THE BLACK GOLD

- KENECHUKWU CORINTH NDUBUISI

 CORNERSTONE
USING MYSTICISM AS A SPRINGBOARD TO EXPLAIN
PHILOSOPHY, ALSO DEMONSTRATING THE ACTIVITY OF
PHILOSOPHY USING A REALITY IN PETROLEUM
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

A THESIS BY KENECHUKWU CORINTH NDUBUISI

DEPARTMENT OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

SUBMITTED TO THE ZERIBE NWOSU FOUNATION (ZNF), IN

PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
APPLICATION FOR THE 2023 ZERIBE NWOSU SCHOLARSHIP
(ZNS).

2021/2022 ACADEMIC SESSION.

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM RESOURCES, EFFURUN.

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 The Existence of Crude Oil
Table of Contents
THE MYSTICSM
 Etymological meaning
 Definitions
 Activities (practices and experiences)

PHILOSOPHY IS NOT MYSTICISM

 What is philosophy
 Etymological meaning
 Definitions

THE PHILOSOPHICAL ACTIVITIES

 EXISTENCE OF CRUDE OIL

 The origin and the discovery of crude oil
 SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS
 The Extraction
 The Refining
 IMPACTS
 Negative effects
 Reproduction

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 MYSTICISM
WHAT IS MYSTICISM?

Etymologically, Mysticism is derived from the Greek word μυω. Meaning to

“conceal” and its derivative, MYSTIKOS meaning an “initiate”. It received a quite
meaning in the Greek language. The primary meanings it has are “induct” and
“initiate”. Secondary meanings include “introduce”, make someone aware of
something”, “train”, “familiarize”, “give first experience”.

MYSTICISM is the claim to deeper truths but yet loss of the ability to
communicate or explain this. It is the belief of a reality surpassing normal human
understanding or experience, especially a reality perceived as essential to the
nature of life. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden
truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and
experiences. This limited definition has been applied to a wide range of religious
traditions and practices, valuing "mystical experience" as a key element of
mysticism.

According to PETER MOORE, the term “mysticism” is problematic but

indispensable. It is a generic term which joins together into one concept, separate
practices and ideas which developed separately. Mysticism has been defined in
many ways and has changed through the ages.

 During the early modern period, the definition of mysticism grew to include a

broad range of beliefs and ideologies related to "extraordinary experiences and
states of mind".

Now it refers to anything nebulous, esoteric, or supernatural. It has been

regarded to be inadequate as a useful descriptive term or inauthentic fabrication.

In modern times mysticism has acquired a limited definition with broad

applications

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Mostly, Mysticism is the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences
during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies,
ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them. Broadly defined,
mysticism can be found in all religious traditions, from indigenous
religions and folk religions like shamanism, to organized religions like
the Abrahamic faiths and Indian religions, and modern spirituality, New Age and
New Religious Movements.

Based on various definitions of mysticism, namely mysticism as an experience of

union or nothingness, mysticism as any kind of an altered state of consciousness
which is attributed in a religious way, mysticism as "enlightenment" or insight,
and mysticism as a way of transformation, "mysticism" can be found in many
cultures and religious traditions. These traditions include practices to induce
religious or mystical experiences, but also ethical standards and practices to
enhance self-control and integrate the mystical experience into daily life. In
modern times, "mysticism" has acquired a limited definition, with broad
applications.

Examples of Mysticism include.

 A direct experience, intuition, or insight into divine reality/the deity or

deities.
 A pantheistic view of 'God', i.e. that God is all and all is God.
 Beliefs in heaven, purgatory, or hell as the afterlife of human existence
 Beliefs in ghosts, witches, warlocks or other spiritual entities
 Beliefs in vampires, cannibals (man-eaters)
 Beliefs in aliens or life outside earth
 Magical powers and superstitions.

In conclusion, mysticism maybe referred to as acquired, knowledge, experiences,

practices(religious)etc without quest for facts that leads to proper understanding

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and truths as a result of believing that these ideas are beyond human
understanding (mysterious).

“PHILOSOPHY IS NOT MYSTICISM”

Philosophy looks for the profound and underlying truths and comes to the surface
where men live to proclaim them clearly to men. Although philosophy is inexact in
her methodology as a result of the nature of things studied, it generates insights,
ideas, for the chief instruments of philosophy which is Human Reasoning(the
faculty of the human person to think) to work on, that is, it equips the human
person about reality.

Etymologically it comes from the Greek word “Philo” and “Sophia” meaning love
and wisdom respectively. The root meaning of philosophy is the ability to
understand reality i.e the love and passion to understand everything in existence
including the human person. It is referred as the conscious, rigorous, critical and
deep attempt to understand everything in human existence.

