ASOUZU’S NOTION OF UNINTENDED ETHNOCENTRIC COMMITMENT AS FURTHER CRITIQUE OF VALUE ORIENTED BIAS IN INQUIRY

Abstract

The danger of ethnocentrism, and value oriented bias in inquiry has given reality a different shape, and denies the sanctity of mutual relationship and interrelatedness that suppose to exist between one another in this world. This paper argues that unintended ethnocentric commitment is the genesis of value oriented bias in inquiry, which has crippled our society today. The biased and polarized mindset of Aristotle, over essence and accidents, and the mentality of other westerners, paved way for ethnocentrism and value oriented bias in inquiry, which we do experience day by day. Some of the African thinkers can be charged of this ethnocentrism, hence, in their reaction to the humiliations, experienced by the westerners, who relegated African thoughts to the background, ended up introducing another strand of ethnocentrism. They presented African thoughts, as being uniquely African, thereby, elevating the word-immanent missing link to an absolute instance. Asouzu’s notion of unintended ethnocentric commitment or reduction and value oriented bias in inquiry is an eye opener, over the way we comprehend reality, and mesmerize the beauty of complementarity, that should exist among realities. Asouzu in his Ibuanyidanda Philosophy (Complementary Reflection) formulated the principle of integration, which states that “anything that exists serves as a missing link of reality, to unmask and checkmate ethnocentric commitment and value oriented bias in inquiry that has changed our approach to life. This paper in line with the dictates of Ibuanidanda Philosophy, maintains that the only way we can eschew this commitment, among ethnics, and value oriented bias in inquiry is when we retrain our minds and force them to acknowledge that (Otu osisi anaghi agba mkpa) a tree cannot make a forest, and to be is not to be in isolation, but to be in collaboration and mutual relationship with others.