CONCEPTUAL CHANGE: TOWARDS A MORAL - POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY FOR CHANGE.
Let us start this piece on a lighter (praeludium). I read in the newspaper that the Grand Mufti and the Eritrean government have asked men in the country to marry more than one wife or risk being jailed for life.
You know, I screamed out loud as if something terrible occurred. What a conscientious utilitatrian approach to marriage in Eritrea wherein the government has adopted a microeconomic cum socio-moral and political philosophical methodology in finding solution to marital challenges confronting the country.
In an atmosphere of scarcity of marriageable men, microeconomic theory of demand and supply in respect of the marriageable women would be prominent. Pardon for my economic inclination.
The more the supply the cheaper the goods and services and an informed economic opportunity choice would have to be made.
The Eritrean government has decided to take the bull by the horns realizing that they have more marriageable women whose socio-cultural and emotional needs are not being met, decreed that men must forthwith marry more than one wife. Here ''CONSCIENCE UTILITARIANISM'' is the applicable philosophy as we shall see in the body of this article.
The conscientious leadership in Eritrea, has decided based on essential strong ethical compass to seek the promotion of the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the society with this decree.
Lest I forget, I would like to relocate to Eritrea so that I can enjoy the greatest marital good for the greatest number of men and women that the society can offer. Apologies to our sisters.
My advice to marriageable and aspiring men in Nigeria, willing to marry more than one wife is to relocate to Eritrea because this is a golden opportunity. Now you have the advantage of achieving your desiderata with government support for house and money for the wedding ceremony.
Enough of the comical commentary, now let us go back to the subject matter of this treatise.
Philosophy is both a-priori and a-posteriori analysis of concepts, circumstances, situations, in order to find meaning based on empirical verification an essentiality of philosophy or a normative statements about how things ought to be, things like: Justice, Good, Red, Truth, Democracy, Rule of law.
This article is not an attempt to fashion out any rigid encapsulation of ideologies or philosophical conceptual categoricalism that is predicated on the denial of the ontology of philosophical relativism rather I assert, that there are as many viewpoints towards the construction or de-construction of political philosophy for change in Nigeria.
Whatever argumentation or rationalization on the pedestal of meaning, presentation wise in this piece or commentary is my view without any finality whatsoever and as such always debatable or open to questioning.
Since language is just a means for representing our thought patterns. Please, permit me to use certain words interchangeably within the purview of meaning and definition for commonsensical clarifications.
The inception of the administration of @mbuhari has created seismic changes in the mannerism in which we are going to be organizing our socio political terrestrial moving forward. This is reflected in his avowed distaste for anything corrupt and the determination of the administration to achieve social justice for Nigerians.
It is imperative to note that before we Nigerians can bring to fruition our Eldorado under the mantra of change, we must ruminate over what are the necessary and sufficient conditions that must be prevalent political philosophy wise. Put differently what kind of political philosophy do we need to achieve our change Eldorado (Nigeria).
I want to posit here that we need a synchronized mix of different political philosophical traditions, a potpourri of ideologies that take into consideration the obvious needs of Nigerians for Social justice, Equity, Egalitarianism, Democracy, Rule of law etc.
Nigerians, Bloggers, Writers, Intellectuals are free to create their own potpourri of ideas, philosophical traditions, sociological explanations or methodologies to achieve whatever political philosophy for change they posit. This is an openended discourse.
This hybridization would take care of almost all competing interest in our clime, but they are never meant to be a panacea since change is the only constant in nature a systematize process of thesis and antithesis. Therefore, we would need to tinker with whatever political philosophy we might have adopted as circumstances changes.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION:
what is change socio-political?
''Social change may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic structure, for instance a shift away from feudalism and towards capitalism. Accordingly, it may also refer to social revolution, such as the Socialist revolution presented in Marxism, or to other social movements, such as Women's suffrage or the Civil rights movement. Social change may be driven by cultural, religious, economic, scientific or technological forces'' -wikipedia.org
''Political changes most often stem from social or economic issues that a country may be facing. For instance, political change may be caused by social issues, such as the tensions between differing racial and ethnic groups or policies that deny specific groups of people civil rights. Political change may also occur if a country is suffering from economic turmoil and its citizens feel the pressure of not having enough money and feel that the government is not helping them out. This frustration then comes to a head and sparks political change''. - Jason Nowaczyk
These two definitions above capture our situation very succinctly. Moreover, they encapsulate most of the philosophical concepts we shall make use of in this piece.
