Doha, Qatar: On World Philosophy Day, the Philosophy Program at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies (DI) organized a symposium entitled: "Mind and Morality: In Need of Philosophy Today" on December 1, 2024.
The event featured presentations by students from the program and was moderated by Dr. Rashid Boutayeb, Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Program, in the presence of Dr. Azmi Bishara, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of DI, Dr. Abdulwahab El Affendi, President of the DI and Dr. Amal Gazal, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, alongside researchers and students.
The symposium was opened by Dr. Raja Bahlul, Professor and Head of the Philosophy Program, who welcomed the attendees and noted that this symposium marked the sixth symposium organized by the program to celebrate World Philosophy Day.
Dr. Bahlul highlighted the significance of focusing on “reason and morality” pointing out that many second-year students’ theses discuss the themes of mind and morals from different perspectives, in addition to the urgency of examining the complete dissociation of politics in today's world from morality where political and international relations have become merely cold rational calculations of interests and power balances with no regards for morality in times of peace or war.
Following this, Dr. Karim Sadik, Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Program, delivered a talk titled: (Philosophy in an Arab Context: Centrality of Morality), in which he explored how philosophy is understood in the Arab context, and environmental and cognitive crises, asking how organic Arab emancipation can be served under current challenges?
Dr. Sadik put forward two key ideas; "moral virtues as a condition for activating critical thinking" and "debate ethics as a condition for sustaining public debate".
The symposium included two panel discussions.
At the first session, student Ahmed Ziad al-Jabali presented a paper titled Secularism without Scholars: The Issue of Secularism in Hans Bloomberg, in which the concept of secularism by the German philosopher Hans Bloomberg was explained, discussed, and criticized.
Another student Nidal Saidi touched on what he called the Constant Revelation: Morality and the Other in the Philosophy of Mohammed Iqbal, explaining the idea of how individuals can bring down the values of revelation in history according to the requirements of the stage or age in which they live.
The session concluded with an intervention entitled: The Possibility of Islamic Democracy vis-à-vis Secularism in the Light of Popular Sovereignty in Ghanouchi, by student Fatma Sheeja.
In the second session, student Suleiman Kadri addressed a topic titled: “From Knowledge to Recognition: Building a Moral Philosophy on Mutual Respect”, arguing that knowledge alone is insufficient to establish social relations without the value of recognizing the other.
Student Safaa Alfaqeer examined Artificial Intelligence and the Risk of Systematic Absenteeism of the other, citing a range of biases in synthetic models led by automated, historical, and sample selection biases and others.
Subsequently, student Rahma Jaber discussed Rape against Autonomy, emphasizing that rape is an anti-moral act that violates the recognition and respect of the other.
Student Khader Volitodka concluded the session with a paper entitled: A Contemporary Reading of the Curriculum of Economyby the Gazali.
This sixth symposium is part of an ongoing series organized by the DI's Philosophy Program to commemorate the International Day of Philosophy.
The 2023 symposium, held on November 7, discussed Studies in Philosophy and Contemporary Arab.
