EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE SCOURGE OF FALLIBILISM

Man has ever sought knowledge (science), and in different forms. And, empirical knowledge is one of these forms, which is always hoisted as having stood the test of time. Hence, the problem was to see if empirical knowledge has yet overcome the age long problem of fallibilism. The purpose here was to show that empirical knowledge is still fallible. HIV/AIDS as a form of empirical science investigation was used to show case this. This was seen as important because if empirical knowledge has failings these should be shown to be the case. Fallibilism in empirical knowledge was showcased as deriving from politics of experience, foundation of the empirical science, the scourge of imperialism, pseudo-phobia and obsessive solipsism, social and cultural factors in hermeneutics and stereo-typed obsession with final authority.


INTRODUCTION
Man is part of nature. There has never been poverty of nature's impact on man. But a lot of nature's bestowals on him have sometimes been very negative. Sometimes such impacts are very negative and threaten human existence. Take your mind back to the days of the Black Plague in Europe, Influenza in Africa, and bring your mind to the present and think of Laser fever, Ebola Virus, HIV/AIDS and SARS.
Man's yearnings and strivings to rise above these negative natural aspects and manifestations yield science as organized body of knowledge. And, the urge to know forms a very essential aspect of this human nature. Thus, knowledge, which is believed would raise man above these, has been the focus of man from the yore. Hence the period (the medieval period) when this was suppressed is still referred to as the Dark Ages of human existence. Thus, knowledge as sought by man has many types. But of all types of knowledge the focus of this study is on empirical knowledge.
The thrust of this study is, to examine empirical knowledge and see if it can be without soft edges. The problem is to rethink empirical knowledge vis-à-vis the age long problem of fallibilism. By focusing critical thinking on empirical knowledge it is the purpose of this study to show empirical knowledge as still fallible or guilty of failings it cannot rise above. It is also part of the purpose of this study to showcase this in historically contentious issues that have trailed the human immune destroying virus (HIV/AIDS) as a form of empirical knowledge.
This study is significant in cardinal ways. It will show that the unavoidable failing, fallibility inherent in empirical knowledge is as a result of some factors inherent in. This, as the study will show, manifest in the different forms. It is also significant in stressing caution in the pursuit, confirmation and application of empirical knowledge as in the case of HIV/AIDS scourge, which the study used as reference point.
The method of this study was analytic. The reader would no doubt notice the resort to older literature. This was necessitated by the nature of this study and more so as these issues have not changed over time. The scope of this study is to the extent of raising arguments to rethink empirical knowledge as a result of its nature. It is also within the scope of this study to show that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is a phenomenon that has in no small way been influenced by the nature of empirical knowledge. It is not within the scope of this work to examine in detail other forms of knowledge. It is not also within the scope of this study to contest whether or not HIV/AIDS exists. But, according to Ekwowusi: If it is true that AIDS is real and is greatly ravaging Nigeria at the alarming rate of one Nigerian per minute, what is the response of our government to AIDS epidemic? The answer lamentably is that over these years the action of our government and most NGOs in fighting AIDS is simply the promotion of "free sex" and "protected sex" through the free distributions of condoms in schools, NYSC camps, offices, market places and in secondary schools and universities, (Ekwowusi 2005, 16).

EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE
The word science (scientia in Latin) translates as knowledge in the classical use of the term. Hence, science broadly conceived refers to a body of knowledge systematically acquired or a systematic pursuit of knowledge. However, one can always peruse closely and find out that science is a process or an object in motion whereas knowledge is a terminus or an endpoint. In other words, knowledge is the target of every science.
Science is borne out of man's ever-increasing desire to overcome. The Greek term "sapha eidenai" (be certain) creates a brighter impression of man's mission in science. Man wants to attain knowledge of man, be certain about his environment; he wants always to be in control. However, science thus conceived is science in the broadest sense, which bestows on all organized study the accolade of knowledge of nature and existence in general. On the other hand, the formal object of science, the view point or the intelligible aspect of the subject matter that avails the doer is knowledge that is true.
