15. HUMAN EXISTENCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY
Gabriel C. Otegbulu
Humanities Unit, School of General Studies,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Abstract
Often times, scholars tend to isolate the importance of philosophy in offering meaning to the nature of human existence which when understood helps to foster sustainable development. They fail to understand that philosophy seeks to clarify and offer meaning to human existence and reality. Indeed, philosophy tries to reflect on the nature of truth and knowledge and this helps to add value and meaning to human life. As a speculative science that arose from wonder, curiosity and the desire to know, philosophy provides us with the tool for analysing, critiquing and interpreting the nature of human existence and issues bordering on development. This paper seeks to address the importance of using the tool of philosophy in offering meaning to human existence and sustainable development. The paper also examines how philosophy, as a branch of humanities, helps to unravel the nature of human existence. It explores how the understanding of human existence, using philosophy as a tool, creates a pathway for sustainable development. A combination of expository, analytic and evaluative methods will be employed. In this paper, the researcher argues that without philosophy, human existence will be meaningless and, as a result, holistic development will almost be impossible.
Keywords: Philosophy, Human Existence, Development, Sustainable Development