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)

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 Where a piece of work does not portray historical facts faithfully it should not be taken as a historical document but - in the context of Lopez's awit - as a piece of literary work that must be enjoyed.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)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

The May issue has six profound articles, a book review, and an interesting review article. We have one entry each for African philosophy, ethics and culture, philosophy of literature, philosophy of karma, philosophy of person, and postmodern governance.

Seven important articles make up the January 2011 issue of the journal—one each from different areas of philosophy, namely, existentialism, neopragmatism, philosophy of culture, philosophy of leadership, philosophical logic, philosophy of mind, and political philosophy. It includes a book review and a book note.

The articles of this journal issue will show the global distribution of book review, one each comes from Nigeria, Malaysia, and Turkey; two from the United States; and three from the Philippines. With regard to topics, we have contributors on African Philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Filipino philosophy, metaethics, political philosophy, religion and the self, and truth and culture. The book review pertains to Scheler's ethics.

This issue of the journal has eight interesting articles and one book review. There are two articles on ethics and one article each on African philosophy, Filipino philosophy, Indian philosophy, philosophy of myth, philosophy of religion, and political philosophy. Although what is discussed in African philosophy is a theme that properly belongs to the philosophy of religion, I have decided to make a separate category to distinguish it from basically traditional Western philosophy.

The January issue contains seven significant articles from different areas of philosophy: two from aesthetics, two from African philosophy, and one each from axiology and postmodernism, philosophical logic, philosophy of religion, and a book review.

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.

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 of specific utterances 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)

A book review on Keith A. Chandler’s The mind paradigm: A Unified Model of Mental and Physical Reality.

El análisis de datos mediante representación espacial (HJ-Biplot y Correspondencia Múltiple), ordena la percepción de inseguridad que Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado, profesionales de intervención social directa con menores y población dedicada a otras ocupaciones laborales tienen respecto a la población juvenil nativa y extranjera en España.Los resultados muestran agrupaciones conformadas en función del colectivo profesional entrevistado y su nivel de percepción de inseguridad. Destaca el colectivo de las Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado con una alta (...) percepción de inseguridad, generada con mayor intensidad por jóvenes del Magreb.Como conclusión principal se evidencian notables diferencias en la percepción de inseguridad en los colectivos encuestados respecto a jóvenes extranjeros o nacionales. (shrink)

BackgroundDeveloping a comprehensive, reproducible literature search is the basis for a high-quality systematic review (SR). Librarians and information professionals, as expert searchers, can improve the quality of systematic review searches, methodology, and reporting. Likewise, journal editors and authors often seek to improve the quality of published SRs and other evidence syntheses through peer review. Health sciences librarians contribute to systematic review production but little is known about their involvement in peer reviewing SR manuscripts.MethodsThis survey aimed to assess how frequently librarians (...) are asked to peer review systematic review manuscripts and to determine characteristics associated with those invited to review. The survey was distributed to a purposive sample through three health sciences information professional listservs.ResultsThere were 291 complete survey responses. Results indicated that 22% (n = 63) of respondents had been asked by journal editors to peer review systematic review or meta-analysis manuscripts. Of the 78% (n = 228) of respondents who had not already been asked, 54% (n = 122) would peer review, and 41% (n = 93) might peer review. Only 4% (n = 9) would not review a manuscript. Respondents had peer reviewed manuscripts for 38 unique journals and believed they were asked because of their professional expertise. Of respondents who had declined to peer review (32%, n = 20), the most common explanation was “not enough time” (60%, n = 12) followed by “lack of expertise” (50%, n = 10).The vast majority of respondents (95%, n = 40) had “rejected or recommended a revision of a manuscript| after peer review. They based their decision on the “search methodology” (57%, n = 36), “search write-up” (46%, n = 29), or “entire article” (54%, n = 34). Those who selected “other” (37%, n = 23) listed a variety of reasons for rejection, including problems or errors in the PRISMA flow diagram; tables of included, excluded, and ongoing studies; data extraction; reporting; and pooling methods.ConclusionsDespite being experts in conducting literature searches and supporting SR teams through the review process, few librarians have been asked to review SR manuscripts, or even just search strategies; yet many are willing to provide this service. Editors should involve experienced librarians with peer review and we suggest some strategies to consider. (shrink)

