LECTURE NOTE

ON

HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT I

SOC 211

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 DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
KADUNA STATE UNIVERSITY
SOC 211: HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT I

COURSE OBJECTIVE: The course introduces us to the main contributors

to social thought and to the rise and development of modern Sociology,
including its historical background (both Western and Islamic),
enlightenment, modern classical sociologist and contemporary African
theories about society.
PART I: INTRODUCTION
− OVERVIEW: The historical periods of social thought.
− SOCIOLOGY: Its meaning
− REALITY: Its meaning, character and nature.
− EPISTEMOLOGY: The meaning, sources and validity of knowledge
− The relation of Sociology to philosophy and history.

PART II: SOCIAL THOUGHT IN THE ANCIENT PERIOD

− THE CONTRIBUTION OF IDEALIST PHILOSOPHERS TO SOCIAL
THOUGHT: Brief on the Ontological and Epistemological
contributions of African Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Chinese
Philosophy.
− THE CONTRIBUTION OF MATERIALIST PHILOSOPHERS TO SOCIAL
THOUGHT: Greek Philosophy (Socrates and Plato).

PART III: SOCIAL THOUGHT IN THE MIDDLE AGES

− ARABIC / ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY: Ibn-Khaldun
− WESTERN / CHRISTAIN PHILOSOPHY: Saint Aurelius Augustine

PART IV: AGE OF REASON

a) THE RENAISSANCE: (Empiricism and Science)
Its meaning and factors that led to its emergence. The contributions of Scholars as
Roger Bacon, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas More, and Jean Bodin.

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READING LIST
Abraham, J.H. (1977). Origins and Growth of Sociology. Penguin Books.
Hospers, J. (1996). An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis. 4 th Edition.
Pearson
Mbiti, J. (1969). African Religions and Philosophy. 2 nd Edition
Coser L. (1977). Masters of Sociological Thought. 2 nd Edition. New York
Harcourt Brace.
Nisbet, R.A (1998). Social Philosophers: Community and Conflict in
Western thought.
Swingeword, A. (1991). A Short History of Sociological Thought. 2 nd
Edition. New York. Macmillan

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Introduction
The course introduces us to the main contributors to social thought and the rise and
development of modern Sociology, including its historical background developing from
social thought in the ancient period and how it evolved to the Middle Ages. The course
further discusses the re-birth of knowledge otherwise referred to as the renaissance period
and how scientific knowledge became beneficial to man during the enlightenment and
beyond.

Sociology
Sociology is understood as the scientific or systematic study or understanding of human
beings (society) in their everyday interaction. Sociology is concerned with understanding
events within social contexts, exploring the manifest and latent functions of social
phenomenon, configuration, social dynamics and the patterns and regularities of social
phenomenon.

Ways of Acquiring Sociological Knowledge

Reality (Ontology)

The quest to know started from the observation of things happening around man. This led
him to raise questions about what is reality and what is not reality. As this quest went on, two
camps or schools of thought emerged to explain this. They are:

i. Idealism
ii. Materialism

Idealism

This group believes that the idea of reality pre-exists the reality itself i.e ideas come before
matter, that it is your consciousness spirit and thoughts that determine your reality. Some
strands also exist in this school of thought such as subjective Idealist, objective Idealist,
absolute Idealist, and transcendent Idealist.

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Materialism

This group argued that reality can only be ascertained based on experience or that knowledge
is formed through the objective reality of facts. Experience, they claim precedes the
establishment of reality.

Epistemology

The word epistemology is formed from two Greek words i.e “epistem” which means
knowledge and “logos” which means science or theory. Epistemology, therefore, means the
theory of knowledge. The early Greeks questioned how humans are said to know.
Epistemology is concerned with a wide-ranging (closely knitted) set of philosophical
problems concerning such notions as knowing, belief, understanding, reasoning, perceiving,
feeling, guessing, imagination, remembering, proving, supporting and cognitive notions.

Epistemologists are concerned with three major questions these are:

1. What are the sources and methods of gaining knowledge?

2. Is valid knowledge possible and if yes, what are its limits?
3. What is the nature of truths?

Here we will dwell on the sources of knowledge.

Sources of Knowledge

Sources of knowledge are the various ways through which we can acquire knowledge about a
phenomenon or issue. There are four ways in which we can classify these:

1. Sense Experience
2. Reasoning
3. Mysticism: Intuition, Revelation, Faith
4. Authority

Sense Experience

There are five eternal sense organs through which we perceive the world these are: The eye
for seeing, the Ear for hearing, the Tongue for tasting, the Nose for smelling, and the skin for
feeling/touching. Sense Experience is the primary source of knowledge because it is by their
use that we come to know about the existence of objective reality. However, the organs are
not infallible (incapable of error) they might sometimes fail, and they can distort our
perception, the distortion can come through, hallucination, delusion, or illusion.

