RIYADH: Saudi culture chiefs have revealed plans to establish Riyadh as a global hub of philosophical thinking.
The Kingdom is currently playing host to the three-day Riyadh International Philosophy Conference, the first event of its kind to take place in the country.
Some of the brightest minds from the world of philosophy have gathered in the Saudi capital to focus on the challenges facing humanity, under this year’s conference theme “Unpredictability.”
Mohammed Alwan, chief executive officer of the Ministry of Culture’s Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission, told Arab News that the Kingdom had major sector ambitions to support philosophy and criticism.
“We have an entire program dedicated to support this activity that has been underrepresented in our society for different reasons. We believed in its importance.
“We intend to establish Riyadh as a center of philosophical thinking by holding this conference annually. We want to send a message to local people interested in philosophy about the most updated and different topics of philosophy, not just controversial topics or those limited to contradicting our beliefs,” he said.
The CEO pointed out that philosophy played an essential role in any vibrant and flourishing cultural scene.
On the large number of attendees at the conference, which ends on Friday, he added: “Most of the workshops and panels were fully occupied. We’re happy that there is such a commitment to philosophy from the people interested in it. It keeps us further motivated to provide more.”
Alwan noted that the “Unpredictability” theme had meant that no controversial topics had been raised during the conference.
“We kind of established this new norm being acceptable and being open to different kinds of ideas, and we can argue and defend our beliefs in an open discussion if something pops up that is not in alignment with our norms in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Some of the event’s sessions focused on children and included discussions on the philosophical education of youngsters, running conference workshops for kids, and ways to further encourage young people to philosophize and think abstractly.
“Philosophy is not only for adults. It is actually fun. It is something that we practice every day, even without noticing.
“We philosophize a lot of issues that we face on a daily basis. It could be a game, something we enjoy doing and enjoy thinking and contemplating. We plan to support more events catered toward children in the future, that hopefully they can enjoy,” Alwan added.
He said that one of the aims of the conference had been to raise awareness in schools and universities in line with the Ministry of Education’s introduction of philosophy to the curriculum in public schools. “That is something we aspire to do, and we are happy to help and cooperate with the ministry if help is needed.”
Alwan added that the commission was working to offer a varied calendar of events related to philosophy through partnerships with specialist organizations and said a raft of conferences, book fairs, and literature, publishing, and translation events were already in the pipeline for 2022. “We are going to have a very successful year, full of activities.”
