Book Title: Philosophy of Unity:Love as an Ultimate Unifier
Author: Michael Bassey Eneyo
Published by: Xlibris, 2019
Reviewed by: Desh Subba
Osho as saying:
"Nations are just man made boundaries, races are stupid discriminations, and
religions are man-manufactured and they are all dividing man against man."
One of the tasks of philosophers is to collect information from different sources
and process them to bring out beautiful insights about the reality of life. We can as
well say that a philosopher is a collector, maker and a distributor of ideas that are
capable of bringing love, development and unity in human society. Pragmatically
speaking, unlike a manufacturer that specializes in a specific area of production as
s/he devotes time, energy and resources to ensure that such production comes out
as a good and appreciative product, a philosopher specializes in the quest for the
ultimate truth about everything in the world. His scope of enquiry is anything that
exists, as well as the inexistent. Philosopher investigates every tiny particle to
know how best such knowledge can help in the making of a better society. There’s
no part of beings; either human or non-human that has not enjoyed at least a dose
of the activities of philosophers. One can justifiably argue that philosophy is that
umbrella which gives coverage to all aspects of enquiry or study: both the
empirical and rational dimensions of knowledge are tinged with philosophy.
Michael Eneyo’s work is a reflection of this undeniable truth. Eneyo in this book
has successfully collected ideas from different sources right from the classical to
the present philosophic expositions and garnish it with many insightful
renovations. He resorted to the study of different fragmented entities such as:
atoms, ants, plants, animals, humans, etc, and then concluded that the apparent
fragmentation and individuation of things in the universe is just an illusion; that
everything is connected to everything else. He is of the opinion that unless
opposites are taken into consideration, enquiry is incomplete.
In one of his quotes he said: "don't desire to acquire so much wealth, but desire
that you live a happy life; true happiness is the greatest wealth."
Yes! Philosophers not only try to know what “is”, they also want to know what
was before creation and what would be after existence. It is always on expanding
scope that covers varieties of things. No wonder most scholars refer to philosophy
as "mother of all discipline"(P4).
It is therefore the character of philosopher to use any available tools in search for
absolute truth. Philosophers never stop at one destination; they look at both front
and back, up and down in search for answers to many barren questions of life. For
a philosopher to accept anything as appealing, desiring, virtuous, justice, etc, s/he
must have reason(s) to support such stance. This attitude of having reason for any
knowledge claim makes some people say that philosophy is the study of “why questions.
” They are always curious about why the thing is the way it is, and then
suggests how it ought to have been.
It is also true that philosophers always search for answers and these answers
always produce new knowledge. One can say that a philosopher is a planter of
knowledge; always curious to plant for others to harvest. Philosophy digs the depth
of knowledge, virtue, justice, nature, hell and heaven and every other thing that is
worth knowing. Michael Eneyo, a philosopher, the fearologist, lovist: is a
philosophical farmer whose duty is to plant knowledge in this field called universe.
The resounding philosophic dictum in most of his works is Love. For him, love is
the ultimate unifier of all fragments and their opposites. To support the above
dictum, he exhibited how different beings such as: animals, birds, human body,
plant, etc, are naturally connected with one another in the universe, which
according to him is predicated on love. He is of the opinion that the universe is
dialectically constituted and that every being is fundamentally guided by some set
of rules (p.25).
In one of his quotes he said: "don't desire to acquire so much wealth, but desire
that you live a happy life; true happiness is the greatest wealth". I agree with him.
From experience, we can see that people try to find happiness in material wealth,
but true happiness is not found in wealth. It can be in the forest, mountains, and
rivers or in nature itself. Happiness is a creation of the “self”; we are the one to
make ourselves happy no matter the situation. If we search for happiness in
politics, in business, in writing or in religion, we may not find it unless we choose
to be happy ourselves. When Socrates went out in search for wisdom among
politicians, authors, businessmen and among the youths of Athens, he couldn't
find it. Wisdom was already inside of him. It is the same way happiness is inside of
us, we only need to bring them out the way Socrates tried to bring out the
knowledge which he claimed was already in everyone.
