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The question about what life is remains esoteric in nature. Different interpretations from scholars, religious leaders and those that are often called “beer parlour philosophers” are abounding on the meaning or purpose of life. The basic philosophical presuppositions about the philosophy of life began through ontological wonder. This wonder led to the cosmological speculative analysis of the Milesians. The Milesians considered different primary stuffs such as air, water, aperions etc as the primary constituent of the universe. Questions about human existence and about the primary stuff of the universe cannot be considered without talking about human freedom, how man is saddled with responsibilities and the consequences of his freedom. It is in lieu of this that I have aligned with the thoughts of Jean Paul Sartre, the French philosopher who avers that freedom is the freedom of choosing but not the freedom of not choosing. Not to choose is, in fact, a choice already made. Freedom is therefore a heavy burden laid on man’s shoulder from which there can be no escape; for man is responsible even for the very desire of fleeing his responsibilities. Man at every point in time must always act in accordance to the norms and principle which will reflect a good moral standing because there are consequences for every action. Since philosophy is indeed a reflection of thoughts in our everydayness, we must concur to the norms and ethics of the discipline in order to enhance a better and ideal society. In our modern society, it is now the order of the day to witness several misconducts such as issues concerning the foundations of social order in our society, social justice, wealth creation, distribution and social efficiency with moral sensitivity and concern for the common good etc. It is worthy to note that in this kind of situation, it would be surprising indeed to deny the role of critical and reflective thinking which philosophy is all about. The above mentioned issues, self critical and uncomfortable as they may be, are issues we need to tackle seriously. In other words, if Nigerians are interested in bringing their society back to life then we have to embark on the kind of self-examination that would enable us have a re-think that whenever we perform any action, there are consequences for such actions, so it is better to choose the right actions so as to have a good consequence. It means that man’s freedom should not be used negatively because there are consequences for all actions.
Damilola Olatade is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Philosophy, Lagos State University.
