At the seminar titled “Launching a Revolution in Teaching Economics,” Prof. Asad Zaman, Vice Chancellor at Pakistan Institute of Developing Economics, stated that the west has poisoned our minds by determining which type of knowledge can be considered as knowledge and which type cannot be considered. He clarified that Eurocentric approach claims that the knowledge inspired from Quran is not knowledge. According to Zaman, the first step to benefit from the light of Holy Quran is to un-poison our minds in order to be able to launch a revolution in teaching economics. Our President Prof. Recep Şentürk, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Fuat Erdal and some of the university students were among the attendees of the seminar. Prof. Azad stressed that Eurocentric methodology failed to solve problems in our daily life such as dishonesty, corruption and cheating because this methodology denies the spiritual aspect of human being and focuses on the homo economicus approach which, as stated by Zaman, relies on using rational assessments and attempts to maximize utility from consumer point of view and economic profit of a producer.
Talking about the fundamental flaws in economic theories, Professor Zaman stressed that “If we could not present a new microeconomics that have the ability to solve the world’s problems, then we are definitely contributing to the darkness of the current approach of teaching economics.” A new Microeconomics, as claimed by Zaman, should replace each of: the maximization approach by heuristic approach, homo economicus approach by human beings with emotions and morals approach, and equilibrium by dynamic simulations in agent based models.
Mentioning Global Financial Crisis, Positivist Methodology and Capitalist Bias as the fundamental flaws in economic theories, Prof. Asad Zaman added “Our problems should be solved by us and we have to recreate the fundamentals of economic theory.” Zaman was hosted before on April 6, 2018 in a workshop organized by Ibn Haldun University, titled “Search for Knowledge: A non-Eurocentric Approach Battle of Methodologies Teaching Economics.” He lectured about his methodology in teaching economics. The seminar ended by presenting a developed porcelain model of “Circle of Justice” by our President Recep Şentürk to our guest Prof. Asad Zaman. Circle of justice is a term used to describe the relationship between the state and the people in the Ottoman Empire period.
