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Complementary Reflection, African Philosophy and General Issues in Philosophy |
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Complementary
reflection as a philosophy of integration and social progress aims at relating
all world immanent realities in a profound, comprehensive, universal,
harmonious and authentic way possible in order to overcome the existential
constraints the ambivalence of human interest places on the human mind. It is a
philosophy which seeks to integrate the unity of being into the most mutual,
compatible and harmonious way. It is also a philosophy after the rehabilitation
of African psyche in which we must see our historical moments as fragments
which could only yield total comprehension of reality. This philosophy seeks
for changes in our individual and group disposition towards seeing fragments as
totality or absolute which at times leads to extreme exclusiveness in which we
tend to reserve or keep to ourselves those things we feel are only desirable
for us. It is a philosophy of integration after a new world order which is a model of a system which seeks to
view and comprehend totality by categorically stating that all missing links
have a part in reality. We cannot comprehend or make the world work if we view reality from its parts only.
The parts are parts of the whole, while the whole is an integration of the
parts.
While others were
interested in the transcendence of subjectivity (constructivism) and searching
for a value-free condition for human co-existence (Max Weber) the author of
complementary reflection focuses on calling attention to the double capacity of
human interest i.e. its ambivalent nature. As something ambivalent, our
interest has a double capacity which could represent something positive and
negative at the same time. He seeks ways on how to overcome the existential
situation the ambivalence of human interest imposes on our mind; how to relate
our fragmented historical moments into the joy of being. The author equally
relates our ideas, interests and ambience in the most comprehensive and
universal manner.
Complementary
reflection is thus a philosophy of social progress which looks and exposes the
dreadful role the ambivalence of human interest plays in social institutions.
This ambivalence could be overcome by our upholding the common good as the
basis of all our actions. The common good should supercede all our interests
because it is there that the unity of being and consciousness is found. Our
interests should tend towards transcendence where unity of consciousness is
found which is proleptic or future referential. Once we transcend the bounds of
common interest, we adopt a future referential paradigm in which all actions
would be channeled towards the common good. Complementary Reflection emphasizes
the fact that consequent self-interest is anti self-interest. It is only when
we understand that consequent self-interest is anti self-interest that we transcend the
constraints placed on us by the ambivalence of our existential situation..
Complementary
reflection as a philosophy of integration and social progress has its
antecedents in traditional African philosophy in which the anonymous
traditional African philosophers sought to reflect and interpret reality from
their ambience. And this systematic philosophizing is channeled towards the
common good with a mindset that transcend self-interest into recognizing the
need for the command to stand above all interests.
Complementary reflection as a philosophy of integration and social change offers a new
way of thinking and doing philosophy in which the philosopher must stand with
his head erect above all presuppositions, pre-assumptions, preconceptions,
misconceptions and prejudice in viewing reality in its most comprehensive and
universal form. The philosopher would not allow his ambience to influence or
impair his philosophical mind in its total comprehension of reality.
Complementary reflection also seeks to offer a solution to the global paradox
in which the very ideals on which modernity is built is the very ideal in which
it tends to destroy itself. Thus the world cannot be seen or understood in
fragments in which one person, group or country as a whole imposes its
ideologies on others. In this paradox, the very help which a person seeks to
get is immersed in self-interest. An example is where the IMP which seeks to
help nations places on them unbearable conditions which make the help at the
end of the day to be inauthentic. Complementary reflection aims at solving the
ambivalence of human existential situation by categorically stating that
missing links cannot serve as a whole in which case, this would usher in
problems like racism, tribalism, nepotism. In complementary reflections,
missing links are an integral part of the whole, while the whole bears the
parts, the parts equally bear the whole.
The Limits of
exclusive pre-deterministic anthropology
Complementary
Reflection exposes the limits of all forms of exclusive pre-deterministic
anthropology. This form of Anthropology fails to account or see historical moments
or fragments as categories of the transcendental unity of consciousness. In his
book “The Method and Principles of Complementary Reflection” Asouzu pointed out
that Prof. Beck’s portioned the world into three anthropological main blocks or
regions, Asiatic, African and European. In Beck’s understanding, based on
climatic and other geographical constraints, the Asiatic and African man is
irrational and tends to be more emotional, sentimental etc. But the European
man is a compendium of knowledge. Though the tendency to sound right or
superior in the midst of contradictions is inherent in man because every person
would like to present to the world those things he feels would be of interest
to him, but to talk about an European man as being a compendium of rationality
without any tincture of emotion and impulsiveness could only lead to
exclusiveness in which we would like to claim things for ourselves.
The danger of
disjunctive exclussive reasoning can only achieve one thing: It seeks to view
man from its parts and gives the parts meaning of the totality. In some
situations, we tend to judge human beings from the angle of the sizes of their
heads, to the height of their noses, from the colour of their hair, to the
colour of their skin. At times this kind of claims lead to obsession and
constant hammering on such pseudo truths may turn out to be accepted as
absolute truths. This is one of the danger of pre-deterministic anthropology.
At times such
claims are elevated as a paradigm in anthropology in which some cultures may
even imagine that the half-heads in their country will qualify as full-heads in
other countries. Such exclusive pre-deterministic anthropology tends to bend
man’s mind into accepting historical moments of fragmentation as absolute. Man
qua man has psychic energy, intuition, insight, cognitive ability to fathom
reality as a fundamental characteristic.
The danger of
pre-deterministic anthropology could also be seen in Hitler’s adoption of
Hegel’s philosophy of the absolute which influenced him to embark on a radical
political change with a determined mind-set that the German nation is more
rational and at the peak of civilization. As civilized as the world has become,
an uncultured German mind may still cling tenaciously to such claims which will
impair his mind in comprehending human nature whish is the same everywhere.
