Philosophy

This paper would like to elucidate on the contemporary perspective of metaphysics, by tracing its etymological foundation in the ancient period. It primarily focuses on the metaphysics of: Universals, Space, Change, Causality, Reality and Appearance, Mind-Body Relation, Freedom, Modality, and Necessary Being.

The promulgation of the S.B. 2366 of the 14th Congress ofthe Philippines; which entails to
that: “No Filipino Child must be Left Behind” became the basic foundation for education to be
accessible and to uplift them. It is the primary basis where many thinks ofit, as a step in educating
the people and dragging them away from ignorance and towards the light. In this notion, it would
be the start where individuals would step out from the dark and into the light. I quote from the bill:
“May the torch this bill seeks to the light and empower leads us to the path of our nation’s dream;
that no Filipino child is left behind”. The intention for its enactment is good in itself. The torch
symbolizes the light that would direct individuals to the path that conveys enlightenment. This
idea of torch that symbolizes education is very much Platonic. With this sort of education gives
rise to the famous images of the sun, the divided line, and the cave.

Sartre's " Existence precedes Essence " involves the philosophical terminologies existence and essence. Existentialism being the main issue preceding essence to be. But what makes it controversial for some is the conjunction that ties them " precedes " and the placement of the subject and object.

“We do not live in a just world. This may be the least controversial claim one could make in political theory”. Political Theorist/Philosophers are attempting on answer the latter question, such as: Martha Nussbaum who tries to approach such with her“Capability Theory”. That what is needed for a just society is that every individual must live a dignified life. In order to live a dignified life, they would have these ten
minimum capabilities. But the problem with her theory is that, it is actually sufficientarian in its perspective.2. In the article of Thomas Pogge’s “What is Global Justice?”,their also lies the problem of the interest of the people when it comes to the: Two-Stage Bargain. That on the international level, it would only cater the interest of the state and neglects the people’s interest.

This paper intends to closely examine the Fetishism of Scientific Objectivism in over-prioritizing the individual's suffecientarian need and disregards and depreciates the intrinsic value of nature. It falls into the criterion of anthropocentric ecology that nature seen as less and is at the bottom of the pyramid. The manifestation of such falls into the idea of the latter where, it reduces the primordial importance of environment to a mere means for the sake of man's need and satisfaction. It can be equated to the actions of man's subjugation over nature, an attitude equal to man's repression over woman equivocal to "rape", where environment can no longer recover and is deprived of its own natural harmony. Like science's fetishism where it objectifies nature. Wherein, they would bring a particular specimen to a controlled environment in order to get one's desired result and disregards the nature's natural unfolding. There is clearly a need for an ecological turn to a more feminist "approach". Wherein it recognizes that, the environment is a womb and the integral worth-for it nurtures and sees the distinct intrinsic value of each and shares the same importance as with humanity.

The paper presents the two-fold intuitive idea regarding the meaning of being human in the philosophy of Martha Nussbaum which is anchored on Karl Marx's concept of human dignity and Aristotle's eudaimonia, as applied to the concept of human development which was first developed by Amartya Sen in his Capability Approach.

This paper will attempt to explain the relationship between disaster and human deprivation and trace the ills that result from it to institutional or policy failures. It then proposes grassroots leadership as a way of bridging the gap that faulty and undemocratic structural mechanisms make. The paper argues that democratic leadership is crucial in creating resilient and sustainable communities.

This paper examines the involvement of the Catholic Church in Philippine political affairs, and questions whether there is legitimate justification for such crucial engagement. To shed light into this, I bring into dialogue John Rawls and Jurgen Habermas, most specifically their idea of civil society. This dialogue shows a possibility for the reconciliation of politics and religion in Philippine democracy.

The most promising frontier in
modern medicine is genetic research. Genetic science
finds its modern origin in Gregor Mendel, who in 1866
discovered the laws of heredity. The heart of this hard
science comes from the secret of the nucleus. The
nucleus of an organism possesses the chromosomes,
which has the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that serves
as the very building blocks of life. The study of the DNA
has propelled the advances made in genetic research.
These advances have opened doors to many
possibilities in medicine and patient care. But there are
moral issues to consider.

In this paper, I will question Peter Singer’s position
on the moral equality of all species. In order to highlight
how mistaken he is, I will apply this issue on the use of
animals in medical research. Lastly, I will offer a softer
position compared to Singer that advances animal well-being
without Singer’s prejudice against the other
members of the human species.

I will argue in this paper that Andrew Feenberg has erred in his claim on technological adaptability. Adapting to modern technology may not always be liberating. Drawing from his reflections on Heidegger and Marcuse, I will explain why Feenberg thinks that adaptability has a redemptive role in the midst of technological domination. I will also show why technological domination still characterizes human relations in the modern age. Advanced technologies including social media, have continued to manipulate people and as such, diminish rather than deepen the authenticity of human life. For instance, two people in a café sometimes spend more time on their smartphones rather than valuing their face-to-face encounter; here, one can point out the lack of authenticity in human relations. This clearly manifests how consumer culture has taken over human life. In addition, it can be said that the notion of adaptability also fails to account for the hegemonic social relations created by modern technological innovations, since these gadgets remain beyond the reach of the masses, thus broadening the divide between classes of people in society. In order to address this, I propose that people should use technology in a socially sensitive way in order to truly give meaning to their lives and to effectively resist the totalitarian tendency of the modern age.

