In principle, bad and good actors alike love the stage. But while good actors share the stage, bad actors hog it for themselves. The same goes for teachers and those with an agenda. A good teacher of literature, for example, will know plenty of history, geography, philosophy, theology and, hopefully, a few poems by heart. A bad teacher will discuss ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ and be unable to say what the significance of Arcady is.
Those who are up in arms against teaching philosophy in our schools are nothing but bad teachers and even worse actors. They are afraid of anything that might result in people seeing through their charades. Philosophy teaches logic — and logic, in its simplest form, is common sense. There is nothing more lethal to an exclusionist than the power of common sense.
Common sense and logic will ask, for example, why the iqal (the black rope-like contraption placed on the head for the practical reason of holding the ghutra in place) is considered an ornament to be shunned when a Mercedes 600 isn’t. Common sense will also ask how it is that a thousand years ago, Islamic culture produced some of the most formidable names in philosophy when today’s Muslim is not allowed even to read the subject.
Keeping the blinkers on a beast of burden is fine, but with humans it is never successful for long. Instinctive common sense will make humans lift the blinkers and look beyond them. Were this not so, we would still be in caves. Granted that some of us are still in caves in Afghanistan, but what about those in mental caves whose sole purpose is not the salvation of humanity but their firm hold and grip on power?
Philosophy, as a practical discipline, teaches people to think for themselves. It helps youngsters to develop an independent and critical faculty that allows them to look beneath the surface and to argue logically instead of emotionally. It teaches people not to be afraid of their own thoughts or those of others that reek of nothing but fire and brimstone.
Philosophy puts a damper on the baser emotions of the mob by separating the mob into individuals who can think. Again, common sense, if not philosophy, will ask those demonstrating in Paris against the ban on the hijab why a Muslim country like Turkey gets away with it when a secular country like France does not? Another thorny question would be why a Frenchwoman can’t bare her head in our streets? If people were taught philosophy, they would know that the proverbial mullah of France is Voltaire.
Intellectual courage is needed on the road to reform. It is strange how physical courage is readily available these days though the intellectual variety is at a premium. If every suicide bomber were forced to read a book of philosophy, he probably would develop second thoughts about his actions and would also know how to better deal with the Israelis, the Americans and, ultimately, himself.
