The Habitat of Philosophy Students and Professors: Plato's Cave or the City's Back Alleys

I and many of the esteemed readers have repeatedly witnessed the fact that in the academic community and in the scientific system, we sometimes take up a magnifying glass for matters whose causes are very clear and obvious, searching for remote and minute causes while abandoning the obvious and principal ones. One of the most evident examples of such a situation is the problems of the higher education system in our country.

The Habitat of Philosophy Students and Professors:

Plato's Cave or the City's Back Alleys[1]

(A Discourse on the Pathology of Teaching Islamic Philosophy in Iran)

Abbasali Mansouri (Faculty Member, Department of Philosophy, Razi University)

I and many of the esteemed readers have repeatedly witnessed the fact that in the academic community and in the scientific system, we sometimes take up a magnifying glass for matters whose causes are very clear and obvious, searching for remote and minute causes while abandoning the obvious and principal ones. One of the most evident examples of such a situation is the problems of the higher education system in our country.

In the field of Islamic philosophy, the lack of applicability and being out-of-date of its discussions is one of the main causes of the current chaotic state of Islamic philosophy. In my view, making Islamic philosophy applicable has a very close connection with the particular style of scholarship of professors and students of Islamic philosophy. How can one demand theories and answers from someone who has no knowledge of the intellectual challenges, questions, and problems of contemporary Iran? How is it possible to expect someone whose personal concerns significantly outweigh their social concerns to seriously address social issues? How is it possible to expect someone who is a specialist in the history of ideas to present novel thoughts? How is it possible to expect someone whose entire effort is understanding the thoughts of others to present independent ideas?

What is examined in this writing is the intellectual atmosphere and the habitat of professors and students in the field of Islamic philosophy and its impact on their process of learning and practicing philosophy and the future of Islamic philosophy.

Of course, the discussion of the effects of the habitat of students and professors on their scholarly performance is not exclusive to the field of philosophy. This discussion can be raised regarding all disciplines in the humanities (and even technical sciences, medicine, etc.). However, for reasons that will be more or less pointed out in this writing, this discussion is more pronounced regarding the sub-disciplines of theology.

What we mean by habitat here is not the absolute habitat, i.e., the individual's personal and family lifestyle. Although habitat in this sense also has numerous effects on the scholarly views of individuals—especially in the humanities disciplines—at the very least, its effect is in creating specific concerns and questions for individuals, influencing the scholarly biases of researchers, and the degree of an individual's openness or closed-mindedness in scholarly discussions.

Rather, what we mean by habitat here is the scholarly and professional habitat of individuals, namely: the circle of scholarly friends, the meetings, gatherings, and lectures in which the person participates, the extra-specialized fields and studies the individual pursues, the degree of the individual's familiarity with discussions and sciences that are closely linked to their specialized field, the degree of the individual's contact with people and intellectual and epistemic sources that do not think like them, and so on.

I believe that why the discussions of Islamic philosophy are not applicable and to what extent one should be hopeful about reforming Islamic philosophy is deeply connected to the nature of the habitat of philosophy professors and students. Because in today's world, it is universities and educational centers that are the reference for reforming and making sciences efficient. In the current world, ideas and scientific movements originate from educational centers, and one should no longer expect, as in the past, that individuals outside the educational system will be the source of transformation in the sciences. For scholarship in the contemporary world has become a profession and has a close connection with educational centers. And rarely are individuals found who, independent of universities and educational centers, engage in specialized scholarly and intellectual pursuits while having a job and profession separate from that scientific field.

The habitat of philosophy students and professors resembles Plato's allegorical cave more than the city's back alleys. This habitat is a particular one, in which the least hope for reform and dynamism is entertained. As long as this habitat remains in its current form, one should not expect any serious movement in Islamic philosophy. The current habitat of Islamic philosophy departments bears the least relevance to the modern world and is reminiscent of schools from a hundred years ago. This habitat is based on credulity and excessive dogmatism, insularity and avoidance of interaction, self-righteousness, and a refusal to hear opposing voices.

