On the 25th April 2024 the members of the Students Club „Ibn Sina“ in co-operation with the Students’ Club supervisor, prof. Shahab Yar Khan PhD have organized a round-table meeting in the premises of the Research Institute „Ibn Sina“. During this meeting, the members spoke about two key issues. The first issue pertained to the critical problems which are developing world wide. The second issue was directed at marking the 460th anniversary of the birth of the anglophone literatteur William Shakespeare. With a focus on general literature, philosophy and culture the students reflected on and commented problems with which the young, students, researchers and humanity are faced in a general sense.
This meeting was attended by:
Prof. Shahab Yar Khan PhD, president of the Students’ Club Emin Čamo, vice-president of the Students’ Club Amela Vilić and members of the Club Medina Kapetan, Rijad Čehić, Sara Delić as well as guests of the Club Ana Manoilov and Sara Kuduzović.
This meeting was held in the english language. The following are some of the conclusions that the guests and members of the Students’ Club have made during this meeting. (The translations of these statements may be found on the Bosnian domain of the Ibn Sina Institute website).
Ana Manoilov:
“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god. The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me-”
It is with this phrase from Hamlet’s monologue that we began discussing the issues of man, talking about various social problems we are facing today, in the context of what Shakespeare wrote about in his works. We have indeed reduced ourselves to mere particles of dust, not realizing how full of potential we are, not seeing what a force of nature we could be. Each of us individually is a universe of infinite potential, and the saddest thing would be not to explore it. So many people in our society have become disconnected from themselves, from their spirituality, from nature, from their essence. Even though we are regularly faced with discouraging news, and destructive forces are making it hard to function in our daily lives, we must realize that, destruction, even though it leads to a rough road, it also breeds creation. We need problems in order to make progress. We can find ways to battle through destruction and use it as a foundation for building something new, innovative and creative. The most compelling, touching and soulful works of art came from one’s desires to fight through dark times, to survive, to sail through life with fortitude. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor, and we should not fear storms, for we are each learning how to sail our ships, and there is beauty in that. It is easy to get discouraged and even cynical, especially in todays times, when we are surrounded by so much sorrow and injustice. But we mustn’t give up hope. When we look at life, we should look for solutions, not problems. We mustn’t stop creating, little by little, step by step, day by day. For each new thing that we create adds up and eventually we will realize that our efforts were worth it, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem to us in the moment. It starts with one step, with one person.“
Sara Kuduzović:
„Despite the bleak reality that we live in, we should strive for optimism and focus on self-growth and self-change. By self-change, we have a high chance of influencing and changing our environment. We can’t be the heroes of the whole world, but we have the opportunity to be heroes of our own lives and our communities every day.“
Medina Kapetan
“Human nature tends to replicate patterns, including catastrophic ones. However, our dialogues underscored a troubling trend: the tendency to discuss societal issues with a detached, elitist perspective, devoid of any empathy. While acknowledging our biological inclinations is important, resorting to primitivism as an escape from modern problems is neither viable nor progressive. As stewards of knowledge, it’s necessary to bridge the gap between academic discourse and genuine human experiences, lest we become ensnared in an ivory tower of intellectualism that alienates rather than advances societal understanding. True progress demands discourse rooted in empathy and genuine concern for the well-being of all individuals.”
Rijad Čehić
„When we look at the principle of Entropy we can relate it to human existence. Entropy causes everything in the universe to go back to a natural order by exerting energy and eventually stopping. Order is the lack of movement and by extension death. Chaos is movement, propelling life into existence. Exerting “order” over one another is exerting death over one another as human beings. A free flow of creativity is what has kept us alive as a species. Life gives us neverending problems to solve which feeds our inborn curiosity and keeps us busy and moving.“
Marko Stanojkovski:
„One of the ways to achieving those virtues and values that Shakespeare promoted through creativity is that we develop empathy, and that we deal with those issues that we are passionate about, without being led by money as an end goal. All true aspects and forms of education can be significantly useful in developing individuals as well as knowledge, which is always good to expand and increase on a daily basis, and which may be used so that the world is improved and enriched. As a powerful „tool“, knowledge can be misused too, and it is therefore important to develop empathy, mutual understanding and emotional maturity since the onset of childhood because of that, while finding examples in truly dilligent individuals. These are some of the ways in which we may contribute to society and the world, while taking in and absorbing all those positive values and virtues which Shakespeare represented.“
Amela Vilić:
“Hope lives in all of us. It is important to keep the flame intact from going out. Even in the most difficult situations it is a fuel that makes a human being think of a better future. Without it, all is lost and forgotten.”
Emin Čamo:
„The human being, once an anthropocentric phenomenon, currently finds itself in a post-truth era. Man conceives in a skeptic yet doubting way and simultaneously struggles for meaning. We began this meeting speaking about one of many hundreds or even thousands of gems of humanity, and so it is suitable to make a comparison with the singled out quote by Hamlet. Man is, in the words of Shakespeare and his main character Hamlet truly a paragon, an ideal which should stand as an example for all others. Yet that ideal in the instances of Hamlet’s monologue presents itself as a weak and vulnerable creature. Hamlet finds himself in a dynamic of stillness and movement, where stillness is a type of reflective thought and a manifestation of order in man. On the other hand, his movement is a type of chaos or disorder which causes in man a need for acting however weak, insufficient and powerless this creature may be on the plan of reality of human beings. In the contemporary age when the traditional and common has become relativized and individualistic or in some sense simply “ethically useful”, it is important to point out that activity in the fields of order and chaos, or stillness and movement, in that truly social and thoughtful way should leave an impression of creativity and the development of human virtue, with which we may bear the problems that we are facing. Patience, gratitude, wisdom and prudent action with an insight into the greater plan of reality enable us to function under bad and good, chaotic and orderly conditions in the best way possible. Dear colleagues, everything we mentioned today during this meeting were sparks leading to a new dawn. They are factually dawns of our own personal consecration, knowledge, inspiration and empathy towards humanity.”
