Philosophical Thinking and the Concept of Security in the Contemporary African Society

Abstract

The paper seeks to unpack the essentially contested concept of security, exposing its deep philosophical bases, for a better understanding of the concept by theorists involved in its interrogation. Relying on analytic and reflectively interrogative methods of social inquiry, the study has two inter-related objectives. First, it attempts to raise philosophically fundamental questions that border on the metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and logic of security, which frame the underpinnings of the concept. Second, the study attempts to connect those philosophically fundamental questions to the praxis, practically showing how either security deficit or gain could be promoted, depending on the answers supplied to the philosophically fundamental questions, in the contemporary African society. Drawing on the latter, the problem statement of the study is that there is substantial security deficit in the contemporary African society because the philosophically fundamental questions involved in the concept of security have not been seriously considered and conscientiously addressed. The study concludes that it is when the issues framed in the questions are addressed that one would know what security truly is and the best practice for its promotion.

Key words: Africa, Concept, Contemporary, Philosophy, Security, Society