Having discussed the value of philosophy to the individual who studies, we shall in this article examine the value of philosophy to other disciplines such as law, education, religion and business.
In time past, all humans’ information of the world and of themselves was grouped under philosophy. As this body of knowledge expanded, however, it was broken down and specific disciplines took their root from there.
This is how medicine, physics, biology, sociology, psychology, law and the likes gained their divorce from philosophy and philosophy came to be known as the mother of all disciplines.
This
idea was aptly expressed by Descartes, who compared philosophy to a tree with
metaphysics as its roots, physics as its trunk and all the other sciences
comprised in the three main disciplines of medicine, mechanics and ethics as
its branches.
Another reason why philosophy is described as the mother of all disciplines is because no theory in science, art, socio-political or any other discipline performs the highest role of creating a worldview and methodology.
This is an area to which philosophy is specifically privileged as it deals not only with the relationships between humans and the universe, but also with principles, categories and laws, revealing the place of humans in the world and their relation to the world.
For this reason, the notions of worldview and
methodology are not parts but functions of philosophy.
Harry
Schofield’s narration of how Philosophy came to be known as the mother of all
disciplines is a little more interesting. He noted that, at different times,
Philosophy brought forth offspring. These were called science, theology,
history, mathematics and each of these ‘children of philosophy’ gathered a store
of knowledge of his own.
Ultimately,
when their store of knowledge was great, Philosophy called her children to her
and asked them to show her what knowledge they had discovered.
Being
older, and wiser than her children, she was able to derive great meaning from
what knowledge each provided. She herself acquired no factual knowledge, but,
by putting side-by-side all the knowledge that her children brought to her, she
was able to develop an overall understanding of all the variables.
Sometimes
there were gaps in the overall pattern.
On
such occasions, Philosophy did not produce knowledge of her own or criticize
her offspring for providing her with insufficient information. Instead, she
made suggestions that would fill in the gaps and interpretations that would
provide greater coherence in the picture.
By
the end of this article, you would be able to discuss the value of philosophy
to law, Enumerate the relevance of philosophy to education, explain the value
of philosophy to religion and identify the importance of philosophy to
business.
Value of Philosophy to Law
There are many distinctions between ethics and laws. Ethics comes from people’s awareness of what is right and what is wrong while laws are written and approved by governments.
It means that ethics may vary from people to people
because different people may have different opinions on a certain issue, but
laws describe clearly, what is illegal no matter what people think.
To
some extent, just like philosophy, the definition of ethics is not conclusive
but laws are defined and precise. An action can be legal, but morally wrong.
For example, the racial discrimination of apartheid South Africa was backed by
law and was considered to be legally right but at the same time, it was
immoral.
In
the same way, mercy killing may be illegal in certain countries but considered
moral given certain conditions. Some of the ways philosophy is relevant to law
are:
1. Philosophy will help a
Lawyer to Reason Clearly: The value of philosophy to the lawyer
cannot be over emphasized. Philosophy will help him or her to reason clearly,
express him or herself precisely and to put his or her thoughts across to the
audience firmly. Philosophy will teach the lawyer how to detect bad argument
and identify the fallacies in it.
Philosophy
makes a lawyer to notice the difference between a true statement and a false
one, a validity argument and an invalidity one as well as a sound argument and
an unsound one.
It
is not enough for a lawyer to master the facts of his case and the laws backing
it, it is also important for him to present his argument in a logical manner.
This is where philosophy comes in to assist him to achieve his professional
responsibilities.
2. Philosophy acts as
Gadfly to the Enterprise of Law: Philosophy focuses on the
analysis of the concept, purpose and meaning of law, and the validity and
morality of such laws. It is part of the vocation of the sub-discipline of
philosophy called philosophy of law to investigate the boundaries and limits of
laws and the need to have a good understanding of the relationship between law
and other bodies of norms.
Philosophy
of law also studies reasoning or logic behind rules and principles, thereby
underscoring the importance of logic to the legal enterprise. This is because a
legal system that operates without coherence and consistency, but with obvious
contradictions and multiple standards cannot lay claim to justice, and
therefore cannot promote social stability or order.