Knowledge has as such ever remained the end of every science. No doubt the term knowledge is yet to enjoy a streamlined and well-trimmed conception and application. Hence, it is obvious that being familiar with, having had experience of and having mastery of a certain process have made people claim knowledge as such (Eboh, 1995: 6). Furthermore, the word knowledge has often been used as synonymous with truth, equivalent to belief, one's thinking, hunch, hope or pig-headed opinion (Aja, 1993, 5-6). The above no doubt must have been responsible for the occasioned "one body of knowledge with many typifications". Some of the types of knowledge are: (Aja, 1993: 19-21): (i) Revealed knowledge is knowledge believed to have been disclosed to man by God; (ii) intuitive knowledge is knowledge one discovers within in a moment of insight; (iii) rational knowledge is knowledge obtained through the exercise of reason alone; (iv) empirical knowledge is knowledge confirmed by the evidence of the senses; and (v) authoritative knowledge is knowledge which is based on or vouched for by authority. Knowledge types have also been given as knowledge by acquaintance otherwise called direct apprehension and knowledge by description, according to Bethrand Russell (Aja, 1993: 22). According to Eboh (1995: 12-13), knowledge could also be: (a) Theoretical or Speculative, which is knowledge for its own sake; a natural movement of the intellect prior to action; and (b) Practical knowledge, which is applied use of the intellect for a purpose other than its natural definition.
But there is an angle which must be stressed and which must evaluate all that lays claim to the accolade of knowledge. In other words, that which must be acceptable as a piece of knowledge must (Compare Hamlyn, 1997: 5, Eboh, 1995: 7 and Aja, 1993, be justifiable, be true, be the case, be categorical, unchangeable, be objective-that is not dependent on any attached internal or external circumstance or condition, be universal, be applicable to every situation of life, be absolutely certain, and be beyond reasonable doubt. Hence knowledge, in line with classical tradition is about perfection of being. Therefore, Knowledge obviously is not opinion. It is especially not popular opinion. It is not public opinion. It is not assumption or just any conclusion realized on the basis of a process. However, knowledge has actually got restricted meanings one of which is empirical knowledge by which is meant knowledge based on the processes of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, theories further verification and laws. This is the process otherwise referred to as the empirical scientific method, induction or the inductive inference or process. Hence, the general view is that empirical scientific method of investigation yields knowledge as the end product and that this knowledge is referred to as empirical knowledge. In empirical knowledge as Aja (1995: 21) puts it: By seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and talking, we form our conception of the world around us. Knowledge, therefore, is composed of ideas formed in accordance with observed -or sensed facts… the empiricist advices us to look and see.
In other words any science, which is based on seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, tasting and observation as its foundation (sensation) and to some extent reflection, ends in empirical knowledge. But, before proceeding with the analytic critique of empirical knowledge fallibilism let us resonate on that which would, in the main; be used as the reference point. This is the HIV/AIDS scourge.
HIV/AIDS SCOURGE HIV is the short form for Human Immune Deficiency Virus I and II (HIV I and II). It is a virus which depletes the human immune system. This depletion is to the extent that sufferers cannot sustain or resist attacks of diseases; the attacks take their tolls uniformly on victims hence HIV/AIDS is a syndrome-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The virus is acquired, that is, no man is born with the immune depleting virus. Unprotected sexual intercourse, use of sharp instruments that can cause interchange of blood and seminal fluids have been identified as ways of contracting and spreading the virus. But, kissing, mosquito bites, hugging, sleeping together, use of towel, cups, spoons and plates are not named among modes of transmission.
When the immune system has been dismantled or rendered inactive, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) will have set in and infections like pneumonia, diarrhea, and etc. finish off the already arrested victim. In other words, AIDS "means that a person infected with HIV is more likely to develop severe, often fatal, infections which a non-infected person could shake off relatively easily" (Llewellyn-Jones, 1998: 375) . The HIV is actually highly virulent, that is, causes real damage to sufferers' organs.
If HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease then it is no doubt the most dangerous. It is the disease which has by far attracted much attention of the developed and developing world, even more than the black plague, consumption (now known as Tuberculosis) and malaria. Disappointingly, almost akin to karmic repercussion or nemesis, this disease is yet to be proclaimed as having got a cure. Every of its victims eventually died. Vaccines have been introduced and tried but none, which can kill the virus that causes AIDS, has been discovered. The much one can have is that there are anti-retroviral drugs, which are drugs that can only slow down the devastation of the sufferers' immune system caused by the virus.
The term virus (Devon, Dec. 2001 andUchegbu, 2000) derives from a Latin root word which translates as poison. It is a sub-cellular germ, which is microscopic and can only be seen with the help of highly powerful microscope (Electron Microscope). It usually appeared like coiled up strings when viewed under the microscope.
On entry into the blood stream of man, the virus attacks the CD4+T type of white blood cells, bursts them and injects its contents into the nucleus of these cells. This invasion occasions mutations that permanently alter the genetic code of the white blood cells. This is the budding phase of the disease during which the sufferer has no sign of having contacted the disease and has no sign of illness. Even medical tests for the virus at this stage usually reported negative result.
The sero-conversion, according to experts' accounts, is the second phase of the HIV/AIDS infection. This phase commences at about three months after infection during which the blood of victims test positive to these antibodies otherwise referred to as sero-conversion. This stage occasions the likes of mild influenza but which could be serious enough to result in feverish conditions, swollen glands in the private parts of the body, night sweat, and tiredness.
