by Sophie Villasfer
14 August 2012
Discussed Text: Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being
Right after children learn writing isolated letters, they learn to write their names. From there, sentence structures usually revolve around the self as encouraged by the teachers. "I am (insert full name here). I live in (insert full address here). I am (age) years old. I (insert hobby)..." And so on and so forth. From there, we are taught more challenging topics -- those that go more and more beyond ourselves. We start writing about our families, friends, events, and even the imaginary. However, most of the time, this progress is just limited to scholastic write-ups. Many become adults but are still stuck with the basic sentences that begin with "I", strung one after another. These are not literal essays of course, but more like scripted identities carried around (almost like resumes at hand, prepared for those who might be interested).
During the lecture last Tuesday, I agree that "it is a dangerous attitude to think of yourself as a totally self-made person." Society is littered with accolades and articles for the "successful", and descriptions as to how they became the way they are. Some of these have the rags-to-riches theme that credit success to some formula. Some have the more Disney-like themes wherein people are born to these certain families and instantly it is seen how their lives will surely end happily ever after. One does not need to look far, just grab a magazine or look at the featured stories in the Yahoo homepage. Disclaimer: I am not against these people, okay? However, I am against how writers oversimplify their subjects.
In the book of Malcolm Gladwell entitled "Outliers", he describes how successful people like Bill Gates or the Beatles were not successful overnight; they did only after practicing their trade for 10,000 hours. While this principle of hard work makes sense, Gladwell also describes how other than hard work, these people were born of a certain time that favors their interests. These people were born to a time of opportunity. Or it could be something more subtle, like how entering school or Little League (American Baseball) at a certain age can give someone an edge. On the other hand, someone can have all the talent and the genes, but no opportunity.
In other words, the "I" that was born into the world can have many different fates, but why that particular historical era, family, or environment? Thinking about this, I realized that such questions does not end during birth. Fortunes and misfortunes add up, but most of the time when life is observed in retrospect, there is this arc of grace. It can be as small as studying only partially for a test, but the test was either cancelled or for some reason, only the things you studied appeared. Or better, it can be as beautiful as falling in love with a particular person who also falls in love with you. When we are honest with ourselves, our lives are more than what we made it to be. Most of the time what we do is so small compared to how life is unfolding in front of us. It is difficult to comprehend, difficult to articulate, difficult to see. But it is still a concrete reality; if we had enough motivation, maybe we can even do the math and prove how reality is greater than the sum of its parts.
Behind the "I" are people along the way who shaped him mostly by helping him either materially (or financially) and even spiritually. These can be sincere friends who are also good influences, or that aunt who lent (or gave) you money even when you did not ask. Behind the "I" are many circumstances, that seem to be connected that sometimes one suspects, is there Somebody orchestrating all of this? Behind the "I" that is present, is a wealth of opportunity and resources. Behind the "I" is a long list of answered prayers, and surprising blessings. And also, behind the "I" is someone is vulnerable enough to be hurt by others or by events. But behind that same "I" is at least one other person who understands.
Pardon me if this essay is not as fluid as it should be. The main point I really want to make is that there should be a certain wariness to oversimplifying how we look at other people, but more than that, there should be a certain wariness as to how we look at ourselves. Maybe it helps to start looking at the self in the proper context, in order to hopefully avoid the delusion that "the world revolves around me". Because the world does not revolve around you, or me, or him, or her. The world revolves as it does, and we are all together in it.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Volunteerism and Sustainability
by Angela Sy
And yet, my general notion of volunteering is mixed because several issues remain unresolved after natural disasters pass. I agree that disposing the plastic used for relief goods has its drawbacks. And it's true that some people help only to brag about it. While I felt terrible for the informal settlers who died and whose houses and other belongings were destroyed, they must have been informed at some point that residing too close to bodies of water posed serious threats. Their refusal to relocate then and now doesn't help.