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The manners in which the five senses can deceive us are classified into two (2):

1. Universal perceptual error

2. Idiosyncratic perceptual error

Universal Perceptual Error

This is the type of error made by anybody. Irrespective of where he is on the globe. An
example is when you look at a stick submerged in water, it looks bent even though it is
straight outside the water but everybody sees it bend in the water. So long as it is an error that
everyone is bound to make, it is not a problem.

Idiosyncratic Perceptual Error

These are the errors that result from our background which colours our interpretation and
view concerning a phenomenon. This means that our various experiences and background
determines how we interpret reality. Particular experiences can condition the way we view
reality.

Empiricists are those who rely on the sense organs to perceive issues or things for example,
empiricists will ask you how God exist, spirit and other gods because they can't be
empirically felt issues such as beauty, goodness, kindness e.t.c do not exist to an empiricist.
Sense experience is basic to knowledge, it is verifiable nonetheless, it has limitations.

Internal sense organs also enable us to experience certain things, this has more to do with
feelings i.e feelings that come from the inside. This kind of feeling from the internal sense
organ is valid only within the limit of an individual and not about the world around the
individual. e.g I am feeling sick, I feel drowsy etc it is important to be careful about this type
of knowledge because it cannot be used to make justified claims about the world.

Reasoning as a Source of Knowledge

Reasoning on its own involves some mental process involving thinking, it is arrived at by
figuring things out via a network in the brain. People engage in reasoning when they have a
certain statement as the basis for making one or more statements. In other words, when they
have one or more statements called the premises of an argument and use this to infer another
statement called the conclusion of the argument.

In this type of knowledge, you start from something which you already know to make a
statement (i.e you start from a fact).

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There are two basic types of reasoning

i. Deductive Reasoning
ii. Inductive Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

This is the process by which you take an argument called the major premise and from that
premise, you can conclude. A valid argument needs not necessarily be a true issue. Deductive
reasoning has Major Premise, Minor Premise and Conclusion. For example, An aircraft
crashed, and everybody in the plane died (Major Premise), Comfort was in the plane and
therefore Comfort died. You can have a valid argument even though the premise is not true
but the argument is true e.g Baduku is the Head of the Department, Buhari is the president of
Nigeria, therefore, El rufai is the Governor of Kaduna State. All the above statements are
true, but it doesn’t relate to each other.

Inductive Reasoning

This is the movement from the particular to general, particular in this case doesn't mean few,
it is the thing we do every day. We argue inductively when we may know the truth of the
premises, but we still do not know the conclusion for certainty. In other words, the premises
provide evidence for the conclusion but not complete evidence. We use inductive reasoning
everyday cases in court are often determined by inductive reasoning. For example, a judge
may consider a few pieces of evidence before him and conclude the case, when proven
beyond any reasonable doubt. Tasting of little gain to determine its sourness, punching a sack
of rice to examine it, are all inductive

Science flourishes on deductive reasoning, this is because any result thereof will have
universal validity e.g the discovery of electricity. The truth that is from deductive reasoning
doesn't leave room for doubts while the conclusions made from inductive reasoning are
probability(ies), but for deductive, truth has already been established.

Mysticism

We use the term to denote all those sources of knowledge that can't be subjected to empirical
verification or testing. INTUITION, REVELATION and FAITH.

i. Intuition: This is a process through which we claim to know certain things but cannot
explain how we get to know them. Knowledge got without conscious thinking.

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 ii. Revelation: This comes from the word 'Reveal' this can either be through the Quran
or the Bible, hearing from God this form of knowledge is not verifiable, it is revealed
to someone in a dream, or vision and can't be verified, however, they cannot be
disqualified.
iii. Faith: This is a belief without an objective basis it cannot be established by scientific
facts e.g the Christian and the Muslim (Faith) constitutes a strong basis of knowledge
in some realms but in the sociological endeavour we do not believe in them, even
though it has been proved over the years to be effective.

Authority

As the name suggests is a claim to knowledge which is not based on the person's experience
but on what has been said by another whom the person considers being an authority in that
area e.g consulting Prof Godswill’s works on Demography and believing the same to be true.
Authority is a secondary source of knowledge while the others above are primary sources.
The authority of experts can only be in their area of specialization. Authority within the same
field sometimes does conflict and so when we accept another person's statement of authority,
we should be able to find out for ourselves whether the statement is true or not, if we are to
take the time and trouble.

African Philosophy
There are no people in the world that has no philosophy. It is believed by the western world
that Africans had no philosophy. If philosophy is considered based on documenting ideas and
notions of reality Africa indeed had no place in philosophy.

