IGWEBUIKE AND THE RESOLUTION OF THE POLARITY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAW

Abstract

This paper attempt a resolution of the apparent polarity occasioned by naturalism and positivism in the philosophy of law and this I intend to achieve using the instrumentality of the complimentary temper of the philosophy of Igwebuike. Consequently, this paper is divided into five sections: the first section concerns itself with the question of the polarity of positivism and naturalism in the philosophy of law; the second section deals with complimentarity as the essence of Igwebuike philosophy; the third section attempts a resolution of the polarity of the philosophy of law using the philosophy of Igwebuike. The fourth and the final section evaluate and bring the discourse to a close. An attempt at resolving this polarity has taken this paper through the philosophy of Igwebuike which argues for the harmonization of opposites and the treatment of the same in complementary terms. Following from the submission of Igwebuike philosophy which holds that there is power in numbers and that there is no task that can defile the collective capacity of the a people working within the dictates of Igwebuike, this paper argues that the fusion of the apparent contraries to form a continuum is imperative. The conclusion that is reached in the paper therefore is that, for law and the philosophy of law to achieve one of its major tasks which is social change and development, the connection or affiliation in solidarity and complementarity by both the naturalists and the positivists schools of thought in legal philosophy on the one hand and the conception of morality and law as two sides of the coin of social change and control is both imperative and timely.