But what bothers me most about volunteerism is its sustainability. True volunteerism is rooted out of compassion. Many people help out; their compassion is enough to take time off of their daily lives . I've observed that many work to help, only to abandon the kind of work once the storms have passed. Must it always take a great calamity to make us more human and aware of others? Wouldn't it be better humanitarianism could be sustained on a more regular basis, so much that volunteering becomes second nature, more permanent, and extended not to just calamities but to other socio-economic causes?
Or is asking such questions asking too much?
Living In A Broken World
by Bea Antonio
14 August 2012
Discussed text: Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being
Having returned from the week-long hibernation that we all just experienced, I was not in any way prepared for anything academic. My brain wasn’t going to cooperate with me and I was sure of it, which is why I tensed up when I suddenly remembered that I was the next one assigned to write this blog entry. Oh, boy.
Dr. Garcia started his discussion by asking about how everyone was and there was, as usual, a unified silence. Everyone else in the room has not yet recovered from the week that was- the sleep-induced, “watch-all-the-episodes-of-Suits-just-because-and-not-take-a-bath-because-it’s-really-cold” week that managed to bring out the maturity in all of us by finally allowing us to stop asking for any more rains to come. However, when Dr. Garcia mentioned that we were living in a broken world, I found myself let go of the reminiscing and snapping back into attention. A broken world, it just sounded so familiar.
Most of us might think that we do care about some things that are not just ourselves, but is that enough? We forgot the duties that we have for each other. For the world. This is sad, but I believe that the heart still resides there somewhere.
14 August 2012
Discussed text: Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being
Having returned from the week-long hibernation that we all just experienced, I was not in any way prepared for anything academic. My brain wasn’t going to cooperate with me and I was sure of it, which is why I tensed up when I suddenly remembered that I was the next one assigned to write this blog entry. Oh, boy.
Dr. Garcia started his discussion by asking about how everyone was and there was, as usual, a unified silence. Everyone else in the room has not yet recovered from the week that was- the sleep-induced, “watch-all-the-episodes-of-Suits-just-because-and-not-take-a-bath-because-it’s-really-cold” week that managed to bring out the maturity in all of us by finally allowing us to stop asking for any more rains to come. However, when Dr. Garcia mentioned that we were living in a broken world, I found myself let go of the reminiscing and snapping back into attention. A broken world, it just sounded so familiar.
“Living in a broken world? Yes, broken like a broken watch. Just to look at it, nothing has changed. Everything is in place. But put the watch to your ear, and you don’t hear any ticking…it seems to me that it must have had a heart one time, but today you would say that the heart had stopped beating”The world has gotten to a point where we think that everything can be manipulated, everything can be controlled and everything would go our way. The world has become materialistic and narcissistic, which became evident to me during the past few days. The monsoon was something that we all did not see coming. We were not prepared for it. It was the first time we were experiencing it. But what caused it? We did. We were all so busy with ourselves that we forgot how to take care of everything else around us. We forgot that there were things around us that we were not capable of fixing or changing.
Most of us might think that we do care about some things that are not just ourselves, but is that enough? We forgot the duties that we have for each other. For the world. This is sad, but I believe that the heart still resides there somewhere.
The Place of Light
by Marianne Aquino
14 August 2012
Discussed Text: Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being
It is a natural tendency nowadays for people to misconceptualize truth. It is often conceived as something that is universally valid or something that is akin to a mathematical formula, an architectural blueprint or a scientific methodology. Truth is deemed transmissible through the presupposition of a technique, which can be taught or passed down to anyone and can be reproduced anytime, anywhere. In the text, Gabriel Marcel asserts otherwise. According to him, there must be a dissociation between truth and universal validity. But throughout history, with the emergence of intellectual or knowledge-based transcendence, the notion of truth has been transformed to just a mere result that of which can be attained by dint of technical activity.
Humans are now obsessed with techniques. They use these sets of procedures to achieve concrete and often materialistic results. This is for the reason that they've been made to believe or fooled even that more possessions correlates highly with happiness, pleasure, and satisfaction. Who has never heard of stories of men who are disgustingly rich with great deal of money but never really completely satisfied and never really truly happy? They've become too absorbed in the manipulation of both mental and physical objects that they lose track of what is really important. They are in dire need of reevaluating priorities.