Eventually a victim is believed to have developed full-blown AIDS when the immune system is broken down. The victim experiences diarrhea lasting for more than one month, dry coughs and unaccounted for loss of weight. Most menacingly disarming is the fact that at this stage infections even as mild as feverish conditions refuse go on treatment (WHO, 1992).

SOME HISTORICALLY CONTENTIOUS ISSUES IN THE HIV/AIDS SCOURGE
Origin of HIV/AIDS: "The first case of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria was reported in 1986 in a 13-year-old sexually active girl (Ogunjimi, 2000: 58)." This was consequent upon 1984, "when Dr. Robert Gallo stood at the American National Cancer Institute (ANC) to announce the discovery (or invention?) of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS." (Ogunjimi, 2000: 58). Hence, in an editorial, THISDAY newspaper stated: The first place AIDS was discovered was not in Africa but today they are depicting AIDS as a solely African disease. This is why Dr. Paul Ojehi (Ojei) and co. argue that AIDS is a western propaganda to undo Africa. It is (they are) the same western agencies and organizations who were bankrolling the overpopulation campaigns in Africa in the 70s that are behind the on-going orchestrated AIDS campaign in Africa, (Ekwowusi, 2005: 12).
How is HIV/AIDS Spread? According to a World Health Organization (WHO, 1992), "HIV is found in the blood and in the sexual fluids (semen in men, vaginal secretions in women)". It is the position of WHO in this publication that this disease is spread by "having sex with someone who already has HIV," "when HIV-infected blood enters their blood especially via transfusion" and from "a needle or blade that has been used on a person with HIV and not sterilized afterwards". According to Laffiaji (2004: 43.), "scientific and empirical evidence have shown that substance abuse contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS by enhancing risky sexual behavior such as seeking gratification without due protection, and sharing of un-sterilized needles by Injecting Drug Users (IDU). Substance abuse also leads to loss of inhibition thereby creating a tendency to engage in risky sexual behavior". And "women with HIV can pass it to their babies while in the womb or as they are being born. There is also some risk of transmission through breast milk", just as, according to Oluwasoyin, "in the early years, AIDS was transmitted to women more through intravenous drug use. But now, sexual infection is the leading means of transmission", (2004: 18).
However in the WHO (1992, 4) publication, it is maintained that HIV could not be spread through: sharing food, touching, hugging, shaking hands, crying, sitting close to other people or holding other people in normal ways. You cannot give or get HIV by sharing combs, sheets, towels or clothes. Sharing toilet or Latrines is also safe. You cannot get HIV from mosquitoes, bedbugs or any other insect or animal.
Yet, Dr. Abalaka (Oweye-Wyse, 2000) has been quoted as saying that" mosquito can carry it from one person to another". And, according to kalat, (1990,404), "it must enter the blood" for AIDS virus to spread from one person to the other. According to him, "outside the blood or body cells the virus cannot survive". This view is corroborated by Kaplan (1988): In vaginal intercourse, there is an estimated 3% chance that the virus will be transmitted by an infected male to female, and no more than a 3% chance that is will be transmitted by an infected female to the male. The likelihood increases if either partner has open wound on the genitals or if the women is menstruating. The virus spreads much more rapidly during anal intercourse because the lining at the rectum is likely to be torn.
According to Llewellyn-Jones (1998, 375) "AIDS is not exclusively a homosexual disease" and "the virus is passed from person to person only in blood or in semen". It is also his view that one cannot get AIDS from "social kissing, if an infected person sneezes or coughs at you, sharing cutlery, towels or bed linen…from toilets… (and) non sexual body contacts".
Treatment, Prevention and Cure of HIV/AIDS has no less been controversial. Like every other disease, even terminal ones, HIV/AIDS could be treated but, according WHO (1992: 12), "there is no known cure for AIDS," even though, according to it, HIV/AIDS, "is just a disease like cancer or polio. It is not a curse or a punishment… AIDS is a new and serious disease so there have been false rumors and misunderstandings about it". No doubt, recently hopes of developing a cure rose from an announcement that a certain killer drug of the virus is on trial in Thailand and, may be, other places yet to be identified in the world.
