Death Of Philosophy

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 13 January 2025 I travel across the world to teach Semitic languages, poetry, theology, philosophy and linguistic philosophy. It pains me no end to find that nowadays, comparatively fewer students opt for Philosophy as a subject even at premier universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Sorbonne, Bologna, Berkeley, California or Harvard in the western world. The scenario in India is even worse. Many varsities in India have dispensed with Philosophy. Only at Calcutta and Madras Universities and to some extent at Shantiniketan in West Bengal, one still finds students studying Philosophy. In Poona, once a cultural hub of western India, hardly a couple of colleges offer Philosophy as a subject at the Graduation level. Barely anyone pursues it at Master's level and a Doctorate in Philosophy is as rare as Halley's Comet! This is rather sad. Why is philosophy no longer loved today? Once the strongest men were willing to die for it: Socrates chose to be its martyr rather than live in flight before its enemies; Plato risked himself twice to win a kingdom for it; Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius loved her (philosophy) more passionately than his throne; and Bruno burned at the stake for loyalty to her. Once thrones and papacies feared philosophy and imprisoned its votaries lest dynasties should fall. Athens exiled Protagoras, and Alexandria trembled before Hypatia; a great pope courted timidly the friendship of Erasmus; regents and kings hounded Voltaire from their lands and fretted in jealousy when at last all the civilized world bowed before the sceptre of his pen. Dionysius and Dionysius' son offered Plato the mastery of Syracuse; Alexander's royal aid made Aristotle the most learned man in history; a scholar-king lifted Francis Bacon almost to the leadership of England and protected him from his enemies; and the great Frederick, at midnight when all his pompous generals had gone to sleep, held high revelry with poets and philosophers, envious of their boundless realms and their timeless sway. Philosophy is not loved today because it has lost the spirit of adventure. The sudden uprising of the sciences has stolen from it, one by one, its ancient spacious realms. Nothing remains to it except the cold peaks of metaphysics, the childish puzzles of epistemology and the academic disputes of an ethics that has lost all influence on mankind. Even these wastes will be taken from it; new sciences will rise and enter these territories with compass and microscope and rule; and perhaps the world will forget that philosophy ever existed, or even moved the hearts and guided the minds of men. At the same time, we've also become too superficial to delve into the depths of philosophy. Quite literally, the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life's most basic questions. To make such a pursuit more systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study: Metaphysics/ Epistemology/ Ethics/ Logic and History of Philosophy. But in these philistine times, who has time for such profound and trifle utopian subjects? Who asks? Who questions and who argues in a cogent and civilised manner any longer? Our decent discussions and discourses often degenerate into diatribes and defamations. Philosophy requires deep thinking, cogitating and reading. Today, even thinking is outsourced and reading has become a has been. Truth is the biggest casualty of our age. Truth and Philosophy are Siamese or conjoined twins. They're symbiotic. So, when either of the two dies, the other one also cannot survive. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/death-philosophy/d/134315 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism