T. U. NWALA ON THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND NON-SCIENCE

Abstract

The debate on the relation between Science and Non-science is an age long one. Since the departmentalization and branching off of Science from Philosophy, such debate has always ranged on especially between philosophers and scientists. Such issues bother on the meaning, characteristics and methodology of Science and Non-science. Arising from this debate is the dichotomy between scientific method, scientific culture, scientific knowledge and non-scientific method, culture and knowledge. While some scholars are of the opinion that Science is radically opposed to Non-science, others are of the view that the difference is only a matter of progress from a lower to a higher epistemic level. It is only a matter of change in degree of sophistication of method. For T.U Nwala, the difference is a movement from Non-science to Science which, borrowing from Hegel’s terminology, is one of “Sublation”; a movement in which something remains the same while something is lost and something new is gained. This relation he qualifies as “The Theory of Radical Interpenetration;”1 . This paper critically analyses Nwala’s theory, and concludes that Science and Non-science should not only interpenetrate, but should complement each other in what I term “The Principle of All Inclusive Complementarities”. Humanity would be better if these two dimensions of reality should be allowed to complement each other.