In turn, this reinforcement of the humans' will to dominate all things that are external to the thinking mind leads to a "broken world" where no real relations exist and therefore, no real unity as well. The relations that persist today have no sense of brotherhood in that there is a reduction of the individual into just agents with his or her own "identity card" consequently making each one substitutable. This is a manifestation of one important malady of society. That is its susceptibility to ignore "exigencies of reflection". The call to spiritual values, creative and productive imagination, and reflection have been all been debunked. For Marcel, the only cure to society's tenuous grasp at truth is reflection by placing ourselves in that place of light and at the same time throwing all processes and techniques into the shade.
14 August 2012
Discussed Text: Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being
It is a natural tendency nowadays for people to misconceptualize truth. It is often conceived as something that is universally valid or something that is akin to a mathematical formula, an architectural blueprint or a scientific methodology. Truth is deemed transmissible through the presupposition of a technique, which can be taught or passed down to anyone and can be reproduced anytime, anywhere. In the text, Gabriel Marcel asserts otherwise. According to him, there must be a dissociation between truth and universal validity. But throughout history, with the emergence of intellectual or knowledge-based transcendence, the notion of truth has been transformed to just a mere result that of which can be attained by dint of technical activity.
Humans are now obsessed with techniques. They use these sets of procedures to achieve concrete and often materialistic results. This is for the reason that they've been made to believe or fooled even that more possessions correlates highly with happiness, pleasure, and satisfaction. Who has never heard of stories of men who are disgustingly rich with great deal of money but never really completely satisfied and never really truly happy? They've become too absorbed in the manipulation of both mental and physical objects that they lose track of what is really important. They are in dire need of reevaluating priorities.
In turn, this reinforcement of the humans' will to dominate all things that are external to the thinking mind leads to a "broken world" where no real relations exist and therefore, no real unity as well. The relations that persist today have no sense of brotherhood in that there is a reduction of the individual into just agents with his or her own "identity card" consequently making each one substitutable. This is a manifestation of one important malady of society. That is its susceptibility to ignore "exigencies of reflection". The call to spiritual values, creative and productive imagination, and reflection have been all been debunked. For Marcel, the only cure to society's tenuous grasp at truth is reflection by placing ourselves in that place of light and at the same time throwing all processes and techniques into the shade.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Calm (After and) Before The Storm
Perhaps nothing new can be said about what happened during the past few days, as well as our response to this event. For us who have gone through typhoon Ondoy and are experiencing torrential rains and monsoons almost every year, albeit not as grave as this, we as a nation, to a certain extent, are prepared with automatic responses to such occurrences: when the Marikina River rises, evacuate, when people are affected, we plan and execute relief operations, and when all of this is done, then we give ourselves a collective pat on our collective backs and hope that it will never happen again.
But, as we have said, experiences are never duplicates of each other, and there is always something new even though it seems like it has been the same, and every experiences bring new insights, realizations, and lessons to teach us. With that, allow me to at least let these recent events speak to us and gain insight not just on the reality of our own selves, but also of others that most of us do not encounter on a daily basis.