“Philosophy is defined as essentially reflective activity on human experience and

world.”

-JOSEPH OMOREGBE

“Philosophy is defined as the critical and conscious Effort to understand the

universe, its origin and man's place in it.”

PHILOSOPHY: MEANING, METHOD AND APPLICATION

-AMAECHI UDEFI

“There is no one definition to philosophy. To some people philosophy means

something mystical, mysterious, difficult, and esoteric reserved for massive
intellects only. Still, others see philosophy as a subject which deals with matters
out of this world, in spiritual realm. While the last group, calls philosophy
"people's world-view" or one's moral guide.”

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 -CHUKWUDUM OKOLO.

“it is the function of philosophy to examine the intellectual foundation of life

using the best available modes of knowledge and reflection of human well-being.”

-KWASI WIREDU.

“one of the special characters of philosophy ,apart from being critical in probing
reality is that it deals with issues of general nature.”

FUNDAMENTALS OF PHILOSOPHY

STEWART D. AND BLOCKER H.G.

“philosophy is defined as the criticism of the ideas that we live by.

The aim of philosophy is so that we can always live by the best of ideas at any
point in time.”

H. S. STANINLAND.

“Where do we come from?

What are we doing in the world?

Where are we going to?

These questions are invitations for every human to become a philosopher.”

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY

-ORTEGA .Y. GASSET

Generally, philosophy is defined as the pursuit of truth in all areas of life: be it

the search for life’s meaning, general understanding of existence, etc, so long as
it is about discovery or making the truth known, the truth-that activity is
philosophy.

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According to the writing of Staninland, emphasizes the practical usefulness of
philosophy as the criticizing the ideas we live by. We criticize these ideas so that
if there is need for modification or change of any for the better, we can do so.

Philosophy asks if we have justification that is intellectually satisfactory for the life
that we live and the belief that we hold. This line with Socrates, an ancient father
of philosophy, who holds that “the unexamined life" is not worth living. In this
way, it is Important to subject our lives to critical examination that they may be
justification for it. There were times in human history, when human depended on
mythology and superstitions (MYSTISCISM) for explanation of happenings in the
human world; philosophy saved the world from myths and false assumption for
foundation. It is the duty of philosophy to tell the human person what life is.

In conclusion, philosophy refers to Attempts on the part of serious thinkers to get

at the basis of Things; not the superficial, trivial detail, but the underlying
Fundamentals.

Philosophy looks for the underlying Principle of things; the essence of things that
do not change and that could explain the things that there are. It is because of
this interest in general and underground norm that philosophy is called the
"Queen of the sciences" since what the sciences and other disciplines deal with
are at the general level linked up to the subject matter of philosophy-TOTALITY
OF ALL THERE IS.

Activities of professional philosophizing are seen in the discovery and use of

petroleum below.

THE EXISTENCE OF CRUDE OIL

The Origin
Crude oil has been believed by many to be a natural unending reservoir created
by a more superior being (necessary being). It has been perennial all throughout
the ages and has been questioned by philosophers. However a little truth has
been revealed.

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 According to geologists it is said to be formed from layers of sedimentary rocks
formed from the process of decaying ancient living organisms such as algae,
plankton and dinosaurs deposited to form fossil fuels. However, this takes back
to questioning the existence of these creatures and the universe (METAPHYSICS).
“Death is defined as the meaning of my future self to present to the other.”
-SATIRE
This means “Death bringing forth Life.”
Crude oil is formed from dead organic remains of plants and animals million years
ago. These organisms died, but even in death, they brought forth life which is
crude oil. And it has been an area of generating revenues, saving lives and
developing the economy of the world.
Throughout human history, energy has been a key enabler of living standards. To
survive in the agrarian era, people burned wood for warmth and cooking. In
addition to use as a building material, wood remained the chief global fuel for
centuries. However, it was the function of philosophy to question the foundation of
this claim (the existence of crude oil) that opened the door to scientific researches,
which resulted to the discovery of crude oil.
THE DISCOVERY

Crude oil did not discover itself; rather it was of man’s discovery. Just as there
were stones on earth before someone discovered two stones could make fire, so
did men walk on ground before someone discovered crude oil.

According to Herodotus, more than four thousand years ago natural asphalt was
employed in the construction of the walls and towers of Babylon, great quantities
of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, one of the tributaries of
the Euphrates,where it was termed the burning water. However, this fact
confirmed by Diodorus Siculus. Herodotus mentioned pitch spring
on Zacynthus (Ionian islands, Greece). Also, Herodotus described a well for
bitumen and oil near Ardericca in Cessia. But this was not the real essence of
crude oil. But as man’s thinking developed, they arrived at a major essence of
crude oil which is as fuel. And this is evident in China’s crude oil usage as fuel in
the first century BCE. All these are the root causes of crude oil discovery.

