In tracing historically the development of Filipino philosophy as traditionally conceived, the author discovered that the early Filipino philosophers were Enlightenment thinkers. This was the direct consequence of the Filipino colonial experience and the explanation why the trajectory of Filipino philosophy is basically Western in orientation.

In treatises or advanced textbooks on theoretical physics, it is apparent that the way mathematics is used is very different from what is to be found in books of mathematics. There is, for example, no close connection between books on analysis, on the one hand, and any classical textbook in quantum mechanics, for example, Schiff, [11], or quite recent books, for example Ryder, [10], on quantum field theory. The differences run a good deal deeper than the fact that the books (...) on theoretical physics are not written in the definition-theorem-proof style characteristic of pure mathematics. Although a good many propositions are proved in the books on physics, there are almost with exception no existential proofs, and consequently there is no really serious systematic use of quantifiers. Another important characteristic is the free use of infinitesimals. In fact, most results would not lose anything, from a physicist's point of view, by leaving them in approximate form, i.e., instead of strict equalities or inequalities, using equalities or inequalities only up to an infinitesimal.The discrepancy between the way mathematics is ordinarily done in theoretical physics and the way it is built up from a foundational standpoint in any of the standard modern views raises the question of whether it might be possible to construct quite directly a rigorous foundation that reflects a significant part of this standard practice in theoretical physics. Other parts of standard practice in physics, for example, the use of physically intuitive but nonrigorous arguments, are not present in our system. (shrink)

This article addresses the critique of the modern conception of history and time through a reading of Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s work provides an alternative to the thought with universal pretensions that has dominated the panorama of modernity. She thinks the historical through contradiction and gives a place to human experience next to facts. In thinking the event Arendt shows the insufficiency of the modern chronological appropriation of the past and the limits of using theory as a given framework of interpretation. (...) Understanding the historical event is to challenge the chronology assumed in our forms of understanding and representing the real. Her work blurs the tacit boundary that lurks in modern forms of representation between a ‘dynamic’ present and a ‘congealed’ past. Arendt’s thinking provides a critique of the modern notions of time and history as of the use of theory as a fixed framework of interpretation. (shrink)

It is not only important for a Filipino teacher or scholar of philosophy to transform oneself into a Filipino philosopher by innovating within one's favorite philosopher , by rejecting a philosophical position and formulating one's own , or by examining old philosophical questions and offering one's own novel perspectival solutions. It is more important to transform oneself into a world-class philosopher.

Personal forgiveness, in a worldly setting, is an act performed by a human person to overcome resentment, among others, in order for that person to open up to possibilities of accommodation of, acceptance of, and reconciliation or communion with the Other. I want to argue that such an act is spiritual in nature or has an element of divinity in it. To forgive is to be lovingly compassionate, and the act of being lovingly compassionate in the midst of being wronged (...) or downtrodden, or exploited and so on—real or imagined—is an act that goes beyond being human: it appears knowingly or unknowingly—even for a non-believer—to have the guidance of a spiritual support. One overriding reason, among many, on why we must forgive is to have peace of mind, that is, to overcome the inherent spiritual distress or emotional burden, or both. In this regard, personal forgiveness may be considered as a form of an enlightened self-interest. (shrink)

Against the background of the 2022 national elections in the Philippines, in which the Church failed in the moral fight against the return of the Marcoses and the continuation of the Duterte regime in power, this article makes a social discernment as to why the Church has not succeeded in its social mission in shaping the social consciousness of the Filipino people. Why has the Catholic social tradition not taken root in the Philippine soil and in the Filipino soul? The (...) author argues that the Church has located itself in the center rather than grounding itself in the margins. The author proposes a reappropriation of the Catholic social tradition from the margins to more dynamically transform Philippine society. (shrink)

Este trabajo intenta analizar la concepción, naturaleza jurídica y garantía de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales, en América Latina, así como las condiciones y medidas que pueden contribuir a su efectividad. Presenta tambien una propuesta de indicadores que pueden utilizarse en la supervision de la efectividad de esos derechos y de la proteccion que ellos han alcanzado, proporcionando información sobre la situactón latinoamericana y caribeña actual.

