Hegelian Dialectics: Implications for Violence and Peace in Nigeria

Abstract

“Life is a mystery” is a saying that most people are familiar with. The mysteriousness of life consists, among other things, in its unpredictability despite efforts and developments in science and technology. Indeed paradoxes and contradictions abound in every facet of life to an extent that some would be inclined to subscribe to nihilism, fatalism or catastrophism as the primordial reality. This is implied in Heraclitian “flux”, the dialectic of Hegel, the “nothingness” of Sartre, etc. The logical implication of these positions would be the meaninglessness of life. But is life really meaningless? Can something positive come out of the negative events in the world like violence, conflict and war and so on? Could the myriads of violence in Nigeria, for instance, caused by Boko Haram in the North East, in the East by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOS) and in South-South by Niger Delta Avengers be beneficial in the long run? In other words, could something positive be ensued from these obnoxious situations? These are the concern of this paper which examines the Hegelian dialectics that apparently accepts the co-existence of paradoxes and contradictions as complementary realities resulting in a synthesis. However, this paper believes that the synthesis will only lead to a better state of affairs if premised on affective humanism as an ontology.