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 SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

THE EXTRACTION

Oil was first exploited in the Roman province of Dacia, now in Romania, where it
was called picula. Then there was a report of natural petroleum seepage from a
Scottish chemist James Young in the 19th Century, where he made lamp oil from,
as a use for lightning. After its diminished activity, A Geologist with the name
Abraham Pineo Genser came about the extraction and refinery of fuel to produce
kerosene. Although this served them a while with it burning cleanly and being less
expensive, the call for it rose to the height it wasn’t capable of. There was the
need for something large and unending. Edwin Drake and George Bisell in 1859
thought of a way to make this come true and they brought up a drilling machine,
which was a contrast to the dugging system others used and they successfully
drilled crude oil on to the surface of the earth. From here, Crude oil had a specific
way of extraction and refining which has served the world an unending purpose.

THE REFINING

Crude oil was initially used in building constructions in Babylon, then as medicine
and for lighting in the upper levels of their society according to the Persian
tablets. It was the rigorous, conscious and critical attempt of man to understand
everything in existence that led to most scientific breakthroughs in petroleum.

 Distillation of Petroleum was described by the Persian alchemist, Muhammad ibn

Zakarīya Rāzi(Rhazes). There was production of chemicals such as kerosene in
the alembic (al-ambiq), which was mainly used for kerosene lamps. Arab and
Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce flammable products
for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain, distillation became available
in Western Europe by the 12th century. It has also been present in Romania since
the 13th century, being recorded as păcură. In the modern world, petroleum has
been refined to different constituents that served as a major source of energy
today, thus, serving man in diverse ways.

Therefore we can say that the chain development of the use of petroleum over
the ages is a product of philosophy. Man’s ability to question what’s in existence
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gave the room for scientific and technological breakthroughs especially in the
perspective of the utilization of petroleum.

THE IMPACT OF CRUDE OIL DISCOVERY

It is believed that the oil inside the earth is part of a support structure that helps
keep the world round, But that’s not the case. There is a saying that ‘ ’ The earth
is like a can of soup’’, It strength comes from the can, not from the soup, and an
empty can is still stackable. Granted, its possible to have some ground effects
after drilling and discovering crude oil, but this tends to be small and slow. The
earth didn’t naturally have oil in it, oil formed and stored itself in it, which is why
it requires enormous machinery to reach and draw it out. Oil’s constituents which
can be poisonous and cancer-causing, its drilling which can cause fracking, its
burning which can pollute the air and of green house effect, are all potentials of
the damage it can cause, if not properly looked after, but it is yet to have a
negative impact on earth.

THE REPRODUCTION OF CRUDE OIL

Crude Oil is said to be a non-renewable source of energy. It is also believed to

deplete or worse, become obsolete. Burning oil produces carbon monoxide gas
(CO). This is a greenhouse gas that contributes towards climate change. Burning
oil can pollute the air. Much oil is being extracted for man’s benefit and it’s
becoming more and more expensive as reserves reduce. However, science
through philosophical criticisms and probing has made the idea of life with
petroleum better.

The bi-product, carbon monoxide has become the basis for the reproduction of
crude oil in form of synthetic fuel, the man-made crude oil.

In our recent times efforts has been made by man to curb this fear and has
proven positive and still improving. Science has successfully been able to produce
made-made-petroleum termed “SYNFUEL” (synthetic fuel).
Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes gaseous fuel, obtained
from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, in which the syngas

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was derived from gasification of solid feedstock such as coal or biomass or by
reforming of natural gas.
Petrochemicals which are bi-products of petroleum are synthetic for the
production of polyethene (plastic bags) e.t.c.
After much philosophical activities in the discovery of crude oil, in its extraction
and refining, Man continued to criticize to live by the best of ideas by reproducing
and storing crude oil to ensure its continuity. They also started generating
revenues from its trade. And saving lives from its transportation, in the sense that
every transport means for bringing food to proximity areas for man, uses crude oil
products. Truly, man’s ability to think to what is in the ground, bringing it out
even though they have no hand in its formation, deriving other valuable things
from it has been one of the major development of the man’s world.

All scientific breakthroughs related to the discovery, extraction, refining and

versatile uses of petroleum, as well as the control of its negative effects on the
earth in turning these harmful bi-products into major basic constituents for its
reproduction, were made possible as a result of scientists who initially thought
and acted as philosophers.

In all we could say that Philosophy being the conscious, rigorous and critical
attempt to understand everything in existence, is ultimately, the bridge to all
scientific breakthroughs.

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