Pragmatism and conscience are two different factors that often come into conflict when making decisions.
Pragmatism involves being practical and focusing on what is realistic and achievable in a given situation. It may prioritize efficiency, results, and the most effective means of achieving a goal, even if it means compromising on certain values or beliefs.
On the other hand, conscience refers to an individual’s inner sense of what is right or wrong. It involves moral principles, ethics, and values that guide one’s decisions and actions. Conscience is often associated with doing what is perceived as morally right, even if it may not be the most practical or beneficial option.
In some situations, pragmatism and conscience may align, leading to decisions that are both practical and in line with one’s moral beliefs. However, in other cases, individuals may face a dilemma where being pragmatic may conflict with their conscience, forcing them to make tough choices between what is practical and what is morally right.
If moral dilemma involves heinous or criminal acts against humanity, then the equation weighs heavy on conscience. Such horrific acts and atrocities are not only morally reprehensible but also a stark example of the dangers of unchecked power, systemic oppression, and the disregard for human life.
Pragmatism, if taken to an extreme without moral considerations, can potentially justify and rationalize heinous acts like the Genocide and total razing of Gaza in the name of self-defense. This highlights the importance of ethical principles, human rights, and moral values as essential checks on purely pragmatic decision-making.
Biden Administration abandoned any moral consideration when giving green light to Israel with no red-lines in the name of self-defense. Biden provided all the military resources, including mass civilian killing bombs, and diplomatic cover to Israel to unleash mayhem over Gaza leading to thousands of deaths of innocent Gazans and genocide charges against Israel at ICJ. Biden continue to send to Israel mass civilian killing bombs even after Genocide charges against Israel. Gaza Genocide is a glaring example of use of morally unchecked military power, both by Israel and our powerful country, over Gazans occupied and besieged from all sides by Israel-and innocent civilians nowhere to go.
In November 2024 voters will have the choice to use their conscience, moral authority, and pragmatism to weigh-in.
F. Sheikh, May 10, 2024
(Partly generated by ChatGPT)
In response to Dr. F. Shaikh’s philosophically propounded article, I would first say few words about conscience which is very different from other biological functions—like some sort of nonmaterial essence within our heads. Thoughts and feelings seem ethereal, untethered from anything physical. Self-awareness seems like a phenomenon utterly divorced from anything that could possibly be produced by cells comprised of physical particles. Pragmatism according to C. I. Lewis is an assertion of knowledge of objective reality which requires an interpretation of whatever is presented to the senses and helps to predict some future consequence of what is presented. He further emphasizes that it is essential that verifying experiences should be actually experienced before finally asserting the truth of knowledge.
The Gaza Israel situation is in fact related to human beings’ appearance on the planet earth as “PRISONERS OF GEOGRAPHY.” The landscape imprisons humans, giving them few choices and less room to maneuver than they might think. This was true of ancient empires from the Athenians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Ottomans, or British, and many more. It is true of every nation seeking ground from which to protect its tribe and race. The land on which people live has always shaped them. It has shaped their power, wars, politics, and social development of the peoples that now inhabit nearly in every part of the earth. Though today’s IT may seem to overcome the distances between us in both pragmatically and consciously or say physically and mentally, but it is not possible to forget that the land where we live, work, and raise our children is highly important and the choices of those who are amongst the seven billion inhabitants of this planet will be shaped by the geography of the place where tribes and nations happen to live. The Gazans are the sons of the soil and it is hard for them to leave the place where they were born and lived for ages, while the Israelis who have suffered killings and massacres all over the world were left with no choice to find a land or place where to live as a tribe or a nation. Thus, in different parts of the planet different geographical features are among the dominant factors in determining what people can and cannot do.
Therefore, in my view the issue, Pragmatism v Conscience & Gaza is related to the geography of the place rather than any philosophical, ethical or moral etymology of the human beings. I believe, it is through the geopolitics looks that international affairs be understood within the geographical factors which give birth to cultural regions and different aspect of civilizations, from political and military strategy to human social development, including, trade, and religion. Thus, it is clearly geography a fundamental part of “why” as well as the “what” of human problems. MIRZA IQBAL ASHRAF