Philosophy can be defined as a logical inquiry into the world around us. But in a broader
definition, philosophy can be defined as the understanding, attitude of mind, logic and
perception behind how a people live. If we conceive philosophy in this way, then we have to
conclude that Africa and indeed other people had their philosophy. Since they had things that
colour their views. African philosophy can be found in proverbs, myths, tradition, folk and
above all Religion. Religion is a way of life in Africa, an African man is notoriously
religious. Africa has ways of worship, pouring, libation sacrificing animals etc in terms of
crises people resort back to religion, if there is nothing to worship, an African will create one.
Therefore, African Philosophy is synonymous with African religion.

There are various religions in Africa but their characteristics are similar.

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Characteristics of African Philosophy

i. There are sacred scriptures to study.

ii. The religions in Africa are not universal, they are unique to tribes and ethnic
groups.
iii. There are no missionaries to preach them.
iv. There are no conversations, a person born into a religious belief hardly renounces
it for another God.
v. There are no founders no reformers. They may however incorporate national
heroes, leaders etc.
vi. There is a belief in the continuation of life after death, but this belief doesn’t
automatically translate into hope for a better future life. Life hereafter is
conceived in materialistic and physical terms.
vii. There is no belief in any Messiah or that the world will end one day. African
man's act of worship is to only affect his life on earth and nothing more.

African Ontology

African ontology is a religious one, and this religious ontology is Anthropocentric (Man
Centred) but it constitutes five major elements:

1. God
2. Spirit
3. Man
4. Biological Life
5. Inanimate Objects

gods spirits

Man

Biological Inanimate
life Objects
The Anthropocentric nature of African ontology

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God is seen as the originator and the sustainer of man, man's shapes and destiny. Spiritual
beings are made up of super-human beings and the spirit of men who had died a long time
ago and it is these spirits that explain the destiny of man. Animals and Plants (Biological life)
from the environment are meant for the consumption of man. Inanimate objects are
phenomena and objects without biological life e.g Moon, Sun, Atmosphere etc. And Man is
the centre of all these united elements, and man includes human beings who are alive and
who are yet to be born.

This anthropocentric ontology is a complete unity (exist as one) or solidarity in which

nothing can break up or destroy. To destroy or remove one of these categories is to destroy
the whole existence including the destruction of the creator, which is impossible (the
implication for this is that the world will live forever). In addition to these five elements,
there is also a belief in a force or power permeating the whole universe. God is the source and
ultimate controller of this force but the spirits have access to some of it this is why they can
explain the destiny of man. In addition, a few humans can also tap in to manipulate and use
this force and these few human beings are sorcerers, witches, rainmakers witch doctors etc.
Some use it for the good of man while others use it to oppress or destroy humans.

African Epistemology (Traditional African Concept of Time)

Time to Africans, according to John Mbiti is denoting some events going on. Time is of
little or no academic concern to African people in their traditional life. For them, time is
simply a composition of events which have occurred, which are taking place now and which
are immediately likely to occur. Instead of the numerical calendar that we know, the Africans
had an event of phenomenon calendar, e.g using the market days or the rising of the moon.
Time in Africa is made when something will happen. There are three dimensions of time,
these are Actual Time, Potential Time and No time.

i. Actual Time depicts events that have happened or are known to be happening
currently.
ii. Potential Time is the time in which the events are likely to occur shortly.
iii. No time is a time in which events are likely to happen in a far/distant future.

There are consequences of viewing time in a phenomenon or event calendar.

i. Time is now reckoned not in a vacuum or abstraction or arbitrary terms but in

terms of specific events.

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 ii. Because time is measured in terms of the past and the present, we find that we are
dealing with a backwards rather than a forward phenomenon
iii. The explanation for what we see is looked for in the past because knowledge lies
in actual time and the actual time is in the past.
iv. Finally, history can therefore be seen as a series of events or experiences and not
dates. Time is not demarcated in figures.

Indian Philosophy
Indian Philosophy, like African Philosophy, is closely tied to religion. Religion at this period
played a significant role in determining the patterns of lives of people in India. Although
there are many religions practised in India, for the sake of this course, we will be looking at
the basic tenets of Hinduism and how it served to fashion people’s lives in India and
elsewhere around the world.

Hinduism

With over 900 million followers around the world, Hinduism is arguably the world's oldest
religion. Its roots date back over 4,000 years. Hinduism is believed to be the third-largest
religion after Christianity and Islam. About 95% of its faithful live in India. Hinduism is
considered not a single religion but a combination of many traditions and philosophies.
Therefore, it can be referred to as a polytheist religion (belief in many Gods) and among
these Gods, there are three major ones.

i. Brahman (Creator)
ii. Vishnu (Preserver)
iii. Siva (Destroyer)

Hindus Ontology can be reduced to two doctrines', these are Samsara Doctrines and Karma
Doctrines.

i. Samsara means transmigration of the soul.

ii. Karma is the belief that one's doing in a formal life determines his present state in
life.

