TITLE:
Metaphysics of Terrorism
AUTHORS:
Francis Etim
KEYWORDS:
Metaphysics, Existentialism, Terrorism, Affective Humanism
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Applied Sociology,
Vol.8 No.11,
November
30,
2018
ABSTRACT: Terrorism as the calculated use of violence or the
threat to violence through the employment of intimidation and violence in order
to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature has
taken a global dimension and at alarming frequency such that any curious mind
cannot afford to over look. Its persistence despite global condemnation and
effort at curbing it naturally evokes curiosity regarding its root cause(s).
Scholars have tried to dig out its root causes ranging from poverty, lack of
education, religious fanaticism, psychological malady and political reasons and
so on. Solutions however differ based on its perceived causes. The question is
why terrorism has continued unabated. This paper
believes that since human actions are elicited by the idea of the good then
terrorism as a human act is based on a disoriented perception of the good. This
disoriented perception is premised on a more primordial cause, an ontological
lacuna that can be tagged a “search for meaning” which the terrorist tries to
fill by his terroristic act. This gives the terrorist a sense of fulfilment and
relevance. The panacea, the paper submits, is in a metaphysical deconstruction
and construction of the terrorist mind-set based on an ontology called affective
humanism.