Jovito Cariño

There exists a general confusion on what the university is and what it is for. Universities are in crisis, and as never before, they must justify their usefulness for society. It is claimed that in order to answer that crisis, universities should become business-like entities governed and managed in terms of demand/supply and efficiency. We claim—and exemplify that claim with the case of Philippine universities—that no university in a classical sense can be turned into a business without destroying it for the two domains have different founding principles, values, norms, and actions. We argue that the classical university is an important specie in the cultural environment and it is worthwhile to defend its existence, even if other knowledge-producing and education-providing institutions are developed and provide intellectual and human resources for the market.

traces the history of Catholic philosophical thinking and shows the mutual influence between philosophy and the university. In the same work, Macintyre also highlights the single question which he says should be preeminent in the mind of Catholic thinkers today: the question of what it means to be a human being. Reflection on this matter acquires urgency in the face of dramatic political, cultural and economic changes taking place worldwide. The university, herself an agent of change, is not immune to these transformations. That it must evolve as it adapts to them is an imperative which the university cannot afford to ignore but as argued by this paper, such adaptation must begin from a sincere critique and re-affirmation of the university’s identity as cultivator of humanity. This paper maintains that Catholic universities like UST cannot turn their back on their humanistic commitments. The humanities, of which philosophy is a primary discipline, is what defines the identity of a u...

Kabilang ang Pilipinas sa mga bansa, hindi lamang sa Asya kundi pati na rin sa buong mundo, na kakikitaan ng ibayong sigla ng modernisasyon. Isa sa mga pinakamalinaw na katibayan nito ang malawakang paglaganap ng urbanisasyon gaya ng pinapatunayan ng mga nagtatayugang condominium, mamahaling kabahayan at naglalakihang shopping mall na sagisag ng masiglang daloy ng kapital sa bansa. Ito ang ng larawan modernidad bunga ng globalisasyon. Sa kabila ng mga pagbabagong ito, hindi maikakaila ang mga aspekto ng modernisasyon na tuwirang kabaligtaran ng kanyang mapanghalinang larawan: masikip na trapiko, malalang problema sa pabahay, sisiksikang migrasyon sa lungsod, di mapuksang problema sa basura at ang pinakamabigat sa lahat, ang pagsulong ng isang mentalidad na mapamuksa ng kalikasan. Ekta-hektrayang bukirin, tubigan, kakahuyan at mga kabandukan ang kinailangang magsakripisyo upang bigyang daan ang bukang-bibig na mga imprastraktura ng pagbabago. Tila ba pagbabago lamang ang tanging mabuti na dapat bigyan ng katuparan at lahat, kahit na ang kaligtasan ng kapaligiran, ay maaaring isantabi sa ngalan nito. Sa ganitong usapin, mahalaga ang papel ng arkitektura. Naiiba ang arkitektura dahil sa pambihira nitong katangian bilang pinaka-publiko sa lahat ng mga anyo ng sining. Bilang anyo ng sining, may autonomiya ang arkitektura na paboran o tutulan ang mga epekto ng modernidad. May direkta din itong kapangyarihan na maimpluwensiyahan ang uri ng pamumuhay gayundin ang kaisipan ng mga taong nakikinabang dito, ibig sabihin, tayong lahat. Kritikal samakatwid ang papel nito hindi lamang bilang isang partikular na sining kundi bilang puwersang kultural na kumakatawan sa katangian ng panahon at sa uri ng pamumuhay na umiiral sa isang lokalidad. Kaugnay ng mga ito, paano nga ba susuriin ang estado ng arkitektura sa panahon ng globalisasyon sa Pilipinas? Upang masagot ang naturang tanong, tatalakayin ng papel na ito ang posibilidad ng pagkakaroon ng isang kritikal na teoryang kultural na magiging batayan sa pagsuri ng ugnayan ng arkitektura at globalisasyon sa ating bansa. Nagbabaka sakali din ang papel na ito na makapag-ambag sa pagbuo ng maka-Pilipinong teoryang kultural at sa pagsusulong ng kritikal na pagsipat sa arkitektura sa kunteksto ng dialektikong relasyon ng ekonomikong kaunlaran at integridad ng kalikasan. _______________________________ Within Asia and across the globe, Philippines is one of the countries where modernization is gaining ground. This is manifested, among others, by the rise of urban centers where one finds the concentration of high-rise condominiums, opulent residences and mammoth shopping malls which are themselves results of a more fluid capital inflow into the local economy. This is one of the pictures of modern life borne by globalization. Despite the apparent affluence however, one cannot simply gloss over certain aspects of globalized society which run counter to the alluring images of progress: heavy traffic congestion, inadequate housing, unmitigated urban migration, pestering garbage problem and worse of all, the emergence of a kind of mentality which pays little regard to the welfare of ecology. Hectares upon hectares of farmlands, waterways, forests and mountains have been wasted in the name of the so-called infrastructures of economic progress. This state of affairs makes an impression that financial prosperity is the only thing worth pursuing notwithstanding the environmental costs. It cannot be denied that architecture has a huge stake in this situation.. Architecture distinguishes itself as the most public among the arts. As an art form, it is free either to embrace or reject the effects of modernity. It can likewise help shape the way of life and worldview of its users, which means, all of us, consumers all of this art. Architecture therefore has a crucial role not only as an individual art form but also as cultural expression which manifests in a very concrete form\ the spirit of the times as well as the quality of life in a given locality. In the light of the foregoing, how must one view the state of architecture in the Philippines in the age of globalization? To explore this question, this paper will examine the possibility of developing a cultural theory which can serve as a basis of the critique of architecture and its relation with globalization in the Philippines. It likewise aspires to make a contribution to the articulation of a Filiipino cultural theory as well as the critical appreciation of architecture in the context of the dialectical relation between economic progress and the integrity of environment.