The strong monsoon rains which not only suspended our regular classes and routines for the day but also puts the city in a suspended state, in a sense that many places have submerged and lives have been endangered, constitutes a break that hopefully allowed us to rethink, to see our own worlds and ways of living with new perspectives. Whether our homes have been affected by the floods or not, we are invited by this event to reflect on how we think of life and live it, day in and day out, especially in times when our studies have become a burden and we wished nature would intervene in order for us to get that free day we hope for. We are invited to think of those who go beyond the boundaries of our homes and schools, seeing that those who live in places that we barely call home, exposed at the risk of forcefully evicted because of natural disasters like these. We are invited think how we ourselves are related to those unfortunate others, who have the same right to a good life like us, but clearly are deprived of it. Finally, we are invited to think what this event means for us as a nation, what can be done in such situations, and what needs to be changed not just to improve our ways of living in the city, but also to uplift those who have repeatedly subject to suffering and dehumanization
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| Photo courtesy of the Guidon's Facebook page. |
Thankfully, as men and women for others, most of us whose lives and homes were not endangered by the floods helped out in the relief operations in more ways than one. I am quite amazed with the fact that we have immediately responded to the need of our brothers and sisters whose lives were devastated by the monsoon rains. It is a comforting fact that we have been distressed by what happened in our country and decided to set aside our present concerns (our students and immediate plans) in order to use our time and resources to actually help in more ways than one. I hope that such actions are not brought about by the desire to just be seen in action or peer pressure, but a genuine desire that springs forth from within, telling us that our lives are lived not just for ourselves, but for others, and this is what is demanded of us in this present moment.
But this is nowhere near the real storm that we all have to face, the floods that we need to endure, the operations that we need to execute. This calls us to look forward, think of ways and procedures that will lead us to actually assure everyone that whatever happened today and in 2009 will never happen again. Our generation will be the one to inherit the problems brought forth by our predecessors, and we cannot just be satisfied with relief operations.
The challenge now, for us, as future leaders, game changers, and movers of the country, is to go beyond than what is demanded of us and actually think of the future of our city, the Filipino people, and our nation. We are called, as Paul Ricoeur said, towards responsibility and hope
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| Maybe we could start with this simple one, right? |
Monday, August 6, 2012
Feelin' It
by Tricia Allado
2 August 2012
Discussed text: Gabriel Marcel, "Introduction, The Mystery of Being
One of the things that really hit me while listening to Dr. Garcia was that he was so passionate about what he was saying. You could tell by how he never needed notes to quote from the most random philosophers or how he just spouted these French or German philosophical phrases off the top of his head. Sometimes, I will admit, I do space off randomly but whenever he says something philosophically poetic, I just snap back to attention.
An example of this instance was last Thursday, we had all been hoping for a suspension and were silently disgruntled when (yet again) no suspension occurred. I was sitting in my chair in the front row, lamenting the fact that my shoes were soaked, when Dr. Garcia mentioned the silence in the appreciation of works of art and a coinciding silence in the human person. This phrase just snapped me back into attention. I imagined that it was the act of silently spending an hour or so in front of a painting that just intrigued you or reading a poem and feeling it resonate somewhere in you or watching a performance and tearing up because—just because.
This, he explained, was the difference between grasping and being grasped. Sure, I can memorize mathematics (barely) or science until I feel like I’ve retained enough information until a test and then, afterwards, forget everything. That is cold and practical. That is a nuisance to me. That is me grasping for a good grade to get a good job.
But this. This is being grasped by something that is completely useless. This is what my quiet moments are for. This is what I do at the end of the day when I am silent in my room and I can be myself. I appreciate and revel in the pointless. This is not something that will help you make money; you cannot sell something like this. This is not something that will help you survive in the real world. But this is what keeps you going. This is what being a human is all about. This is pointless and impractical, but it is also beautiful.
Being grasped by something is “experiencing something you cannot put your finger on.” You cannot measure it. You cannot quantify it. You cannot count it. You cannot bottle it and sell it. But you can feel it and that makes all the difference.
2 August 2012
Discussed text: Gabriel Marcel, "Introduction, The Mystery of Being
One of the things that really hit me while listening to Dr. Garcia was that he was so passionate about what he was saying. You could tell by how he never needed notes to quote from the most random philosophers or how he just spouted these French or German philosophical phrases off the top of his head. Sometimes, I will admit, I do space off randomly but whenever he says something philosophically poetic, I just snap back to attention.