3. Philosophy Seeks to Provide a General Account of the Nature of Law: The account is general in the sense of targeting universal features of law that hold at all times and places. It does this through the tools of conceptual analysis.
Whereas lawyers are interested in what the law is on a specific issue
in a specific jurisdiction, philosophers of law are interested in identifying
the features of law shared across cultures, times, and places. Taken together,
these foundational features of law offer the kind of universal definition
philosophers are after.
Also read: The Value of Philosophy to Other Disciplines
Value of Philosophy of Education
Ikuli
and Ojimba gave a general view of the relationship between philosophy and
education thus: Philosophy determines the direction towards which education has
to go. It inspires educational theory as well as practice.
Thus, education is the laboratory in which philosophic distinctions become concrete and are tested. Philosophy is wisdom and education transmits that wisdom from one generation to another. Philosophy represents a system of thought, while education embraces that thought in the content of instruction.
Furthermore,
while philosophy embodies a way of life, education represents the preparation
for life. Philosophy is the knowledge obtained through natural reason, while
education is the development of that reason as well as other powers of the
mind.
Every
aspect of education has a philosophical base. Philosophy provides aims for
education and these aims determine the curriculum, the methods of teaching as
well as the school discipline. Furthermore, great philosophers have been great
educationists.
Philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, Gandhi and many more have been great educators. They reflect their philosophical views in their educational schemes.
Socrates, for instance, has given the world his Socratic method of questioning and cross-questioning. His philosophical views reflect in his educational scheme. Other ways in which philosophy is important to education are:
1. Students Get Great Benefits from Learning Philosophy: The tools taught by philosophy are of great use in employment as well as in further education. Even though the questions usually asked by philosophers are abstract, the tools philosophy teaches tend to be highly sought-after by employers.
Philosophy
students learn how to write clearly, and to read closely, with a critical eye.
They are taught to spot bad reasoning and to avoid it in their writings and in
their works.
2. Philosophy enhances the
Students’ Cognitive Abilities: According to James Wallace
Gray, there is some scientific evidence that philosophy can benefit people in
many ways. He stated that statistics have shown that philosophy majors do well
in a variety of standardized tests and that even children around the age of ten
were found to have benefited from philosophy in their education.
He
went on to say that one hundred and five children in the penultimate year of
primary school aged approximately ten years were given one hour per week of
philosophical-inquiry based lessons for 16 months compared with control
children.
The
result was that the philosophy children showed significant improvements on
tests of their verbal, numerical and spatial abilities at the end of the
16-month period relative to their baseline performance before the study.
After
two years, these same children were made to go through cognitive abilities test
at a time the children were nearly at the end of their second year of secondary
school. He noted that the children had not had any further philosophy-based
lessons but the benefits of their early experience of philosophy persisted.
He
confirmed that the philosophy-taught children who the researchers were able to
track down showed the same cognitive test scores as they had done two years
earlier and by contrast, control children who did not take the
philosophical-inquiry based lessons actually showed a trend towards a
deterioration in their inferior scores from two years earlier.
3. Philosophy Introduces
the Concept of Morality to Education: Education is a process of socialization
through which the child internalizes the basic cultural values, mores and
essential tools that will aid the child to survive sustainably in the society.
Therefore,
if education is to fulfill its purpose of catering for some aspects of human
needs in the society, it is important that it should be given a touch of
morality.
According to Ekanem and Ekefre, the necessity
and inseparability of morality in education can be seen in Rousseau’s responses
to whether the arts and the sciences have been beneficial to humanity. Rousseau
in one of his famous essays responded in the negative when he said: since
learned men began to appear among us, good men have disappeared.
What
Rousseau alluded in his response is the fact that the education of those ‘learned
men’ was devoid of morality. As a result of lack of morality in the education
of these ‘taught men’ their education was not beneficial to mankind since it
could not fulfill the purpose of catering for the needs of human nature.
In
addition, education is an intentional activity. The entire process of planning
and implementation of education is structured or designed purposefully and it
is made to be futuristic. This intentionality and purposefulness made education
to be value-driven.