However, according to this WHO (1992: 12) publication, people with AIDS and HIV should be comforted by the fact that there are medicines that can help them to fight off sicknesses that come with AIDS, the Anti-Retroviral Drugs. Antibiotics and other Anti-Retroviral Drugs and medicines can help people with AIDS to feel much better and to live longer. Hence in view, may be, of the popular saying that prevention is better than cure, the above publication (WHO, 1992)  To strengthen the emphasis on prevention, the then Nigerian president, President Olusegun Obasanjo in reaction to the lack of good result in halting the spread of HIV/AIDS took over the chairmanship of the National Action Committee Against AIDS. He," has been campaigning for the use of condoms" (Oweye-Wyse, 2000: 58). But, according to Balch, (2004: 18), "we believe that a person who becomes infected with HIV is more likely to go on to develop AIDS, if his or her immune system is severely suppressed by other factors at the time of exposure and later. The risk of developing AIDS is proportional to the degree of immune suppression and the amount and duration of exposure to the virus. If the immune system is functioning well, it may be possible to avoid developing AIDS, even if one is a member of a high-risk group.
In the month of August 2000 the Nigerian government (Adekeye, 2000: 8), banned the use of all vaccines developed in Nigeria for the treatment of Human Immune deficiency virus, HIV… specifically directed at Jeremiah Abalaka, a surgeon, whose vaccines have become very popular in the country.
According to Newswatch (2000), "Jacob Abdullahi, managing director Winners Medical Diagnostic and Herbal center, Abuja who claimed to be curing AIDS, told New watch that it appeared federal government is more interested in the politics of AIDS, and not in the cure of it.
This claims and counter claims over the cure of HIV/AIDS were remarkable because, for instance, in the case of Dr. Abalaka (Adekeye, 2000: 8-20), -The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NRRD) confirmed it to be efficacious, which was later recanted on the orders of the federal government. - The Nigerian Academy of sciences said that the vaccines appeared impure and may cause hypersensitivity or transmit serious infectious agents such as hepatitis C, which is said to be another known cause of liver cancer, that the vaccines were not properly tried or evaluated on humans before being advertised and that Abalaka's vaccines were extremely weak and lacked known scientific basis. - The Nigerian army insisted that the vaccines had cured about 30 of its soldiers. - The Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Nigeria, MDPCN was to try Abalaka for breach of professional ethics because he did not first publish his findings in a journal. -1 it should be important to note that "ostensibly in agreement with reports of scientists, health and rubber technology experts that condom is inherently, progressively and incurably defective and therefore not an antidote to genital spread of HIV/AIDS contrary to widespread false claims or suggestion in cheap commercial adverts….condom, any condom at all, whether quality condom made in Japan or USA or not, experts tell us, cannot prevent AIDS but can only reduce the risk of infection. The HIV virus is 0.1 micron in size whereas every latex condom has intrinsic holes called void of about 5.0 micrones in diameter, hence it stretches when pulled. The HIV virus is 50 times smaller than the naturally-occurring holes in condom and can pass through them as easily…. Explicit or implicit commercial condom advert appealing to the prurient interest in sex by arousing canal desire damages a community's moral ecology in a (sic) analogous way in which pollutant material pollute or damage physical ecology" (cf. Ekwowusi, Sonnie, "The Law Against Condom Advert-An Editorial" in Thisday, vol. 11, No. 3769, (Wednesday, August 17, 2005), Page 16.) -On August 3, 2000, the then governor of Nassarawa state of Nigeria Abdullahi Adamu gave Abalaka medical equipment worth #8.5 million Naira because he had proven cases of improvement in the health of individuals with HIV Infections who visited Dr Abalaka's clinic for treatment. According to his health commissioner "all the people sent to Abalaka by the state government for treatment are now HIV negative", (Adekeye, 2000: 11). -According Vincent Uzodike, the president of the Association of Physicians of Nigeria (APN), "Abalaka's vaccines when completely rid of shrouds of doubt, would be capable of projecting Nigeria's image and to earn the country foreign exchange, (Adekeye, 2000: 11), But, in an article titled "Drug Could Destroy Hidden HIV" Ukwuoma (2004) wrote: Cells that harbor HIV could be picked of by a drug developed by US scientists… reservoirs of the virus can persist in certain types of human cells… Doctors at the university of Texas southwestern medical centre found a toxin, which targets them directly.
Furthermore, in what is called nuclear transfer scientists extract an unfertilized egg from a female and remove its nucleus, which contains DNA from the body of the animal to be cloned, and then they obtain a suitable cell, such as a skin cell, the nucleus of which contains its owner's genetic blueprint. They insert this cell (or just its nucleus) into the enucleated egg and passed an electric current through it. This fused the cell with the egg's cytoplasm. With its new nucleus, the egg now divided and grew as if it were fertilized, and a clone of the creature from which the body cell was taken begins to develop. The embryo could then be implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother. If the development of (Watch Tower: 2002: 4) the embryo is stopped at this stage its cells are called stem cells 2 because "the cells of the inner cell mass have not yet begun to develop", and, "pluripotent" because they give rise to virtually all the different cells types in the body.
