The second week of Ibn Haldun Academy, which took place on May 4, 2024, again hosted an intense participation. In Ibn Haldun Academy, which adopted the theme of Diluted Times this year, Prof. Halil Berktay, Head of our History Department, and Assoc. Enis Doko, Head of our Philosophy and History Department, held the second session of their two-week seminar series.
In the second and final session of the seminar series “In the Shadow of Great Cases”, Prof. Halil Berktay expressed his discomfort with the divergence of the right and left neighborhoods in Turkey to the point of sectarianization, and his view that Turkey cannot truly be a single society as long as this order, which refuses contact with the outside and insists on living within itself, exists. Prof. Berktay added that he comes from the leftist neighborhood and can define himself as a left democrat, and examined the problematic of whether socialism can be reduced to the power of the communist party.
Prof. Berktay mentioned that this year's theme of Ibn Haldun Academy, “Diluted Times”, has many different connotations and has different meanings depending on the perspective, and added that the theme fits very well with the essence of his seminars in which he talks about great causes that are now over and periods that have been exhausted.
At the end of the seminar series titled “In the Shadow of Great Cases”, Prof. Prof. Halil Berktay was given an appreciation award by our Corporate Communications Manager Mehmet Emre Ayhan.
Following Prof. Halil Berktay, in the last session of the seminar “After Virtue: The Search for Happiness and Meaning in the Age of Hedonism and Consumerism", Assoc. Prof. Enis Doko emphasized that the fundamental question is not ‘What should I do?’ but ‘What kind of a person should I be?’ and touched upon general philosophical moral theories such as Stoicism, Aristotelianism, Buddhism, Janism and Confucianism. Touching again on the failure and obvious reasons for the failure of the morality promoted by the Enlightenment at the end of the day, Assoc. Prof. Doko stated that the encouragement of consumption, which is in vogue today, also destroys tradition. Doko stated that the custom of dowry, which has the quality of transferring values from generation to generation, has been eviscerated today and turned into a show-off material that encourages consumption, and that this is exactly the purpose of capitalism.
Assoc. Prof. Enis Doko, “After Virtue: The Search for Happiness and Meaning in the Age of Hedonism and Consumption” and concluded his seminar series by stating that the consuming human being can never reach the ultimate peace.
We would like to thank our esteemed academician for his seminar titled “After Virtue: The Search for Happiness and Meaning in the Age of Hedonism and Consumption", our Corporate Communications Manager Mehmet Emre Ayhan presented an appreciation award to our esteemed academician.
Following the seminars of Prof. Halil Berktay and Assoc. Prof. Enis Doko, we talked with Prof. Gülçin Yahya Kaçar about Cinuçen Tanrıkorur, the doyen of Turkish music, of whom she was a student, as part of the Role Model Talks of Diluted Times.
Stating that the civilization of a nation is formed by scholars and artists, Prof. Kaçar added that Cinuçen Tanrıkorur was an idealist, meticulous, perfectionist and intellectual artist. Stating that his father Zaferşan Bey's motivation for naming him Cinuçen was the fact that it was an original Turkish name meaning “always victorious”, Prof. Kaçar emphasized that Tanrıkorur left many works, spread books, traveled the world and never broke away from life despite his serious illnesses, and that the famous musician defined himself as a Mevlâna lover.
Following her speech in which she talked about the modest personality and exemplary artistry of Cinuçen Tanrıkorur, who was the first artist to both play and sing on stage, Kaçar presented a short musical feast to the face-to-face and online participants with her udu, on which she performed special pieces.
After Prof. Gülçin Yahya Kaçar's speech, Prof. Ali Yeşilırmak, our Vice Rector and Faculty Member of Faculty of Law, presented her the award of appreciation.
