International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume IV, Issue VIII, August 2020|ISSN 2454-6186 www.rsisinternational.org Page 784 Relevance of Philosophy to Any Discipline Charles C. Nweke 1 , Vera A. Uyanwune 2 1,2 Department of Philosophy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka-Nigeria Abstract: The quest for the utility or futility of Philosophy is a fundamental concern on the general relevance of Philosophy especially in a world that currently progresses on the provisions of post-modernity. The advancements of science and technology, the progress and achievements of some disciplines within the fields of humanities all tend to engender relative indifference to Philosophy which is sometimes considered abstract, speculative and as a career, non-professional and less lucrative.This paper attempts to establish the efficacy of Philosophy by drawing its significance to any discipline using the tools of Phenomenology and Critical analysis. The paper argues that the value of philosophy to any field is partly factored on its receptiveness and appreciation in the benefitting discipline. The paper finds that Philosophy mostly provides the fundamental principles that underpin various disciplines and continues to play often indispensable roles in various academic and practical fields of human endeavor.In the field of Law, Jurisprudence is essential for formulation of legal theories. In the field of Education, Philosophy is crucial in the areas of pedagogy, educational foundations, management and policies. Ethics is relevant to all facets of life. Within its own academic field, there is philosophy of virtually all disciplines which questions fundamental assumptions of such disciplines. Thus, Philosophy’s relevance remains ineluctable. Keywords: Philosophy, Relevance, Discipline I. INTRODUCTION hilosophy as an academic discipline is one that is filled with a lot of misconceptions which has mislead many into thinking that it does not have any relevance to other fields of study or in the contemporary world. Most people are of the opinion that Philosophy is abstract and has no practical value and that philosophers are dreamers who speculate about things that are beyond human comprehension. They maintain that majoring in philosophy is a waste of time or that one cannot make a good living from it. Philosophers were seen as those who have nothing to offer practically. They were seen as those who isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Often times they were regarded as people with mystical and extraordinary powers and do not believe in God. There have been cases where students of other disciplines make fun of students of philosophy for having chosen philosophy as their course of study. Philosophy students continuously wonder about the relevance of their choice of study, how philosophy would help them solve day to day problems, as well as the value of a philosophy degree. All these questions arise because people are ignorant of the importance of philosophy. The importance of philosophy is self-evident and could be seen in all other disciplines by tracing their origins. It is true that many philosophical questions are esoteric, for example, some philosophers are more concerned with abstract objects and wonder if they would exist if there were no human mind to perceive them. Numbers and God are abstract entities and are important in the domains of mathematics and religion. Does that make the two disciplines irrelevant? The fact remains that although many philosophical questions are abstract, this does not imply that philosophy has no value. This work is divided into three parts. It begins with understanding philosophy which aims at explaining the concept of philosophy in other to disabuse the mind of what philosophy is not and correct the misconceptions of philosophy.Secondly it focuses on the relationship between philosophy and other disciplines. Finally, it discusses the relevance of philosophy to other disciplines. II. UNDERSTANDING PHILOSOPHY The concept of philosophy has received diverse views from various philosophers and scholars; this is owed to the fact that philosophy does not have a general acceptable definition. “An attempt to define philosophy is strikingly a philosophical question” ( Obi,2016, ). That is to say that an attempt to define the concept of philosophy has itself posed a philosophical problem (Ojong,1995,p.1). In other to avoid this problem, most philosophers and scholars resort to tracing the origin of the concept. For a proper understanding of the term philosophy either as a subject or an academic field, there is need to go back to its etymology. Etymologically, philosophy is derived from two Greek words, Philia and Sophia which means Love and Wisdom respectively, hence the literal meaning of philosophy, „Love of wisdom‟. Love in this context means to have a strong affection for something and wisdom means the ability to apply relevant knowledge in an insightful way, especially to different situations. Therefore, philosophy as the love of wisdom means the strong desire for humans to possess knowledge and apply it correctly to different situations. Traditionally, philosophy is the scientific study of beings in their ultimate causes, reasons and principles through the aid of human reason. In other words it is the study of all things that exists, be it material (stone, cloud, chair human person etc.) or immaterial (God, soul, spirit) with the aim of questioning and understanding its origin and reason for existence. Philosophy is the systematic and critical study of the fundamental principle of existence. It asks fundamental questions about reality, existence, value, knowledge etc. Basically, philosophy started from human curiosity and inquisitiveness for a general understanding of reality by critically subjecting everything to rigorous scrutiny. In concordance, Stumph (1975) posits that Philosophy began P