Introduction to the concept of philosophy

We would like to make three points first :

1- There is no such thing as neutrality towards values, whether in philosophy, logic, or society in general.

2- Our faith in God, “Glory be to Him,” should not lead us to an unenlightened sympathy with idealistic philosophies that hide behind faith, whether explicitly or implicitly.

3- The necessity of paying attention to studying and developing research methods and approaches as a means of addressing the harmful imbalance between the massive technological achievements made by humanity and the intellectual chaos prevailing in our contemporary world.

1. Research methods are closely linked to philosophy, and influence it reciprocally in terms of origin, development, and definition of concepts. Another important assumption we wish to emphasize from the outset is that there is no such thing as neutrality or a negative stance toward values, whether in philosophy, logic, or society in general.

There has been a long-standing controversy over this issue, even among liberal thinkers themselves, a number of whom, at the beginning of the current century – most notably Max Weber – claimed that it was possible to completely separate facts from values, and for the scientist or researcher to be completely free of any environmental considerations or subjective influences when issuing a judgment on a given subject.

But many of these thinkers were finally forced to acknowledge reality, the impossibility of an arbitrary separation between the fields of experimentation and values, and the impossibility of the social sciences in particular taking a neutral position regarding events, conflicts and forces in any

Society, as they recognized that objectivity is relative1.

Political scientists, for example, when they select and organize the material they use in their research or lectures, need to conduct real selection processes.

There is no truth without another, or one organizational form without another, or one research method without another. The selection process may be random, but in the vast majority of cases it is not. Rather, it is governed by standards and values ​​adopted by each scientist or researcher.

Thus, the importance of providing the intellectual with a more accurate knowledge of research methods becomes clear, enabling him to choose the most appropriate ones for his studies, and helping him to be as objective as possible in determining his position on the conflicting philosophies and ideologies in today’s world.

However, although it is necessary to adhere to neutrality in presenting these approaches, honesty and scientific commitment to the search for truth require not taking a negative stance towards philosophical and logical trends, old and new, whose shortcomings range from the inability to keep up with the scientific and social developments of the age to partial or complete misleading of the researcher, diverting him from a sound understanding of the truth of the basic problem in philosophy, which is the relationship of thought to reality and from understanding the nature of conflicting trends, whether in the field of science or society.

For example, the differences between Marxist ideology and liberalism are constantly crystallizing as an expression of the raging conflict between the two main systems of our era, namely socialism and capitalism, which has prompted all philosophical and logical trends to define their positions on that conflict in explicit or oblique ways.

This does not mean that philosophy and logic were neutral before the emergence of these two ideologies. Quite the contrary: they generally expressed reactionary or emerging social forces. For example, despite the vast legacy left behind by Plato and Aristotle, their writings were an expression of a specific historical era.

and specific social relations. Moreover, they defended the existing social and political system at that time, with its division into free masters and slaves, and considered slavery a natural phenomenon.

The social and class character of philosophy is clearly evident in the view expressed by Aristotle and transmitted to us by history. The Greek historian Plutarch recounts that Alexander the Great, during one of his conquests, learned that his teacher Aristotle had published some of his philosophical works. He was enraged and sent a letter to his teacher, rebuking him: ” You have made a mistake by publishing the innermost parts of knowledge. Otherwise, how can we remain different from other people if you make the higher knowledge we acquired from you universally shared?” Aristotle responded: “We have published it, but we have not made it known… and only those who have studied under us, like you, can understand it.” 1

Accordingly, some false assumptions cannot be accepted today as they are, which went so far as to say that philosophy is nothing but the love of wisdom, as Greek philosophy claimed, or the claim of philosophical indifference and even the denial of philosophy altogether, as positivism attempted, or the consideration of philosophy as logical linguistic analysis, as logical positivism thought.

Likewise, the committed intellectual cannot stand as a bystander or neutral in the face of philosophical trends that perpetuate reactionism, pessimism, exploitation, and selfishness. Rather, it is his duty to expose their bankruptcy and their evasion of providing a general concept of nature and humanity that explains their past and serves their present and future.

This intellectual, or even the ordinary citizen, cannot be neutral regarding the philosophies of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Camus, or Zionist philosophy, for example. Nietzsche is the one who said: I dream of a community of men, completely and completely

Tough, uncompromising, and unforgiving, they call themselves the Wreckers… They do not care about life, tranquility, or peace, but rather find bliss in victory, strength, and destruction, and they feel deep pleasure when they torture others…1.

This aggressive tone is complemented by the fact that Nietzsche’s philosophy of the superman was one of the sources from which Nazism benefited in formulating its concepts, especially its transformation of the idea of ​​the superiority of the superman as a person into the superiority of the superior race as an element, i.e. the Aryan race, which is the essence of Nazi philosophy in its attempt to prove the superiority of the Aryan race “creating culture” and its right to impose its control over other lower-ranking human races such as the Anglo-Saxons “as a race carrying culture” or the degenerate races “destroying culture,” by which it meant non-European colored peoples, especially the Jews.

It is also impossible to remain neutral regarding philosophies such as pragmatism and existentialism. Heidegger, for example, a leading figure in contemporary existentialism, was not in vain appointed by Hitler as rector of the University of Freiburg; rather, he took on the task of disseminating Nazi propaganda among German students.

Then let us read some lines from Camus’s writings to understand the pessimistic nature that characterizes his existential philosophy, as he says in his novel The Myth of Sisyphus: “There is no…”

Only one philosophical problem can be considered truly serious, and that is the problem of suicide. If we can judge whether life is worth living or not, we have answered the central problem of philosophy .

2- Our belief in God “Glory be to Him ” ​​should not push us to an unenlightened sympathy with philosophies that hide behind faith and religion, whether explicitly or implicitly. Evidence from ancient times indicates that the minority of slave owners with narrow, selfish interests, who emerged after primitive societies were divided into classes, resorted to priests not so much out of belief in the common gods of the time, but rather to exploit their influence to appease the slaves; to make them endure more forced labor and not revolt against injustice. Then some philosophers entered this game as a party, as evidenced by the words of Cicero, the Roman conciliatory philosopher, who went so far as to say before the birth of Christ: ” Belief in the gods is a must for slaves .”

The main concern of these officials and philosophers was to defend the rule of minorities and their exploitation of people, disguised in this by defending religion and faith.