What follows is a brief description of the habitat of Islamic philosophy students and professors. Since the defining characteristic of this habitat is its closed nature and its ignorance of the discussions and fields surrounding it, this writing will suffice with providing instances of this ignorance and exclusivism:

• Ignorance of the philosophies of[1]

Students of Islamic philosophy have the least awareness of the philosophies of (such as: philosophy of religion, philosophy of ethics, philosophy of science, philosophy of history, etc.). Many students and even professors of Islamic philosophy have not yet grasped the importance and necessity of the philosophies of. They consider these philosophies to be ornamental disciplines unrelated to Iranian society. It often happens that students from other humanities or non-humanities disciplines ask graduate students of Islamic philosophy about the philosophies of. And the students cannot provide even the minimum necessary information on this subject. The most honest and useful thing they can say is that their field is Islamic philosophy, and they do not have precise knowledge of these philosophies of.

This is while familiarity of Islamic philosophy students and professors with the philosophies of would be very pioneering and beneficial for the future of Islamic philosophy, because, firstly, in today's world, the traditional view of philosophy in its general sense has fundamentally been set aside and has given way to specialized fields and the philosophies of. In today's world, which is filled with specialized disciplines and where the link between sciences and the move towards interdisciplinary studies is increasing, no one can be a philosopher in the traditional sense anymore and offer a theory that becomes the subject of study for others. For in today's world, a statement or theory gains traction only if it is expressed by a specialist.

Secondly, the path to making Islamic philosophy applicable passes through the road of the philosophies of. To explain, one of the ways and methods of making Islamic philosophy applicable is to broaden its subject matter and, consequently, its issues. As long as the subject of philosophy is merely existence qua existence (and that too with sole reliance on the traditional reading of this concept), one should not expect philosophy to enter into the tangible problems of society or to speak in response to the pains of the age. The philosophies of are the best way to broaden the subject of philosophy. Furthermore, the philosophies of provide the ground for the application and assessment of pure philosophy, because in pure philosophies, the metaphysical principles of philosophy are formulated, and then it is in the philosophies of that an attempt is made to somehow limit these principles and put them into practice and execution.

Several factors contribute to the unfamiliarity of Islamic philosophy students with the philosophies of… (philosophies of specific domains): 1- Curricula: In Islamic philosophy departments, attention to the topics of the philosophies of… is peripheral and minimal. The specialized courses and units of Islamic philosophy are confined to specific courses in Islamic philosophy, logic, and theology. One of the main reasons for this is that there are no professors or specialists in the philosophies of… within Islamic philosophy departments. And since professors of Islamic philosophy lack expertise in these topics, they have no inclination to define such units and courses. Therefore, it is fitting and necessary that in every Islamic philosophy department, there be at least one professor whose specialty is in the philosophies of… (of course, each professor specializes in one of the branches of the philosophy of…, but defining such a position for them would cause them to extend their field of study to other areas of the philosophies of…), and that from the undergraduate level, more units on the philosophies of… be incorporated into the students' curriculum. 2- The scholarly weakness of professors: The knowledge of Islamic philosophy professors regarding the philosophies of… is very scant and lacks coherence. In many departments, the professors' knowledge of the philosophies of… is no greater than that of the students. Under this factor, the ignorance of Islamic philosophy professors not only means they do not engage in serious discussion about the philosophies of… in their classes, but they are also in no way a good reference for answering students' general questions in the field of the philosophies of…. 3- Students: In no field do the professor and course units have the final say in that discipline; it is the student who must compensate for educational gaps through their own personal efforts. Since Islamic philosophy is not very problem-oriented, students in this field are less prone to questioning and, consequently, less inclined to form a desire for research and study. The lethargy of Islamic philosophy students is not an obscure or hidden matter, and professors acknowledge the fact that students, whether at the undergraduate, master's, or doctoral level, in the Western philosophy track come to class much more active, enthusiastic, and lively, and pay attention to discussions, compared to Islamic philosophy students. Islamic philosophy students attend Islamic philosophy classes with much less vigor, less motivation, and lower spirits.

Apart from the fact that the extracurricular study of Islamic philosophy students is extremely low, in these scant studies, they rarely engage with the topics of the philosophies of…. And it very seldom happens that they study one of the main texts of the philosophies of….

The purpose of emphasizing the need for Islamic philosophy students to pay attention to the philosophies of… is not that they should engage with these topics in a specialized manner. Rather, the intent is that they must at least become familiar with the issues, foundations, methods, and ends of these philosophies, so that they can both derive new questions from these fields and, by critiquing them, fulfill their role in the domain of critique and guidance. That is, this familiarity would both benefit Islamic philosophy itself and also benefit the philosophies of….