The limits of
pre-deterministic anthropology is that it leads to exclusiveness in which we
negate that our historical moments of fragmentation give authenticity and
legitimacy to the unity of being.
The dangers of
exclusive pre-deterministic anthropology can only be overcome if we relate all
world immanent realities to one another in a most profound, mutual, authentic,
comprehensive manner possible in which we must bear in mind that the whole
bears the parts and the parts equally bear the whole. It is only when we
comprehend humanity this way that we would say that we have had a complementary
attitudinal change.
The Law of
self-preservation
The law of self-preservation
is the most basic of all human laws. This law has it that human beings must do
anything to preserve themselves from anything that will lead to their
extinction. This law is not only applicable to animals but also to human
beings, because man is characterized as a rational animal. But in spite of this
categorization, it is not all the acts of men that are rational. That is why
when man seeks to accumulate all that he needs to preserve himself he can do
this at the detriment of others.
In relating the
law of self-preservation to the notion of self-interest we discover that human
actions have interest guiding them. And this interest is of a double capacity
which could represent something positive and negative at the same time. This
double capacity or ambivalence is often concealed. This is why the good we seek
and the evil we abhor are the very thing we embrace which could lead to our
destruction.
Although man is a
rational animal does not imply that all his actions are rational. Often man
consciously acts irrationally in order to preserve those things he feels are
exclusively for him alone. And such tendencies are what breed mutual distrust,
tribalism, nepotism etc.
Self-interest
with the phenomenon of concealment spurs individuals into seeking for the
preservation of themselves as against the common good.
Complementary
reflection offers a model of approach to self-preservation and the notion of
self-interest since the law of self-preservation is a basic human law and the
ability of the individual to desire all those things that will not lead to his
extinction is also inherent in man. In general we have to bear in mind
essentially that in order to rise above the double capacity of self-interest,
in order to achieve authentic existence, we must rise above the constraints of
the ambivalence of human existential situation by abiding to the idea that the
common good or goal is paramount.
Exclusiveness of
self-preservation will only lead to mutual suspicion and in such a system nothing is bound to work
out well.
Our interests
must be integrated in the transcendent unity of consciousness in which we
experience that everything that exists serves a missing link of reality; also
in giving life a meaning. We must also bear in mind that transcendent unity of
consciousness is proleptic i.e. it is future referential and this will help us
in curtailing the double capacity of our interests and help us to walk towards
the common good. This idea is alluded to also in the concept of heaven though
it is in the future, it is worked towards accomplishment by here and now.
Complementary
Attitudinal Change
The experience
connected with complementary attitudinal change is that of the transcendent
unity of consciousness which is future referential. Complementary attitudinal
change is a change geared towards the changing of our mind-set in order to cope
with the constraints placed on our mind by the ambivalence of human existential
situation of life.
Here
complementary philosophy seeks a total rehabilitation of the African psyche. It
is a philosophy which seeks to reconstruct the mind-set of people into relating
their ideas, interests and ambience into a clearly defined and comprehensive
cohesion.
This attitudinal
change sets to establish an independent mind-set which does not rely on
preconception, presupposition, misassumption and prejudice in viewing reality.
Rather, a mind-set which will rise above the constraints of the ambivalence of
human existential situation into realizing that the common good or goal cannot
be achieved in fragments but in the totality. Complementary attitudinal change
seeks also to influence the mind-set of people into relating, appreciating and
working towards what they have and what they cannot do. For example, in
regarding what Nigerians call “Belgium Products” as the genuine goods even if
this is tested and proven to be outdated and detrimental to human health. This
“Belgium mentality” has played on the psyche of the people that they derive joy
in using obsolete and dangerous goods imported from other countries thereby
turning the country into a dumping ground of foreign used products. Whereas
such things or goods are some of what we could produce better than imported
ones. This mentality has a rigid mind-set which alienates the possibilities of self-utilisation
of natural resources or acquisition of skills.
This is the
change that complementary attitudinal change has set out to accomplish. Which
is a change that will alter our notion of foreign investment, the idea of good,
evil. 419, bribery and corruption etc. With this change, the things we have
accepted as norms which are shocking, bewildering and unimaginable in
world-record standard will come to an end. Corruption for instance whether
institutionalized or pocket corruption will cease to be.
This mind set
could also be likened to the idea of independence achieved by many African
countries. The idea of independence entails that a country is free from
imperialism, colonialism, discrimination segregation etc. The type of
independence which complementary attitudinal change seeks to accomplish is more
paramount
because it involves a revolutionary revision of our values as these have
been twisted by preconceptions, prejudices etc which the ambivalence of our
existential situation has placed on our minds.
Complementary
attitudinal change finds its expression in the experience of transcendent
complementary unity of consciousness as the actualization of the transcendent
categories of unity of consciousness in day to day interaction. Here the mind
tends towards the common goal or good in a future referential manner. Complementary attitudinal
change also aims at collectivity in which individuals must contribute
meaningfully to the development of the society with a mind-set that all that
comes first is the common good. With this kind of attitude, communalism,
Ubuntu, authenticity, as expressed in diverse forms of African socio-political
philosophy find firm theoretical foundation in the assumptions of complementary
reflection.
Therefore since
we are the makers of our environment, we can equally change it by adopting
complementary attitudinal change which is a change that will transcend
existential situations into valuing collective efforts and collective will in
order to make life meaningful and worth living.