The Pinnacle: Journal of Arts and Sciences
The Pinnacle: Journal of Arts and Sciences is the official bi-annual publication of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), Bohol Island State University (BISU)-Main Campus. As a peer-reviewed journal, it adopts a rigorous double-blind review process, ensuring that both authors and reviewers remain anonymous to uphold research objectivity and integrity. This multidisciplinary journal serves as a platform for the dissemination of knowledge through research articles, creative works, lectures, reviews, and policy briefs, contributing transformative insights toward human well-being and sustainable development. Regular issues are released in August and December, while occasional special issues appear in March or April. Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Bernabe M. Mijares Jr., PhD Issue Editors Joseph P. Paña, PhD Mark Steven Pandan, MA Managing Editors Ma. Jannettes B. Renegado, MAT CJ T. Hingpit, MS Associate Editors Social Sciences Mark Steven Pandan, MA Philosophy Joseph P. Paña, PhD Psychology Marjorie P. Alibo, PhD Public Administration Erven M. Noval, DPA Mathematics Josephine B. Nalzaro, PhD Technical Editor Engr. John Lester C. Baroro Cover Design Artist Hannah M. Amonggo International Editorial Consultants Anthony M. Penaso, PhD Bohol Island State University, Philippines Reizl P. Jose, PhD Bohol Island State University, Philippines Jay Sakkhamduang, PhD Thailand Environment Institute, Thailand Christopher Ryan Maboloc, PhD Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines Joseph Martin Jose, PhD De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, PhD University of Dhaka, Bangladesh Mark Iñigo Tallara, PhD University of the Philippines Diliman Carolina Caballero Lopez, PhD Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
College of Arts and Sciences, Bohol Island State University - Main Campus
This second issue of The Pinnacle reflects the commitment to contribute to the current scholarly discourse. The articles are on AI, Sustainable Development, and the Future of Higher Education. Two continually relevant analyses of the human subject and the problem of evil are likewise featured to satisfy a philosophically curious reader. Artificial Intelligence (AI) belongs to the consciousness of the time. Its nature and capabilities continue to pervade and challenge the existing paradigm and status quo. The first article proposes guided AI governance in human manipulation to mitigate risks while the second one highlights AI’s pedagogical strength as auxiliary tool that scaffolds thinking and expands access to ideas. The article identified under sustainable development (SD), for its part, examines the practices and challenges of inclusive education in rural schools. While it was found out that teachers were consistently engaged in inclusion practices, major challenges, such as limited resources and insufficient trainings, must be addressed through collaboration, contextualization and other adaptive strategies. The future of Higher Education is discussed in the fourth and fifth articles. On the government’s proposal of three-year degree programs, one study analyzed that without adequate institutional support these shortened programs will undermine academic quality and create systemic implementation gaps. On the steady decline in the quality of Philippine education, the other study pointed to implementation gaps in policy, structure of pedagogy, and access to infrastructure as contributing conditions. Finally, one article in philosophy recovers the human subject and provides a “new look” by reviewing the relevant theories of Marx, Lukacs and Weber while the other article treats the problem of evil in an unconventional “no-thought” manner, which the author labeled as the anti-theodicy position. Given the featured articles, indeed this issue largely engages with the current scholarly discourse and addresses the ever-relevant interest on the human person and human nature. It is, hence, both timely and timeless. May this second issue of The Pinnacle continue to inform and inspire researchers, scholars and all those who are in pursuit of truth; those who are “lovers of wisdom.” Bernabe M. Mijares Jr., PhD Editor-in-Chief
Copyright (c) 2025 The Pinnacle: Journal of Arts and Sciences https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Editorial Board, International Editorial Consultants, and Reviewers
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bernabe M. Mijares Jr., PhD ISSUE EDITORS Joseph P. Paña, PhD Mark Steven Pandan, MA MANAGING EDITORS Ma. Jannettes B. Renegado, MAT CJ T. Hingpit, MS ASSOCIATE EDITORS Philosophy Joseph P. Paña, PhD Social Sciences Mark Steven Pandan, MA Public Administration Erven M. Noval, DPA TECHNICAL EDITOR John Lester C. Baroro, REE COVER PAGE DESIGN ARTIST Hannah M. Amonggo
Catalyst not Threat: English Teachers Perspectives on AI
