M. Nabeel Abid Bhatti
From the point of view of Pakistani society, it’s common that when a moderately logical mind enters the academic circle, its thinking about Philosophy is shaped in such a way that he builds a Nexus of wrong beliefs in his mind and becomes subjected to misconception about its study. There are some common misconceptions about reading Philosphy or having a reasonable questioning mind. Most notably the accusations leveled at the subject that it is a study of the world of fantasy, dreams and lacks any factual basis. Then, on the second level, the idea which is promulgated by pseudo- intellectuals is that philosophy leads to atheism, skepticism, agnosticism and denial of God.At the third level, the criticism leveled at the study of philosophy is that it has no practical approach. Often ignorant people ask the question that there is no practical aspect of philosophy, like the study of Medical education leads us to find a cure for incurable diseases, the study of Chemistry leads us to the discovery of various effective drugs, Physics exposes us to new tools, weapons, machines and strange miracles on every coming day of our life. Then where are the contributions of philosophy.Another allegation which is more popular is that it leads to absent-minded ness, intellectual betrayal and madness. Before going for clarifications for all these allegations it’s needed to understand the meaning of word philosophy.Originally word, “Philosophy” is derived from two Greek words ” Philo” and “Sophia” . The word “Philo” means love, affection,reverence and adoration, for “Sophia” synonym terms used in English language are, wisdom, intellect or thought.In this way it’s clear that Philosophy means actually, “love of wisdom”. More over all the accusations which have been made part of the mentality of ordinary students to prevent them from studying philosophy are baseless. As clear from its meanings, “Love for Wisdom”. The essence of this ” Love” is that if an ordinary man want to trace the reality of the universe, know the nature of science or travel on the crooked, complicated and tortuous paths of life, we have to adopt such an intellectual and mental attitude that is based on logical principles and reasonable rules. The rules and regulations are always general. When explaining them, we go far beyond specific references and tangible facts to the discrete and intangible world of regulations. For example, we see different sizes, colors creeds and races in common experience, but when we try to explain the “concept” of a human being, we leave the world of senses and enter the world of abstractions to make general and principled rules. It is extremely difficult work and requires immense mental effort. This is the reason why philosophy bids farewell to the world of sensations and evidence at its first stage. This is also a major reason why Philosophy is incomprehensible to ordinary people. The famous philosopher, Bertrand Russell says that if we want to understand the nature of philosophy we must compare it with religion and science. He says that religion is at one extreme and science is at the other extreme. The characteristic of Scientific Method is that it studies different phenomena of the universe separately, for example, Physics deals with just inanimate matter, Biology with life, Botany with plants, Psychology with consciousness. Astronomy with the celestial bodies and Chemistry mainly with medicine and reactions of chemicals. So a scientist belonging to specific branch only visits the other branch when he is having a misery and needs help from the other branch of science. As conclusion it’s fact that the knowledge of science has always been partial and a biologist has no concern with atomic and molecular structure at all in common cases. There are many questions that constantly trouble the human mind and are beyond the scope of science. We know that every subject is formulated as a result of the search for answers to certain questions. In the very same Philosophy gives answers to some very intellectual and reasonable questions. Some of these questions are very basic, they mostly include; what is the overall nature of the universe which we are living in? Was this universe created for a purpose? Is the process of movement and evolution moving towards a destination or does this journey exist without any purpose? How did mind and consciousness come into existence in the material universe? Is the human, amalgam of mud and mind, the ultimate goal of creation of this whole universe, or his position is like that of a microscopic organism crawling on the shore of the endless sea? Is there any truth of righteous and unrighteous, good and bad, goodness and evil? Is there any justification for moral life? The evolution of human society continues on what basis? Will a person’s fictional life end after death or is there another life after that? Are we free or oppressed? If in oppression, in whose oppression? And if we are free, is that freedom granted or personal? Is morality a socially constructed or does universal morality exist? What is the soul? Is there any universal scale of good or bad actions? These are some questions that science cannot answer. At the other extreme is the school of thought which answers these questions on the basis of “belief” and “faith”. That is religion which says that according to our deeds, we will be rewarded and punished in the hereafter, etc. Beliefs are different and there are many religions all over the world but the truth can be one Therefore, Bertrand Russell says that there is a “No Man’s Land” between religion and science, which Philosophy occupies and some of the most efficient minds in human history have been spent on this task. Question which is put in the educational spheres of discussions, what are the benefits of having a philosophical thinking in our practical life if we are student of philosophy or either general reader? First of all, we get rid of some beliefs that are harmful to even our own existence. For example, in Christianity for many years this idea has been promulgated that The earth is the center of this universe and there are seven heavens around it, but when Cooper Nix and Galileo proved that this earth is not the center, at that time Science got the way to go to other planets to find life and its life. Countries like the United States started working on plans to settle on these planets In current era when climate change and global warming are pernicious problems on the face of this earth to which human beings are confronted with, we are having this hope like a candle in darkest night that we will settle on another planet if this earth is not worth-living. The elimination of these false beliefs paves the way for us to progress and we start to lead our life in a new dimension free from fears and threats. Gone are the days when people used to fear the breaking of glass,number 13, black cats, the effects of magic were always life-threatening and people were living with Nexus of wrong superstitions. We have removed the discussions from our conversation that how many angles can stand on the tip of a needle, how big a feather an angel has etc. We have brought a charm in every life through rational thinking. We need to restructure the perception of our society after which man will deal his academic, literary, political, social, psychological and personal life affairs on a happy basis.He will leave the idea that I am destined to be a slave, so I will be a slave for the rest of my life, but he will go with the idea that I will write my own destiny.
