A major international conference in Saudi Arabia has allowed free thinkers to encourage critical thinking in Saudi youth.
The conference took place over three days in Riyadh. In a nation long ruled by conservative Islamic thought, this represents a progressive step towards greater freedoms in Saudi Arabia.
In recent years, many Saudi’s have been jailed for expressing dissenting views and philosophy has been shunned entirely, making this conference a very positive sign for young people in Saudi Arabia.
One of the conference’s most prominent speakers was leading American philosopher and Harvard professor, Michael Sandel. Sandel gave a virtual speech and told attendees that he didn’t want to give a lecture, intending instead to engage directly with young Saudi’s.
As a nation, Saudi Arabia has little tradition of questioning the social, religious and political status quo. Given this, Sandel’s speech, which broached topics of critical reasoning and moral philosophy, signified a potentially subversive act.
Sandel promoted ethical discussion amongst the conference’s attendee’s, notably citing an ancient Chinese tale about a ruler who discovered his father was a killer. This was particularly resonant for Saudi attendee’s given that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman remains accused of the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
#SaudiArabia : Arrest of man in #Riyadh for insulting God comes couple of weeks before big conference on philosophy in Saudi capital – with luminaries such as Michael Sandel participating – with stated aim of encouraging critical thinking among young Saudis #MichaelSandel #الرياض pic.twitter.com/y3ifjE3iAF
— sebastian usher (@sebusher) November 24, 2021
Following the conference, Sandel stated that he was pleasantly surprised by the attendee’s willingness to engage in philosophical debate. Furthermore, he said that “If the participants left the session continuing to debate the ethical dilemmas we discussed, I’d call it a success – at least as a first step. It remains to be seen of course what the system will allow.”
Basically, there are fears that even though the youth are eager to learn, the people in power may not be ready to let them.
Last year, the previous Saudi Arabian education minister announced plans to introduce critical thinking and philosophy into the schooling curriculum. But unfortunately, he has since been replaced and those plans appear to be on hold.
American philosopher #MichaelSandel spoke about the merit of teaching critical thinking skills to young #Saudis in order to guide the Kingdom’s reforms, after Saudi Arabia held its first-ever philosophy conference.https://t.co/dHhqXrlu0t
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) December 11, 2021
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture says that it is “leading a cultural transformation to develop a rich ecosystem that nurtures creativity and unleashes new and inspiring forms of expression“.
As for recent progress in critical thinking and freedom of speech, however, a Saudi man was arrested last month on accusations of heresy and a Yemeni journalist was recently sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for apostasy.
We’re unsure if this is a matter of keeping up appearances and working on a more progressive image as a country or if Saudi Arabia really is moving forward, just one slow step at a time.
