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ABSTRACT
The concept of Development falls under the Anth ropological part of Philosophy, but i n recent times, it is attracting scholarly discussions which demands Philosophical evaluation. Taking into consideration , the attributes of development which include s: ontological, cultural, social and psychological integration, many scholars from different field s of study have contributed, but none has given a convincing link like that of Rodney’s Marxism: where he used historical Materialism to trace economic stages, from primitive stage to Socialism. However, He opened a new mode of intellectual discussion which answers question on the cardinal points of development which are; the consent of oneself, p roper integration of personal , and societal endowed potentialities, increase in skills, respons ibility and material w ell being, and restructuring of Superstructures. Tracing development from subsequent ideologies would not determine quick growth of the Underdeveloped, but maintenance of bases that serve as yardsticks for authentic development. Giving a philosophical evaluation to Rodney’s concept of development is the major task of this research with exposition of his Marxist philosophy from which his influence is rooted.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
In recent time, the concept of dev elopment is attracting scholarly views, though, difficult to understand , depending on the perspective one is arguing from. Its meaning can not be fully appreciated without reference to hu man person because it has to do with the realization of personal potentials and self- fulfillment.
In Rodney’s explanation, as contained in his book; How Europe Underdeveloped Africa , the concept of development which many scholars are taking to be economic growth and appreciable level of modernization made us to realize tha t; we all are agents of development and it is the accumulation of our efforts towards our different societies that determines the level of our development.
Rodney tried to drag his readers out from Plato’s cave of ignorance to the world of light, but they may not welcome the idea because as Plato said , “if they could lay hands on the man who was trying to set them free and lead them up, they would kill him”.1 Rodney was killed in his bid to lead humanity out of the cave of ignorance, slavery , inequality, political insensitivity and man inhumanity to man in Guyana.
Philosophy, as this work contends, serves as a rational and critical enterprise wh ich offers tools and methods for us to evaluate Rodney’s concept of dev elopment.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
The problem this work is trying to look into is, Rodney’s inability to see development from a philosophical perspective. Depending on the environment and discipline that shaped him, he treated the concept of development from historical materialism with passionate hatred for capitalism and colonialism: forgetting the fact that it is capitalism that set modern society into two camps: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat camp. Without this, there would not have been class struggle which brings about changes a nd development in the society
1.2 Purpose of the Study
Since development falls under the Anthropological aspect of philosophy, it will be considerable to evaluate the c oncept of development as conceived by Rodney, from philosophical perspective: by bringing out the bases on which authentic development should be build upon, which will help to disabuse the minds of people for the misconceptions of other disciplines that take development to be increase in economy, infrastructure facilities, body growth, and so on, forgetting the spiritual and moral values which should be the bedrock of anything that should stand as development in human society.
1.3 Scope of the Work
The scope of this work is centered on philosophical evaluation of Rodney’s work on development. This research is restricted to journals on philosophy of development and Rodney’s work on development.
1.4 Method of the study.
The method we are applying here are : analytical and critical methods. With analysis , we will be able to know etymological meaning of some strange concepts that will becloud our minds in full understanding of development. By using critical method, we will also be able to understand what should stand as development. For development to be fully appreciated in the human society, it has to be anchored on the stipulated bases.
1.5 Significance
Development is a philosophical concept which should not be adulterated in the terminologies of other disciplines such as economics which will take it to be increased in economic growth or increase in GNP or scientific concept of development which is only based in technical advancement or man’s improved ability to manipulate nature. With philosophical ideals, the concept of development will be well articulated.
1.7 Organization Of The Study: Accordingly, this work is divided into five chapters. Chapter one deals with introduction and explications of terms, chapter two is on literature review. Chapter three treats areas of development in relation with Marx and chapter four is on the bases for development. And chapter five is on philosophical evaluation of Rodney’s concept of development and conclusion.
1.6 Definitions of Terms
i. Alienation:
The Latin origin of “alienation” is alienatio . This noun derives its meaning from the verb “ alienar e” to make (something another’s, to take away, remove).
ii. Bourgeoisie : This means the class of modern capitalist, owners of the means of social and economic production and also those who have the means to employ labour .
iii. Proletariat: This means the class of modern wage labour who have no means of production and are reduced to selling their labour power to survive in a capitalistic society.
iv. Dialectical Materialism : This means that general Laws of development that discloses and studies contradicti ons in the materials world.
v. Psycho -Somatic: This means the combination of soul and body structure in their functions.
vi. Humanism: This means a concept that encourage s man to be more human and to manifest his latent potentialities by exerting them to enrich himself in nature.
vii. Slavery : This means a total subjection to a master; it is also the condition in which another owns another human being as a property
viii. Communalism: This is an economic system where properties are collectively owned, wo rk is commonly done and goods are equally shared.
xi. Feudalism: This means another political ideology in which power belongs to the feudal lords while serfs are those who are working under them.
x. Capitalism: This is an economic system in which means of production, distribution and exchanges are properly owned and managed for personal profit.
xi. Socialism: This is a political and economic ideology that advocates the collective ownership of the means of production and control of distribution .
xii. Communism: This another political and economic ideology in which means of production, distribution and exchange are shared on the prin ciple of “to each according to his need”.
xiii. Philosophy
The word “philosophy” etymologically originated from two Greek works Philein (to love) and sophia; (wisdom) these mean “Love of wisdom”. Love as contained in the above combination is the type of love that thinks of good of the beloved.