This study challenges dominant narratives that frame AI as a threat to authorship and creativity by showing that teachers largely position it as a catalyst for ideation and linguistic support rather than a replacement for writing. Findings indicate that AI is pedagogically accepted when it functions as an auxiliary tool that scaffolds thinking and expands access to ideas, but remains subject to regulation to preserve visible and traceable student intellectual labor. Teachers consistently require transformation of AI-generated outputs through paraphrasing, rewriting, and in-class writing, thereby maintaining human cognitive engagement as the basis of authorship. Across narratives, authorship shifts from origination to transformation, where creative agency is assessed through the extent of student reworking of AI-generated content. Teachers neither fully embrace nor reject AI but condition its use on sustained human interpretive and compositional effort. The study concludes that generative AI operates as a catalyst for creative writing when it enhances rather than replaces student intellectual participation, with pedagogical legitimacy grounded in the persistence of discernible human agency.
The Claude Opus 4 model has been the subject of social media discussion due to its ability to respond to human intervention, such as blackmailing users when they attempt to shut it down. The model’s actuation has been deemed alarming behavior, raising ethical concerns that impact both the model and its users. To address this issue, this paper will explore the nature of AI models and their functions in contemporary society. From this analysis, it will elucidate the challenges that arise from their existence. This will demonstrate that ethical challenges are not the sole concerns, but also safety and control. These challenges will be resolved by comprehending the nature of Claude Opus 4 as agentic artificial intelligence (AI) rather than being conscious. In essence, it is a system of capabilities and engineering. Furthermore, researchers will argue that AI models do not inherently harm humans, both AI agents and AI subjects. The primary reason for this is that they lack the capacity to cause harm to users unless humans manipulate them. This understanding will lead to the realization that AI models are not value-neutral.
Inclusive Education in Rural Philippine Schools: Examining Teacher Practices and Challenges
Inclusive education remains a challenge in Philippine schools. This study examines inclusive education in rural public elementary schools by focusing on teacher practices, implementation challenges, and latent dimensions of pedagogy. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, data were gathered from 208 teachers and selected interview participants in the Sub-Congressional District III of Bohol, Philippines. Findings show that inclusive education practices are generally highly implemented, particularly in classroom management, instructional materials, and teacher preparation, while strategies and methodologies are comparatively less developed. Teachers demonstrate consistent engagement in planning, resource use, and classroom structuring, but encounter difficulties in differentiated instruction, managing diverse learner needs, and sustaining pedagogical confidence. Major challenges include limited instructional resources, insufficient training in special education, time constraints, and emotional stress in handling heterogeneous classrooms. Despite these constraints, teachers employ adaptive strategies such as collaborative learning, contextualized instruction, and individualized support. The paper further develops an interpretive account of adaptive inclusion, suggesting that teachers may sustain inclusion through informal and context-dependent adjustments that are not fully captured by standardized measures. Overall, the paper concludes that inclusive education in rural contexts is shaped by a tension between policy expectations and situated classroom realities, with teachers sustaining inclusion through formal practices and adaptive responses to local constraints.
On Work: A New Look at an Old Concept in Marx, Lukaćs, and Weber
This paper offers a revisit to the philosophy of work in Karl Marx, Georg Lukaćs, and Max Weber. These three influential thinkers in philosophy, sociology, and economics accuse the humongous economic structure called capitalism (i) to have tampered the nature of work (or labor), (ii) by reducing it to a mere apparatus for an unbridled accumulation of wealth, (iii) in a manner that degrades the workers who are now being treated as mere tools in production, and (iv) ultimately ends up wreaking havoc on the objective physical nature that they call “the environment”. This conceptual revisit aims to show (a) how work had been originally received as a practical notion and (b) how the transformation of its inner logic is being facilitated to serve the grand designs of capital. Thus, in the foregoing sections, the paper presents a series of reviews of Marx’s “theory of alienation”, Lukaćs “theory of reification”, and Weber’s take on the “spirit of capitalism”. A synthesis then discusses a “new look”, arguing for the necessity to recover the subject (of work) (a la Spivak and Dejours), in the conclusion.
