Philosophy and the Challenge of Development in Africa (original) (raw)

Abstract Most conceptions of philosophy are convergent on the view that philosophy is a reflective enterprise and inquiry, giving the impression that philosophy is basically a theoretical endeavour. However, there is another possible interpretation that philosophy is not just an inquiry; it is also a task and as both (task and inquiry), it renders philosophy as a tool essential to the crucial quest of development. In this sense, this discourse engages the notion of development as social progress and addresses the challenges that beset development specifically in Africa, responding to the preconceived notion that literacy, colonialism, slavery, values of co-existence as well as the intricacies of institutional ideologies and arrangements are the factors that impedes the development of the African continent as a whole. Furthermore, effort is made to emphasize that an inevitable challenge to development in post- independent/colonial Africa is the crisis of worldviews, which leads to concrete consequences like war fare, terrorism, insurgency and ethnic-religious bigotry. In lieu of this, the work argues that addressing these factors from a philosophical angle would aid a fundamental integrative response to the challenge of development in Africa.