By Necdet Yulaf, 17 October 2023
Education has had a dynamic definition throughout centuries. Being educated is a desired feature that bring you status in today’s society, but that was not the case always. Being an intellectual meant different things at different time periods. Let’s investigate and see through the example of an ancient philosopher…
In ancient times, the educated class was the philosophers. In order to understand their intellectual lifestyle, first we need to understand an average person’s life at that time. If we want to talk about Diogenes, the fearless philosopher of the 4th century, there were many societal classes. The kings are above all with omnipotent power, the religious leaders following them with a comparably less power. Right beneath these are the aristocrats, mostly formed by the army commanders or generals. Apart from these classes are the average people, working harshly every day to bring home some food. The king of our interest, Alexander the Great, was conquering back and forth throughout his 20s and by the time he reached 30 years old, he was in charge of most of the modern countries known today. His kingdom spread from Greece to India. With such a power he was believed to be the son of Zeus, people called him a semi-god. Coming back to our philosopher, Diogenes, he was living in a small village, but he was not like the average villager. He only worked to survive and spend most of his time wondering about the meaning of life, about the old philosophers who tried to explain the universe. He spent his days lying and observing the Moon and the Sun. It was sunny day, Diogenes was lying watching the sky, wondering about universe, while a man with many soldiers around him approached. This powerful man was Alexander the Great himself! He came up to Diogenes and told him that any wish that he makes will be granted. This may seem like winning the lottery, but Diogenes was such far away from any Earthly necessity that without even thinking he said to the conqueror, who apparently was standing between him and the Sun, “My wish is for you stand out of my light!” The conversation after this is definitely a unique one*, but this is enough for us to see the lifestyle of an intellectual person in old times. These
philosophers were not afraid of any power, nor they were learning for anything materialistic return. But here we should realize that Diogenes probably had an equal amount of knowledge in natural sciences as a 5th grader today. It was not the amount of information he had that made him an intellectual, it was his mindset of learning and wondering about his surroundings. Today we learn many things in school, but how much of that we deeply internalize? Like for example we know that the North line on the compass shows the North Pole, but do we know why? Naturally, the north pole of a magnet would attract the south pole of another magnet. How is it that North pole of the compass is attracted by the Earth’s North Pole?** Maybe we are not learning much, but we just memorize…
Today, when we say education, some of us may think about formal education we get in schools and universities, but education is much more. We should not forget that this formal type of education was introduced to our lives so recently, but being educated have always been the key to a satisfying life. Getting an undergrad or a grad degree is quite normal and average today, so any person that thinks of himself/herself as an intellectual should not limit the definition of education to be just that. To be an intellectual means to be able to surpass average, not to be in a race with people around you; but to be in a race with yourself. Uplifting people around you to reach their potential, cherish with other people’s success…
The need for intellectual people has never been more, the technological advancements brought us to an era of selfishness: we see the content that we are interested in all day in social media, we are not exposed to any opposing ideas. This, results in more and more polarization. Especially in a community like ours, TRNC, last thing that we need is a polarization and division. We need people who are aware of this, people who locate themselves in the intellectual class and don’t fall for the traps that are designed to control masses, like any type of addictive consumable. And as the young generation, it’s our responsibility to conserve ourselves, widen our knowledge and skillset, and put in the effort. Not only for us, but for the future of our society…
Sources:
As Pompeii Crumbles, April 24 2015 (about societal classes of 4th century)
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