Both doctrines rest upon the dust and believe in the immortal soul which must pass through
several reincarnations, and they have been regarded as being fatalistic i.e if you behave well
in your present life you will come back and enjoy the future life.

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The Hinduism epistemology rests on two doctrines

1. Ahimsa: This is a doctrine of no violence. You should not be violent to anybody.

They avoid violent acts not just to humans but also to animals. As such they do not eat
flesh, most of them are vegetarians.
2. Varna: It has to do with the Indian caste system. the Hindu society is divided into
classes referred to as a caste, (this is the division of people into classes based on
status). This system discourages status mobility. The class you belong to determines
your neighbourhood, the food you eat, the partner you marry etc. The caste system is
deeply embedded in Indian society, there are five strata in the caste system:
i. Brahman (Priestly Class) highest class.
ii. Rajanya (Governing Class) military and warriors etc.
iii. Vaisya (Merchants, Business Men e.t.c)
iv. Sudra (Labourer Class)
v. Harijans (Class of the Untouchables)

One of the main beliefs of Hinduism is "ATMAN" which translates to "belief in the soul".
This philosophy argues that every living thing has a soul and they are all part of the supreme
soul. The ultimate aim of Hindu philosophy is not just to re-incarnate as a better person but it
is to achieve MOKSHA (this is the liberation/release of the soul from the imprisonment of
the embodied existence) which is why the occasion of their death is usually a joyful one.

To achieve Moksha there are four basic ways Hindus must follow:

1. Way of Action: (Karma Yoga): This supply means that the Hindu man must perform
his duties according to his place in life.
2. Way of Knowledge: (Jnana Yoga): This concerns the philosophical and
psychological way of knowing yourself. It concerns meditation, it concerns practising
self-denial.
3. Way of Devotion: (Bhakti Yoga): This one has to do with devotion/relevance to
divine beings.
4. Way of Composure: (Raja Yoga): This has to do with special posture, (the way you
walk, eat, breathe, think, pray etc) in the way you live and do things.

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Buddhism

It is generally believed to have originated through Gautama Siddhartha (the Buddha) more
than 2500 years ago in India. It is believed to have over 470 million. Gautama was a prince
and it was believed that while his mother was pregnant, she had a dream where a white
elephant entered her stomach. It is believed that the white elephant was given birth to as the
first buddha. His birth was miraculous and, when he was 29 years old, he became curious
about the meaning of life. He wondered why a man has to be born, suffer, grow old and die.
He gave up his family, his possession, and his princely status to spend the next six years
moving from Swamis to Gurus to get an answer. But he got no satisfactory answer. Then he
tried meditation, fasting, yoga and extreme self-denial, but still couldn't get an answer. While
he was sitting under a tree, he got an answer to his question. He came to the realisation that
the answer is found in the conscience of man.

The Buddhas do not believe in a divine or supreme being, they are concerned about being
enlightened by achieving inner peace and wisdom. By achieving this spiritual state, one is
believed to achieve Nirvana. To achieve Nirvana a Buddha is expected to follow two ways:

1. Take the middle way by avoiding the extremes. Avoid extreme self-denial and
extreme self-indulgence.
2. Accept the four noble truths:
i. The world is coloured with suffering.
ii. The root of this suffering is craving (desire) to satisfy or gratify our instincts,
pleasure and passions.
iii. To end suffering, therefore, you have to put an end to human cravings, desire,
greed, envy, etc
iv. To put an end to craving, we must follow the eight (8) fold paths:
 Right Views
 Right Aspiration
 Right Speech
 Right Conduct
 Right Livelihoods
 Right Efforts
 Right Mindfulness
 Right Contemplation

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Chinese Philosophy
Chinese Philosophy refers to the several schools of thought that existed in the Chinese
tradition. Here, we will focus on the period of the “Warring States” between the 5th century
B.C. also called the period of the “Hundred Schools of Thought”. This period was
characterised by warfare and bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It was also
a period of significant intellectual and cultural developments. Many schools came up in
trying to explain solutions to the problems that marred Chinese society in this period. The
two major schools that emerged were:

i. Taoism
ii. Confucianism

These two schools have similar philosophies because they based their philosophies on the
concept of TAO.

What is TAO?

TAO founded by Laotzu (tzu means master, lao means old) is a philosophical concept that
when translated will mean way or path. It is regarded as a divine will on how things should
be done so that harmony can come back to Chinese society.

Taoism

Taoism is more idealistic such that it argues that you should try to be passive, have no envy,
no greedy e.t.c and take refuge with nature and TAO will pass through you. As such if a
significant number of people in the society should do so, there will not be war in China. The
ultimate way through which society can achieve peace is by following TAO by shunning
worldly things.