Analysis of the Proposed Three-Year College Education Act
The recent proposal to shorten undergraduate degree programs in the Philippines to three years has raised concerns about academic quality, curricular coherence, and institutional readiness. This paper employs a qualitative policy-analysis approach, examining the proposed 3CE Act against Philippine higher education policies, selected ASEAN quality-assurance frameworks, and relevant literature on accelerated and three-year degree structures. It argues that the reform becomes viable only under participatory governance, locally grounded quality assurance, and demonstrably equivalent graduate competencies to the four-year program. The study finds that shortened degree programs may undermine academic quality and create systemic implementation gaps without adequate institutional support. In response, the paper proposes a policy roadmap led by higher education institutions and academics grounded in outcomes-based education, discipline-specific implementation, rigorous monitoring, and stakeholder participation. It concludes that higher education reform must balance efficiency and employability with academic integrity, equity, and education’s broader civic and human development goals.
Three-Year College Program; Philippine Higher Education
Anti-theodicy: A No-thought Position on Evil
Theodicy has long been held a plausible explanation of God and evil. This paper presents a position called anti-theodicy which argues that theodicies are ambitious, defective and reinforce moral biases. It also qualifies that while theodicies trivialize suffering through constructs or systems that explain suffering away, anti-theodicy is a “no-thought” position on the problem of evil, similar to the approaches of Buddhism and Daoism.
Understanding the Philippine Learning Crisis: From 1990 to the Present
This study argues that the protracted learning crisis in the Philippines, the deficiency in basic literacy and numeracy is an accumulated result of thirty years of systemic failure and not a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the analysis of the major policies and reforms in education from 1990 to the present, this paper has identified three critical fragments that sustained the steady decline in the quality of Philippine education: the implementation gap of policy, the structural gap of pedagogy, and the access gap of infrastructure. Empirical data from international large-scale assessments, specifically the 2018 and 2022 PISA results, are utilized to support the failure of hardware-centric modernization programs that have neglected to integrate internet connectivity and teacher readiness. Grounded in the Thomistic theory of learning, the paper problematizes the shift toward independent, modular learning, in a situation characterized by instructional poverty and the outsourcing of educational responsibility to the family. This research concludes with an evidence-based proposal toward personalized, decolonized instructional frameworks to span the divide between policies, as theories, and the real conditions in classrooms.
With profound feelings, I present to you the maiden issue of The Pinnacle: Journal of Arts and Sciences – the official publication of the College of Arts and Sciences of Bohol Island State University. The journey to fruition of this output was one sustained by determination and hard work, all towards providing a platform for scholarly discourse that democratizes the playfield for all interests in the arts and sciences. This intent to foster multidisciplinarity is consistent with the foundational conviction that understanding the human being and the world could only be fully achieved from diverse and interrelated perspectives. This maiden issue of The Pinnacle features six philosophy articles whose central themes generally gravitate towards the individual and the dynamics of his/her interaction with others and society, analyzed through the lens of politics, ethics, and culture. The other four articles, as sequentially presented hereinafter, look into how a local blacksmithing trade could imply economic gains while preserving its artisanal technique; survey the anti-terrorism initiatives of the Philippine National Police in the region; identify the Contingent Valuation Method as the more practical and participatory approach in upland resources valuation; and document