Hence, according to a report prepared by the National Institute of Health in United States, stem cells may hold the key to replacing cells lost in many devastating diseases-such as Parkinson diseases, debates, chronic heat disease, end-stage kidney disease, liver failure cancer, etc. and can also give rise to and treat certain blood disorders, which can also apply to HIV/AIDS, since one thinks this is mainly a case of white blood cells disorder. Furthermore, amidst prevailing popular official position that this disease can only be prevented and not cured, "five giant companies in the world teamed up to make Aids drugs available to the teeming HIV/AIDS sufferers in Africa. Just for the love of humanity (?) the companies are slashing the prices of the AIDS drugs by about 80 percent… in Africa where most of the people infected with HIV in the world live" (Ogunjimi, 2000: 12).

EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE AND FALLIBILISM
Since this study has represented its understanding of empirical knowledge, it would be ideal to first of all show how this study understands and uses the concept of Fallibilism. By Fallibilism is meant the plausibility of ever attendant error, known or unknown, implicit or manifest in forms of knowledge, which crave scrutiny and restraint in the conception and application of such. The concept of Fallibilism is not metaphysically asserting that nothing that seems to exist is real -this is Nihilism, which also axiologically implies that there is no basis for shared value (Woolhouse, 1990: 155). Fallibilism here used should not also be conceived as synonymous with fatalism-that extreme understanding of determinism, "that all events and human actions are eternally fixed and that trying to change the course of history is futile" (Woolhouse, 1990: 149).
Hence, by Fallibilism in empirical knowledge is meant that there is ever attendant error known or immediately unknown, implicit or manifest in the conclusions, results and, or findings in the empirical sciences, which are otherwise referred to as empirical knowledge. The failing of empirical science and (by this extension) of every empirical knowledge is Fallibilism. And, these ever attendant errors if taken for granted in the application of such conclusions always occasioned dire disastrous consequences thereafter. Applied to the case of HIV/AIDS, this implies that since the process of studying the phenomenon has given it a pass as empirical knowledge that it overly remains in the embrace of fallibilism, that is, that results, conclusions and, or findings of all studies on this phenomenon, are liable to possible serious errors which might lead to very serious consequences if not carefully handled. However it is always not easy to discern but many factors occasion fallibilism in empirical knowledge. And, to these factors we now turn to for a clearer elucidation.
Fallibilism in empirical knowledge is as result of Politics of Experience. That which eventually passes at any period in time in the history of man and existence as empirical knowledge is the result of what here in this study is referred to as politics of experience. By politics is meant all subtle effort made or means adopted by a person or group of persons to prevail on others and use this prevalence in opinion, authority, power and other forms of dispensation in interpersonal or group activities and life. And, on the other hand, experience is here used to mean the prevailing opinion of things, issues, peoples and all other aspects of existence-as-they-are-experienced which is manifest in behavior as social phenomena. Thus, "social phenomenology is the science of my own and others' experience", (Laing, 1970: 19).
That the way the world is experienced is political is not to be disputed. For, instances: why should the world be spherical and not round and no longer flat as it used to be? Why should woman be the weaker sex?, etc. Empirical knowledge of existence has been much based on the politics of experience. Remarkably, aspects of experience of individuals and groups are incorporated into their world-view. It is at this point that aspects of experience are accepted as scientific or otherwise. It is also at this point that experience becomes political-is accepted as true or false, objective or subjective. The level of politics of experience forms the interface, albeit a narrow strip on which transverse that which becomes science, mythology or superstition. Unfortunately, however, much of what eventually passes for empirical knowledge is not as much based on any more credible evidence than only on the fact that the more weighty opinion carried the day. Much of what is today called empirical knowledge has this soft edge. How is this showcased in the HIV/AIDS scourge?
Between 1985 when AIDS and later HIV Viruses were discovered many such prevalent but prevaricating opinions (politics of experience) have been occasioned. This is manifest in the prevailing transition the scourge has enjoyed in its concept and nomenclatures in the Igbo area of Nigeria. In the beginning it was called "Echi eteka" (Tomorrow is too far) meaning that AIDS was initially regarded as an instant killer. Later it transmitted into "seven (7) day notice" implying that it killed its victims in exactly (7) seven days. To further its transient political nature it later came to be called various names as "Obirinajaocha "(normally ended its victims in the white-sand, symbolic of the grave), "Ogbu na nwayoo" (soft, smooth killer) etc. and, now, one does not know whether or not it still killed its victims especially if detected in time and properly managed. This is more so now that prevailing opinion still remains that this scourge gets the blessed prevailing opinion that is has no cure. Remark that many minority opinions are saying contrary things.
