"Spirit" Discussed by Prof. Ahmet İnam

Last week on February 7, Bilkent University Library hosted Ahmet İnam, writer and chair of the Department of Philosophy at METU, at the Library Art Gallery as part of the "Turkish Writers at Bilkent" conference series.

In his highly impressive talk entitled "Can'dan Gönül'e," Prof. İnam discussed the "spirit" and its meaning in our lives, as well as its elements. He began by defining philosophy as "a perspective of looking at the world, a way of life." He then proceeded to the main focus of his talk: how we treat our spirits in our daily existence, and how we should treat them.

"The spirit has a power, a joy of life-it is our nature," said Prof. İnam. "We need to take care of our spirits. While our bodies are struggling to stay alive in the course of our daily routines, our spirits are being worn down. We become nervous, angry, unhappy, tired individuals. We take our cars in for tuneups; we renovate our houses from time to time. In just the same way, we need to look after our spirits and continually renew them."

This series of talks will continue during the semester with new speakers who will be announced later.