Confucianism

Confucianism is another way of ensuring TAO which is more practical it listed ways/things
you should do to ensure harmony, peace, and order e.t.c in Chinese society. Everybody is
given his responsibility in society according to his role or status in society. Kung fu tzu, the
founder of Confucianism argues that you have to teach people how to behave for tao to pass
through them. He set out to establish new conducts that will enable people to attain tao. He
maintained that every citizen from the top to the least should learn to carry out his/her
responsibility towards one another. He employed the concept of LI to capture the principles

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of TAO and the required conducts. Of all things that people live by, LI is the greatest, without
LI we do not know how to conduct a proper worship of the spirit of the universe or how to
establish the proper status of the kings and the ministers, the rulers and the ruled or the elders
and the juniors or how to establish the moral relationship between the sexes, between parents
and children and between brothers or how to distinguish the different degrees of relationship
in the family.

Greek Philosophy
The Greek philosophers are regarded as the first real philosophers because they were the first
to start systematic retrospective analysis or thinking about reality and the nature of the world
around us without giving religious explanations. They are the ones who paved the
fundamentals question of philosophy; “What is real in life” and also were the first to identify
material things as basic reality e.g Thales of Miletus argued that water is the basis of reality
because it can exist in all three forms of matter, Solid, Liquid and Gas. Anaximander of
Miletus argued that Apeiron is the basis of reality, Apeiron is an indestructible, boundless,
uncreated, unconstructive, substance and it is from this substance that all other substances
emerged. Anaximenes of Miletus argued that air is the basis of reality because it shares the
attributes of both water and Apeiron. Pythagoras of Samos argued that mathematics could
be used to describe everything that exists, therefore numbers are what constitute basic
reality. Etc. We will look at Socrates and Plato in brief. (Please refer to the detailed
presentation we had in class about Plato and Socrates).

Socrates

Socrates was a mentor of Plato, Socrates was a Gadfly seen as being antagonistic to the
government, he was accused of corrupting the youths with radicalism and so he was tried in a
court and sentenced to death by suicide. His life was governed by two principles.

i. Never do wrong or participate in wrongdoing no matter how small.

ii. Also, he believed that knowing the good is doing the good.

Plato

Plato is an objective idealist his philosophy is summarised in the table below:

Ontology Epistemology Politics Society

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Universal Absolute knowledge Philosopher Kings Men of Gold
forms/ideas/concept Guardian Class
Mathematical Object Hypothetical Auxiliary Guardian class Men of Silver
Knowledge (Military and Warriors)
Physical Object Belief (Opinion) The Artisan Class Men of Bronze
(Labourers Craft, Men
Farmers, Traders e.t.c)
Images and Shadows Imagination Slave Class Men of Wood

To Plato what is more real in the world is the universal ideas and they exist in a different
world of ideas and they are more real than the material. Next to ideas is Mathematical objects
followed by Physical object and then Images and Shadows (Ontology).

In his epistemology, he argued that philosophers can have absolute knowledge of universal
ideas and so should be made kings. So they are referred to as Men of Gold and the same goes
for the other Columns.

Plato argues that for societies to maintain such an arrangement, philosophers should tell those
in the lower classes noble lies. Plato's philosophy is a kind of ideology. “The human race will
not be free of evil, until either the stock of those who rightly and truly follow philosophy
acquire political authority or the class who have acquired political authority is led by some
dispensation of providence to become real philosophers". He believes in the division of
labour and preached a hierarchical society.

Islamic Philosophy
It is Islamic not Arabic because not all philosophers are Arab. Ontologically all the scholars
here tend to accept God as the Supreme Being and so their epistemology will be where our
concentration will be based. All of them held certain beliefs and you have to believe in such
things before you will be able to know. Also, some of them like Abu Al Farabi, Ibn Sina
and Ibn Rus’d argue that it is possible to use some scientific procedures or philosophical
thinking to establish the existence of God or other material things. While others like Al
Ghazzali argue that science and philosophy cannot be used to explain the existence of God.
Rather he favoured the use of mysticism as a superior tool to reasoning as a source of
knowledge. He argues that we can only truly know through prophetic inspiration (divine
revelation) from God himself. The Islamic philosophers believed in the way of the Fatihah,
Pillars of belief and observance. These three things form the basis of Islamic philosophy.

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 1. Al-Fatihah: The way of the Fatihah is; “in the name of God, Most Precious, Most
Merciful, Praise be to God, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the World, Most Gracious,
Most Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgement, You Alone we Worship and Your
Aid we Seek, Show us the Straight Way, The Way of those on Whom Thou has
Bestowed thy Grace, Those Whose Position is not Wrath and Who goes not Astray.
2. Pillars of Belief: You must believe in these (5) five ways before you can learn.
i. Believe in One God
ii. Believe in Angels
iii. Believe in many Prophets but one Message
iv. Believe in Judgement day
v. Believe in God’s omniscience, omnipotent and omnipresence
3. Pillars of Observance
i. A good Muslim should repeat the Testimony of Faith.
ii. Prayers: A good Muslim should pray 5 times a day.
iii. A good Muslim should also give arms to the poor.
iv. A good Muslim should also fast.
v. A good Muslim should strive to perform the Hajj at least once in a lifetime.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)

His full name is Abdul Zaid, Abdul Rahman Ibn Khaldun. He tries a middle point to
reconcile the Muzalities (Abu Al Farabi, Ibn Sina and Ibn Rus’d) and the Asharities (Al
Ghazzali) and so he argued that the concern of philosophers should not be about which is
superior rather it should be born in mind that the objects of both sources are different, reason
can see historical causes not ontological. God through revelation is the teacher of ontological
courses, reason can grasp the limited phenomenon but revelation introduces the limitless and
so he argues that knowledge could be gotten through the senses and that makes him an
Empiricist, he also said that knowledge comes through reflective thinking, which makes him
a Rationalist. He also said that knowledge can come from God, and that makes him a
Mystics. In his works, Mysticism is hardly found rather rationalism and empiricism
dominate.

His major contribution to Sociology is contained in his book Ilm al Umran meaning the
science of civilization. This science according to him is neither philosophy nor theology. It is
not a prescriptive science, it is an empirically ground science concerned with the nature of

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properties of man. His major objective was to explain the rise and fall of nations and so is an
enquiry into how man has lived in the past and how his behaviour is determined by external
natural forces. This science proceeds with the assumption that

a. Man is a social being

b. Culture is geographically determined
c. Society is made up of complex interests.

This science makes use of historical records but it should be noted that Ibn Khaldun was
contemptuous of historians before his time and the way they recorded events for the
following reasons.

i. What we see as records are mere mechanical recordings of events.

ii. Secondly, such accounts exhibited partnership in opinion rather than being
dispassionate in their opinion or detached they were bais in recordings.
iii. Thirdly, Historians tend to exaggerate and make unfounded assumptions, they
prefer extraordinary, fanciful and supernatural events and so they tend to
exaggerate figures.
iv. Fourthly, they lack appreciation and sensitivity to the dynamics of change i.e they
cannot explain social change.

The Distinguishing Factors of Ibn Khaldun’s New Science

The new science proposed by Khaldun has the following characteristics:

i. Ability to make a distinction between conditions that are necessary to social

organization and those that are accidental. With this ability, you can distinguish
facts from fiction. The precondition for this distinction is to have a wide range of
data.
ii. Ability to view things holistically, historical records must be seen in the context of
other writers/fields. He said, "The Scholar in this field need to know the principles
of politics, the true nature of an existing thing and the differences among nations,
places and periods concerning the way of life, character, quality, sex, school of
thought, customs etc ”.
iii. It also embodies the critical comparative method, which involves identifying
different levels of comparison (in terms of place, person, time etc.). To determine
the validity of historical information he said "if the historian trusts historical
information in its claim transmitted form and his no clear knowledge of the
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 principles resulting from custom, the fundamental facts of politics, the nature of
civilization, or the conditions governing social organization and if further-more it
does not evaluate the mode of ancient materials through comparison with mere
material, it often cannot avoid deviating from the way of truth.”
iv. This science of civilisation also entails a focus on the empirically verifiable to the
exclusion of the speculative. He observed that social phenomena must observe
laws that are constant and regular and these constant laws can be identified
through observation.

Christian Philosophy
Christian philosophy believes that for you to have the knowledge you have to believe in the
Christian doctrine (truth).

i. Believe in God
ii. Believe in Creation
iii. Believe in Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.
iv. Believe in Adam and Eve.

St. Augustine Aurelius (354-430AD)

St. Augustine was born in Algeria to a family of a Christian mother and a pagan father, but he
was brought up in a Christian way by his mother. Later in life, they realized how
intellectually inclined he was, at age of 19 he abandoned Christianity because he felt there are
fundamental questions which Christendom could not explain. He joined the religion of the
Manichean (a philosophy + religions group) again his question could not be answered there.
He left and joined Neo-Platonism, again his question about the world could not still be
answered and he later came back to Christianity on his coming back to Christianity it was
believed that it was due to his contributions that led to the conversion of Saul to Paul on his
way to Damascus. His philosophical thinking can be referred to as a crisis of faith. (Because
of the inconsistency in his belief). St Augustine was also interested in the fortune of the
Roman Empire because the Roman Empire was under attack and people began to doubt the
existence and strength of the Christian God he was also concerned with the crises of the
Roman Empire. In the main, his philosophy tries to address two issues;

1. His crises of faith. The resolution of his crises he tried to explain in his work “The
Confessions” (Ontology and Epistemology)

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 2. The crises of the Roman state and the ways of resolution of these crises are what he
established in his greatest work “City of God” (political philosophy).

Ontology

God to him is the most real and the least reality in life is evil in between are those of Plato;

GOD = UNIVERSAL FORMS = MATHEMATICAL OBJECT = PHYSICAL OBJECT =

IMAGES AND SHADOW = EVIL.