Politics of experience makes empirical knowledge into a process, which it is not. This apologetic concept of empirical knowledge is only an escapist approach and lacks in the required courage to understand the conclusions, results and findings of empirical sciences (empirical knowledge) as less than knowledge because of their ever-failing nature. Thus empirical knowledge is ever fallible, as it is a result of the politics of experience. Fallibilism in empirical knowledge also results from the foundation of Empirical Sciences. The entire empirical process begins in the senses otherwise called sensation. When observation becomes opinionated it transits into experience. Thus every empirical science has as its foundation sensation, observation and experience. No doubt one is hoodwinked into agreeing that the knowledge posture of conclusions in the empirical processes derives from their objectivity. But, care should be taken in trying to overlook the fact that all the processes of the empirical sciences are more often a means of establishing what one has already in the forms of observation and experience. The danger is obvious since, "we can act on our experience of ourselves, others and the world, as well as take actions on the world through behavior itself. Specifically this devastation is largely on each of us, and by each of us on ourselves", (Laing, 1970: 59).
Thus, the foundation of empirical sciences shapes the empirical knowledge and truth. The foundations of empirical conclusions, findings, result, etc. rob them of certainty. Theories of the physical world based on these can never always be certainly correct and true. Most of what one is given as empirical knowledge are conclusions that are otherwise, or properly speaking, constructs of the mind based on observation and experience, "just a means of simplifying and codifying the observed facts about nature, and not an explanation of them", (Cushing, 1998: 35). These can only represent ways of ordering and regularizing experience-but an ever failing, fallible one. The real world is never equal to its phenomena. Phenomena may never be completely in grasp of the real world. Thus the foundation of empirical sciences that produces empirical knowledge is best expressed as the inductive process or induction.
Induction, which is the method or process of the empirical sciences, does not help. This is because induction is "generalization… (and) there is always an assumption involved in any case of induction", (Mill, 1855: 171-172). This unavoidably renders explicit the case of fallibility against empirical knowledge in, which case one cannot but agree with Cushing that, "what began as a quest for certain knowledge and understanding of the phenomena of nature, based either on deduction from self-evident first principles (Aristotle; Descartes) or on careful induction to lead to unassailable general laws (Bacon), has today been abandoned as unattainable", (Cushing, 1998: 35). The HIV/AIDS scourge as empirical knowledge may suffer no less based on its foundation as above discussed. So much peddled talks about this scourge have been based on the observations, experience and inductive inferences. These no doubt much later may likely throw-up much debris that would have necessitated much caution in action and decision concerning the scourge.
Furthermore, fallibilism, in empirical knowledge, is as a result of the scourge of Imperialism. One can really agree with Tim Menakaya (Adekeye, 2000: 10) that "what we do in science is that there are several protocols to follow when you make a discovery". But one may be free to disagree with him that "these protocols are the same anywhere in the world". This, however, has not always been easy to drum out to the practitioners and disciples of empirical science. Much of what were initially plausible conclusion, discovery and inventions in the empirical sciences have failed validation tests but such got qualified on the ticket of imperialism. Let us draw from our reference point. In the heat of the debate as to whether Abalaka, the Nigeria medical practitioner, really discovered the vaccines for the dreaded scourge, a letter from National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) (Adekeye, 2000: 14) to Abalaka in part read: At this point it would be necessary to commence investigation of the possible mechanism of action of the therapeutic vaccine. One possible approach is to challenge the T-cells with the aid of specific monoclonal antibodies to determine any change in T-cyto-toxic cells. This study will be carried out at Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA by one of my research fellows.
The undertone of the above is that the breakthrough in areas of empirical investigations must seek the blessing of such international bodies. This is irrespective of the fact that most of such international establishment work to actualize the imperialistic blueprint of their home governments, foundations, funding agencies or persons. It was such that kept most people in Nigeria in wonder as to the need for the large funds wasted in establishing many of such research centers, teaching hospitals, etc. all over the country.
One other claimant to the cure of AIDS, Ojeih (Dr) (Adekeye, 2000: 15), condemned the composition of the Idris Mohammed Panel verifying their claims. He said the inclusion of officials of UNESCO, UNAIDS, and WHO in the committee would work against local interest because these officials are agents of America, France and Britain.
Thus, according to him, the ban on local HIV/AIDS vaccines is just for their economy and conspiracy to please them, which are glaringly aspects of imperialism. The fallibilism of empirical conclusions as resulting from scourge of imperialism still has more strong support in the following: At a conference on International Aids forum lecture held in Abuja recently, Abalaka said the attack of the ministry of health has an international backing.

