COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RATIONALISM AND CRITICAL RATIONALISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR GENERAL STUDIES AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Résumé

Much has been said and written about the concept of national development in Nigeria: lectures, workshops, seminars and conferences have continued to be organized for the purposes of articulating justifiable foundation upon which the structures of the nation's development can be laid. National Development refers to an increase or expansion of the total volume of production of goods and service of a country accompanied by improvement in the scientific and social lives of the people. It is however a fact that no sustainable development will take place in any society until a change occurs in the fundamental constitution of the people's mode of thought. This paper holds that the individual is of first importance than any development plan. Thus, the most important task of tertiary education in developing countries today should be to produce graduates sound in reasoning. Rene Descartes and Karl Popper developed models that should aid the individual to attain reasonableness. The paper submits that for sustainable development to take root in the nation, the course content of philosophy and human existence in the general studies curriculum of Nigeria's tertiary institutions should be strengthened by providing the right and necessary environment to study that will reflect the importance of reason over matter.