Creation is the will of a good God, nothing exists or comes into being without the divine will
of God. But goodness is in degrees, and since goodness is in degrees existence is also in
degrees. Ontologically people questioned him as to who created God and if really reality
comes from God. Secondly, if God created the world in 6 days what about those things that
developed after the six days

1. He answered that creation exists within time, he said, since creation occurs within
time, time did not exist before God created time.
2. God in creating such things in the bible gave them the potential to develop other
things and it is called (Rationale, Seminales/Causales) i.e programmed potentiality to
multiply and reproduce.

Epistemology

Epistemologically, he also graded it.

Belief or faith in God is held above all others. This belief in God must be from God. God
give you the knowledge to believe before it is regarded as valid.

His Politics

This has to do with the crises of the Roman Empire i.e Why is Rome declining, he addressed
it in his work “The city of God” in this work he was aided by two concepts;

1. The concept of the two invincible cities.

2. The concept of the visible society.
1. The concept of the two invincible cities: they tried to explain the history of cities as
relations between the earthly city and the heavenly city both of which are invincible.
he said that even while on earth people can be categorized as dwellers of the city of
God and the city of man. Those who live in the city of man are those who love the

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 things of the world more than God and vice-versa. He argued that when men in the
city of man are higher, the city will experience declination.
Invisible cities according to him are fabricated by two loves; the earthy city by the
love of self even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God even to the
contempt of self, the former in a word glorifies the self and the later glorifies God".
The earthly city is made up of people who live according to the rule of man, the
gratification of passion and are dominated by self-love and are predestined for eternal
torment or hell.
The heavenly city is the dwelling place of men dominated by the love of God, they
live according to God and are predestined for eternal bliss. There is always a conflict
according to him between these two cities, he believed that the Roman Empire then
was dominated by those in the city of man.
2. With the visible society, he tried to explain the relationship between the state and the
church. In the secular sphere (state), he said a man is an animal but not a political
animal as such man does not need the state but the church. To him, the critical
problem for political philosophy was the relationship between church and state. To
him God wishes us to have a rule of free men but what we have is the rule of men
based on coercion. The main argument behind his philosophy is that men of God
(Christians) should take overpower and rule society, to prepare the man of the earthly
city for the heavenly city.

St Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274)

St Aquinas was one of the great Christian thinkers. His concern was not so much different
from that of St Augustine. They argue that knowledge can be developed by a man using logic
and so he also believed in the power of reasoning, but that reasoning should be subsumed in
theology.

Ontology

His ontology is in gradation. He believes that there is a chain of being which corresponds to
the level of the reality of that thing in existence.
God Angels Man Animals Plants Primary Elements (Earth, Air,
Water, and other Matter)
The position of placement of any particular being in the chain corresponds to its level of
existence, yet every link in this chain is deemed to be vital and divinely ordained.

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Aquinas’ Five Ways

Through his five ways, Aquinas tried to establish the existence of God and argued that
rational beings can think in these ways to establish the existence of God.
1. The theory of the unmoved mover: He said things are always moving. Movement is
a defining attribute of all living and non-living things as such, you can say the
movement is from a superior being to an inferior being. Therefore, there must be
someone somewhere who moves others but cannot be moved and this unmoved
mover is God.
2. The Divine Craftsman theory: The way things are organised in society will make
you feel that someone is organising or arranging such things in the society and since
things are perfectly arranged, Aquinas argued that God is the designer of reality and
so he is called the Divine Craftsman.
3. Dependability of everything / the contingent character of being: Everything on
earth depends on another and reasoning in that line will lead you to the fact that there
is a being that is not dispensable and independent and that indispensable being is God.
4. The theory of good and bad things: To Aquinas, good and bad things do not exist
on their own. As much as something is good, there is something better than that, and
so it goes. One has to reason that there must be someone that is the best and that best
of all good things is God. God is the most beautiful of all beautiful things and the
prettiest of all prettiest things, who can not be a mortal.
5. The argument about Order: Order simply means a well-organised way of life. Even
though different people engage in different activities at the same time in different
places, all these activities are orderly and arranged and so God is said to be the being
who puts these things in order and controls them.

Renaissance (Empiricism and Science)

Renaissance means Rebirth. There is no generally accepted or specified period in which the
renaissance can be said to have taken place, there are different periods presented by different
scholars, but for the sake of this course, we will take the period of the 14 th – 16th century (i.e
1300 – 1599).

