LARKANA: It is widely belie­ved nowadays that modern technology has converted the world into a global village but the fact is otherwise as it has deprived hum­anity of direction and rendered it lonely, said a speaker at a lecture on philosophy.

Prof Dr Sikandar Mughal, former registrar at Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University and author of five books on evolution and science, said in his lecture on ‘History of philosophy and its impact on society’, held under the aegis of Sindhi Adabi Sangat the other day, that communism did not exist anywhere in the world now nor was socialism found in any place.

He said the idea of emancipation of human being was present only in dialectical philosophy to which people had to resort to for their well-being. “Philosophy embraces whole of the universe because it subsumes its complete picture in itself,” he said.

He said that philosophy was a Greek word which meant love of knowledge or wisdom. The imagination arising in mind was in fact picture of consciousness. Philoso­phy was as old as human civilisation and it was a general viewpoint of human beings about this universe, an attempt to grasp the meaning of life in this world and solution of the problems of matter and consciousness, he said.

Dr Mughal said that philosophy was mainly of two types; materialism and idealism, depending upon the answer to basic questions of philosophy ie whether it was matter which was the source of everything or it was consciousness or the soul.

Karl Marx and Engels founded modern materialistic philosophy ie dialectical materialism which was based on latest discoveries of science.

After the lecture’s end, the speaker took questions from the audience and answered them in detail.

Dr Zulfikar Rahoojo presented detailed introduction of Dr Mughal, the chief guest and main speaker of the day while secretary of the Sangat welcomed guests and reiterated that more such lectures on the serious topics of literature, society and philosophy would be held in future.

Khawar Qaboolai presented a Waee of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai in his melodious voice towards the end of the lecture.

Prominent among those who attended the lecture were; Prof Ghulam Hussain Katpar, former principal of Government Degree College Zulfikar Rajpar, Barkat Jeho, Jameel Gaad, Dr Suresh Hotchandani and others.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2019