@Mbuhari came into government because of the necessary and sufficient conditions for socio-political change we wanted was prevalent and as a result we voted @Goodluck jonathan out via a democratic election.
Now that the first step the democratic threshold has been crossed we need a political philosophy to sustain our change dividend and that is what I give the nomenclature ''CONSCIENCE UTILITARIANISM''.
what is Conscience Utilitarianism?
It is a MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY that espouses that leadership consience is an essential strong ethical compass to seek the promotion of the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the society.
Note, that the good here can be material good or spiritual good or both and the propensity for a leader to do good is not contingent on any God or metaphysical being neither is it dependent on political parties or parties politics.
The assumption here is predicated on three pedestals:
1. Man is conscientious.
2. Man has the propensity to do good at all time.
3. Leadership is about doing good and a question of choice.
The viewpoint expressed above is inflenced by both Act utilitarianism and Outcome utilitarianism.
Act Utilitarianism states that in choosing 1 amongst so many alternatives acts, one should make a choice for an act that gives highest/high sum total benefit as any other alternative act
Outcome Utilitarianism is the reverse in the sense that here emphasis is on the outcome rather than the act itself but they are both consequentialism.
Note, I do not intend to do a detail discussion of the above mentioned category of utilitarianism, readers can do their own research on the subject.
Our political philosophy for change is non partisan rather emphasis is on doing good, consientious good and bringing the dividend of socio-political change to the citizenry.
Leadership in a change atmosphere therefore must strive at all time to be servant leader by placing the interest of people/nation above selfish interest, must make sure that his/her actions and inactions, act or policy, inclusive the outcome(s) does some identifiable good for the greatest number of people or greatest number of citizenry.
The political evolution of ethical reorientation and ''MORAL CONSCIENCISM'' in leadership are keys to the realization of the above mentioned viewpoints
I expect people to show skepticism as to how this fits into the existentialness of our daily life as Nigerians, given the antecedent of gross leadership misconduct in our clime and the corresponding commonsensical paradigm of justification in our ''climerelativism'' when failure stared us in the face.
My answer to that is we are only human and it is a question of choice made on the part of our leaders. If leaders are morally conscientious they will always do good that would impact the greatest percentage of their citizenry.
OTUNBA ADE ILEMOBADE is a philosopher
Twitter: @pearl2prince
You know, I screamed out loud as if something terrible occurred. What a conscientious utilitatrian approach to marriage in Eritrea wherein the government has adopted a microeconomic cum socio-moral and political philosophical methodology in finding solution to marital challenges confronting the country.
In an atmosphere of scarcity of marriageable men, microeconomic theory of demand and supply in respect of the marriageable women would be prominent. Pardon for my economic inclination.
The more the supply the cheaper the goods and services and an informed economic opportunity choice would have to be made.
The Eritrean government has decided to take the bull by the horns realizing that they have more marriageable women whose socio-cultural and emotional needs are not being met, decreed that men must forthwith marry more than one wife. Here ''CONSCIENCE UTILITARIANISM'' is the applicable philosophy as we shall see in the body of this article.
The conscientious leadership in Eritrea, has decided based on essential strong ethical compass to seek the promotion of the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the society with this decree.
Lest I forget, I would like to relocate to Eritrea so that I can enjoy the greatest marital good for the greatest number of men and women that the society can offer. Apologies to our sisters.
My advice to marriageable and aspiring men in Nigeria, willing to marry more than one wife is to relocate to Eritrea because this is a golden opportunity. Now you have the advantage of achieving your desiderata with government support for house and money for the wedding ceremony.
Enough of the comical commentary, now let us go back to the subject matter of this treatise.
Philosophy is both a-priori and a-posteriori analysis of concepts, circumstances, situations, in order to find meaning based on empirical verification an essentiality of philosophy or a normative statements about how things ought to be, things like: Justice, Good, Red, Truth, Democracy, Rule of law.
This article is not an attempt to fashion out any rigid encapsulation of ideologies or philosophical conceptual categoricalism that is predicated on the denial of the ontology of philosophical relativism rather I assert, that there are as many viewpoints towards the construction or de-construction of political philosophy for change in Nigeria.
Whatever argumentation or rationalization on the pedestal of meaning, presentation wise in this piece or commentary is my view without any finality whatsoever and as such always debatable or open to questioning.