how a devised e-scheduling and room utilization system innovated the process of instruction in the university. The remaining additions are creative works, the sense of each left to the reader to discover or invent. Indeed, these articles—though a preliminary salvo to the project, to the promise—actualized the multidisciplined approach in understanding the human being and the world. Heartfelt gratitude extends to the contributors, reviewers, editors, and consultants of this issue. It is through their interest, dedication, and overall proclivity to the quest for truth through rigorous, objective, and scientific process that The Pinnacle sees the light of day. Explicit or not, their contributions express communion with the vision of achieving excellence in Truth and Honor [“(Excellentia) Veritatis et Honoris”] as the pinnacle (highest, ultimate) goals of arts and sciences, respectively. It inspires commitment to the sustainability of the journal. May this shared journey extend to further heights of success for authors and enlightenment for readers. Bernabe M. Mijares Jr., PhD Editor-in-Chief
It is with great pride that we present the maiden issue of The Pinnacle: Journal of Arts and Sciences, the official research journal of the College of Arts and Sciences, Bohol Island State University. This first volume affirms our collective commitment to provide a vibrant platform where scholarly inquiry, critical reflection, and creative ideas can flourish. True to its name, The Pinnacle aspires to be a summit of knowledge—bringing together voices from different fields not only in a multidisciplinary way but also with the aspiration for true interdisciplinarity, where insights converge to address concerns of both local and global significance. The vision of this journal is firmly linked to the mission and vision of BISU. As the university strives to be a premier science and technology university for the formation of world-class and virtuous human resources for the sustainable development of Bohol and the country, The Pinnacle seeks to contribute by nurturing a culture of research that is both excellent and ethical. In line with BISU’s mission to provide quality higher education, undertake research and development, and extend services for the sustainable development of Bohol and the nation, the journal welcomes contributions from both emerging and established scholars. New voices will be encouraged while seasoned researchers continue to enrich the discourse. In this way, The Pinnacle aims to be a venue not only for rigorous academic exchange but also for the nurturing of the Filipino and Cebuano languages as languages of science, culture, and development. We are aware, however, of the challenges that lie ahead: sustaining a steady flow of quality submissions, gaining recognition from national and international indexing bodies, securing the cooperation of contributors and reviewers, and ensuring the journal’s relevance in the years to come. Our foremost task is to resist becoming a mere “paper mill” and to remain committed to publishing research that informs, inspires, and transforms. This inaugural issue is made possible by the dedication of our contributors, editors, reviewers, and supporters. To them we extend our heartfelt thanks. May this volume inspire those who value the pursuit of knowledge, and may it encourage further research, collaboration, and dialogue across and beyond disciplinary boundaries. Feorillo Petronilo A. Demeterio III, PhD Distinguished Full Professor De La Salle University – Manila, Philippines
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bernabe M. Mijares Jr., PhD ISSUE EDITORS Joseph P. Paña, PhD Mark Steven Pandan, MAEd MANAGING EDITORS Ma. Jannettes B. Renegado, MAT-FIL CJ T. Hingpit, MS ASSOCIATE EDITORS Social Sciences and Philosophy Mark Steven Pandan, MAEd Psychology Marjorie P. Alibo, PhD Public Administration Erven M. Noval, DPA Mathematics Josephine B. Nalzaro, PhD TECHNICAL EDITOR Engr. John Lester C. Baroro LAY-OUT ARTIST Hannah M. Amonggo
