‘You should study philosophy for the sake of studying philosophy’

The ability to engage in philosophy is arguably a skill that few possess, as one requires a high degree of intellect and needs to be an avid reader to take part in any philosophical discourse.

The discipline includes raising questions on the basic tenets of every idea, and aims at laying bare the foundational structures of every discipline, which makes only someone with the ability of critical thinking — something that is not found in abundance in human societies — the right candidate to study philosophy.

Faculty members at the University of Karachi’s philosophy department, however, have to face a conundrum every year after admissions because a large majority of new students who come to take classes from them have no aptitude for or interest in the subject.

Since in our age the choice of higher education is tied with economic prospects, and the intellectual pleasures gained by studying philosophy do not ensure material well-being, the best of the brains often choose intellectually-mediocre disciplines, leaving the seats of the philosophy department for those having no aptitude for engaging in philosophical inquiry.

A faculty member at the department who wished not to be named termed the “flawed admissions system” responsible for many students getting admissions to departments they have no interest in.

He also pointed out that the transfer policy of the university that enables students to get themselves transferred to another department after a year, provided they have secured enough marks, is why a large number of students get admission to the philosophy department, but their number significantly diminishes the following year.

Due to this transfer policy, the philosophy department, along with some other social science departments, has become a go-to place for those who are unable to secure admission to the department of their interest, said the teacher.

He added that all that such students have to do is select their preferred department as a secondary subject and secure good marks in the first year so that they can get themselves transferred to the department of their choice the next year.

Yet, fortunately for the teachers, there are some students who enter the philosophy department purely for the sake of studying philosophy. According to one of the faculty members, if there are 80 students in a class, you would find only two to four students genuinely interested in philosophy.

Dr Abdul Wahab Suri, another faculty member who has previously also served as the chairperson of the department more than once, made the frank admission to The News that he was among those students who had joined the philosophy department to get himself transferred to another department.

He gave the credit for not leaving the department to two of his university friends and a teacher, Shams Hamid, who went out of his way to help him, and inculcated in him a genuine interest for philosophy.

“I was from a humble background. I had read neither philosophy nor literature. My two friends, one of whom had left the Dow Medical College to study philosophy, would sit with me and help me understand philosophy. My teacher Shams Hamid was a brilliant teacher, and he gave me confidence that I could continue studying philosophy.”

Qualified faculty

Dr Suri later earned his doctorate from the department. The philosophy department at KU had always had highly qualified teachers, he said.

Sharing the history of the department, he said it was founded in the 1950s by MM Ahmed, a graduate from the University of Oxford. He recalled that there were several PhDs teaching there when he was a student, and even at present, of the 10 faculty members, nine are PhDs while the remaining teacher’s doctorate is in process.

The curriculum of the department has also been updated with time. The subjects of doctorate of many teachers pertain to the many recent currents of philosophy instead of ancient or medieval philosophy, or even the philosophy of renaissance and enlightenment.

Dr Suri did his PhD on John Rawls’ theory of justice when the philosopher was alive. Other faculty members’ PhDs have been on 20th century philosophers like Karl Popper and Michel Foucault, and new areas of philosophy such as modern hermeneutics.

However, given our general antipathy towards critical thinking, our society does not derive the due benefits from these scholars of philosophy. They generally remain averse to fame, which is evident from the fact that of the few faculty members with whom The News spoke, only Dr Suri allowed his name to be included in this story.

Moreover, their intellectual output is also not accessible to many in Pakistan because they mostly write for foreign publications. As no research journal on philosophy is published from the country, the faculty members of the philosophy department have no other option but to have their papers published in foreign journals.

Economic prospects

Replying to a question if studying philosophy helped the students land a decent job, one of the teachers remarked it was very unphilosophical to think of financial concerns before studying philosophy.

“You should study philosophy for the sake of studying philosophy,” was his remark that very much closed the door on the possibility of further conversation on the matter.

Meanwhile, Dr Suri agreed that being a scholar of philosophy would not ensure one a very lucrative income. He remembered that his initial salary was just Rs1,300 when he became part of the KU faculty in 1996. He quipped that Pakistani philosopher and academic Dr Manzoor Ahmed would remark “teaching philosophy is a self-imposed poverty”.

However, he maintained that all the good students graduating from the department ended up getting decent jobs. When asked about the nature of the jobs available to the philosophy graduates, he replied they were all teaching jobs.

The academic explained that many universities had started to include one or two courses based on philosophy in their curriculum. He said the universities offering degrees in business administration and various social sciences had courses such as history of ideas and ethics, for which they often required philosophy graduates.

Dr Suri went on to say that there were not enough teachers to meet the demand for philosophy teachers. Only two universities in Sindh — KU and the University of Sindh, Jamshoro — had functional philosophy departments, he explained, saying that the Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai University also had a department of philosophy but there were currently no teachers there.

Old and neglected

The block where the philosophy department is situated also houses some other social sciences departments such as psychology and education. However, if you enter the block from its front side, you would find very visible names of psychology and other departments painted on the front wall.

The name of the philosophy department, however, is painted on the back side of the block. Dr Suri remarked that once there were visible signposts of the department on the front side but they eventually fell victim to either rains or mischievous students.

He recalled that the philosophy department used to be well-maintained when he was a student, but gradually, what once looked new and well-furnished wore the look of something old and neglected.

A small library having many original texts authored by major philosophers and commentaries on them is also located in the block. When a faculty member was asked if books were regularly purchased for the library in order to keep it updated, he replied that it was not needed because the students were given access to digital libraries.

“One benefit of the Higher Education Commission has been the access of students to digital libraries, due to which they are not dependent on printed books,” said the teacher.

Surge in admissions

An official of the department told The News that due to the current epoch of the internet and social media that resulted in the young generation’s familiarity with debates related to multi-culturalism, feminism and similar issues, the general interest in philosophy among the youth has risen, due to which more students interested in philosophy have started to take admission in the department.

A student currently in the third year, Ali Akber, told The News that he had transferred himself to the philosophy department from the economics department.

When asked what made him decide to study philosophy instead of economics, he said that some people in his circle helped develop his interest in Marxism and he later found himself attracted to the philosophy of Nietzsche, even though he did not clearly understand much of his ideas.

He said that eventually, he decided to learn more about Marx, Nietzsche and other philosophers, and landed in the philosophy department.

When asked if he had any regrets about his decision to study philosophy, he replied in the negative. The philosophy department is among the three or four best social sciences departments of the university in terms of education, he remarked.

Another student at the department, Ameen Shahzad, was studying film-making at another university when he decided to quit and take admission in KU’s philosophy department.

After he encountered Descartes in his private studies, he said he was so much beguiled by Cartesian philosophy that he could not resist the temptation to study philosophy, and left his university to join KU.

Regarding his classmates, he said that in the first year the class environment was not very conducive to studies because a majority of the students in the class of around 80 to 100 were those who were not interested in the subject.

He added that taking classes was more enjoyable after the first year because now all of the around 25 of his batch-mates were interested in the subject, as the remaining lot had got themselves transferred elsewhere.