THE HUMANISM OF EMMANUEL MATHEW PAUL EDEH’S PHILOSOPHY OF MMA-DI
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48047/frzx2g81Keywords:
Humanism, Philosophy, Mma-di, ‘Good-that-is’ , Edeh, Human BeingAbstract
Human beings and the society at large have faced existential challenges and inhuman experiences. Finding the causative factors behind this, the paper came to a conclusion that it was misconceptions, especially, of the human beings as articulated in some philosophical articulations and ideologies that have encouraged them. However, it is still left for human beings to resolve these challenges that have become perennial tasks to both philosophers and non-philosophers. With regard to this, philosophical thoughts and attitudinal dispositions have been postulated to address them. Emmanuel Mathew Paul Edeh has contributed his own philosophical thought which is referred to as the ‘philosophy of mma-di’: a philosophy that views the human being as the ‘good that is’. This philosophical postulation had two cardinal features: (1) the conception of the human being as a stereotype of his/her Creator who is the ‘good’ itself, (2) the ‘good that is’ becomes the gateway to grasp what being is, hence the identification of being within the meaning and implication of the concept, ‘good that is’. But this calls for questions. First, how could this conceptual scheme intervene in the inhumanity and dehumanization bedevilling human beings today? Second, how rationally justifiable was it to express the idea of being with the etymological meaning of the name of one being? Nonetheless, addressing these questions, the paper argued that abiding by the humanistic perspective of Edeh’s philosophical thought certainly encouraged humanitarian understanding and facilitated more humanistic approach that enhanced mutual relationship among different peoples of the world regardless of race, intellectual and social statuses, etc. It is expected to analyze Edeh’s humanistic contribution to the development of African philosophy hence the postulation of humane conception of the human being that universally stood for what it is like being. It adopted hermeneutics and conceptual analysis as methods.
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