A society is the sum of all social, political and economic contributions of individuals living together by sharing a common culture, language, belief or religion. And, an individual is the cornerstone of society. Both society and individuals are interdependent.
Philosophy is defined as the love of wisdom or the search for wisdom. It is an attempt in pursuit of knowledge. According to Fichte, philosophy is the science of knowledge. A society that gives importance to philosophy is a rational and prejudice-free society.
In philosophy, it is said that every individual is a philosopher by nature. Because human beings are inquisitive. And, when they try to find answers to their questions they are indeed striving for knowledge. As philosophy is the search for knowledge so basically they are adopting a philosophical method. And when they find an answer to those questions, it becomes their philosophy. It can be right, wrong, prejudiced or prejudice-free.
Philosophy is divided into two kinds: a) Personal philosophy, and b) Systematic philosophy.
When an individual has a point of view or an opinion, it is its personal philosophy. And, when its philosophy fulfils universal standards and rational parameters it transforms into systematic philosophy. When personal philosophy transforms into systematic philosophy, all prejudices, rigidness, narrow-mindedness, strictness, fanaticism, extremism and myths are removed and it no longer remains a personal approach as it becomes universal, common and collective wisdom and it is acceptable to all.
The same applies to society. When individuals and groups live together and engage in dialogue it results in a systematic philosophy of a society that is universal and acceptable for all and leaves behind all ills which would be regressive for society otherwise.
When individuals or groups live together they are bound to have differences of opinion, approaches and views regarding religion, politics, economy or other social phenomenons. And when these differences are not debated with reason and rather addressed with emotions then a culture of prejudices, extremism, rigidness, myths and intolerance takes control of society.
“The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason” (Bertrand Russell).
It is at this point philosophy plays an important role. Philosophy removes superstitions, prejudices, myths, rigidness and intolerance from individuals and ultimately from society by valuing reason instead of emotions. It gives courage to question, dissent and helps in revealing truth based on reason. It cultivates tolerance, rationality, ethics and common wisdom in society.
Philosophy provides a base for the evolution of society through dialect. A society has to evolve with time. It cannot remain constant. But in the absence of philosophy, neither revolution nor evolution takes place. As negation of philosophy is also a philosophy so with dialect and dialogue a society progresses with systematic evolution and collective wisdom.
A society in a relationship with philosophy cannot be controlled, fooled or coerced easily. As reason is at the heart of philosophy, it gives courage to individuals to identify and support the truth and expose and shun the lie. It gives power to the individuals to place a check on the governments as it is difficult for the governments and politicians to trick the individuals with the weapon of emotions.
The absence of philosophy in a society gives space to the emotions and passions that run the individuals. Emotions become the basis of fanaticism which disintegrates society. As philosophy promotes reason, it unites individuals on commonalities between them rather than dividing them on differences. On the other hand, uncontrolled emotions, passions and pseudo dogmas give rise to social viruses like racism, extremism and prejudice.
Today’s age is the age of disinformation and misinformation. It is very easy for individuals or groups to fall prey to disinformation. But, philosophy through reason inspires them to search for the truth and find reality based on truth.
The lack of debate, dialect and dissent culture and a reason-based environment has contributed to rising extremism, fanaticism and rigidness in Pakistan. The balance between reason and emotion has tilted towards emotions.
Philosophy as a discipline should be introduced in the curriculum for students at school, college and university levels. It will bring a culture of tolerance by creating a balance between reason and emotions, by creating a reason-based environment for dialogue and dissent and by discouraging fanaticism and extremism.
Pakistan must give importance to philosophy as the majority of its population is young so it will give them a conducive environment to play their part in the progress of the state.
It is need of the hour to endorse philosophy globally and every society should value philosophy and give importance to it as the world today is plagued by social evils and viruses such as racism, classism, extremism, discrimination, inherent prejudices, and intolerance. The only solution is to cultivate tolerance by promoting the culture of dialogue, debate, dialect and mutual acceptance of all. It is only possible by promoting philosophy in society.
Lastly, it should be kept in mind that philosophy is oxygen for society and little or no oxygen leads to suffocation and death.
