SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Department Of Philosophy

CONTRIBUTORS:

Nwankwo, J. O;
Dukor, M;

ABSTRACT:

ABSTRACT
Human quest for development can be traced back to the onset of human existence. This explains why human history is replete with various attempts by man to improve his conditions at various epochs. At the wake of the 21st century, this noble quest has assumed a more generic status in an attempt to transform the whole world into a global village, where humanity would share a common developmental experience. The globalization project, amidst its plausible thesis of opening opportunities and benefits to the world especially the third world nations, have not been able to close the widening gap between the developed and developing nations. Indeed, contemporary research and studies on Africa have vigorously analyzed the African nations as underdeveloped or more euphemistically as “developing”. Some of these contemporary studies on African Development complete their thesis with prescriptions as to what ideas and policies should be implemented so that African societies evolve from state of underdevelopment to state of development. However, the problem is that all ideas, policies and solutions proffered to the African underdevelopment problem are material or economic in virtually every sense. In terms of African development, the core problem is that the West has moved development from its domain of human conditions and freedom to the domain of materialism and economics. Thus, the response to every development question has become an economic answer. To the above problem, changes in African perception of her unique role in globalization project and the best alternative approach for rapid African development is a serious concern.. Since philosophy is a critical reflection on human experience, this dissertation therefore seeks to use a dialectical method to appraise globalization and explore an alternative answer to the development challenges in the third world. The dissertation arrives at the conclusion that the surest path to Africa’s development lies in an understanding of development as an existentialist question emboldened in the mental decolonization and value re-orientation project for the African Personhood. Development must therefore be a systematic dialogue of African values, ethos and cultural conditions within the framework of globalization.