HERACLITUS HERAC
I initially thought this affliction was limited to Pakistan, but no—it turns out this disease has spread to America as well. And not just to any ordinary person, but to none other than the esteemed Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney, who has now taken it upon herself to issue verdicts on philosophy. For a moment, it felt as though Hollywood had unearthed a modern-day Socrates.
Ms. Sweeney has decreed that Jean-Paul Sartre was, in fact, a fraudulent philosopher and that his entire philosophy was plagiarized from Husserl and Heidegger. Now, one might ask: has she ever actually opened a book by Sartre, or is she attempting to become a philosopher by merely skimming Wikipedia summaries? Because within philosophical circles, this statement landed with the same gravity as someone announcing that Einstein’s theories were actually devised by Newton’s private tutor, and that Einstein was merely good at publicity.
Of course, it is true that Sartre was influenced by Husserl and Heidegger. But in philosophy, influence is not a scandal. Every philosopher borrows from previous thought and forges their own path. If we were to apply this logic consistently, we would have to say that Kant plagiarized Locke and Hume, Hegel merely copied Kant, Nietzsche lifted ideas from Schopenhauer, and that the entire history of philosophy is nothing more than a grand exercise in intellectual mimicry.
The real question is: what inspired Ms. Sweeney to undertake this noble mission of “exposing” Sartre? Was she truly contemplating the dense arguments of Being and Nothingness amidst her busy Hollywood schedule, or did she simply extract this insight from a YouTube short? Because if she did read Sartre and still reached this conclusion, Hollywood directors should immediately cast her as Socrates or Nietzsche in their next film—such philosophical acumen was unavailable even to Sartre’s own students!
Although social media has given everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions on any subject, one should at least ensure that they have the patience to read a few fundamental books on the topic. Otherwise, discussing philosophy based on TikTok clips is akin to watching cricket highlights and then proclaiming that Wasim Akram was an overrated bowler and that reverse swing was actually someone else’s invention.
The problem, however, is that such intellectual fireworks often lead people to seriously consider whether a grand revelation has indeed taken place. When, in reality, it is entirely possible that a meme page concocted this statement and the world simply ran with it. But even if we put that possibility aside, this issue doesn’t end here. If we were to adopt the same logic across all fields, we could just as easily claim that Christopher Nolan’s ideas are stolen from some obscure philosopher or that Shakespeare’s plays were merely lifted from forgotten manuscripts.
Because, in today’s world, reading and understanding before believing something seems to be a relic of the past. Therefore, rather than wasting her precious time on philosophy, Sydney Sweeney should focus on what she does best—acting in films and gracing the red carpet with her presence. Philosophy is best left to philosophers, because if every field starts admitting such intellectual intrusions, neither cinema nor philosophy will remain safe.
Note: The “Qalam Club” does not necessarily agree with the personal views of the authors
