Continuing to its tradition of “Celebrating World Philosophy Day” every year, the Department of Philosophy and Department of Hindi of P. G. Govt. College for Girls, Sector-11, Chandigarh organised an event on 17th November, 2016. Dr. Anita Kaushal, the Principal of Post Graduate Govt. College for Girls, Sector-11, Chandigarh facilitated the Guest -speaker, Dr. Sudhir Kumar Baweja, Coordinator, Department of Philosophy and Vivekananda Studies, USOL, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Dr. Anita Khosla, Head, Department of Hindi introduced audience about the distinguished speaker. She mentioned that the present year being celebrated as 2400 Birth Anniversary of Aristotle and this lecture is a dedication to Aristotle and his philosophy.

The main attraction of the programme was an impressive address by Dr. Sudhir Kumar Baweja on “The Philosophy of Aristotle”. Dr. Baweja opened his address to an attentive audience constituting students, faculty members and general audience by appraising the philosophy behind to celebrating the World Philosophy Day. Before coming to the life and philosophy of Aristotle Dr. Baweja took the audience to the streets of Athens where Socratic dialogues and Plato’s Academy Discussion still seemed to reverberate. He divided his lecture in two parts- History of Greek Philosophy and the philosophy of Aristotle. He started with beginning of the basic questions posed by ancient Greeks: What is the world made of?, What is man?, What is knowledge? and counted all important figures including Thales to Sophists. Where earlier Greek philosophers had been interested in the universe, in unity and difference, in the big questions, the Sophists were more interested in the mechanics of how man could do things for himself. For Socrates philosophy wasn’t a profession, as with the sophists, but a way of life. He said knowledge is virtue. The aim of Socrates’s dialectic was to expose false claims to wisdom and to move towards knowledge of man’s own nature. Plato was a prolific writer, not a textbook, but of elegant and lively dialogues in the style of thrillers with truth as query. Plato’s aim was to train man’ minds to enable them to think for themselves in the light of reason. The method seems to have been research under supervision. Education required a joint effort on the part of teacher and pupil- a truly dialogue process. Star pupil was Aristotle-who studied at the Academy for about 20 years.

Engaging his young audiences in the same Socratic spirit, Dr. Baweja went on to unfold the nuances of Greek Philosophical traditions and Aristotle’s significant contributions to the intellectual world. In his engaging style he exported the young audiences to appreciate a very simple moral injection-Do good and he happy.’ Towards the end of his address he reminded that it was Aristotle who taught the world that Excellence is not just an act but it is a habit and also our happiness depends on our self, our own wise choices, sincere efforts and intelligent excursions. Dr. Baweja concluded that on this World Philosophy Day young students of philosophy should overcome their prejudices, sectarian outlooks and involve the spirit of critical inquiry and reasoned dialogue so, that durable peace and universal brotherhood prevail in the deeply fragmented world.

A Poster to commemorate the World Philosophy Day-2016, which showcased the contributions of the celebrated Trinity of Philosophy-Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, released on this occasion. This programme had an interactive session in the end and students discussed on various concepts like virtues, justice, morality etc. and got clarification from the speaker. After the lecture, prizes of Declamation Contest held on the theme on “The Role of Youth in National Integration held on 4th November, 2016 distributed among the winners of the competition.

Dr. Rama Arora (Dean) and Dr. Kanwar Iqbal (Vice-Principal) graced the function. In the end of the program Dr. Desh Raj Sirswal, Head, Department of Philosophy thanked the speaker and the audience and pointed out that the present lecture is a significant step to teach and acquaint students with the key concepts of the philosophy of Aristotle. Dr. About 80 students and faculty-members of the college have attended this lecture.

Dr. Desh Raj Sirswal

November 19, 2016