Philosophy, the queen of all sciences, needs to be crowned in Pakistan to create a just society in the future. The special theme for this year’s World Philosophy Day is the ethics of inequality and the values shaping future societies. This theme seeks to investigate inequality to explore possible ways to eradicate it and to build just societies in the future. Certainly, philosophers, right from Plato and Aristotle through Ibn Khaldun, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, and Karl Marx to Muhammad Iqbal, John Rawls, Amartya Sen, and Jürgen Habermas, have been in search of a just society.
In contrast, inequality indubitably causes injustice that thwarts the human development of individuals and the progress of society. Undeniably, philosophy is vital to eliminating inequality and establishing a just society based on the ethical values of fairness, equality, and freedom in Pakistan. Inequality is a crooked way of creating disparities that cause social injustice through the unequal treatment of people, the distribution of basic goods, and choices for developing human capabilities. Undoubtedly, Pakistani society has been ruthlessly threatened not by any external enemy but by the monster of inequality in the arenas of education, health, wealth, human rights, and human development.
Only philosophy can be an elixir that empowers the Pakistani mind to cure the diseases of inequality, which eventually lead to extremism, corruption, lawlessness, economic insecurity, and ethical disability, by fostering critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and a scientific attitude to life for establishing a just society in Pakistan.
The concept of fairness can promote social justice in the world. Social justice matters in life because, without it, human life is not worth living. A celebrated Muslim social philosopher, Ibn Khaldun, in his classic work Muqaddimah, states that injustice destroys civilisations. Later, the father of modern political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes, in his seminal work Leviathan, states that life in a state of nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Thus, Ibn Khaldun and Hobbes converge on the idea that injustice harms while justice advances human societies.
Poverty is not just lack of money; it is not having the capability to realise one’s full potential as a human being
An American leading political philosopher, John Rawls, considers justice to be the first virtue of social institutions, which eliminates inequalities in society. Poverty is the root of all social evils because it hinders economic choices in society. The South African politician and statesman Nelson Mandela correctly believed that it is not charity but justice that abolishes poverty. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls states, “Injustice is simply inequalities that are not to the benefit of all.” Also, in Justice as Fairness, Rawls argues, “Justice as fairness assigns a central place to the idea of society as a fair system of cooperation.” In the social contract tradition, Rawls uses the phrase the ‘veil of ignorance’ in the original position to transcend identities of race, colour, gender, creed, and nationality under the spirit of fairness, for acquiring social justice for all people in society.
A visionary Pakistani development economist, Mahbub ul Haq, fittingly associates equality with human development for enhancing people’s choices in this social world. In the first UNDP Human Development Report (1990), Mahbub ul Haq writes, “The basic purpose of development is to enlarge people’s choices; failure to do so creates the worst kind of inequality.” Human development, thus, is a revenge against inequality. In Reflections on Human Development (1995), Mahbub ul Haq adds, “The struggle for human development is, at its core, the struggle against inequality.” He correctly concluded that human development is the right way to abolish inequality from society.
The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen advanced Mahbub ul Haq’s human development programme and developed a capability approach to extend human choices and to eradicate poverty. In Development as Freedom, Sen remarkably claims, “Poverty is not just lack of money; it is not having the capability to realise one’s full potential as a human being.” In another philosophical canon, The Idea of Justice, Sen reiterates, “The tyranny of inequality lies not only in unequal incomes but in the unequal opportunities to flourish.” Both Mahbub ul Haq and Sen argue for human development to counter the monster of inequality for social justice.
Social justice is necessary for the development and existence of human beings in this world. In Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant states that all human beings must be treated as ends in themselves, never merely as means. Kant emphasises the equality and worth of all human beings, irrespective of their diverse and multiple social disparities.
Pakistani philosophy has been in an embryonic metamorphosis since the birth of the country
This means that any form of inequality, in a sense, is an inability to realise full human potential, which ultimately leads people to the disorder of mental impotency. People suffering from this disorder become afraid to think. From the perspective of French philosopher René Descartes, who said, “I think, therefore I am,” mentally impotent people cannot exist in this world.
Pakistani philosophy has been in an embryonic metamorphosis since the birth of the country. Indeed, Muhammad Iqbal’s philosophy is the foundational stone of Pakistani philosophy. Since the creation of the country, philosophical activity in Pakistan was primarily advanced through classroom teaching and writing by several distinguished philosophers, including M. M. Sharif, Khalifa Abdul Hakim, Muhammad Rafiuddin, C. A. Qadir, B. A. Dar, A. H. Kamali, and many others.
In a comprehensive essay, “Philosophical Activity in Pakistan” (1961), the Belgian theologian Richard De Smet called M. M. Sharif an “indefatigable” person. M. M. Sharif edited a substantial two-volume book, A History of Muslim Philosophy, which is a monumental work in the history of philosophy in Pakistan, and established the Pakistan Philosophical Congress in 1954 and later its Pakistan Philosophical Journal in 1957.
Many renowned international philosophers attended the different sessions of the Pakistan Philosophical Congress, and their papers were also published in the Pakistan Philosophical Journal. P. A. Schilpp, John Wisdom, A. J. Ayer, Humayun Kabir, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and many others attended the sessions of the Congress, and their work was published in the journal. Alas, the Pakistan Philosophical Congress and the Pakistan Philosophical Journal have both been dormant for almost two decades.
To promote philosophical activity in Pakistan, the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, started a philosophy journal, Al-Hikmat, in 1967, with C. A. Qadir as its founder editor. It still publishes regularly and is the only HEC-recognised philosophy journal in Pakistan.
The subject of philosophy, particularly in Pakistan, has not been given sufficient attention. Once, philosophy was thriving in Pakistan when the Pakistan Philosophical Congress was active. Regular sessions of the Congress were held in different provinces of the country, in which national and international philosophers participated and presented their philosophical acumen to resolve intellectual challenges.
Now, there is a dire need to teach philosophy in all educational institutions in Pakistan, including schools, colleges, and universities. New seats for philosophy in colleges should be created. All universities in Pakistan should establish philosophy departments. There is also a need to revive the Pakistan Philosophical Congress and the Pakistan Philosophical Journal to put the intellectual mind into action in the country.
Pakistan has been passing through a state of intellectual crisis because of the colonial legacy, feudal mindsets, religious orthodoxy, and socio-cultural prejudices. Philosophy can foster critical rationality and scientific inquiry to decolonise the colonial mind, to create an egalitarian and just society, to promote a culture of respect for diversity, and to nurture openness in society for peaceful existence. Thus, we need to wear the crown of philosophy in our country to nurture philosophical activity, to eradicate all strands of inequality, and to promote the ethics of fairness, moral literacy, human rights, and human development for a progressive Pakistan in the future.