Since language is just a means for representing our thought patterns. Please, permit me to use certain words interchangeably within the purview of meaning and definition for commonsensical clarifications.
The inception of the administration of @mbuhari has created seismic changes in the mannerism in which we are going to be organizing our socio political terrestrial moving forward. This is reflected in his avowed distaste for anything corrupt and the determination of the administration to achieve social justice for Nigerians.
It is imperative to note that before we Nigerians can bring to fruition our Eldorado under the mantra of change, we must ruminate over what are the necessary and sufficient conditions that must be prevalent political philosophy wise. Put differently what kind of political philosophy do we need to achieve our change Eldorado (Nigeria).
I want to posit here that we need a synchronized mix of different political philosophical traditions, a potpourri of ideologies that take into consideration the obvious needs of Nigerians for Social justice, Equity, Egalitarianism, Democracy, Rule of law etc.
Nigerians, Bloggers, Writers, Intellectuals are free to create their own potpourri of ideas, philosophical traditions, sociological explanations or methodologies to achieve whatever political philosophy for change they posit. This is an openended discourse.
This hybridization would take care of almost all competing interest in our clime, but they are never meant to be a panacea since change is the only constant in nature a systematize process of thesis and antithesis. Therefore, we would need to tinker with whatever political philosophy we might have adopted as circumstances changes.
CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION:
what is change socio-political?
''Social change may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic structure, for instance a shift away from feudalism and towards capitalism. Accordingly, it may also refer to social revolution, such as the Socialist revolution presented in Marxism, or to other social movements, such as Women's suffrage or the Civil rights movement. Social change may be driven by cultural, religious, economic, scientific or technological forces'' -wikipedia.org
''Political changes most often stem from social or economic issues that a country may be facing. For instance, political change may be caused by social issues, such as the tensions between differing racial and ethnic groups or policies that deny specific groups of people civil rights. Political change may also occur if a country is suffering from economic turmoil and its citizens feel the pressure of not having enough money and feel that the government is not helping them out. This frustration then comes to a head and sparks political change''. - Jason Nowaczyk
These two definitions above capture our situation very succinctly. Moreover, they encapsulate most of the philosophical concepts we shall make use of in this piece.
@Mbuhari came into government because of the necessary and sufficient conditions for socio-political change we wanted was prevalent and as a result we voted @Goodluck jonathan out via a democratic election.
Now that the first step the democratic threshold has been crossed we need a political philosophy to sustain our change dividend and that is what I give the nomenclature ''CONSCIENCE UTILITARIANISM''.
what is Conscience Utilitarianism?
It is a MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY that espouses that leadership consience is an essential strong ethical compass to seek the promotion of the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the society.
Note, that the good here can be material good or spiritual good or both and the propensity for a leader to do good is not contingent on any God or metaphysical being neither is it dependent on political parties or parties politics.
The assumption here is predicated on three pedestals:
1. Man is conscientious.
2. Man has the propensity to do good at all time.
3. Leadership is about doing good and a question of choice.
The viewpoint expressed above is inflenced by both Act utilitarianism and Outcome utilitarianism.
Act Utilitarianism states that in choosing 1 amongst so many alternatives acts, one should make a choice for an act that gives highest/high sum total benefit as any other alternative act
Outcome Utilitarianism is the reverse in the sense that here emphasis is on the outcome rather than the act itself but they are both consequentialism.
Note, I do not intend to do a detail discussion of the above mentioned category of utilitarianism, readers can do their own research on the subject.
Our political philosophy for change is non partisan rather emphasis is on doing good, consientious good and bringing the dividend of socio-political change to the citizenry.
Leadership in a change atmosphere therefore must strive at all time to be servant leader by placing the interest of people/nation above selfish interest, must make sure that his/her actions and inactions, act or policy, inclusive the outcome(s) does some identifiable good for the greatest number of people or greatest number of citizenry.
The political evolution of ethical reorientation and ''MORAL CONSCIENCISM'' in leadership are keys to the realization of the above mentioned viewpoints
I expect people to show skepticism as to how this fits into the existentialness of our daily life as Nigerians, given the antecedent of gross leadership misconduct in our clime and the corresponding commonsensical paradigm of justification in our ''climerelativism'' when failure stared us in the face.
My answer to that is we are only human and it is a question of choice made on the part of our leaders. If leaders are morally conscientious they will always do good that would impact the greatest percentage of their citizenry.
OTUNBA ADE ILEMOBADE is a philosopher
Twitter: @pearl2prince
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