An example of this instance was last Thursday, we had all been hoping for a suspension and were silently disgruntled when (yet again) no suspension occurred. I was sitting in my chair in the front row, lamenting the fact that my shoes were soaked, when Dr. Garcia mentioned the silence in the appreciation of works of art and a coinciding silence in the human person. This phrase just snapped me back into attention. I imagined that it was the act of silently spending an hour or so in front of a painting that just intrigued you or reading a poem and feeling it resonate somewhere in you or watching a performance and tearing up because—just because.
This, he explained, was the difference between grasping and being grasped. Sure, I can memorize mathematics (barely) or science until I feel like I’ve retained enough information until a test and then, afterwards, forget everything. That is cold and practical. That is a nuisance to me. That is me grasping for a good grade to get a good job.
But this. This is being grasped by something that is completely useless. This is what my quiet moments are for. This is what I do at the end of the day when I am silent in my room and I can be myself. I appreciate and revel in the pointless. This is not something that will help you make money; you cannot sell something like this. This is not something that will help you survive in the real world. But this is what keeps you going. This is what being a human is all about. This is pointless and impractical, but it is also beautiful.
Being grasped by something is “experiencing something you cannot put your finger on.” You cannot measure it. You cannot quantify it. You cannot count it. You cannot bottle it and sell it. But you can feel it and that makes all the difference.
Going Beyond The Unknown
by Chessy Luna
2 August 2012
Discussed text: Gabriel Marcel, "Introduction," The Mystery of Being
“To gain insight, we must be there to know more and face the experience or what is unknown.”
An important aspect of gaining insight through experience is thinking. In philosophy, thinking is important in order to understand, rationalize, and appreciate situations we experience daily. In the discussions of Dr. Garcia, two types of thinking were analyzed. The first type talks about subjectivity or personal thinking. This type of thinking varies and depends on a person’s values, beliefs, attitudes, feelings, and the like. It is private and can be experienced by any subject. On the other hand, the second type of thinking discusses objectivity or abstract thinking. Unlike the first one, this way of thinking is universal. It is universal in a scientific way, tackling arguments on history, biology, chemistry, and the like. This approach is more general and seeks to describe mind-independent realities.
Philosophy cannot be generalized into just a single way of thinking but rather, is a combination of both ideologies. There exists an intermediary way of thinking between the two types. It is subjective and at the same time universal. Three levels make up this way of thinking: Art, Religion, and Politics, respectively. In understanding the connection of subjectivity and objectivity better, the first level of intermediary thinking will be discussed.
Art is a form of experience that does not only occur in an individual sense but also universally. Human beings can have varying perceptions on different artworks, yet still maintain the universal insight the artist intended for it to encompass. The experiences we go through when appreciating and viewing art are usually not quantifiable and verifiable but are very real.
A recent experience I had in relation to the ideologies discussed occurred when Dr. Garcia asked us to visit The Ateneo Art Gallery. I visited the gallery before but it was the first time I really took the time to analyze and reflect on the paintings and structures displayed. A particular painting that caught my attention was a creation by Marciano Galang. From a far, it looked like a chaotic and cluttered piece of art. But as I approached the piece, I saw the intricate and realistic details plastered on the canvas. I was a bit disturbed because I did not expect to see the things before me. What seemed like burnt objects, such as shoes, a wallet, a can, and the like, were strategically displayed on the canvas. I read the description beside the artwork and saw that the painting was entitled “Cavite.” Different theories started formulating in my mind on what might have occurred in the production of the artwork. The personal insights and observations I had could be classified as subjectivism, a personal way of thinking. On the other hand, the objectivism or abstract thinking in this situation was the fact that the artist had his own perception or background on why and how he created this piece. A universal truth is preserved by accepting the fact that the artist has his own voice as well as inspiration for creating such an intricate piece of artwork.
Experiences we go through can be categorized into two kinds: grasping and being grasped/gripped. Grasping is a metaphor used in techniques. Techniques talk about a group of procedures that are capable of being taught and reproduced to achieve a concrete goal by manipulating physical and mental factors. We view knowledge as way of grasping – a manipulative approach which has a series of steps or instructions. On the other hand, being grasped is an experience of something gripping us from outside which we cannot put into numbers but is real. It is an experience of metaphysical unease, a discomfort at a more spiritual level. It asks fundamental questions that go beyond us: “Is there something before me?” or “What is life?”