The contribution offers an interpretation of the last phase of Nietzsche’s production, based on the influence of some economic concepts. In 1887, Nietzsche encountered the work of the proto-marginalist economist Emmanuel Herrmann and his book “Cultur und Natur: Studien im Gebiete der Wirthschaft”. At the time, Nietzsche was working on the attempt – later abandoned – to offer a comprehensive interpretation of Western metaphysics and history. aimed at a “transvaluation of all values” and based on the idea of will to (...) power. Herrmann’s economic theory played a significant role in this project, offering a model capable of articulating all social and natural processes – and particularly life – in terms of purely immanent relations. By linking the ideas of transvaluation and will-to-power to the logic of capitalistic accumulation and of market society, we can gain an understanding of the influence of economical concepts on Nietzsche’s project, which should in turn allow a better evaluation of its historical relevance. (shrink)

En el siguiente trabajo se aborda la confrontación de Eugen Fink con Martin Heidegger de cara al concepto de mundo. En este sentido se analiza el contraste entre un concepto existencial de mundo, del modo como el Heidegger de la ontología existencial lo desarrolla, y un concepto cosmológico de mundo, que Fink propone a partir de su interpretación del giro (Kehre) heideggeriano y que lo conduce hacia el despliegue de una ontología cosmológica del juego, cuyo camino filosófico-metódico queda abierto por (...) una fenomenología especulativa en contraposición o como superación de la fenomenología hermenéutica heideggeriana. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza los diálogos posibles entre el pensamiento de Giorgio Agamben y la novela _Frankenstein_ de Mary Shelley. Así, el filósofo italiano describe aspectos centrales que indagan los modos en que el biopoder captura la nuda vida. En efecto, a través del concepto de _máquina_ –la antropológica, el lenguaje y la gubernamental– se describen los dispositivos capaces de volver la potencia de vida a los cálculos del poder. Por otro lado, _Frankenstein_ construye una serie de escenas en la que (...) la voz de la Cosa interpela a su creador, Víctor Frankenstein, en una dimensión ética por su negligencia y falta de cuidado. La interpelación se dirige a un personaje pero, tomando los términos de Agamben, Víctor Frankenstein forma parte de una maquinaria mayor de la que él mismo termina siendo víctima. La ficción explicita además la falla de la maquinaria biopolítica por cuanto su protagonista se afirma en la vida procurando hallar sentidos posibles de existencia. (shrink)

This unique book presents a new interpretation of probability, rooted in the traditional interpretation that was current in the 17th and 18th centuries.

At 876ff. Octavia's partisans lament the ruinous intervention of the Roman mob in support of the heroine's legitimate claims against Poppaea. A series of paradigmatic figures illustrates the sentence ‘o funestus multis populi dirusque fauor’: the two Gracchi, first, then Livius Drusus, thetribunus plebisof 91 B.C., stabbed to death in his house in the year of his tribunate. The gallery of historical characters suits the Roman atmosphere of the play, the fallen heroes of Republican times are presented as noble and (...) disinterested figures, struck by disaster and evil fortune. This is the description of Livius' fate (887–90; text and colometry given as in Zwierlein's OCT). (shrink)

At the peak of this heated confrontation between Nero and Seneca, in which the latter exhorts the emperor to seek the people's love and trust rather than their hatred, Nero retorts that it is meet for the people to fear their prince . This is unsurprising and represents Nero as merely the latest in a long line of tragic tyrants . In the exchange that follows, however, is the slightly puzzling : ‘metuant necesse est’:: ‘quicquid exprimitur graue est’. It is (...) not only that Nero simply reiterates a concept already asserted in the line before which had prompted Seneca's ‘at plus diligi’. More than that, Seneca's exprimitur is a non sequitur after ‘metuant necesse est’. exprimere is to ‘squeeze out’, ‘to extort’, ‘to elicit’, but in Latin metus is hardly ever ‘extorted’, exprimere, on the other hand, is commonly said of sincere or pretended assent, applause, jubilation, or forced admission. The verb occurs again at 494 ‘humiles … uoces exprimit nostri metus’; 581 ‘exprimere ius est, ferre quod nequeunt preces?’; elsewhere in Sen. Oed. 529 ‘ulline poena uocis expressae fuit’; Clem. 1.1.7 ‘omnibus … nunc ciuibus tuis … haec confessio exprimitur esse felices’; Plin. Pan. 2.2 ‘uoces illas quas metus exprimebat’. (shrink)

Even in mathematical logic the proposition as an arbitrary technical device can be eliminated and replaced by the constative. The items of experience of the external world—objects, properties, relationships, and the like— are processed in consciousness on the basis of a situational demand that defines the situational context which in turn elicits a particular constatival attitude. The output of this mental processing is the appropriate pragmatic constatival response that generally is publicly communicated.

This paper traces the development of “cultural philosophy,” distinguishes it from the “philosophy of culture,” discusses African and Filipino philosophical dimensions, and then makes the concluding remarks. This paper argues that while cultural philosophy is a significant development in the history of ideas, any given culture must opt to develop its own philosophical tradition.

