Abstract
The main theme of this term paper is on the Philosophy and International Development. The term “development” in international parlance encompasses the need and the means by which nations provide better lives for their people. Development here includes not only economic growth, although that is crucial, but more importantly, the human development. Through this effort, health, nutrition, education, clean environment, etc, are provided. The basic attraction associated with the concept of development has boosted interest and aspiration of well meaning people, and civilized nations towards human development.
INTRODUCTION
The word philosophy comes from two Greek words “Philo” and “Sophia” meaning to love and wisdom respectively. Therefore, philosophy is the love. In the same way with this meaning of philosophy, a philosopher is or should be a lover of wisdom. Wisdom in this case does not imply the acquisition of facts or information for the sake of dispelling general ignorance.
In the view of Udoidem (2017), philosophy as the love of wisdom is the irresistible desire to search for fundamental or universal principle of all things. According to him, philosophic wisdom is the insatiable rational quest for truth and understanding of reality in totality as well as the application of such discoveries to the perennial problems of human existence.
Philosophy remains an important discipline in our global economy today. It is a truism that the contemporary Nigeria is a product of what the colonialist handed over to Nigerian political elites on Independence Day, October 1st, 1960. It was a government that was born in a state of uncertainty. It was soon to manifest in a bloody civil war which nobody prays to witness ever again. Today people talk about the various ways of achieving development of which philosophy is one of such.
National development on the other hand has various definitions which is seen by different people. The issue of national development has always been a subject of great concern to both developed and developing nations of the world. As a result of its importance to the socio-economic and political wellbeing of its citizens, no nation has ever failed to place her overall development on the front burner of her policies and programs. These policies and programs are expected to touch every facet of societal needs and aspirations in term of material and human resources development.
It is known that development in any society starts with its human elements which develop the material resources. The development of human resources cannot be devoid of education in all its ramifications. For this reason, every nation has the development of its human and material resources as her greatest priority usually develop a blue print of how they can go about to achieve her goals and objectives.
THE CONCEPT OF PHILOSOPHY
The intellectual endeavour of various schools of thought to understand the term “philosophy” has never been an easy task. According to Akinpelu (2005) Plato (427 BC-347 BC) and other disciples of Socrates (470 BC-399 BC) corroborated in their writing that, “Socrates preferred not to call his students wise men”. He rather called them by a more modest and apropos title, namely: “lovers of wisdom.” This lends much credence to the etymology of the word “philosophy”, which is coined from two Greek words: Philo (love) and Sophia (wisdom or knowledge). The combination of the two Greek words resulted in the term, Philosophia, meaning love of wisdom. Philosophic wisdom is an intellectual engagement which enables a man, to a large extent assess his ideals as well as his life aspirations. It makes him understand the rationale for accepting certain ideals in life and why he ought to accept them in the first place.
THE CONCEPT OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Philologically, development is multi-dimensional in its meaning. It has economic, social, political, cultural, human or personal dimensions. Babarinde and Farayola (2005) highlighted that, development involves increase in the quality and quantity of life of a people. It includes gradual removal of poverty, unemployment, social inequalities, bad leadership, monopolization of opinion by the government, and of the negative practices which unfortunately have become the major characteristics of human society. This view presents development as being both qualitative and quantitative.
However, the term development could be used interchangeably with evolution depending on the context in which it is being used, either positively or negatively to refer to situations, trends or issues.
Ordinarily, development means “man’s effort to make necessary impact on nature, his environment and on himself with view to transforming an improving himself and his environment” (Nwafor,2006). It is therefore clear that development and improvement are synonymous. When something has been made to wear a new look from what it was before, we can say that development has taken place.
Development in a wider context deals with the socio-economic and political life of the society, it connotes the fulfilment, realization and actualization of goals and objectives, hopes and aspirations of that society. The process of actualization begins when a society recognizes its inadequacies and sets goals for itself and make deliberate efforts to remedy the perceived deficiencies in order to attain desired goals (Nwafor,2006). Consequently, all forms of development have to some extent a reasonable dose of educational process. For that reason, the development of the intellectual frontiers of the individual cannot be left untouched. By extension therefore, the development of the individual’s intellectual capacity and capability empowers one socially, economically and politically; thereby giving him not only a sense of self fulfilment, but also a sense of belonging and commitment to the overall development of the society.
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY TO INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Philosophy is a living subject and it begins with the unknown and known. It is a sine qua non to human development in the sense that it makes us responsible for every actions we take. Development entails advancement and it could be reached through philosophy. Philosophy embraces all facts of life and deals with change and permanence. It lays down rules and regulations which are meant to be followed in other to achieve the desired goal.
According to Plato’s social and political philosophy published in his book entitled The Republic, he emphasizes “unless philosophers are kings or kings are made philosophers”, that is when an ideal state could be reached while the contrary is a vice. Consequently, one can deduce from Plato’s assertion that philosophy is the means to development be it human development or national development.
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