Emir A. İnanç

I was born in Bakırköy, Istanbul. Making philosophical sense of the world has always been an activity that I was drawn to. When I was 3-4 years old, I wondered if I was actually 2 years old and whether all this was a dream and I would wake from up. This pull became much more pronounced during my high school years. There had to be some convincing reason that I had to be here.  As I was influenced by my philosophy teacher in Saint Joseph High School, GökçenHoca and the conversations I had with my father and decided to study philosophy.

I started studying at the University of Chicago, and halfway through, in 2012, my world was turned upside down.When I realized that academic philosophy could not serve as a means to make sense of the world as I desired, I decided to pursue life from a different direction.At university I took a course on Islamic Love Poetry from Michael Sells and translated Yunus Emre’s poems into Englishand I had the opportunity to get to know Sufi poets from other geographies. I likened the themes in Sufism to the themes in western philosophy, especially those articulated in Ancient Greece and 19th century German philosophy.

I graduated with a degree in Philosophy in 2014 and entered the CEMS MIM program at Koç University to create career opportunities for myself. Reluctant to work in multinational companiesI studied and participated in trainings such as Holistic Management and Permaculture, which adopt the ecological life model. I am currently working as a software tester in a multinational company.In 2020, I completed the Big Data Analytics program at MEF University in order to improve myself technically.

I met Nalan and Nico in 2017 and 2018 through Aleks Kalenderoğlu. I felt at home in this space where I could express myself as I feel, and as I am.I translated many excerpts for the blog and continue to do so.

I live in Moda with my two sons and my wife Beliz.

Areas where I can contribute:

• Translation: I’ve been translating esoteric & philosophical texts since 2018 in collaboration with Nalan& Nico. I have good reading knowledge of French and Iam completely fluent in English. Translation can be many things but for me it’s a means of spiritual nourishment and philosophical digestion. As I craft a text for a public audience, I also craft my own concepts. I am open to feedback and collaboration, so if you are a fellow translator and would like to work together, let me know.
• P4C (Philosophy for Children): In 2020, I completed the Philosophy for Children Trainer’s Training with ÖzgeÖzdemir at Bogazici University Lifelong Learning Center. I can apply this methodology in small groups with kids 8-12 year olds and above. P4C is a program launched in 1970 by Matthew Lipman with the aim of introducing critical thinking to children. This programenables children to evaluate opposing ideas together, manage their emotions in doing so, and to develop and express their ownthoughts through philosophical discussion.
• Coding with Scratch 3 for Kids, Teens and even Adults: Coding is the ability to instruct a computer what to do, and computer programming isthe art of bending the computer to our will through coding. Scratch 3 is a pedagogical platformdeveloped by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is designed to teach the basic building blocks of a computer language and the relationships between them.Itfacilitates learning, design and implementation of computer programs by incorporating a visual language and helps to build self-confidence, a sense of “I can do this”, as participants build their own computer programs.