Again, the author in this work says in another of his dictums that, "there is an
enduring battle between life and death. When life changes it battle ground, the
result is death, and when death changes, we call it life." Everyone is in-between life
and death. This again is very true. Absolutely, life is all about being saved from
death. Throughout our lives, we always try our best to ensure that we save it from death.
Eating, doing exercises, having balance diet, invention of medicines,
engaging in politics, enactment of certain laws, rules and regulations are mostly
associated with our fear of death. We are always in battle between life and death.
When we lose the battle for death, we die and if we win; we live. That is why we
always struggle to be the winner. Eneyo is right! All our struggles in life are
between life and death. Most people are afraid to die that is why they engage in
many activities that can prolong their lives.
Eneyo has cited a thought from Ernest Becker. Becker has said that all human
anxiety is ultimately a manifestation of their fear of death. This assertion is similar
to Eneyo’s. I am personally in agreement with Becker and Eneyo here. To add to
Becker’s assertion; depression, stress, mental problems are also ultimately
manifestations of humans fear of death.
In this book, Eneyo discusses that both the positive and the negative unity are
caused by love. But R. Michael Fisher, one of the renounced fearologists argues
that the kind of cultural unity discussed by Becker is caused by fear of terror; thus,
it cannot be interpreted as unity motivated by love, but Eneyo has successfully
prove his point in the pages of this book. This again depends on the belief or the
perspective Fisher is looking at fear. Fisher's department of specialty is on fear, so
his interpretation, no doubt seems to be influenced by his field of expertise. An
idealist once said to Sartre;"there is a god". He replied, "If there is a god, then
there must be existence". This means that things are necessitated by the
influence of other related things.
Another beautiful presentation of the illusion of division and disunity in this
naturally unified world is well captured when the author cited Osho as saying:
"Nations are just man made boundaries, races are stupid discriminations, and
religions are man-manufactured and they are all dividing man against man". This
is a dynamic approach. In fact it is true; we are now in the universe where human
beings have created for themselves; nations, boundaries, race, and classes. This
idea of division and disintegration is not original to humans. These are the factors
that divide us; thus, turning us into enemies to each other. Even though Osho
seems to have looked at this factor of division from human perspective, I want to
add that other non living factors like: technological machines, pollutions, and
bombs are also dividing us through the way they are used by humans. Though in
the beginning, man invented these facilities for his benefits, after awhile, the
supposedly benefits have evolved into abuse; thus, becoming enemies to man.
That is why Jean Jacques Rousseau says that everything was good in the state of
nature, but everything degenerates in the hands of man. In the state of nature
there was no man-made religion, boundaries, race and class; everything was part
of everything else. This kind of natural unity with a contemporary mindset is what
the book envisioned.
Michael Eneyo’s book on unity is a panacea for mutual cohesion in the
contemporary society that is characterized with all kinds of disunity. Unity is the
best solution to war, violence, conflict etc. I recommend readers to carefully go
through this masterpiece of Michael Eneyo on unity of beings. Not only will it help
you in understanding the international conflicts and how it can be addressed, but
will also help you to understand how to handle domestic violence and conflicts
too. Once we understand the root of war, violence and conflict, we will certainly
have solution for them. The book: Philosophy of Unity is indeed a compendium of
solutions to international and domestic conflict, war, violence and all forms of
civil unrest.
Comments
Congratulations Michael on this new book. I have watched him develop his philosophy of fear (2018 book) and now philosophy of love (2019 book, revised version)--or at least those are my categorizations of what his intellectual and practical project are about. I've been so interested in the way these two notions come together--what I call the "Love and Fear Problem"--and, I wonder how Eneyo is going to integrate the two. I've written a critique response to his work and it will come out in the next issue of the International Journal of Fear Studies 1(2) in the autumn of 2019. Michael E. and D. Subba have been invited to respond to that response.