If we are to periodize the intellectual biography of Rolando Gripaldo into his Mindanaoan, Lasallian, and retirement periods, his Lasallian period would be a very significant one because this is the period where he produced the most important works that earned him a niche as one of the important Filipino philosophers. This paper exposed and analyzed the works of Gripaldo in this very significant period of his intellectual biography. This paper was able to identify four clusters of (...) themes that recur in Gripaldo’s Lasallian period writings: 1) his reflective thoughts on Filipino philosophy, 2) his studies of Filipino philosophical luminaries, 3) his critical Filipino philosophy, and 3) his efforts towards revisionist writing. This paper contributes towards the discourse of Filipino philosophy that studies Filipino philosophical luminaries, a discourse in which Gripaldo was a leading advocate. Contributions in this specific discourse can make Filipino philosophy more mainstream and easier to study, especially for beginners and undergraduate students. (shrink)

In this essay, I would like to look at two particular attempts of developing a preliminary question that paves the way for establishing a Filipino Philosophy: viz. Rolando Gripaldo’s Historian of Philosophy approach and Napoleon Mabaquiao’s Strict Discipline approach. The former envisages that the first question that needs to be considered in the discussion of Filipino Philosophy must be taken from the perspective of a scholar of the history of philosophy. The latter’s procedure is to take what academic (...) philosophers deem to be the characterization of their discipline. In effect, while the former’s question is a question of a historian of philosophy; the latter’s question is a question of a philosopher. As this essay progresses I will try to make a critical assessment of the two attempts by first showing the strengths and weaknesses of their respective attempts, and secondly by stressing that their attempts, whether successful or not, should already be taken as contributions to the effort of establishing a Filipino Philosophy. (shrink)

This paper explores the thoughts of Emerita Quito, Claro Ceniza, Florentino Timbreza, and Rolando Gripaldo as contributiors of De La Salle University to the development of Filipino philosophy in the cultural sense. These philosophy mentors ore selected based on their textual productivity and on the fact that they retired from DLSU as full professors. Filipino philosophy in this paper is limited to the following discourses: logical analysis, phenomenology/existentialism/hermeneutics, critical philosophy as an academic method; appropriation of foreign theories ; (...) appropriation of folk philosophy, revisionist writing, interpretation of Filipino worldview, research on Filipino values and ethics, identification of the presuppositions and implications of the Filipino worldview and the study on Filipino philosophical luminaries. This exploration concludes with some assessments of the aforementioned philosophers' more specific impact on Filipino philosophy. (shrink)

This paper compares and contrasts the taxonomies and periodizations of Filipino philosophy by seven Filipino scholars -- Fernando Zialcita, Florentino Timbreza, Emerita Quito, Romualdo Abulad, Napoleon Mabaquiao, Rolando Gripaldo, and Alfredo Co -- in order to determine the various philosophical discourses that are present in the country, and in order to pinpoint which of these discourses offer higher developmental potentials for Filipino philosophy. For each taxonomy and periodization, this paper looks into: (1) the period covered, (2) the inclusivity (...) or exclusivity of the classification/configuration, (3) the taxonomizer/periodizer utilized, (4) the implied structure of the classification/configuration, (5) the problematic classes/periods suggested by the classification/configuration, and (6) the promising classes/Periods suggested by the classification/configuration. This paper concludes with an attempt to synthesize the thoughts of these seven scholars in a comprehensive taxonomy of Filipino philosophies and to give an overall assessment for each of these philosophies' strengths and weaknesses. (shrink)