladipo puts it, the changes witnessed in science is in

line with the fact that “the ideas and ideals-core aspects of

world-views-we live by are best regarded as tentative guides,

which can be re-examined from time to time in the light of

new knowledge or information and our understanding of our

socio-cultural condition and its existential demands at any

given time." Given the fact that the specialised knowledge

possessed by the scientist is highly fallible leading to a

situation in which today's scientific knowledge may turn out

to have been today's scientific error,philosophy needs to

scrutinize the claims in the sciences in order to eliminate those erroneous beliefs

Furthermore, given the fact that there is a distinction

between appearance and reality, there is cause for the

philosopher to question the scientist as to whether the later

had really dealt with reality of a phenomenon in itself or its

appearance. Moreover,since the knowledge expressed in

science is a tentative expression of and partial understanding of the events and natural
phenomena in our world, these

expressions inevitably have their weaknesses and strengths.

It is the task of philosophy to expose the weaknesses and,if

possible,further help in strengthening the area of strength.

Although it appears that science and philosophy are

diametrically opposed, the truth is that they are not.The aim of

any discipline is the promotion of the human welfare or the

improvement of the conditions of human existence. No

discipline is an end in itself.This is so because as Olusegun

Oladipo rightly posits:

“the scholar is an amember of society. This society

maintains a certain kind of environment-a socio-

political order,for example-within which he

could exercise his rights and perform his duties

as a citizen. It also guarantees for him certain

minimum conditions without which he can not

perform,at least with a certain amount of self-

assurance, his activities as a scholar. But society

does not invest in the scholar simply in fulfillment

of an abstract social duty.Rather,it is expected

that he will reciprocate by making his returns to

the society,by serving or preserving in various

ways the human interests of the community to

which he belongs.The scholar, in electing to

belong to the human community under whose

ambiencc he conducts this activities accepts,even

if tacitly,this duty.Indeed, the mere fact that he

makes demands on this community in the

fulfillment of his intellectual aspirations commits

him to it.”

Apart from the fact that the scholar makes demands on

the society,his pursuit is social also because,"it is a product

of our interaction with nature and one another. It has its

origin in the intellectual and practical needs of society and

the individuals and groups comprising it. Scholarship's

primary goal is to exterid the scope of human knowledge as

a way of enhancing the ability of human beings to cope with

their environment both in its physical and social

dimensions."

As Olusegun Oladipo holds’ “two things are required of

genuine philosopher... These are insight and commitment

to hulan well-being. In other words,the philosopher is

expected to promote a better understanding of the human

condition,as a means of enhancing the human capacity to

cope with the challenges of life." He further holds that

"Philosophy matters, and human beings in any society need it

because it can provide some guides to life, which is capable

of making human existence less painful and more tolerable."

This,obviously,is the goal of science in some waytoo.Apart

from the immediate goal of discovering laws of nature in

order to predict future occurrences,the ultimate goal of

iscience is directed at ensuring that the living conditions of

humans and animals are improved upon.It is a discipline that

started as a result of the realisation of the need to overcome

elements of nature with which humans interact and which

impose certain constraints/obstacles on the ability of humans

its fully realize their goals and fulfill their aspirations. The

scientist,hence,has a social responsibility.

Apart from the fact that they(should,at least)share the

same ultimate goals,philosophy and science begin in wonder,

“"philosophy begins in wonder, the sources of which can not

be exhaustively cataloged, for they are as many as the whole

gamut of human experience." Philosophy began in wonder

out of the agitation of having a better understanding of the

universe,its components, and occupants.In like manner,

scientific discoveries are products of wonder. Moreover,

“science and philosophy begin when ideas about the origin

and the nature of the universe are decoupled from myth and

religion and treated as theories to be argued about:that is,

compared with(and perhaps supplanted by) competing

theories."

However,although they share something in common

which is the promotion of the commitment to human

wellbeing-it can still be averred that philosophy is interested

in science in order to rein in the excesses of science.Science

ought to look to philosophy,in one form or anotner,not

simply forjustification of its achievements or immense power

but for insight into its legitimate purpose and its wise

limitations.) Like a mother that keeps its children in check

philosophy stimulates rich discourses about the values that

ought to guide the discipline of science so that the discipline

can indeed realise the highest good for humanity. To

understand the importance of this interest of philosophy we

should just evaluate the threat that unbridled development

in science has contributed to environmental crisis in our world

today,availability of weapons of mass destruction which

increasingly make chaos,calamity, and destruction to stare humanity in the face.Olu-

Owolabi concludes on this issue

that:

"With the feats of science in the modern age,

scientific enterprise is allowed to have a field day

and the philosophical wisdom that ought to be

the guiding and directing force is therefore sent

out of the arena of performance....This is the

situation of things today. Science is the

performing dog; philosophy is the guardian

police. There is the need to bring in the

philosoohical enterprise, with its attendant wisdom

to temper the excesses of sciences."

In the interrogation that philosophy has with science,

philosophers are interested in knowing whether the main goal

of science can be realised.Science has as its main goal the

discoveries of immutable laws of nature through a definite

method or set of methods. The philosopher wants to know if

indeed, this is attainable. The philosopher of science is also

interested in much more as captured by the words of K.A.

Olu-Owolabi:

"philosophy of science is about the dialogue

between philosophy and scientific activities.It

involves the critical reflection and analysis of the

practice of science in order to ensure that certain

normative standards of the discipline are

sustained.It involves the discussion of the means

and the end of scientific ventures.It strives to

know the nature of the methodology employed

by the sciences, the focus and content of the

enterprise,whether or not the knowledge being produced is making humans the end or
merely a

means to an end.It is important for any knowledge

production to avoid the temptation of practicing

its trade with arrogance and self-importance,

believing that it is more important than the

humanity that it ought to serve at all times.

Philosophy of Science,in a nutshell,is a critical

analysis of the entire practice of science, in order

to ensure that the activities remain humane,

ethical and knowledge production is

appropriately designed and executed such that

objectivity is maintained at all times,and the

knowledge is accessible to all humans."

But then what is this thing called science? And why is it

so prominent and important to us in this age? In fact,the

idea of modemityis majorly defined by the extent to which a

society has imbibed the principles and methodological

approach of science to issues; be iteconomic,social,political,

psychological, medical, and any facets of human interaction

with nature.