FOUR STANDARD FORM CATEGORICAL PROPOSITIONS Categorical propositions tell us about the relationship between classes. They tell us whether a particular class is included in another class or it is excluded from it, wholly or partially. A class is a collection of objects with the same features(s) or characteristic(s). So, there is hardly an object that does not belong to a class. For instance we have the class of chairs, men, dogs, lions, eagles, lizards, etc. In addition, we should note that while a given class excludes members of another class, it can also be a part of a larger class. We have ..read more

AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY By: Sylvester I. ODIA INTRODUCTION The existence of African Philosophy is no more a subject for debate in contemporary times. African philosophers are currently involved in doing African Philosophy using various methods and approaches. In this section on African Philosophy, I do not intend to overflog the whole issue of whether or not Africa has a philosophy. I intend to present what African Philosophy is, some recent works done on the History of African Philosophy, the whole issue of relevance of African Philosophy and the African Philosopher to the contemporary African. W ..read more

PHILOSOPHY OF LAW By: Peter OMONZEJELE This is the use of Philosophy in critically evaluating the principles of Law. The first question that comes to the mind of the Philosopher is that asked by Dennis Lloyd: Is Law necessary? According to D. Lloyd this may seem a simple perhaps unnecessary question but on further reflection, one may see the reason(s) for the question. He puts it as follows: …The feeling that law inherently is or should be necessary for man in a properly ordered society receives little encouragement for the long succession of leading Western philosophers from Plato to Karl ..read more

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY   By: Peter OMONZEJELE Political Philosophy is a second-order discipline to Political science. There is the need to clarify the difference between Political Science and Political Philosophy. The Political scientist would ask questions such as: What is authority, democracy and sovereignty etc in empirical terms? The Political philosopher is interested in the conceptual clarification of authority, democracy, and sovereignty, etc, and how structures of governance ought to be administered. Otakpor illustrates this difference as follows: While the political scientist, for ..read more

PHILOSOPHY AS A SECOND ORDER DISCIPLINE By: Peter OMONZEJELE INTRODUCTION The role of Philosophy as a second order discipline is to critically evaluate the concepts, methods, etc, or other academic disciplines. The effort is not primarily to detect the shortcomings and problems inherent in the methodologies and practices of such disciplines. It is actually to improve their overall practices and check any possible excesses. Philosophy can play a second order role to almost any discipline, hence we ave areas in Philosophy such as: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Soc ..read more

Axiology and Logic as other Branches of Philosophy AXIOLOGY This is the study of values: the good (ethics) and the beautiful (aesthetic). Ethics is from the Greek work ‘Ethika,’ meaning ‘manners.’ It changed its meaning in English (in the 17th century) to the study of Science of moral, or more widely, the Science of human duties of all kinds including moral, legal and political duties. As a branch of Philosophy, Ethics is the study of theories about the intellectual origins and justification of moral codes and of morality in general. Axiology is interested in knowing whether values are inhere ..read more

EPISTEMOLOGY People often disagree over many issues in religion, politics  ethics, sociocultural and so on. This then raises the fundamental question “what can I know?” The branch of Philosophy that treats knowledge claims in general is known as Epistemology. Etymologically, Epistemology, is frk  two Greek words: “Episteme”, meaning ” knowledge” and “logos”, meaning ” thought” or “reason”. Literally Epistemology is the study of the thought or reason of knowledge. However, it is often defined as theory of knowledge. Lacey defines it as an enquiry into the nature and ground of experie ..read more

By: Sylvester I. Odia INTRODUCTION Philosophy as a discipline, has four main branches. They are: Metaphysics, Epistemology, Axiology, and Logic. Here Philosophy is, as it were, at home trying to solve problems and resolve puzzles that can be said to be philosophical in nature. Some of the problems it solves and the puzzles it resolves are unique to it. While some others are not and are left to other disciplines. In this chapter, we shall examine the nature of the main branches of Philosophy, and the problems each branch seeks to solve. METAPHYSICS Andronicus of Rhodes, a disciple of Aristotle ..read more

    Philosophy like any other discipline has a history, one that is rich, illustrious and interesting. Generally, there seems to be many reasons behind the historical approach to any field.     Mankind and the visible world are the products of the past in terms of e.g. genealogy, paleontology, astronomy, etc. The world did not start today and so the enquiring mind seeks to know the where, why of the beginning and the end of things. The answers to these questions cannot be satisfactorily given without reference to the past.     A lot of scientific analysis is done ..read more

E. PHILOSOPHY AS FOUNDATION OF OTHER DISCIPLINES This definition sees Philosophy as the only Science, which is the science of itself as well as the science if other sciences. It is, so to speak, the mother of all disciplines. Originally, Scientific Cognition was identified with Philosophical Cognition. Over the course of time, the tree of the Philosophical Cognition of reality sowed its sedss, and from them arose the contemporary forest if vibrantly growing science. Philosophy therefore is the highest of all branches of Human Knowledge and is in the true sense, wisdom. The other disciplines ..read more