Prof. Nazife Güngör: "Intellectual freedom is required for scientific production"

Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Nazife Güngör attended as a speaker the opening conference of the 9th İLAMER Conferences, which was held by the Yakın Doğu University Faculty of Communication and Communication Research Center. Underlining that it is necessary to be in an intellectually free space in order to carry out scientific production, Güngör drew attention to the fact that individuals should be encouraged to develop their own intellectual abilities and use them comfortably.

The opening conference attracted great participation, which was held online under the title of "University and Science in Today's World: Scientific Thinking and the Future of Humanity".

The conference was moderated by Prof. Fevzi Kasap and Assoc. Prof. Mustafa Ufuk Çelik.

"Education is much more than teaching"

Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Nazife Güngör drew attention to the importance of education and mentioned that universities should guide people consciously. Güngör said that "Scientific knowledge should be seen as an apparatus that should contribute to the development of all humanity. Here, some actors can use scientific knowledge to manipulate the masses. Therefore, it is necessary to create awareness in this regard. Therefore, where do we create consciousness, who will create it, how will it be formed? Who will create the consciousness that it needs to be activated for humanity? The first institution that will come to mind here is universities. It is necessary to start with the sensitivity in universities or the functioning of universities. Where are universities located in society, what is the purpose of these institutions, what is their primary mission? Their purpose, of course, is to provide education and training. This is where it starts, in fact, what we call education is not just entering the classrooms and transferring some students to the students. By transferring knowledge on certain subjects, training young individuals who come to universities to certain professions is what should be done; however, at the same time, providing education. Education is much different from education, education is much more than education. When we say education, we have to influence the world of that personality, that personality's perspective on the world, that person's vision of the future. In other words, when we say education, we need to provide some kind of guidance to that individual on how a person can relate themselves as an individual to the world they are actually in."

"We are having trouble being an individual"

Güngör said that people should be intellectually free to produce scientifically and that they should be encouraged to develop their own intellectual abilities. Güngör stated that "We have a problem with being an individual. We find it difficult to accept ourselves as individuals, to raise every single person born in our society as an individual. We do not have any concern about being a self-confident, intellectual, spiritual and emotional individual as a whole. We have lost that concern, that goal, that vision. In our own social environment, someone is formatting our flow, our emotional side, our spiritual character, which the society made us memorize or maybe was formatted in our brains in some way. We start to direct our lives with that format, and we try to live life. We try to shape our latest practices accordingly. In fact, we are trying to live lives that are not ours with those formats. We are struggling in lives that are not ours, that are not our own production, that we do not use our own intellectual ability, that we give up using freely, that we leave. This is the main reason for the blockage. However, in order for scientific production to be carried out, people must be in an intellectually free space, and they need to develop their own intellectual abilities, use them comfortably, and be encouraged to use them."

"There is also a need for people to do ordinary jobs in society"

Prof. Nazife Güngör underlined that first of all, the individual must be able to think flexibly and analytically in order to be able to produce. Güngör expressed that "Although all universities or laboratories equipped with advanced technologies are not available, scientific production that can be associated with the reality that people are living in cannot be carried out. In order for production to be carried out, first of all, the individual must be able to think flexibly and think analytically. From the moment one is born, their analytical thinking happens first in the family and then in the school. It is something unique to everyone, even our society, the child born to each family is defined as a 'genius'. Then they constantly format them so that they can become an engineer or a doctor. There is also a need for people to do ordinary work in society. Truck drivers or sanitation workers are also needed. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate all the biological, mental processes and abilities of individuals very well and to have some systems to determine them. Each individual should be raised for this purpose and brought into society. Now, individuals are struggling in lives that are not their own with the formats thrown at individuals, that do not have relations with themselves, that do not coincide with their own abilities, desires, and feelings of pleasure. With such a system, we need to question whether people live life or whether life makes people live."

"We need to raise awareness in humanity"

Referring to the fact that human beings have potential and energy of internal production in their own nature, Güngör said: "If people are not allowed to realize themselves, if people are formatted with some patterns from the moment they are born, they will become adults in the future and form masses that are open to all kinds of manipulation in society. People become people and masses who are not people who organize life, contribute to the world, direct the world and shape life, but people and masses who are guided by others, open to the manipulations of others, passive, who are not thinking, unaware of their own internal productive energies. This is the point at which the world today is stuck with humanity. Due to the masses that are open to manipulation, some actors play all kinds of games. If each individual were conscious not to allow these certain actors, we would be living in a very different world today. People already have potential, energy of internal production in their own nature. It is very important to activate this energy and to ensure the functioning of its mechanism. On the one hand, all these bring the process of raising awareness of people and make the process of raising awareness necessary. The world we come to is stuck, blocked, under the guidance of interests, and manipulation has become truly uninhabitable, but whenever we leave the wrong behind, it is profit. Therefore, we should at least strive to ensure that living in such a compressed world does not reach the point of explosion. Somehow, we need to raise awareness in humanity. We all have a great responsibility to neutralize or reduce the influence of the dominant jargons we talk about in this life today, such as divisions, fragmentation, racism, religionism. Let's make projects in universities accordingly."

After the question & answer session, the conference ended.

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)