The department of philosophy, faculty of arts of the University of Lagos was established in 1966. So, it is the oldest and most mature academic philosophy department in Nigeria. At the beginning of its development, only very few students willingly applied to study philosophy. This was because it was a very new academic discipline in Nigeria, so candidates were quite unaware of the future prospects of graduates of philosophy in the labour market. However, the discipline soon became popular and more students began to register for it. Progressively, between 1977 and 1986, the department graduated an average of 100 students every year. This was at that time the largest number of graduates produced by any single department of philosophy in Nigeria.
The department of philosophy, university of Lagos is not only fully accredited by the national universities commission (NUC), it was also rated in a very recent accreditation exercise as the best academic department in Nigeria. The quality of research and teaching by academic members of staff of the department is quite high. Today, graduates of philosophy of the University of Lagos are found as resource of high competence and quality in the private and public sectors. They are employed in the civil service, armed forces and the police, news media, banks and other private organizations. They also lecture in various secondary and tertiary institutions.
The value and importance of the study of philosophy lies initially in the fact that it encourages breadth and depth of vision as well as a very unique perspective of things. Philosophy is by nature one of the purest and most critical of the intellectual disciplines. The major interest and value of philosophy lies in its potential to help us understand ourselves and our world better and more deeply than we otherwise would. It also permanently alters our approach to living and our relations with and to others, as philosophy encourages a lifelong habit of reflective thinking ability. Some of the lifelong values which philosophy gives to students who undertake its study are;
Enhancing of one’s analytical, critical and interpretative abilities. It helps to enable clear cut expression as well as to formulate and respond to arguments in speech and writing. It empowers one with general problem solving skills as far as analysis, definitions and arguments are concerned. It equips one with ideas and the ability to organize conditions and to extract what is central to an issue from a mass of information. It helps one to make fine distinctions and right choices by finding what the common ground is between opposing positions. It gives one the necessary depth, the better scale of values and the philosophical spirit needed to cope with the challenges of life. It enables us to understand other disciplines better.
Conclusively, it is a fact that a student of philosophy can work anywhere as they are trained for such diversity. Infact, a student of philosophy is supposed to become an employer of skilled and unskilled labour. They should not have the mentality of working for others. They should have a mindset of job creation and not job hunting. This is one of the ways via which the impact of the department can be better felt.
