THIS refers to the report ‘Deconstructing history and idea of Pakistan’ (Jan 25). One of the honourable speakers, who happened to be a nuclear physicist, commented on Allama Iqbal’s status as a philosopher, arguing against such a status. The report quoted him as saying that he refused to consider him a philosopher.

The said report left me bemused as the honourable speaker did not have any qualification in the aforementioned subject, but the person about whom he was sitting in judgment actually held a post-doctoral degree in Philosophy from Germany.

The attitude reminded me of a term that I had come across a while ago; ‘epistemic trespassing’. The term was coined in 2019 by Nathan Ballantyne, an American associate professor of philosophy, cognition and culture at Arizona State University. It refers to a situation when experts in one field start to think of themselves as experts in other fields as well in which they have no expertise. This is mainly due to intellectual pride that blinds them to their own boundaries. Of course, there is overlapping of many disciplines, but one should be more willing to bow to others who know better.

Also came to mind was Socrates who said that ‘the beginning of wisdom is knowing how limited your knowledge is’. Just being a genius in one field does not make one an authority in other fields.

Dr Majid Rauf Ahmad
Lahore

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2026