This
explains the fact that educational ends are driven, and are expressed by what
we value as individuals and as a group in the society. Human beings are not
just products of biological reproduction, but are indeed moral and cultural.
Also read: 4 Core Values of Philosophy to the Individual
Value of Philosophy of
Religion
Philosophy
in relating with religion is interested in subjecting religious beliefs, rites,
attitudes and modes of experiences to rational criticisms, with the aim of
offering justifications for them.
Since
beliefs invariably determine rites, moral attitudes and modes of experience,
Inagbor and Osarhiemen are of the view that philosophers of religion have
largely focused on beliefs that are doctrinal in nature.
They
believe that philosophers seek to establish what might be called the
metaphysical background of the doctrinal system of particular religions which
focused on worldviews, ultimate sources and nature of the universe, the nature
of man and his place in the universe as well as the ultimate end of man.
The
views of the above scholars on the positive values of philosophy to religion
can be summarized thus;
1.
Philosophers of religion seek to justify the place and relevance of religion in
the world. They are overly optimistic about the capabilities of human reason
and of religion itself; although some other scholars admit that there might
well be aspects of religion that reason cannot justify because it is not
sufficiently equipped to probe them.
2.
Another point is that philosophers of religion whose orientation is
deterministic see the world as already completely emancipated. For this reason,
there is no prospect in criticizing or defending it. All that needs to be done
is to merely investigate religion, to describe and compare its realities
without making value judgments.
3.
There is yet another point which seems not to recognize anything good in
religion in that religion has been nothing less than a potent force for
conflict in the society all through history. While this is partly true, it must
be stated that some good enjoyed by man are attributable to religion.
4.
Philosophy of religion is very important to religion as a discipline and this
is not unconnected with the fact that philosophy, as have been said, is the
mother of all disciplines.
Philosophy
of religion could change the way we view religious matters in a positive
manner. This is because it impacts our worldviews and religion forms a very
important part of that worldview.
Philosophy
of religion raises questions about the origin of the world and of everything in
it, including ourselves.
Without
philosophy, we may take every dogma as a truth and never question anything. The
mind needs to expand to see beyond what is merely believed and philosophy
encourages one to question all religious assumptions in search of credible
justifications.
Value of Philosophy of
Business
The
relationship between philosophy and business is often linked, but not limited
to ethics. Business is a set of interrelated activities or any lawful activity
engaged in or carried on with the view of making profit.
The
basic economic unit in which this set of activities is performed is the
business enterprise. Therefore, it is imperative to define the business
enterprise as an organizational context within which men, ideas, materials and
machines and other resources are harnessed and combined for the purpose of
providing needed goods and services, in order to make profit and remain in
existence.
In
other to achieve the intentions of any business, one basic objective is to
establish a proper structure that defines the rules and responsibilities when
it comes to recruitment and job description within the context of the business
enterprise.
It
is however important to note that unless the employees and employers of
business enterprise demonstrate the appropriate ethical behavior in the
execution of assigned duties, ultimately, enhancing the corporate image of the
business outfit in the environment will be difficult.
Employees
who demonstrate unethical behaviors do not promote the well-being of the organization
and therefore, unless such a negative behavior is jettisoned, it becomes
impossible for them to make the desired contributions.
This
is where the role of philosophy from the perspective of ethics becomes very
significant. Ethics as we already know refers to “a code or set of principles
by which men live.” It is a branch of philosophy, also known as moral
philosophy that prescribes how men ought to behave and live the ‘good life’.
However,
business ethics has to do with the study of what constitutes right and wrong,
or good and bad human conduct in any business environment. These right and
wrong or good and bad conducts make up the codes of ethics of any particular
business.
In
Jones’ view, codes of ethics are “formal standards and rules based on beliefs
about right or wrong that managers can use to help themselves make appropriate
decisions with regard to the interests of their stakeholders”.