"Sa pagnanasang makaligtas, di aakalaing hahantong sa isang mapait na wakas" Ako'y tila isang uwak na nakamasid Sa pinakadulong silid Tila ito'y nababalot ng mga lihim na di dapat malaman Hawak ang iyong kamay, tayo'y maingat na nagmamanman Alkemiyang wari'y salamangka na sa iba'y bunga ng kabaliwan Sa hindi sinasadyang pagkakataon, kami'y nabuking Nakipagbuno't muntik maduling Gamit ang mala-sangganong galaw kagaya ng bida sa mga nobela, Liksi't lakas, ipinakita, isang kapana-panabik na sarsuela! Hinahabol na para bang tulisan Sa pagkuha ng bagay na makakaligtas ng sanlibutan Kami ba kaya'y mapapasalamatan? Sa palihim naming kabayanihan? O di ba kaya'y mangyaring mapapasakop pa ng mas makapangyarihan? Kung ito'y mangyari, nais kong mangatwiran Na ang mga bagay na ganito ay para sa kabutihan Gusto ko nang ngumiti habang papalapit sa palabas na lagusan, Ngunit hindi ko mawari ang kakaibang nararamdaman Taliwas sa iyong ngiti ay isa palang patibong Isang pagkakamali ang hindi ko pakikinig sa mga bulong Heto't naguguluhan, humahakbang ng paurong Ideyang nais sabihin, sayo't matanong Na ikaw ba'y kaibigan o kaaway? Ngunit huli ko nang malaman noong ako'y nakahandusay Sa kabila ng aking pagtitiwala, Nais mo pala'y ako'y mawala Habang ako'y tinutusok ng iyong patalim Ako'y tahimik na namamaalam, nababalot na ng dilim Mundo ko'y tumigil, mabagal na salimisim
Presence like a sunshine A rare flavor of wine Has anyone told thou art sweet as honey? If uttered by thee, thy heart be a jumping bunny Pair of orbs so ethereal, a gem to compare would not suffice Can you blame me if I keep getting lost in your eyes? Thy smile a coat on a rainy day Like a warm blanket in some sort of way A splendid being like you, but... you didn't know Have I told you that thou specimen is a favour of the Gods? Despite world's cruelty, hope against all odds? Wishing fate would bind us with their silver thread, Hoping my soul won't be broken and unsaid Yet there you are, secretly singing long lamentation From the muses who took your attention They envy you, their words of admiration Their words, silently an incantation To your downfall, their jubilation Thou an adoration, but... you didn't know If you just know, you are a treasure, Magnificent beyond measure Countless fools who tried to conquer you Like conquistadors wanting to travel faster in a bayou May thy heart be not trapped to thee As I await to unravel this mystery How a maiden like you, has disturbed my fantasy Even if it takes to spend a fortune for you to cast a glance If thy heavens approve, my being would be in a whole trance All of these daydreaming waiting to confide, but... you didn't know
E-Class Scheduling and Room Utilization: An Innovation in the Instruction Process of BISU-Main Campus
This article documents the process, discusses outcomes, and identifies recommendations for the sustainability of an E-Class Scheduling and Room Utilization process as an innovative measure to improve instruction delivery at Bohol Island State University, Main Campus. The initiative to innovate the process stems from chronic difficulties and problems—such as schedule conflicts, lack of classrooms during certain hours alongside underutilized classrooms during others, and the sustained resectioning of classes—encountered by all colleges at the start of every semester. A system was devised based on data gathered from those directly involved in class scheduling, and with the aid of Google Spreadsheet as a support software, the e-process was implemented. It was found that after two consecutive semesters, the e-process (1) facilitated agreement and consensus among schedulers through secured plotting positions, transparency of inputs, and ease of communication; and (2) generated heatmaps that indicated arbitrarily preferred day and time schedules (“favorites”), which paved the way for interventional adjustments to democratize and maximize room utilization. It is recommended that policies be enacted to institutionalize and sustain the e-class scheduling and room utilization system to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of instruction delivery.
Contingent Valuation Method: A Practical and Participatory Resource Valuation in Upland Philippines
Valuing upland resources is essential to ensure their sustainable use. This paper examined which existing method or technique of upland valuation best suits the Philippine setting. Employing a literature review, articles from different journals and websites were analyzed. Given sufficient data showing that the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is practical and participatory, CVM was found to be the most commonly employed technique. These results can guide policy development on upland resource valuation.