At the end of this part of my speech, I recall two very important points:

The first point is that: Postponing familiarity with the philosophies of… to the advanced stages of education is a great error. Because it is during the undergraduate and master's periods that familiarity with these philosophies will be fruitful and will generate questions, ideas, and an atmosphere of critique and dialogue. Moreover, a student who does not seriously engage with these topics by the doctoral level will have already formed their field of study and intellectual concerns, and steering them toward these studies will be very difficult, formal, and fruitless.

The second point is that: Since in our society, students' religious information and studies are declining, and on the other hand, those who enter the philosophies of… in a specialized manner do not have much knowledge of Islamic philosophy and sciences, the neglect of the philosophies of… by graduates of Islamic philosophy will cause, in the not-too-distant future, the philosophies of… to be perceived as being in conflict with Islamic philosophy and sciences, and as a result, the possibility of dialogue and exchange between Islamic philosophy and these philosophies of… will disappear.

• Very scant familiarity with Western philosophy:

If we are to seriously pursue making Islamic philosophy effective, serious attention to Western philosophy is unavoidable. This is because greater familiarity with Western philosophy leads to an approach closer to pragmatism and problem-centeredness; moreover, the educated stratum of Iranian society—who are usually the audience for philosophy and philosophers—are more or less engaged with the topics of Western philosophy, and if researchers of Islamic philosophy wish to have dialogue and exchange with specialists in the humanities (who, due to the origins of these sciences, are not without direct or indirect exposure to Western philosophy), they are compelled to have a relatively good familiarity with Western philosophy. Furthermore, this familiarity prepares the student for understanding and dialogue with their contemporaries and places them more in the current of the shared problems of human society in today's world, and in this way, they can better convey their own insights to global researchers.

Most students of Islamic philosophy and many professors have not yet felt this necessity. For this reason, they have the least awareness of Western philosophy. Many students and even we professors of Islamic philosophy still do not give Western philosophy any weight. It is as if we equate philosophy with Islamic philosophy. Usually, students in the field of Islamic philosophy read Western philosophy superficially; that is, they read a very brief pamphlet the night before the exam and take the test. There are few students who have sufficient familiarity with Western philosophy (especially the modern and contemporary periods). Whenever someone studying in another field asks us students of Islamic philosophy to what extent we read Western philosophy, or what we think the strengths and weaknesses of Islamic and Western philosophy are in comparison to each other, they usually hear no answer other than that my field is Islamic philosophy and I do not know much about Western philosophy. If the person is not fair-minded and a researcher, they might say without reason or basis that Islamic philosophy is not comparable to Western philosophy in terms of value and elevation.

The familiarity of Islamic philosophy students with Western philosophy is limited to a few course credits. These are taught in the worst possible way and never yield the fruit they should. Because, firstly, a portion of these credits is the history of Western philosophy, not the direct study of opinions and texts. And even in this history of Western philosophy, half of the time and credits are spent reading the ancient and medieval periods, while the modern and contemporary periods are practically taught in just 2 or 4 credits.

Secondly, many of the professors of Western philosophy who teach in Islamic philosophy departments have two significant problems: The first problem is that many of these professors are weak in their own field and are not among the renowned and professional professors of Western philosophy. Therefore, they are less able to engage students with topics and issues. The second problem is that since their audience does not have much knowledge of Western philosophy and does not follow the topics with interest, it diminishes the teaching enthusiasm of these professors and causes them to settle for the minimum. And over successive semesters, they make little effort to update and enhance the content of their lessons.

Although being pamphlet-oriented and professor-oriented might be more suitable for these courses, given what has been described, it is better for a comprehensive educational text (one that does not require passing introductory levels) to be written for Islamic philosophy students by the masters and researchers of this field.

Another point is that Islamic philosophy students do not read even this small number of credits with a truth-seeking and optimistic view; rather, due to not sharing a common language with Western philosophy and other reasons—which are not the place to discuss here—a pessimistic view prevails among many students. That is, they often do not read Western philosophy to understand and comprehend it, but read it to "get a grade" or, at most, to "reject" it. From the perspective of a group of them, it is as if no one in the world has said anything philosophically significant except our philosophy and philosophers.

