Doha, Qatar: The Philosophy Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) celebrated the World Philosophy Day with a conference titled “Studies in Philosophy and Contemporary Arab Thought” on November 6 and 7, 2023. It hosted participants from the Institute and guests from abroad.
With these annual conferences the Philosophy Program aims at offering contributions toward major issues of contemporary Arab thought. The Program specializes in political and social philosophy with a keen view of connecting philosophical debates to realities of the current Arab World.
In her opening note, Dr Amal Ghazal, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, emphasized the importance of the conference and expressed her appreciation of the excellent contributions lined up in it. The opening session was dedicated to the most recent book of Dr Azmi Bishara on the Question of the State: A Thesis in Philosophy, Theory, and Contexts (published by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, ACRPS, in Arabic, 2023). Different readings of the work were presented by Dr Abdelwahab El-Affendi, President of the Doha Institute, Dr Adham Saouli, Professor of Political Sciences and Chair of Critical Security Studies (DI), Dr Rachid Boutayeb, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (DI), and Dr Mohammed Hemchi, Visiting Assistant Professor (DI) and Researcher at ACRPS, in the presence of Dr Azmi Bishara. The session was moderated by the Chair of the Philosophy Program, Professor Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab.
The first session dealt with questions of ethics and politics in contemporary Arab thought. Dr Rasheed Haj Saleh, managing director of Tabayyun, the Arab Center journal for philosophy and critical studies, and currently visiting researcher at the Arab Center, presented a paper on the phenomenon of reducing the political to the ethical and the historical in the works of contemporary Arab thinkers. Professor Raja Bahlul from the DI Philosophy Program and Chief-Editor of Tabayyun spoke on two concepts of democracy in contemporary Arab and Islamic thought. As to Professor Mounir Kchaou, also from the same Program, discussed the question of the freedom of conscience in Muslim majority societies, taking as a case study Tunisia and the 2014 constitution. This session was also moderated by Professor Kassab.
The second day of the conference was moderated by Professor Mounir Kchaou and included three papers as well. Professor Kassab raised questions related to the teaching of philosophy after the 2011 Arab revolts. Professor Khaled Qutb addressed the presence and absence of scientific thought in contemporary Arab thinking, and Dr Stephan Milich from the University of Cologne, Germany, spoke about the ethical and political challenges of dealing with the difficult legacy of war and revolution by exiled Syrian thinkers.
The two-day session concluded with a conference on the theological and philosophical premises of the recent Iranian protests titled “Woman, Life, Freedom” by Professor Katajun Amirpur, University of Cologne, Germany.