Every ASEAN member envisions itself to become economically and politically efficient and stable—of becoming a First World country. No doubt there are many ways of approaching this vision and making it a reality. But I will argue in this paper that education can play a major role in transforming the region into a First World technopole or economic power through what Alvin Toffler calls the philosophy of “educational futurism.” Educational futurism states that we tailor our present educational plans on our (...) future dreams or visions. (shrink)

INTRODUCTION The term "philosophical analysis" as used in contemporary philosophy, particularly by John Hospers ( 968,) and Andresito Acuna (), refers to ...

In this paper, the author makes the distinctions between traditional and cultural approaches to philosophy and between philosophers and scholars of philosophy, explains why the Filipino philosophy that developed is Western in orientation, discusses the problems of philosophy in the Philippines, argues for the relevant linkage of philosophy to nation building and, among others, enumerates some principles that help guide the author in developing philosophy in the Philippines.

The author interprets Lopez's work as a case of mythologizing a historical figure for the Filipino masses. It is therefore a proletarian myth in contrast to bourgeois myths which Roland Barthes talks about. Myth indeed is a language - a metalanguage - and Lopez made use of it to express the theme of emulation and the responsibility of the proletarian man through traits that endure in the Filipino psyche: his loob (inner self), budhi (conscience), hiya (shame), and sense of responsibility. (...) The author agrees with Barthes that history and myth do not mix. Where a piece of work does not portray historical facts faithfully it should not be taken as a historical document but - in the context of Lopez's awit - as a piece of literary work that must be enjoyed. (shrink)

Philosophy is here viewed broadly as a label or name that transcends the quarrels of diverse philosophical schools which attempt to exclude one another from this label. It is argued that philosophy emerges from one’s culture as it does not exist in a vacuum; it emerges from the people’s experiences of joy and pain, doubt and certainty, and so on. It is manifested in a person’s reflections of the time, locally or globally, or in the people’s language, songs, myths, riddles, (...) and the like. Though embedded in one’s culture, it can be disembedded from that culture by an ethnophilosopher or by a historian/scholar of philosophy. Once disembedded, philosophy may turn around and try to critique that culture in order to refine it. (shrink)

This paper argues that research in the arts and humanities should not be marginalized in the academe, as has generally been the situation, but should equally be given emphasis together with those researches in the social sciences. All the more they should be equally funded because they generally require a smaller outlay compared to those in the natural and social sciences. Moreover, outputs in AH qualitative researches can also be comparatively significant epistemologically, culturally, and historically.

The author argues that the concept of the public good carries largely the politico-ethical sense which subsumes the politico-economic sense. The public good is public in the sense that the beneficiaries are the general public. The government or state pursues it with a service orientation while private corporations pursue it with a profit orientation. The author also discusses mixed public goods which are pursued by private organizations with a service motivation. Government corporations are basically motivated by service though having profit (...) is not precluded. Finally, the author talks about public bads such as corruption, pollution, and crimes. (shrink)

Part of rethinking philosophy today, the author believes, is to rethink our logical concepts. The author questions the ontological existence of the proposition as the content of sentential utterances—written or spoken—as it was originally proposed by John Searle. While a performative is an utterance where the speaker not only utters a sentential or illocutionary content such as a statement, but also performs the illocutionary force such as the act of stating, the author reasserts John Austin’s constative as the general label (...) (genus) of specific utterances (species) that can be rendered true or false such as a statement, assertion, description, and prediction. In the remainder of the paper, the author tries to show that it is a category mistake for someone to assert a statement or to state an assertion. (shrink)

The goal of a Christian, especially a regenerated Christian, in the 21st century is to tell the story of the various shapes that his religious position underwent with the hope that other unbelievers may follow his footsteps, that is, from a belief in God to atheism and agnosticism, and back to a belief in God. He tries to show by using the arguments of Paul Tillich how the limits of language enabled him to transcend the agnosticism of Bertrand Russell.

Information and communication technologies , with their increasing and widespread utilization in daily life, may exert an important impact on brain performances. The development of their use for improving several cerebral processes, by abolishing the brain/machine interface, is envisaged and is subject to debate. The scientific research on brain implants and brain gene transfer aiming to restore central nervous system functions, altered by disease or trauma, may contribute to this debate. Indeed, the advances that are enabling non drug-mediated approaches for (...) direct interventions on the brain are raising the possibility not only of restoring neural functions for therapeutic purposes, but also of monitoring, controlling and ultimately modifying from the outside these functions for enhancement. This paper gives an overview of the state of the art of brain implants and brain gene transfer for neurological diseases with a particular emphasis on Parkinson’s disease and a forecast on their possible application for other conditions. In doing so, the authors, who are neuroscientists working in the field of gene transfer for neuropsychiatric diseases, aim to establish a scientifically, medically and technically realistic framework to open up discussion on relevant ethical issues in this domain. (shrink)