The following have been identified by Michael Josephson as ethical principles for business organizations:
i. Honesty:
Individual should be honest and truthful in all their dealings and they should
not deliberately mislead or deceive others through misrepresentations,
overstatements, partial truths, selective omissions, or any other means.
ii. Integrity:
They should demonstrate personal integrity and the courage of their convictions
by doing what they think is right even when there is great pressure to do
otherwise; they should be principled, honorable and upright; they should fight
for their beliefs and not sacrifice principle for expediency or be hypocritical
or unscrupulous.
iii. Promise-Keeping and
Trustworthiness: They should be worthy of trust. They should
be candid and forthcoming in supplying relevant information and correcting
misapprehensions of fact, and they should make every reasonable effort to
fulfill the letter and spirit of their promises and commitments. They should
not interpret agreements in an unreasonably technical or legalistic manner in
order to rationalize non-compliance or create justifications for escaping their
commitments.
iv. Loyalty:
They should be worthy of trust, demonstrate fidelity and loyalty to persons and
institutions by friendship in adversity, support and devotion to duty; they
should not use or disclose information learned in confidence for personal advantage.
They should safeguard the ability to make independent professional judgments by
scrupulously avoiding undue influences and conflicts of interest. They should
be loyal to their companies and colleagues and if they decide to accept other
employment, they should provide reasonable notice, respect the proprietary
information of their former employer, and refuse to engage in any activities
that take undue advantage of their previous positions.
v. Fairness:
They should be fair and just in all dealings; they should not exercise power
arbitrarily, and should not use overreaching nor indecent means to gain or maintain
any advantage nor take undue advantage of another’s mistakes or difficulties.
They should be fair, manifest a commitment to justice, equal treatment of
individuals, tolerance for and acceptance of diversity and open-minded.
vi. Concern for Others:
They should be caring, compassionate, benevolent and kind; they, like the
Golden Rule, should help that in need, and seek to accomplish their business
objectives in a manner that causes the least harm and the greatest positive
good.
vii. Respect for Others:
They should demonstrate respect for human dignity, autonomy, privacy, rights,
and interests of all those who have a stake in their decisions; they should be
courteous and treat all people with equal respect and dignity regardless of
sex, race or national origin.
viii. Law Abiding:
They should abide by laws, rules and regulations relating to their business
activities.
ix. Commitment to Excellence: They should pursue excellence in performing their duties, be well informed, prepared, and constantly endeavor to increase their proficiency in all areas of responsibility.
x. Leadership: They should be conscious of the responsibilities and
opportunities of their position of leadership and seek to be positive ethical
role models by their own conduct and by helping to create an environment in
which principle reasoning and ethical decision-making are highly prized.
xi. Reputation and Morale:
They should seek to protect and build the company’s good reputation and the
morale of its employees by engaging in no conduct that might undermine respect
and by taking whatever actions are necessary to correct or prevent
inappropriate conduct of others.
xii. Accountability: They
should acknowledge and accept personal accountability for the ethical quality
of their decisions and omissions to themselves, their colleagues, their
companies, and their communities.
Also read: Meaning and Nature of Philosophy
Conclusion on the Value of
Philosophy to Other Disciplines
In
relation to law, we have said that it is not enough for a lawyer to master the
facts of his case and the laws backing it, but that it is also important for
him or her to present his or her argument in a logical manner. This is where
philosophy comes to play its role.
In
education, Philosophy teaches students how to write clearly, and to read
closely with a critical eye, for the purpose of spotting bad reasoning.
In
religion we noted that philosophy seeks to justify the place and relevance of
religion in the world and in business, philosophy teaches how to be fair,
manifest a commitment to justice, equal treatment of individuals, tolerance for
and acceptance of diversity and open-mindedness.
In this article, we have been able to show that philosophy acts as gadfly to the enterprise of law by cubing its excesses.
We noted that if education is to fulfill its purpose of catering for some aspects of human needs in the society, it is important that it should be given a touch of morality.
We also said that
philosophy of religion could change the way we view religious matters in a
positive manner because it impacts our worldviews and religion forms a very
important part of that worldview.
Finally,
we have been able to show that, business ethics has to do with the study of
what constitutes right and wrong, or good and bad human conduct in any business
environment and that these right and wrong or good and bad conducts make up the
codes of ethics of any particular business.
0 Comments