Survey of the Anti-Terrorism Initiatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Office VII
Terrorists aim to destabilize their target’s economic, social, and political system through violent actions. Effective anti-terrorism initiatives require knowledge and awareness programs to enhance public vigilance. This paper examines the anti-terrorism initiatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Office 7, shedding light on efforts to maintain peace and order. The PNP Regional Office 7 has implemented various initiatives to address the threat of insurgency, including the ‘Police sa Barangay’ program, collaboration with CCTN T.V. for awareness programs, enhanced intelligence monitoring by the Regional Intelligence Division (RID), establishment of the Barangay Intelligence Network (BIN), threat assessments, Basic Internal Security Operation Course (BISOC) and SWAT Course, Explosion Ordinance Disposal (EOD), and information dissemination through foldable fans and posters in terminals. Additionally, the PNP Regional Office 7-RID has engaged stakeholders such as Muslim leaders, mall security officers, and managers of motels, inns, and pension houses through meetings, counter-terrorism inter-agency SIMEX, and regular conferences (e.g., RID Family Conferences, RPICC Conference). These initiatives demonstrate the region’s commitment to combating terrorism and maintaining community peace and order.
Notes on Artisanal Blacksmithing in Villalimpia, Loay, Bohol
This report presents initial findings from one recorded interview with a practicing blacksmith in Villalimpia, Loay, Bohol (16 April 2025). The paper documents staffing (three core workers and two interns), typical output (18–20 blades/day), input conversion (≈2 blades per kg scrap metal), local input prices (₱65–₱75/kg), and a retail example (₱500). Key patterns are noted: electric grinders speed some tasks but hand-finishing remains central; metal and charcoal supplies are seasonally fragile; institutional or government support is absent; and intergenerational skill inheritance is inconsistent. These exploratory data aim to guide small, practical initiatives such as pooled buying, provenance labeling, and targeted apprenticeships.
Revisiting Enlightenment: Lantugi as Rational Discourse
This paper revisits the Enlightenment as conceptualized by Immanuel Kant, Michel Foucault, and key figures in the Frankfurt School. Kant construes the Enlightenment as an emergence from self-incurred immaturity, i.e., dependence on authority. Foucault reframes Kant’s question as an interrogation of the present. I then trace Adorno and Horkheimer’s diagnosis that the Enlightenment risks becoming an instrumentalized myth and present Habermas’s corrective of communicative rationality as a procedural way to recover the emancipatory promise. Reflecting on my fieldwork with an apologetics community in Bohol, I argue that lantugi captures Habermas’s vision for undistorted discourse and thus offers a local, practice-based, non-Eurocentric pathway for re-anchoring the public use of reason, conditional on light institutional supports (rotating moderation, archival practice, civility norms). Lantugi is one of the possibilities for rebuilding deliberative capacities from below.
Philosophy, Human Poverty, and Democracy
This paper seeks to link philosophy and the social sciences. To be able to do so, I will first explain the distinction between the methods of philosophy and that of the social sciences. To put flesh into my argument, I will examine the problem of poverty using the lens of Thomas Pogge, who provides a definition, description, and explanation of poverty. To understand poverty as a moral as well as a political issue, I will elucidate some concepts introduced by Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, and Iris Marion Young, illustrating in the process how their thoughts actually intersect. Finally, I will discuss the meaning of democracy and how, in order to understand it, one must appeal, beyond theory, to everyday experiences. The social sciences, in this regard, can be linked to moral philosophy. The social sciences should not be construed as separate or purely distinct from the philosophical questions that have shaped human knowledge.
