Philosophy and the Role of Philosophers in the Society
Philosophy like a candle light in darkness in the winter is fraught with a strong wind which has led humanity in search for natural wisdom, knowledge and truth. The journey as it was recorded in the West started with Thales of Mellitus (624-546 B.C) but it was from the time of Plato and Aristotle that philosophy flowered with generous fruits. Substantial progress however, is not such easy based on the fact that the history of this philosophical search has many pitfalls. Appling th analytic philosophy which is modern from the 18 century, a survey was made which assisted the appraisal of Philosophy and the Role of Philosophers and substantive critical analysis that is centred on the history of philosophy. The encouraging aspect is that, there is continuous progress in human efforts in coming to terms with truth through Reason and Divine Revelation. However, objective methodological evaluation shows that Modern philosophy in spite of its achievements has fallen into disrepute. The fundamentalists had claimed that, contemporary philosophy is concerned with problems which have ceased to be of interest to workers in other fields of human knowledge; to them such problems have become redundant and obsolete (Harrison-Barbet, 1990, p. 4). 'Professionalization' is another factor that had travestied philosophy from its traditional nature and form and placed it side by side with other professional sciences like medicine, engineering, which one performs just for pay and for one's livelihood. In a bid to search for truth, this research adopts a rational method of thinking and questioning into errors in Modern philosophy which need to be isolated and excised in order that philosophy may retain its essence.
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