…when we say love of wisdom…that which tends in all sincerity at a great cost. It can be equated with the statement of the scripture , what love has a friend that he lays down his life for his friends. It is love that is roundishly good and attractive, enthralling to all that comes in contact with it, it emits a glow of purity.3
The term “of” is a preposition that serves as a link between love and wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to know that which is removed from sensation or perceptibility. Philosophy, therefore, is an enterprise which uses methods of reasoning to sieve true knowledge from the chaff of ignorance, prejudice and uncoordinated reasoning.
xvi. Development
Rodney defines it from various perspectives, for him;
Development in human society is a many sided process. At the level of the individuals it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom creativity, self discipline, responsibility and material well-being.4
This implies that for anything to be considered as development, it must start from individual self . Iroegbu got it right, for him:
Development is the progressive unfolding of the inner potentialities of a given reality . It is to de- envelop, that is to bring out to light existential , functional and epistemic , what was enveloped, folded or hidden. As it applies to people, development is the integration of the various givens; natural, physical, acquired and human, of a people towards the full working out, permanently and cumulatively, of their being as persons, of their community and of their real productivity.5
In the interpreta tion of the above definition, Mbaegbu noted that:
The implication of this definition is that any attempt to conceive development in terms of scientific and technological advancement to the utter neglect of the spiritual, moral and the socio-political spheres, etc, is bound to precipitate materials progress and low spiritual development.6
Freud in his psychoanalytical exercise sees development as something that is embedded in human nature which takes gradual process for manifestation.
Cornelius J aarsma viewed development “as the unfolding of pattern already implicit in the organism ” for him:
The psychosomatic function become increasingly organized and structured: activities become more precise and controlled. Babbling becomes deliberately formed words and sentences. Handwriting moves from disordered scrawl to normal script. Abstract concept comes more and more to dominate thought and action. All this is development.7
Words used above which denotes teleological meanings portrays Rodney as a developmental ethicist. “Some of the these are virtually moral categories and are difficult to evaluate depending as they do on the age in which one lives, ones class, origin, and one’s personal code of what is right and what is wrong” 8. For Rodney, the moral content of development is subjective. In moral subjectivism, it is the individual that determines the moral judgment of an action, for example, when I say that murder is wrong, I am merely saying that I don’t personally, want people to be murdered. On a subjective view, ethical judgment, va ries from person to person and don’t have any factual base outside individual’s own mind. The level of individual development which is often subjective, “is very much tied in with the state of the society as a whole”.9 Society is created by man’s togethern ess which he
found so “convenient and necessary to come together in group to hunt for the sake of survival” .10 Whichever word, Rodney used to defined the concept of development such as “freedom, responsibility, skill, etc. have real meaning only in terms o f the relations of man in society” .11 As individual deposits his personal development to the society, so also, the society will enrich the individual by catering for his needs. It is through this that “the relations between individual in any two societies are regulated by the form of two societies” .12 The social relationship always carries “their r espective political structures… because the ruling elements within each group are the ones that begin to dialogue, trade or fight, as the case may be”.13 Rodney’s definitions of development at the social group “implies an increasing capacity to regulate both internal and external relationships” 14, after seeing development at the social level, the next is at the economic level. Rodney defined economic development thus: “A society develops economically, as its members increase jointly their capacity for dealing with the environment” 15. Every society has a worldview and it is
their worldview that controls their superstructure which is the great determinant for a greater or a lower level of development.
This capacity for dealing with the environment is depending on the extent to which they understand the laws of nature (Science, on the extent to which they put that understanding into practice by devising tools (technology), and on the manner in which works is organized.16
Economically, there has been a tremendous change in development from the primitive stage to the modern times . Human being has transcended from the stage of bands of hunters to communalism. After whic h slavery followed, this is “caused by the extension of domineering element within the family and by some groups being physically overwhelmed by others”17. Slaves are subjected to all sorts of works, “but their main job was to produce food”. 18 The next stage of economic development is feudalism, this is a situation agriculture remained the principal means of making livelihood, but the land which was necessary for that purpose was in the hands of few and they took the lion’s share of the wealth” 19. Under feudalism, the workers are known as sorts, but at this stage of economic development, “they were no longer the personal
property of the masters, but they were tied to the land of a particular manor or estate” 20 The next stage that followed was capitalism a system whereby “the greatest wealth in the society was produced not in agriculture but by machines in factions and in mines” 21 In capitalism, the means of production are in the hands off the bourgeoisies while the proletariat are their workers who owns nothi ng but their labour power, for Rodney:
Capitalism was characterized by the concentration in a few hands of ownership of means of producing wealth and by unequal distribution of the products of human labour. 21
The bourgeoisies originated from craftsmen and merchants who are the Lords in feu dal epoch. In capitalist epoch they are known as the industrialist and financiers. Capitalism is not attracting a good working is not attracting a good recommendation especially by the working class who are exploited just because the bourgeoisies claim to own means of production.
