The Philosophy Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI), in co-operation with the Philosophy Club, organised an academic event, marking World Philosophy Day, under the title:“Why and How Do We Think Today?"

The event brought together a distinguished group of professors, researchers, and students.

According to the background paper, thinking is the cornerstone of our understanding of and interaction with the world; people depend on it, in part or in whole, for their choices, decisions, and relationships. It forms an essential part of the hidden infrastructure of our individual and collective lives.

Dr Amal Ghazal, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, emphasised the importance of reviving philosophy at a global moment where technology intersects with major human questions. She pointed out that philosophy emerges today as an indispensable space and a tool for reaffirming human responsibility and agency in an era where technology encroaches on politics and political decision-making retreats into data.

Dr Elizabeth Kassab, head of the Philosophy Programme, offered introductory remarks underscoring the need to rethink the very meaning of reflection in an age of AI and profound global transformations. She said that reflective thinking is no longer an intellectual luxury, but a necessity imposed by a complex reality in which technology is intertwined with the structure of political and ethical decision-making.

She said this event seeks to restore philosophy to the heart of public debate and to enhance critical awareness among students and researchers, enabling them to confront the epistemic and ethical questions posed by the digital age and to reclaim thinking as a human responsibility before it is an academic pursuit.

The event was organised into four main sessions, addressing contemporary philosophical issues related to AI, ethics, human agency, and epistemic transformations in times of genocide.

The opening session featured a presentation by Dr Raja Bahlul, who delivered a critical paper on AI and its philosophical implications, highlighting the epistemological, metaphysical, ethical, and social issues raised by AI, while considering the remarkable developments in the field since the time of Turing and the early pioneers.

Dr Walid al-Saqqaf, associate professor in the journalism programme, discussed whether code can itself carry culture and whether the culture embedded in data can reshape the code.

Dr Fadi Zaraket, associate professor and head of the Arab Digital Social Sphere Studies Unit at the Arab Centre, presented a paper titled“AI between Myth-Making and Epistemic Validity,” in which he attempted to demystify how AI systems operate and traced the phases of cognitive formalisation, from Aristotelian reflection and reasoning, to algorithms, and finally to statistical modeling.

Omar al-Magharibi, Research Assistant at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, addressed the topic of technological determinism and human agency, focusing on the interventions of Latour and Haraway. Al-Maghribi examined two responses to the tension between technological determinism and human agency: the first represented by Bruno Latour's contribution, and the second by feminist philosopher Dana Haraway's work on situated knowledge.

The event also featured several advanced research interventions by students from the Philosophy Programme and other programmes at the DI, addressing topics such as the threats posed by AI, ethical responsibility in AI, and philosophical linguistics in the age of AI, and value-based coloniality through the lens of AI.

The day concluded with a panel discussion titled“Thinking in the Time of Genocide,” featuring Dr Azzouzi Baghara, chair of the Philosophy Department at Kuwait University, and Dr Rachid Botayeb, associate professor in the Philosophy Programme.

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