8. SUPREMACY OF THE ARTS/HUMANITIES OVER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Ncha Gabriel Bubu, Ph. D – Department of Philosophy
University of Calabar, Calabar.
Email: nchagabriel@gmail.com
&
Kidzu Thomas Oweh, Ph. D – Department of Philosophy
Federal University, Wukari,
Taraba State.
Email: KidzuthomasOweh@gmail.com
Abstract
The question is: Can the Arts/Humanities bake bread as Science and Technology? The peripheral nature of the Arts/Humanities in terms of the economic, scientific, managerial and technological development of nations is occasioned by human greed subsumed in knowledge-misplacement of experience over reason. The work adopts the method of philosophy, preferably that of philosophical dialectics imbued with analysis. Research findings revealed that the Arts/Humanities maintain prima-facie position in all aspects of human epistemic projections, notwithstanding the epistemic bias for science and technology. While science and technology have advanced in the direction of wider acceptance and rich public prestige and publicity, there remain questions which the computer (technology) cannot answer even with the vast technological advancement. Humankind has achieved a lot more with the computer, yet it cannot effect a psychological treatment of the human mind. This shows that technology is deficient in some areas. Science has greatly advanced in terms of invention/discovery; but it has not been able to discover the abstract nature of God, death, hunger and destruction or even explain explanation as Kant would say. Where science and technology stop, the Arts/Humanities take off. That is the cutting edge between the Arts/Humanities over Science and Technology in national development.
Keywords: Arts, Humanities, National development, Science, Supremacy, Technology.