He cited a United Nation document titled 'Ethical Considerations in HIV Preventive Vaccine Research: UNAIDS Guidance Document Prepublication
Version March 2000' in which the UN said among others that drugs are only to be manufactured in Laboratories of developed world and tested in human populations in developing countries…is an unjustified and unacceptable intellectual enslavement of developing countries by the developed world (Adekeye, 2000: 15).
Newswatch officially supports this accusation of international conspiracy. In Newswatch view, "the industrialized nations have made huge financial investments in the HIV/AIDS campaign and are prepared to do everything possible to protect this interest", (Adekeye, 2000: 15). If the fingers of imperialism can be as significant in very pressing case of health as HIV/AIDS scourge methinks it would be no less in other areas of empirical investigation.
Fallibilism, in empirical knowledge, is also a result of pseudo-phobia (false fear) and obsessive solipsism. George Berkeley's idea of perception was a far-reaching one. This was to the extent of his "esse est percippi"to be is to be perceived or that being is perception. This is however the underlying tones of every empirical investigation. In essence observation can only be meaningful as perception.
But, cashing in on this Berkeleyan extreme idea of perception a further extremist school of thought (solipsism) is of the view that things are because one knows them and because one knows them as such. In other words, things in the universe exist because I perceive them and must be, as I perceive them. Put differently, things are because I am (I am the measure of all that is in as much as it is). One, solipsism is normally guilty of egocentric predicament, two; solipsism is guilty of obsession. Therefore, solipsism is guilty of pseudo phobia (false fear), a sort that can lead to dire consequences.
A close perusal and careful anatomy of empirical knowledge yields two obvious but disquieting conclusions. First, is the unavoidably obvious pseudo-phobia induced by obsessive solipsism pattern of orientation of most empirical science processes and conclusions. Second, the above makes fallibilism unavoidable in empirical science processes, investigation and knowledge.
The above fearfully is applicable and most apt expression of most conclusions reached by the empirical investigations and conclusions on the HIV/AIDS Scourge. This is because ever since the likes of Thomas Malthus, Fairfield Osborn, Hugh More and Paul Ehrlich the world has not known quietness. They introduced the endemic population explosion alarm that at intervals triggered off epileptic-like actions in individuals and groups. The above have always led to programs that were clandestinely sinister vis-à-vis human population based on certain "guardian-of-the-cosmos" feeling but which ultimately is a sheer expression of pseudo phobia (false fear) and obsessive solipsism. It is obvious that establishment other than in the third worlds take their schoolmen seriously. Hence, the introduction and campaign for the use of Diaphragm, Condoms, and Contraceptives, Vasectomy, Billings' method and other ways of checking population increase easily took root in such other places and their subsequent introduction in this part of the world in different guises. There is also no doubt that this unfounded fear of population explosion and the attendant consequences in the world have always driven the radical onslaught on humanity in forms of reproductive rights of women and campaign for the legality of abortion. These as all else against population increase and/or explosion are based on the understanding of economic progress as the difference between fertility and income, which also "mis understands children as burden", (Ehusani, 2004: 47). Hence, the whole and entire of the population saga has been described in these words-"sheer deceit", (Kuka, 2004: 47).
The fear is no less expressible that the conclusions concerning the HIV/AIDS scourge may have been made more prone to fallibilism due to the pseudo-phobia and obsessive solipsism. Hence, reservations are here being expressed that: (a) The HIV/AIDS virus may have been cultured and introduced into areas with fearfully population increase/explosion capacity or propensity as a check.
The campaign of its having no cure and infection deriving mainly from sexual activities are just ways of introducing fear and checks that would delay or restrict sexual activities and/or divert attention from the obvious other sinister ways through which population growth is being checked.
No wonder then some states such as Kano, Katsina and Nasarawa in Nigeria at intervals reject the administration of the polio immunization injection, infusion, etc. for fear that they allegedly contained HIV/AIDS Virus and/or have components that may have rendered their children sterile and sexually nonreproductive at maturity.
Fallibilism, in empirical knowledge, is also as a result of social and cultural factors in hermeneutics of phenomena. Sciences, even empirical science, emanate from culture. Hence, as one goes from one culture to another there are bound to be variations in the way they interpret phenomena. This should not be lost on one if one remembers that science, more so empirical science was born out of the need for man to know, understand and control his environment. Hence, the idea of scientific progress must and have to be measured in terms of how far scientific knowledge has gone to solve problems assailing and threatening man and existence in Diaspora. Real progress in science must enable man in understanding and control of his environment.
No doubt, societies are born out of people who must have lived long together enough to work out ways of living and rules and regulations that must ensure procreation and continued survival of such group. This implies that each group remarkably works out its way of life, that is, culture, which makes it possible for it to survive in its peculiar environment. Thus as environments and social groups vary so also do cultures.