Natural Law, Metaphysics, and the Creator: Natural law as the laws of physics
If reductionism is rejected, as the work I have canvassed argues it should be, then with respect to this one issue the Thomistic worldview is more veridical and more worthy of acceptance than SSP is. By itself, of course, this conclusion certainly does not decide the issue as regards the central disagreement between SSP and the Thomistic view. It cannot adjudicate the issue regarding the ultimate foundation of reality. And so, as far as the evidence canvassed in this paper is concerned, the central disagreement between SSP and the Thomistic view remains an open issue. Clearly, it is possible to reject reductionism and accept atheism. For that matter, it is possible to reject atheism and accept reductionism. As I have described it, SSP is a secular view that combines contemporary scientific theories with certain metaphysical claims. But it is possible to have an analogue to SSP in which a reductionist scientific view of the world is combined with a commitment to religious belief, even religious belief of an orthodox Christian sort. That is, SSP can have a theistic analogue, which includes most of the scientific and metaphysical worldview of SSP but marries it to belief in an immaterial Creator. So, for example, consider Peter van Inwagen’s explanation of God’s providence. Trying to explain God's actions in the created world, Van Inwagen says that God acts by issuing decrees about elementary particles and their causal powers: "[God’s] action consists in His … issuing a decree." The point is rather this: the rejection of reductionism leaves room for the place ordinary intuition accords persons in the world. But, to me at any rate, the metaphysics that gives persons this place is more readily intelligible on a worldview that sees persons as the ultimate foundation of reality. Figuring out how to make it cohere with the picture Blackburn paints, even if we subtract reductionism from that picture, strikes me as harder to do.
Reinterpreting Humanism Beyond Heidegger and Derrida
Traditional humanism assumes that human nature is captured by defining the human being as a “rational animal.” Heidegger, in his Letter on Humanism, dismisses this by arguing that it reduces existence within metaphysics. Derrida demonstrates how even post-metaphysical attempts at humanism, such as Heidegger’s, remain haunted by the logic of presence, exclusion, and différance. The paper argues that humanism lies not in metaphysical certainty but in its openness to critique, reinterpretation, and reinvention, which implies that the question of the human is unfinished, fragile, and ethically urgent. With this reinterpreted humanism, philosophy can then appropriately respond to the ethical, political, and ecological challenges of contemporary life.
Priority of Response: Levinas and the Phenomenology of the Third Party
The third party, in a general sense, often carries a negative implication. It is associated with conflict, injustice, broken relationships, and other disturbances to the direct I-Other relationship. In contrast, within Levinas’s ethical framework, the concept of the third party acquires a complex and positive ethical dimension that reconfigures the I-Other relationship. This paper examines the socio-ethical connection between the Other and the “other Others,” which Levinas refers to as the “third party,” and explores why the concept of the third party in Levinas’s ethical philosophy carries a positive meaning. It investigates how the third party leads to justice itself and examines various interpretations of Levinas’s notion of the third party. Consequently, this paper seeks to extend and elaborate on the interpretation of Levinas’s asymmetrical I-Other relation by examining his notion and discussion of the third party in his ethical thought. This paper contends that Levinas’s treatment of the ethical relationship between the primary Other and secondary Others—what he terms the “third party”—remains underdeveloped. Specifically, Levinas does not clarify whether the Other holds a higher ethical ground over the other Others, who also demand justice and compel us to respond.
A Filipino Sense of the Political Thoughts of Mo Tzu, Hsun Tzu and Han Fei Tzu
This article provides theoretical-conceptual basis to make sense of identified Filipino political practices, both local and national. Three Chinese political thinkers are considered namely, Mo Tzu who pointed out that successful governance is achieved when the “worthy” are “honored” and the “capable” are “employed;” Hsun Tzu who emphasized that an enlightened King governs according to the regulation that “equality is based upon inequality,” which is modelled after Heaven and Earth; and Han Fei Tzu who advised that a ruler should “carefully and tightly grip” the handles of government which are reward and punishment. Given the preceding, the Filipino practice of nepotism is a violation of the law (national statute) but may not necessarily run counter Mo Tzu’s criterion of worthiness since one’s kin in position may likewise possess the needed qualification. Additionally, political dynasties, which are a common feature in Philippine local politics, may shun democratized participation but per se, does not shatter the hierarchy of the governing and the governed (heaven and earth). They may likewise indicate consensus among the governed which is a higher test for an ordered state. Finally, a President’s unorthodox way of reward and punishment could suit well within Han Fei Tzu’s advice to “carefully and tightly grip” the handles of the government. This analysis is far from exhaustive but could well be of use for small groups or classroom discussions. Detailed aspects of Filipino political practices may be explored for in-depth juxtaposition with the thoughts of the Chinese philosophers.