There is a prediction that socialism, as the next economic system will be used to restore the human equality and dignity as was in communal epoch.
Tracing the sequential stages of economic ideological succession represents economic development which exerts control over the “material environment and services”23
When Rodney defined development as an increased skill, capacity greater freedom , and creativity he notice that “the greater quan tity of goods and services were based on greater skills and human inventiveness ”24 and human society passing through “those three respective epochs: hunting band feudalism, capitalism the quality of life improved”25
Despite the fact that every societies e xperienced development, it can known that society can come in contact and there would be intermingling of superstructures in which the weaker one may be weakened more people of Africa have developed even before the advent of colonialism because. “Egypt wa s capable of producing wealth in abundance twenty – five centuries ago, because of mastery of many scientific
natural laws and their invention of technology to irrigate, grow food, and extract minerals from the sub -soil”26.
China also got to the peak of development “Virtually 1,000 years before the birth of Christ it had developed many aspects of technology; and it had many craftsmen and artisans” 27 China never experienced capitalistic tendency.
In China, Religious, educational and bureaucratic qualifications were of utmost importance, and government was in the hands of state officials rather than being run by the land lords”28
Whatever, that constitutes the difference between Chinese and European feudal epoch lies in the superstructure because “there were greater egalitarian tendencies in Chinese band distribution than in the European Land distribution , and the Chinese state owned a great deal of land” 29
Economic development, especially capitalism influences politics of society, just as Rodney would hold At the political level, capitalism was also responsible for most of the features which today are referred to as “western Democracy” 30 because it is mostly the burgiesoies who are the owners of production will also have greater powers as the bureaucrats in the socio – political institutions;
To fulfill their objective of acquiring more and more capital, capitalists took a greater interest in the laws of science which could be harnessed in the form of machinery to work and make profit on their behalf.31
Despite the fact that the phase o f feudal epoch is phasing out, the capitalist used all their power to seize and control “the parliaments, constitution, freedom, it is the peasants that suffer it because they “paid a huge price so that the capitalists could make their profits from the human labour that always lies behind the machines” 33 these peasants constitutes the greater number of people in any human society and gradually they are over throwing capitalism.
There was a period when the capitalist system increased the well-being of significant numbers of people as a by-product of seeking out profits for a few, but today the quest for profits comes into sharp conflict with people’s demands that their materials and social needs should be fulfilled. 34
Capitalist used their societal influence to monopolize science and technology, but it seems that there will be a time when the reverse will be the case because there will clash of iinterest and objective in the profit motive. And there has been expressed dissatisfaction in capitalism as Rodney rightly observed:
Capitalism has proved incapable of transcending such as underutilization of productive capacity , the persistence, and permanent sector of unemployed, and period economic crises related to the concept of “market” which is concerned system with people’s ability to pay rather than their need for commodities35.
Capitalism maybe handing around today in our economic
system with Socialism and communism but that could depict the fact that stages of economic system goes in succession. Capitalism inhere contradiction in the concept of development since there are those who suffer for the ruling class to make their capitalist achievement possible. Capitalism also has its extension which is imper ialism.
Imperialism is itself a phase of capitalist development in which western European capitalist countries , the U.S.A and J apan established political, economic, military and cultural hegemony over other parts of the world which were initially at a lower level and therefore could not resist domination. 36
This has divided the world in to parts: “the exploiters and other exploited: one part being dominated, and the other
acting as overlords, one part making policy and the other being dependent”37 for the rulership of the people to prevail there will be; “a socialist revolution to break the domination of capitalism, and only the rapid tempo of socialist development could make amends for the period of subjugation when growth (is) misdirected and refereed”38
The core areas of development are; psycho-personal development, the intellectual –spiritual, the politico-economic and the scientific -technological areas. Development can also be seen as “an event in conflict, an action in contradic tion a complex of perennial involution of evolution and as well, the unhalting evolution it is both the becoming of being , and the being of becoming. In development, being stands outside itself while remaining concealed within ”.39
Underdevelopment
Underdevelopment is a concept used comparatively to measure level of development in the modern society. It does not really imply total absence of development, since no society is not developed, considering the fact that development is a universal phenomenon
xv. SUMMARY
Influential economists such as Ragnar Nurske saw development and growth largely as a matter of industrialization. Some could not quit e distinguish between industrialization and development: Others such as Rustow confused both with westernization .40
The concept of development has been gravely misconceived by different scholars in differ ent discipline leaving man, in w hom the real development is embedded in , behind. His spiritual and moral aspects are left aside to suffer wanton neglect.
Our effort has been to extricate the concep t of development from the unhollistic perspective of other discipline which spurred Rodney who took from Marx , to perceive it from three out lets which are: Individual, Social and economic level.Rodney may not be a philosophe r per excellence owing totally to the environment and discipline that molded him, but his attempt to delve into deciphering development from material and economic growth, in his intellectual discuss is worthy of philosophical scru tiny.