A Breath of Philosophy (Final Chapter): Everlasting Philosophy for an Open Society

This is the "Epilogue" of the "A Breath of Philosophy" series. When it becomes a book, it will be the "Foreword", if we are lucky.  In fact, the "Foreword" of academic works is always written as an epilogue, and in a way, it consists of intellectual confessions on the main concern of the book. I would like you to consider the following lines as a "thank you". 

On a snowy weekend in February, my teacher Hayri Ataş called me, we had a productive conversation about books, and he proposed to publish the short essays I called "Philosophy in passing". I told him that I attached great importance to those articles as a kind of summary of the readings on the History of Islamic Philosophy at Hitit University Faculty of Theology, but that the right to publish them belonged to the Presidency of Religious Affairs. With the suggestion of my teacher Selma Maşlak Koçer, we had made an effort to "thematize" our readings of last year's academic year in Geçerken magazine by limiting them to a certain number of words. 

I said that these texts needed to be projected, that they were didactic, and that with the suggestion of Dr. Hüseyin Fazla, the President of STRASAM (Strategic Research Center), we aimed to publish this year's academic year's readings under the name "Bir Nefes Felsefe" (A Breath of Philosophy) in a more critical and comparative way every week, and that we should meet again at the end of the semester. And near the end of the semester, he called again, and I said that we could publish it as in our "Philosophy for Children" work published in Post Publications. 

In addition to the STRASAM website, Haberlotus, Dibace, Anayorumhaber, Kafkassam, Enpolitik, Tarihistan, Yaylahaber editors and friends shared my articles on their platforms due to the different target audiences they addressed, and they were instrumental in bringing our HİTÜ philosophy readings to the public. When asked how it happens on so many sites, they said that there would be no problem because their target audiences are different. 

- Attention to the Risks of Anti-Philosophy and Manipulations

We define philosophy as being on the road and see philosophers as companions. While explaining their ideas to our students, we also analytically examined their ideas and shared systematic readings with the public in the context of the questions of what they can say today, and whether they can be instrumental in contributing to solutions to our current problems. We thought that it contributed to protecting the society from misinformation and manipulations, especially against the possibility that anti-philosophy has increased in our country recently and increased its effectiveness in the academic community. The most appropriate way to do this would be to make philosophical writings open access, that is, to make the scientific literature accessible, readable, saved, copied, printed, scanned, without financial, legal and technical barriers through the internet. I am really grateful to the site and its administrators for making it freely available to the public for all legitimate purposes. 

Whether working in the technical or humanities sciences, it is imperative that a scientist adheres to ethical values, that is, to be honest with his students and with himself. In my field of study, it is imperative for the lecturer to teach the philosophers based on their own texts, and to make the student become their companion by exposing them to first-hand texts. As students of the School of Truth, the academic should feel the same responsibility towards the public, and it should be his/her main duty to convey philosophical truths in a simple language that they can understand. 

- Public Interest and Open Access to Academic Knowledge

The public good will be achieved through the dissemination of academic knowledge to the public in terms of inclusiveness, cooperation and equality, where shared knowledge will gain value.  The immediate goal of this series of articles, conceived as a tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Turkey, is to sensitize "philosophical consciousness" by making public the issues discussed in the course of Islamic Philosophy in general and History of Turkish Thought, Islamic Moral Philosophy and Contemporary Philosophical Movements in particular. The distant goal is to draw attention to the risks of spreading anti-philosophy in the society, especially in the faculties of theology in universities that focus on raising free and self-confident individuals. 

At this point, the fact that anti-philosophy is practiced in the name of the "common good" and that congregations and sects make statements together with a new political party and announce that they will increase their activities towards the Faculties of Theology increases the gravity of the situation. In other words, there has been an increase in religious communities and sects presenting their own visions as the generally accepted view of Islam and presenting their own priorities and efforts to gain a place in the public sector as "public interest". So much so that what is presented as public/social interest today has basically turned into group (community/sect) interests. Even people's constitutionally protected right to freely express their religious, philosophical and political opinions (with these groups and communities presenting their views as the common good) has begun to be presented as a violation of the public interest. As a matter of fact, the increase in physical and verbal attacks on some faculty members in the faculties of theology is a sign of this. 

In order to show that these attitudes are aimed at preventing social and cultural development, the "A Breath of Philosophy for an Open Society" series of articles are basically references to the historical dimensions of such mental eclipses. For this purpose, we have analyzed the Seljuk-Abbasid-Fatimi/Buwayhi political conflicts in our history of thought, and we have brought to the agenda the conception of Islam put forward by the Turkish Mind apart from the Arab and Persian Minds. 

- Universities as Autonomous Public Units

By reading the cultural continuity of the Republic of Turkey with the inspiration of the Presidential logo, we have tried to make readings towards the grounding of the concepts of Turkish Philosophy and Turkish Philosophy. These readings are indicative of the fact that universities are autonomous public units. In other words, with the autonomy given by being a member of the university, it is an effort to carry our evaluations in terms of the present day to the public through open access channels by making the philosophy of history that the subjects we teach in the courses are not issues that have remained in history.  Philosophically, we see philosophers as companions in our search for truth, and while examining their ideas chronologically, they are systematic readings that we call "Re-Housing Philosophy in Anatolia". The immediate goal is Turkish Philosophy; as a distant goal, we assume that interdisciplinary research will be strengthened by increasing possible contributions to Turkish Philosophy. We also hope that it will partially mediate the development and sharing of teaching materials. 

From this point of view, in order to be able to say "Perpetual Philosophy for an Open Society", the tradition of coordinated study of philosophy, theology and Sufism in the faculties of theology in the secular, democratic and state of law Republic of Turkey should continue. Because when we examine the historical processes and look at the religious debates both in neighboring countries and in our country today, it is seen that "religious education is public security". Today, when the historical Silk Road is being revitalized with different projects, we hope that these readings on the cultural continuity of Inner Asia-Turkistan-Atayurt and Asia Minor-Turkey-Atayurt will reduce the possible effect of mental eclipses. 

And thank you; I would like to thank my friends who are the editors of the websites that provide open access for these articles to reach the public, and my brothers Aygün Akyol, Nalan Emektar, Muaz Ergü, Hayri Ataş for all kinds of technical contributions.