January 22, 2008 at 11:38:44

On Being a Philosopher

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By Iftekhar Sayeed (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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To be paid to study, and to be paid to make love, or to eat, or to drink - are on a par with our philosopher. He learns because he must, to be consistent, to be coherent. And at this point our society takes up arms against him, for our time-honoured maxim is not the lines quoted, but the following (a trifle modernized, for the last time I saw a horse being used was by a wedding-party during the recent hartals);

Who seeks the pleasures of car or plane
Must study hard these honours to obtain.

"We admire wisdom as a spectacle," concluded Robert Lynd. We may gawk at a house in Baridhara; women caparisoned in jewelry and silk; the sinuous contours of a seductive car; the decor of a plutocrat's drawing-room; in short, genuflect in our general plutolatry. But we resolutely retreat from the admiration of wisdom as from a heathenish practice. And woe to the votary of knowledge who bends his pride before the Encyclopaedia, disdaining the golden calf! Yet the true philosopher never recants his heresy, stoically to endure society's neglect and obloquy, its strappado and thumbscrews.

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http://www.geocities.com/if6065/farvardin

Iftekhar Sayeed teaches English and economics. He was born and lives in Dhaka, ‎Bangladesh. He has contributed to AXIS OF LOGIC, ENTER TEXT, POSTCOLONIAL ‎TEXT, LEFT CURVE, MOBIUS, ERBACCE, THE JOURNAL, and other publications. ‎He (more...)

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