In experiencing something, one must not only settle on grasping alone but also on being grasped. It is not enough that we just focus on the technical or practical aspects of life. We must also take the time to allow ourselves to be grasped or gripped. After all, it is through being grasped that we grow as human beings and go beyond ourselves. Not all of human reality is quantifiable. There exists an inner intellectual need that we must undergo in order to experience a greater reality that awaits us.
2 August 2012
Discussed text: Gabriel Marcel, "Introduction," The Mystery of Being
“To gain insight, we must be there to know more and face the experience or what is unknown.”
An important aspect of gaining insight through experience is thinking. In philosophy, thinking is important in order to understand, rationalize, and appreciate situations we experience daily. In the discussions of Dr. Garcia, two types of thinking were analyzed. The first type talks about subjectivity or personal thinking. This type of thinking varies and depends on a person’s values, beliefs, attitudes, feelings, and the like. It is private and can be experienced by any subject. On the other hand, the second type of thinking discusses objectivity or abstract thinking. Unlike the first one, this way of thinking is universal. It is universal in a scientific way, tackling arguments on history, biology, chemistry, and the like. This approach is more general and seeks to describe mind-independent realities.
Philosophy cannot be generalized into just a single way of thinking but rather, is a combination of both ideologies. There exists an intermediary way of thinking between the two types. It is subjective and at the same time universal. Three levels make up this way of thinking: Art, Religion, and Politics, respectively. In understanding the connection of subjectivity and objectivity better, the first level of intermediary thinking will be discussed.
Art is a form of experience that does not only occur in an individual sense but also universally. Human beings can have varying perceptions on different artworks, yet still maintain the universal insight the artist intended for it to encompass. The experiences we go through when appreciating and viewing art are usually not quantifiable and verifiable but are very real.
A recent experience I had in relation to the ideologies discussed occurred when Dr. Garcia asked us to visit The Ateneo Art Gallery. I visited the gallery before but it was the first time I really took the time to analyze and reflect on the paintings and structures displayed. A particular painting that caught my attention was a creation by Marciano Galang. From a far, it looked like a chaotic and cluttered piece of art. But as I approached the piece, I saw the intricate and realistic details plastered on the canvas. I was a bit disturbed because I did not expect to see the things before me. What seemed like burnt objects, such as shoes, a wallet, a can, and the like, were strategically displayed on the canvas. I read the description beside the artwork and saw that the painting was entitled “Cavite.” Different theories started formulating in my mind on what might have occurred in the production of the artwork. The personal insights and observations I had could be classified as subjectivism, a personal way of thinking. On the other hand, the objectivism or abstract thinking in this situation was the fact that the artist had his own perception or background on why and how he created this piece. A universal truth is preserved by accepting the fact that the artist has his own voice as well as inspiration for creating such an intricate piece of artwork.
Experiences we go through can be categorized into two kinds: grasping and being grasped/gripped. Grasping is a metaphor used in techniques. Techniques talk about a group of procedures that are capable of being taught and reproduced to achieve a concrete goal by manipulating physical and mental factors. We view knowledge as way of grasping – a manipulative approach which has a series of steps or instructions. On the other hand, being grasped is an experience of something gripping us from outside which we cannot put into numbers but is real. It is an experience of metaphysical unease, a discomfort at a more spiritual level. It asks fundamental questions that go beyond us: “Is there something before me?” or “What is life?”
In experiencing something, one must not only settle on grasping alone but also on being grasped. It is not enough that we just focus on the technical or practical aspects of life. We must also take the time to allow ourselves to be grasped or gripped. After all, it is through being grasped that we grow as human beings and go beyond ourselves. Not all of human reality is quantifiable. There exists an inner intellectual need that we must undergo in order to experience a greater reality that awaits us.
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