• Unawareness of the state of publishing, conflicting opinions, and the thoughts of contemporaries

The limited and closed scientific environment of Islamic philosophy students and professors is not from one direction; rather, this closedness and unawareness manifests in various dimensions, including:

a) In the field of publishing: Since the textbooks for the discipline of Islamic philosophy are the books Bidayat al-Hikmah and Nihayat al-Hikmah, along with some works of Mulla Sadra and Ibn Sina, and of course a little of Suhrawardi, and professors rarely introduce a new book alongside these classical texts for teaching, students find less need to purchase books and possess the least amount of information about the state of publishing in the field of philosophy. They neither know the publishing houses that publish books in the field of philosophy, nor do they have precise knowledge of the works of contemporary researchers, nor do they have any desire to learn about new publications. This lack of awareness of new publications keeps them still entangled with questions from several hundred years ago and does not open their feet to the issues and current conversations in today's society.

b) The degree of familiarity with conflicting views: The current method of teaching Islamic philosophy is based on the centrality of "person and text." This means that during their studies, students read a few specific texts (Sharh al-Manzumah by Sabzavari, Sharh al-Isharat by Khwaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Sharh Hikmat al-Ishraq by Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, al-Shawahid al-Rububiyyah by Mulla Sadra, the Ilahiyyat of al-Shifa by al-Shaykh al-Ra'is, parts of the Asfar by Mulla Sadra, Bidayat al-Hikmah and Nihayat al-Hikmah) and the views of a few famous figures (usually Ibn Sina, Mulla Sadra, and a little of Suhrawardi). But the views of other philosophers and authoritative thinkers are not studied or examined. In very few universities are books by al-Kindi, al-Farabi, al-Amiri, al-Tawhidi, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Tufayl, the Ikhwan al-Safa, Bahmanyar, etc. taught. And there are very few professors who have precise and systematic information about the philosophical views of non-famous figures, and whose main specialty, so to speak, lies in this direction. In the professors' classes, the specific views of these philosophers that conflict with Ibn Sina and Mulla Sadra are never presented to the students, because no one previously presented these views to these professors themselves, and they themselves have not conducted separate study. Students of Islamic philosophy are only familiar with the names of these philosophers and not only know nothing about their views, but do not even know the names of their books and works.

The information and knowledge of Islamic philosophy professors is so limited and confined to a few famous philosophers that they do not even bring a book by other Muslim philosophers to class once for introduction. This lack of familiarity among professors is to such an extent that when they want to teach the history of Islamic philosophy, their weakness becomes apparent, and they usually tend to have students explain the views of these non-famous philosophers in the form of conferences and reports, and they truly cannot teach a single detailed session on the views of Ibn Rushd, the Ikhwan al-Safa, or others.

This matter is more severe in the field of theology (kalam), because the textbook for theology is almost exclusively limited to the book Sharh al-Tajrid by Allama al-Hilli, the book Bab Hadi 'Ashar, and Shawariq al-Ilham by Lahiji with the commentary of Fadil al-Miqdad. In Islamic philosophy classes, the works of great and powerful theologians such as Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, Qadi Abd al-Jabbar, Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, Abu Hatim al-Razi, al-Ka'bi, Abu al-Husayn al-Khayyat, Fadil al-Qushji, Mir Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani, Fadl ibn Shadhan, the Nawbakhti family, al-Shaykh al-Saduq, al-Shaykh al-Mufid, and others are never studied.

This situation is also regrettable regarding modern theology (kalam jadid). The familiarity of many professors and students with modern theological views is limited to hearing well-known ideas and reading articles. It rarely happens that they have studied the primary texts of these authorities. For this reason, many professors prefer to raise the same discussions of traditional theology in modern theology classes. Or, if they base the class on the issues of modern theology, they make such lengthy digressions into classical and traditional perspectives that no opportunity remains to address modern discussions and the views of contemporaries.

Familiarity with contemporary Christian theology is also at the level of zero. And in theology classes, there is no discussion whatsoever about contemporary Christian theology and its perspectives on the issues discussed in class. This is despite the fact that familiarity with Christian theology could yield very good achievements for Muslim theologians, because Christian theology has striven for many long years to respond to modern currents of Western thought, and we can learn from their successes and failures. Moreover, the movement of the current and future world is towards interfaith interaction and dialogue. The opposition and mutual ignorance of religions is on the decline. In such a situation, dialogue will not be possible without knowledge of the theological and doctrinal views of other religions.

ج)میزان آشنایی با آراء معاصرین:

برخلاف دانشگاه های غربی که در مورد هر فیلسوف قرائت های مختلف وجود داشته و تدریس می شود. در کشور ما به سبب فقر مطالعات روش شناسی هنوز قرائت های مختلف از یک فیلسوف یا مکتب فلسفی جا باز نکرده است.و اساتید و دانشگاه های مشهور ایران اختلاف نظر چندانی با هم ندارند. و اینگونه نیست که مثلا گروه دانشگاه تهران یک قرائت،گروه تربیت مدرس یک قرائت و گروه دانشگاه فردوسی یا قم یک قرائت از ابن سینا یا ملاصدرا داشته باشند.