The renaissance started with the publication of a book by Dante, titled “Divine Comedy” his
publication made people begin to have critical thoughts about things, and the publication in
general led to the rebirth of knowledge.
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Factors that led to the Renaissance

1. The growth of towns, trade (mercantilism) and population, as towns became bigger,
the population of people increased and economic activities (trade) were also
increasing or developing and this will bring about the struggle for survival which
made people start thinking more widely and intensely.
2. Extensive travels became possible through the effort of bold men and technological
development for example Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magiland. As
these men travel they meet different people of different cultures and they imbibe
their different ideas. Which tend to change their already perceived ideas about the
existence of things.
3. Expansion of the urban middle class, hitherto feudalism was the common mode of
production, and as the middle class expands the serfs began to feel that they are
been exploited as such they revolted against the lords and it led to several peasant
revolts/rebellions.
4. The decline in the power of the pope. Popes in the period were becoming corrupt
and as a result, people began to revolt and question the powers of the pope, strong
monarchies aroused and challenged the authority of the pope over them and this led
to kings also revolting against the authority of the pope e.g King Henry VIII who
revolted and founded the Anglican church because he wanted to marry a second
wife who could bear him a male child.

Characteristics of the Renaissance period

1. People began to discard the notion of the original sin, they questioned it by saying that
why should a man suffer for a sin committed by another?
2. There was an increase in literacy level as everybody became curious to know what is
happening around him and also a bit to try and justify the teachings of the religious
faith.
3. There was also a belief in the goodness of man, that since God is good and he created
man in his image automatically man is also good.
4. The secular power of the pope was questioned due to the rise of other powerful
monarchies and the involvement of the pope in corruption.
5. People in this period also believed in free will, that is people are free to act in any way
and they also can change their destiny and direct it in a way they want.

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 6. People also came to the belief that salvation can come from the work of man himself
and not necessarily going through another person.
7. People also accepted the fact that substantial knowledge can be gotten from the
pagans and not only from religious teachings.
8. There was also a moderate level of technological development which led to the
beginning of printing.
9. Scientific disciplines also emerged as separate disciplines from the realm of
philosophy, before the renaissance period all aspects of knowledge were subsumed
into the realm of philosophy. It was also at this period that people like Nicholas
Copernicus attempted to prove that the sun rather than the earth is at the centre of the
universe. During this period knowledge became more scientific and empirical.

Renaissance Thinkers

1. Roger Bacon: (A French Philosopher) lived from 1214-1292

He was one of the first people to understand and put forward a new method of science based
upon experimentation and what he called the "positive inductive method". He postulated
that the way to approach science is through making observations, classification of the
observed phenomenon and finally accepting some findings, rejecting others that do not fit and
making generalizations based on these. He identified four (4) principal obstacles to
knowledge, they are as thus:
1. Frail and unworthy authority, are authorities from persons who are not
professionals in the field, in other words, unauthentic authority.
2. Long-established Customs, are customs that even though are not right one must
accept as it is because it is so established by authority.
3. Popular Opinion, in this case, people believe what they know to be the best
because others also hold similar opinions.
4. Individual Pretences to Knowledge, most people pretend to know certain things,
which is not true.
2. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
He was well known for his work titled “The Prince” this book contains radical ideas when
compared with the situation of his time, in this book Machiavelli argues that it does not
matter how a leader gets into power, what matters is how one uses the power. Also, it does
not matter whether a leader is nice by nature but what matters is how successful the leader is

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in the statecraft (government). A leader must always put the interest of the state above that of
individuals (citizens). Sometimes he needs to be firm and ruthless, 'the best ruler is one who
can combine the unscrupulous craftiness of the fox with the merciless ferocity of the lion', to
him the end justifies the means. What matters most is what you achieve in the end, but it does
not matter how you achieve it.
He feels that the state must be separated from the church he says "when the entire safety of
our country is at stake, no consideration of what is just or unjust, merciful or cruel,
praiseworthy or shameful, must intervene… that course must be taken which preserves the
existence of the state and maintains its sovereignty".
3. Thomas More (1478-1535)
He was known for his work titled “Utopia” his idea in the book is that society will become
better off if it is based on fraternity and equality.
He proposes an alternative form of government and society, this Utopian society is an
imaginary one in which cooperation and equal distribution of worth is the basis of social
organization, and the Utopian society is an egalitarian fraternal society in which everyone
engages in agriculture in addition to other endeavours. This society is similar to a socialist
society but here it is the aristocrats who are charged with securing the corporate interest of
the whole.
4. JEAN BODIN (1530-1596)
His major contribution is in the political arena, where he developed the theory of Political
Sovereignty like Machiavelli he made a distinction between the state and the church and
argue that the state is above the church, the state is sovereign, the state can be guided by
international and divine law, he said: "The sovereign state is absolute in circular matters
though they remain subject to divine law, the law of nature and law of nations". He is
acknowledged as one of the first to establish a theory of Geographical determinism (i.e your
geographical location determines your personality). The psychology of the government
should be attuned to the psychology of the people i.e if the people are aggressive the
government should also be aggressive and to know the psychology of the people you must
study their environment or climate first.

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