Being Qua Belongingness: The Provenance and Implications of Pantaleon’s Concept of Being

Abstract

The earliest definitions of being from the Ancient Philosophers, through the Scholastics to Descartes and Kant as that which exist, have for Pantaleon Iroegbu remained abstract and unsubstantive. Although they have answered the question of what being is, Pantaleon argues that they are yet to answer the question of what being is substantively. He believes that philosophy have not advanced in the quest for a satisfactory and substantive relevant input to this philosophically fundamental question. To define being substantively, he engaged in a philosophical process, deriving its strength from Igbo ontology, that defined being as belongingness. This piece examines Pantaleon’s concept of being as belongingness. The researcher also explores the four Pantaleonine analytic connotations of belongingness, as well as its political, social, economic and ethical implications.

Keywords: Being, belongingness, Igbo, ontology, implications, Pantaleon

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 9(3), 227-234, 2012