اما با این وجود در میان صاحب نظران ومحققان فعلی فلسفه حد اقل در مورد مسائل خاص و مهم فلسفی،اختلاف نظرها و اختلاف قرائت هایی وجود دارد.این اختلاف قرائت ها در میان محققان معاصر عرب و مسشرقان فلسفه پژوه رنگ و روی بیشتری دارد.

اما آنچه در کلاس های درسی مورد بحث واقع می شود،همان قرائت مشهور و همه پسند است. اساتید در مطرح کردن این قرائت های مختلف کوتاهی می کنند و دانشجویان تلاش چندانی برای آگاهی یافتن از این دیدگاهای متعارض نمی کنند. آشنایی بسیاری از دانشجویان و برخی اساتید با فیلسوفان و محققان معاصر در حد آشنایی با نام و برخی مشهورات در مورد ایشان است. اما  اطلاعاتشان در مورد کتاب های ایشان،دیدگاه ها و نوع نگاه ایشان بسیار اندک است. کمتر دانشجویی پیدا می شود که کتاب های تازه انتشار یافته ایشان را مطالعه کرده باشد.

آگاهی از مسشرقان فلسفه پژوه به مراتب کمتر است.فکر نمی کنم در هیچکدام از دانشگاه های ایران قرائت مسلمانان و مسشرقان از فلسفه مورد بررسی و مقایسه قرار گرفته باشد.اساسا اطلاعات ما در مورد مسشرقان فلسفه پژوه بسیار بسیار اندک است.

د) میزان ارتباط با فضای مجازی

یکی از کارکرد های قوی و بسیار مثبت فضای مجازی ،کارکرد آموزشی آن است. دست آوردهای این حوزه از چنان اهمیتی و جایگاهی برخوردار است که دیگر از حد یک انتخاب فراتر رفته و تبدیل به یک ضرورت شده است. امروزه یک دانشجوی تحصیلات تکمیلی نمی تواند با فضای مجازی بی ارتباط باشد.

دانشجویان فلسفه اسلامی- و البته دیگر گرایش های الهیات- از این ظرفیت استفاده لازم را نمی برند. تعداد بسیار کمی از دانشجویان با پایگاه های فلسفی آشنا هستند و یا خود صاحب وبلاگ هستند. بسیاریی از ایشان  نشریات و فصل نامه های جاری که در فضای مجازی قابل دسترس هستند را نمی شناسند.

و) میزان مشارکت در کارهای تشکیلاتی و گروهی

منظورم از کارهای تشکیلاتی، فعالیت های سیاسی و اجتماعی نیست.بلکه مقصود کارهای گروهی است که جنبه علمی آنها غالب است،مانند جلسات و نشست های فکری،راه اندازی سایت، وبلاگ و کانون های آموزشی و غیره

غالب دانشجویان فلسفه اسلامی روحیه کارهای گروهی و مشارکتی را ندارند و معمولا سر در لاک خود داشته و کارهای فردی را ترجیح می دهند. سرویس اندیشه سایت ها به ندرت در دست دانشجویان فلسفه اسلامی است. .به ندرت با سایت ها در جهت انتشار مقاله های ژورنالیستی  و اندیشه محور همکاری می کنند. به ندرت در مقابل سؤالهای رایج موضع گیری فعال می کنند. دانشجویان فنی در این راستا از ایشان پر تلاش تر بوده و کم کاری های ایشان را جبران می کنند.

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[1] لازم به ذکر است که این متن قبلا در سایت فرهنگ امروز انتشار یافته است.

[1] My emphasis on the importance of the philosophies of… does not mean that metaphysics is of little importance. In my view, Mr. Malekian’s remark that the relationship of metaphysics, as the central circle of the philosophical sciences, to other branches of philosophy is such that it illuminates the fate and course of discussions in the other circles, is a precise and important point that indicates the significance of metaphysics. And we should not, under the pretext of our greater and more urgent need for the philosophies of… and concrete discussions, become indifferent to metaphysics. This is a precise point: in whichever other branch of philosophy you wish to adopt a position (such as philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, philosophy of art, philosophy of ethics, philosophy of history, philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics, etc.), you must have already adopted a position in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of logic. That is, all branches of philosophy are in need of metaphysics.

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