This paper intends to closely examine Michel Foucault’s take on power, resistance, and critical thought in the modern state, using the market-driven consumer economy and the paranoia-induced post-9/11 national security rhetoric as background. It will argue that on both domains, knowledge as similitude comes to be represented as part of the repressive configuration in the order of things. In retracing the technology of discipline where the individual unknowingly participates in his latent subjugation, the author thinks that critical thought—one that diverts power away from the center to the peripheries is the only effective way of resistance against forms of social control and domination.

Nothing is more urgent today than climate change. As a global issue, climate justice requires the recognition by rich countries of the adverse impact of climate change, especially in the Third World. Environmental pragmatism is an ethical paradigm that offers immediate, solid and action-oriented approach to environmental problems. From a practical end, the issue seems to demand that the theoretical debates on policy should now be resolved to hold governments and people accountable in order to address the problem. Is this the right thing to do? I argue that the pragmatic position on this matter is problematic. Environmental pragmatism suffers from ethical and democratic deficits. For instance, pragmatic solutions will not work in the Third World societies because of weak institutions and hegemonic power relations between the national leadership and the people. In this regard, one has to appeal to participatory democracy in the choice of ethical paradigms. In the end, climate justice requires clear philosophical and democratic grounding, one that pragmatic environmentalism neglects.

This essay applies Amartya Sen's Capability Approach to the way democracy is practiced in the Philippines by Filipinos. The author has reached the conclusion that negative freedom does not secure for people their well-being. Thus, even after the removal of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines still remains poor In this essay, the author argues that Filipinos should empower themselves morally in terms of their positive freedoms or capability, and the Church can be at the frontlines of this initiative, in order to achieve national development.

The Internet age has seen the influential rise of social media. Consumer culture is tied to this modern phenomenon. This paper begins with an exposition of Herbert Marcuse’s grounding in phenomenology and his subsequent critique of Heidegger’s apolitical Dasein. In explicating Marcuse’s critical theory of technology, this paper will retrace Hegel’s influence on Marcuse in the idea of the dialectic. The dialectic is an integral aspect of social transformation. While modern technology may be value-neutral, it is argued herein that the lack of depth in social media provokes thought and invites critical dissent. Marcuse believes in the capacity of modern tools to effect social reform through adaptation. But emerging pathologies from online technology also have pressing challenges. For instance, social media makes manifest a dominant order that can be manipulative. It can be said that particular interests, notably from business and capitalists, shape the type of consumer culture that online technology promotes. In advancing Marcuse’s relevance in today’s Internet age, the paper will explore how social media as a platform can truly liberate the individual from the ills that consumerism peddles online.

Development as freedom, in the words of Amartya Sen (1999), a renowned Indian political economist and philosopher, means that development is not reducible to income satisfaction. Rather, it is about what people are “able to do and be”. But beyond Sen, this paper makes the argument that human development, based on the notion of moral choice, possesses an existential character. This means that full human development, anchored on the idea of being free, has an existential meaning. Deeply embedded values ultimately govern how a person makes choices. Thus, while human well-being goes beyond mere material or need satisfaction, a more holistic account of human development should consider the human person‟s quest for love, meaning and self-realization.

One of the most enduring contributions of Sir Karl Popper to the philosophy of science was his deductive approach to the scientific method, as opposed to Hilary Putnam’s absolute faith in science as an inductive process. Popper’s logic of discovery counters the whole inductive procedure that modern science is so often identified with. While the inductive method has generally characterized how scientists commence their work in laboratories, for Popper scientific theories actually start with generalizations inside our mind whose validity the scientific method must test until those come to be falsified. A step further in the scientific method is the function of paradigms that Thomas Kuhn’s revolutionary science has developed. Kuhn’s community and consensus-based approach and Popper’s hypothesis-based approach are both important in the development of science as it is. This paper seeks to show how models of development may be integrated in the above debate in order to derive insightful implications that are crucial to the understanding of economic progress and human development.

Whose responsibility is justice? John Rawls's social contract theory is anchored on the idea of impartiality. I will argue, using Iris Marion Young's politics of difference that an impartial starting point may not work in view of hegemonic positions in the social hierarchy which gives undue advantages to those who are in positions of power. Brian Barry's notion of desert is not fair insofar as it neglects the concrete historical situations that people may be born into. For Young, democratic inclusion means sensitivity to the concrete situated and historical contexts that people are born since addressing structural injustice means favoring the marginalized and oppressed. But beyond Young, I would argue that social justice deems as imperative that we hold people fully accountable for structural abuses. As an improvement of Young's position, it is my position that structural reform is meant to advance the claim that people who are disadvantaged in society deserve more than others.

This study discusses Paul Ricoeur's critical analysis of the dual-nature of the State. It also seeks to explain the dissolution of human persons in the phenomenon of mass civilization. According to Leovino Ma. Garcia, this can be observed on three levels – the technical, the socioeconomic and the cultural. The author thinks that the subjugation of individuals in modern society comes from a colonial logic. In order to restore our humanity in the midst of all violence, people are called to live as true Christians – ethical and just.