The above introduces subjectivity in empirical knowledge. This subjectivity in empirical knowledge also makes every conclusion in empirical process done within one culture fallible in the context of other cultures. Let an illustration suffice this. The global 2000, a project-child of Former American president Jimmy Carter, has been in operation in parts of Nigeria especially in Ebonyi state sinking boreholes to prevent guinea worm infestation and effecting the treatment of people already afflicted. In western empirical science and hermeneutics, guinea worm is a water-borne disease. However in traditional African hermeneutics guinea worm if it is a water-borne disease must have by now gone into everybody since everyone at one time or another must have had to do with these waters. Rather, in their science and hermeneutics guinea worm is an affliction visited on people who must have done some evil hence the lasting cure may not be in the sinking of boreholes and orthodox treatment but rather in some forms of atonement. In his work, The Gods Are Not To Blame, Ola Rotimi (1998 reprint) made this clear enough. The sickness in the land, according to him, could not be described just as flu which could have been an apt description in western science rather it was a clear signal that an evil has desecrated the land and dislodged the ontological status-quo existing among them. The treatment was in the removal of this evil not in herbs, roots and other forms of treatment.
The argument here is not far-fetched. There has been this understanding that the HIV/AIDS scourge is only a form of dismantling of the sufferer's immune system and, as reported, this scourge was first noticed among homosexuals in America. Since a mistake in America quickly becomes a fashion in Africa, this abomination and its associates-incest, sodomy, etc. must have found their way to homes in Africa. This in Africa science and hermeneutics can rub off entirely on or dismantle the efficacy of one's vital force. Thus, empirical scientific theories, conclusions (knowledge) when restricted to their originating culture may be objective and infallible but elsewhere such become fallible and subjective.
Fallibilism in empirical scientific knowledge is also as a result of stereotyped obsession with final authority. For political, social, economic and other undisclosed reasons, conclusions in empirical investigations have always received such block-headed ceding that saddled them with accolades of dogmatic embellishments. This is one side of the stereotyped obsession with final authority case against empirical knowledge. The interpretation of this is that those who have as individuals or groups or organizations come to assume or be accorded recognition in this field more than in any other field of human endeavor have come to assume or be unwittingly accorded the status of finally authority. The above pales much of empirical knowledge. This is manifest in no small way in the case of the HIV/AIDS scourge. When people like Dr. Abalaka made submissions that they have found a cure and finally vaccines for the scourge the issue of final authority was and continues to be manifest in several ways. One, the one time Minster of health in Nigeria, Tim Menakaya, "told a press conference in Abuja that he was directed by President Olusequn Obasanjo to suspend the use of all drugs/vaccines claimed to prevent or cure HIV/AIDS in the country, until such a time as claims are approved", (Adekeye, 2004: 10).
Two, at one time the federal government of Nigerian through the mouth of the then Vice-president Atiku Abubakar "banned the use of HIV/AIDS drugs and vaccines because the vaccines have killed more than they cured", (Adekeye, 2004: 12). One wonders on whose authority the vice president must have rested his conviction that vaccine declared fit by such bodies as NRPD, etc suddenly became toxic. "Newswatch investigation showed that the vice president based his condemnation of the vaccines on the NAS report. But critical observers have found many things wrong with the report", (Adekeye, 2004: 12-13).
Three, when Abalaka made his findings of a cure for HIV/AIDS scourge public the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) hailed him and acknowledged the efficacy of his drugs and vaccines in a letter, which did not go down well with his colleagues; hence they influenced the federal government's order on NIRPP to withdraw such confirmation, and the body did, (Adekeye, 2004: 10). The above and more like that constitute evidence that much of what goes for empirical knowledge are influenced conclusions and ever remain fallible.

CONCLUSION
Man remains a part of nature; there has ever been nature's impact on man in many forms. Hence, the urge to know nature has been a constant focus of man. Empirical knowledge is one way man has followed in trying to know nature. This is as in empirical science. This study shows that empirical knowledge cannot be without fallibilism. This is important because if empirical knowledge has failings such should be known. The fallibilism of empirical knowledge is show-cased as deriving from the politics of experience, the foundation of the empirical science, the scourge of imperialism, pseudo-phobia and obsessive solipsism, social; cultural factors in hermeneutics and stereo-typed obsession with final authority.
On the strength of facts and evidence based on the study the following conclusions are hereby drawn: (i) there are many forms of knowledge. (ii) that empirical knowledge is one such forms of knowledge. (iii) that empirical knowledge is prone to fallibilism on account of politics of experience, the foundation of empirical science, the scourge of imperialism, pseudo-phobia and obsessive solipsism, social cultural factors in hermeneutics and stereo-typed obsession with final authority