Intellectualism without Humanism is more Dangerous than Illiteracy

Abstract

It is an expectation from those in scholarship to positively lead exemplary lifestyles following the fact that their intellects must have received purification, and nurtured to identify the ‘good’, and subsequently, walk in the way that leads to the ‘good’. That should be the nature of scholarship for its process enlightens the minds, after which one could be referred to as an intellectual, a scholar. But it is unfortunate that this expectation has not been realized, as scholars, in the process of exercising scholarship, lose the essence which gears towards humanism, and become beasty in nature. This calls for a re-evaluation of the nature of scholarship and the expectations of scholars. Where has scholarship or scholarly process got it wrong to inculcate the very opposite of what is expected of its onus, in people participating in it? Is the factor responsible for this, in the process, or environmental dependent, or what scholars have constituted as the nature of scholarship? In answering these questions, this paper defends that it is the emphasis on logicality and criticality in participating in scholarship, and influences from the intellectual products of scholars, expressed in their philosophies of life, theories and ideologies that have encouraged this opposite development of inhumanism. The paper is expected to (1) unravel the already experiencing dangers of this anomaly, (2) advise scholars to toe more, the way of humanism than criticality and logicality of scholarship, and (3) postulate a more humanistic model as an essential scholarly exercise. The paper shall adopt conceptual analysis and a humanistic approach as methods.