Microsoft Word - IGWEBUIKE JOURNAL VOL. 5. NO. 5.docx IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities Vol. 5 No 5, September 2019. ISSN: 2488-9210(Online) 2504-9038(Print) (A Publication of Tansian University, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies) 189 A REVIEW OF IGWEBUIKE AND THE QUESTION OF SUPERIORITY OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY OF KNOWLEDGE BY PROF. ANTHONY IKECHUKWU KANU, O.S.A Jude I. Onebunne, PhD Department of Philosophy Faculty of Arts Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka ji.onebunne@unizik.edu.ng This paper was published in 2017. It tends to place Igwebuike within the ambience of proper identity. To know is very natural and in congruence with the natural identity of man since man by nature desires to know. To know is congenital to man as homo cogitans. Hence, to the ancient Greek aphorism know thyself, Socrates, an Athenian moral philosopher was popular in his use of the Delphic maxim Man Know thyself. By implication, it seems very much true that man’s sojourn on earth is within the bounds of knowledge. This knowledge, which is either empirical or rational (ideological), and according to Francis Bacon is power has Universal application. Man’s quest for knowledge has been as old as humanity. In the chequered history of man, there is this old desire to know and then become which go hand in hand. At the dawn of creation in this quest for the superior knowledge, the quest to know and become will continue placing humanity with Divinity and it has brought us to where we are now as mortal-finite beings. The episode at the building of the tower of Babel remains a pointer. Looking at the history of knowledge and powers of knowledge, Kanu discovers a kind of silent but healthy rivalry which is very necessary for scientific progress and functional scholarship. Each epoch of human development shows this manifestation of the universal application of knowledge over time. This, of course, can lead to or become an avenue for healthy competition. Kanu tried looking at different fields of human inquiry which placed knowledge at par or even superior to every human endeavour. In a continuous attempt at discovering and conquering the world, man has used and applied knowledge as the greatest instrument at his disposal trying to know the basic constituent, which is the urstoff of things that exists. He, however, showed through all the epochs of philosophical traditions that there are fragments of knowledge, IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities Vol. 5 No 5, September 2019. ISSN: 2488-9210(Online) 2504-9038(Print) (A Publication of Tansian University, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies) 190 presenting varying perspectives about reality, scattered across the history of philosophy. Nevertheless, Kanu admits that Knowledge with its end product as truth is one. In the scientific community of knowing, each discipline seeks this truth, as knowledge, in their specialty through one discipline, department and faculty. As Kanu rightly puts it: in knowledge, there are diverse units that make up an entity within the frame work of the whole. However, going through different pedestals and highest form of general human understanding, knowledge (divided as arts or science) is categorized as such as Philosophy, Theology and Science over the centuries. Kanu in this paper shows different but distinguishing factors and popular nuances of meaning with regard to the place of Philosophy (as ancilla thelogiae), Theology (as mater scientia) and Science (as empirically verifiable) within the community of knowledge. In the face of all these, Igwebuike Philosophy as modality of being as well as communalistic philosophy of solidarity and complementarity within African Philosophy makes great contribution by providing ontological horizon that presents being as that which possesses a relational character of mutual relations. From this Igwebuike philosophical perspective, knowledge which we know has universal application is too broad to be captured by just a person’s theory, within an epoch or by mere schools of thought. However, that complementary aspect of knowledge that seeks wisdom and deals with every reality as expressed in Igwebuike philosophy as well as in African Philosophy is the same contextualized philosophy as part of the world philosophical heritage and thereof the consummate foundation for the superiority in the scientific community of Knowledge. Bibliography Kanu, I. A. (2017). Igwebuike as an Igbo-African Ethic of Reciprocity. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 3 No 2. IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities Vol. 5 No 5, September 2019. ISSN: 2488-9210(Online) 2504-9038(Print) (A Publication of Tansian University, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies) 191 Kanu, I. A. (2017). Igwebuike as a wholistic Response to the Problem of Evil and Human Suffering. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol. 3 No 2. Kanu, I. A. (2017). Igwebuike and and Logic (NKA) of African Philosophy”. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol.3 No1. Kanu, I. A. (2017). Igwebuike and Question of Superiority in the Scientific Community of Knowledge. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities.Vol.3 No1. Kanu, I. A. (2015a). A hermeutic approach to the study of African Traditional Religion, Theology and Philosophy. Nigeria: Augustinian Publications. Kanu, I. A. (2015b). African philosophy: An ontologico-existential hermeneutic approach to classical and contemporary issues. Nigeria: Augustinian Publications. Kanu, I. A. (2016a). Igwebuike as a trend in African philosophy. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol.2. No. 1.[ 97-101]. Kanu, I. A. (2016b). Igwebuike as an Igbo-African hermeneutic of globalization. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities. Vol.2. No.1. [1-7].