| dc.description.abstract | The present research work seeks to offer a descriptive and
analytical treatment of the philosophical concept of fallibilism
in the thought of Kwasi Wiredu.
The general argument is that Kwasi Wiredu is a fallibilist
philosopher and this is what leads him to propound his rather
controversial conception of truth as a synonym of opinion.
The first chapter is an attempt to carry out a historical
survey of the development of fallibilism in philosophical
discourse. The same chapter also attempts a sort of a
literature review of those contributions made by other
fallibilist philosophers together with reactions to Kwasi
Wiredu's works within the African Context .
The second chapter attempts to put fallibilism in
philosophical perspective. It does this by discussing
fallibilism in relationship to other philosophical concepts
and doctrines e.g. skepticism, pragmatism and empiricism.
The third chapter attempts to describe the epistemology of
Kwasi Wiredu in terms of its relationship to fallibilism.
It isolates the salient points of Wiredu's epistemology
It does this by first describing Wiredu's 'philosophical
paradoxes' viz. 'truth as opinion' and "to be is to be known'.
The chapter also examines Wiredu's arguments for his claim that
his conception of truth as opinion is innocent of subjectivism.
Further, it discusses what is considered a "monistic" conception
of truth. Finally it examines Wiredu's arguments for the claim
that his conception of truth as opinion does not undermine the the
law of Non-contradiction.
It is the fourth chapter that attempts to offer a critique of
Wiredu's epistemology as presented in the previous chapter. In
this chapter, an attempt is made to apply Wiredu's epistemology
to man's practical experience. Different criticisms of Wiredu's
epistemology are introduced in order to examine the credibility,
and plausibility of his ideas. Finally, Wiredu's epistemOlogy
is categorized as "psycho-epistemological" and, is then analysed
within the context of this Categorization.
The fifth chapter is an evaluation of Wiredu's epistemology.
In this chapter, three philosophers are selected for the
purpose of a comparative analysis. Further on, the originality
and challengable points of Wiredu's epistemology are critically
examined.
The conclusion is a resume of what have been described and
discussed in the whole work. The major ideas in Wiredu's
thesis are stressed and the credibility and plausibility of
his contribution re-examined | en |