Through Leo XIII's Aeterni Patris, Thomism became the staple Catholic response against the threats of modernity. Two things immediately ensued as a result of this papal intervention: the revival of Thomistic philosophy, and with this revival, the transformation of the same as a polemical tool. While it serves well the Catholic Church's campaign for orthodoxy, it is arguable however whether such polemical shift has philosophical merit, or if it has, whether it is compatible with the tradition of doing philosophy championed by Thomas Aquinas himself. This tension within Thomism, I believe, warrants the necessity of Catholic philosophy represented by Thomism to be rethought. The goal of such rethinking, it should be emphasized, is not to undermine the gains of Thomism's revival but to locate more precisely the critical potential of Aquinas' philosophy against modernity's philosophic claims. In this paper, I will adopt Alasdair MacIntyre's hermeneutics of the aforementioned problematic, and towards the end, I will indicate the possibility of an alternative mode of reviving Thomism. First, I will rehearse the basic claims of modernity. In the ensuing part, I will show the hermeneutic conflicts that render it impossible to tell the story of modernity in a single narrative. This is followed by an account of Kant's attempt to resolve the crisis of modernity by reinstating reason in its primacy. By employing MacIntyre's tradition-constituted rationality, I will then show the divide between Kant's and Aquinas' philosophy and how the oversight of such divergence led modern Thomists to misconceive the possibility of compromise between the two. Towards the end, I will narrate the complicity, albeit the inadvertent nature, of the Kantian project with the revival of Thomism, thus posing the necessity of self-critique on the part Catholic philosophy.

Prior to her religious conversion, Edith Stein was reputed to be a close disciple of Edmund Husserl and one of the pioneer exponents of phenomenology. When Husserl however turned away from the realist commitments of phenomenology and pursued instead its idealist direction, many within Husserl's close circle chose to do phenomenology against Husserl's Kantian proclivity. It was this dispersal of the pioneers of phenomenology that gave rise to what is now known in the history of philosophy as phenomenological movement, referring not so much to a kind of a concerted, common effort but to isolated individual initiatives to address the issues and problems left open by Husserl and phenomenology. But what became a purely philosophical engagement on the part of other phenomenologists like Ingarden, Lipps and Conrad-Martius, Stein's phenomenological studies became for her an avenue towards a spiritual and intellectual evolution which culminated to her embracing the Catholic faith. Stein's reconciliation of faith and reason, in her life as well as in her scholarly works, paved the way for a different method of pursuing phenomenology by creating a room for faith in the critical examination of consciousness just as it introduced an alternative way of doing Catholic philosophy which during her time was practically reduced to silence in the face of modern sciences and various cognitive systems. Her detour to Thomistic thought enabled Stein, in the narrative of Alasdair MacIntyre, to contribute to the resurgence of Catholic philosophy which for most of the modern period was sidelined by its complicity with modernity's priority of epistemology. This paper shall trace the evolution of Edith Stein's philosophy on its way to the consolidation of her own phenomenological system and the modern reconstruction of Catholic philosophic tradition. The discussion shall be guided by the question: What are the elements of phenomenology as articulated by Edith Stein which contributed to the resurgence of Catholic philosophy?,