A Trilogy of Philosophy, Language and National Development

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the ascendancy of science and technology in world culture and the slow pace of invention of indigenous science and technology, the humanities are harangued and challenged to show their relevance to national development. The challenge is made all the more biting because the apologists of the idea of the pre-eminence or priority of science and technology take national development to be synonymous with economic productivity. This paper responds to such cynical and disdainful query on the relevance of the humanities to national development. In doing so , this paper employs the logical and analytical methods of philosophy in critiquing such a warped view of national development and goes on to posit that national development is a composite of a people’s culture, science and technology, politics ,governance and economics among other aspects. Against this broad canvass of national development, it is argued that man is the centre-piece of national development and, since the humanities play a leading role in the cultivation of man, no national development paradigm can be conceived and executed without the humanities, especially philosophy and language, coming into the bargain. Thus, the paper develops what it calls the dynamics of the trilogy of philosophy, language and national development and concludes, based on such dynamics, that the neglect and marginalization of the humanities in a country’s national development program leads to the atrophy of a people’s values and a fortiori to the degradation of our humanity.