A Fusion of Perspectives

by Stephen Vera Cruz

Last meeting, the bulk of the lecture was devoted to discussing the creativity of human action in narrative identity. The three steps are called Mimesis 1, Mimesis 2 and Mimesis 3. Mimesis 1 is the prefiguration step of the whole process. This part describes the lived human experiences of each and every one of us. Mimesis 2 is the configuration part of the process. It is our own world of make believe. What we have done in Mimesis 1 is linked to how we interpret Mimesis 2. For me, Mimesis 2 is basically the action of dwelling and struggling with the experience. Mimesis 2 in other words is our unique human experience. Mimesis 3 is the prefiguration part of the whole process. It describes what we do with what we have learned from Mimesis 1 and 2. It is our own opinion of our actions. It is a sort of metanoia or change in the base action of Mimesis 1. It is our own reaction to the threefold process we have all gone through.

After this lecture, I couldn't help but notice some similarities between the three fold Mimesis and Marcel's way of thinking. Marcel said that in order to strive for exigence and to try to answer the numerous questions we have when we encounter metaphysical unease, we have to try to use and intermediary way of thinking. The intermediary way of thinking is done by using both the Particularity method and the Universal method. The universal method is composed of all our common human experiences. It does not recognize the differences between human beings and is only concerned with what we all see. I think this method is very similar to Mimesis 1 since both talk about the same lived human experience. However, since this method does not recognize the differences within each human being, we have to also use the particularity method.

The particularity method talks our own insights and what we as individuals can do on our own. It describes how we uniquely interpret our common human experiences. This is the same as Mimesis 2. The particularity method is our own world of make believe. It shows us our own unique set of thoughts that no other individual can think of. Lastly we go to Mimesis 3. Again, Mimesis 3 talks about our actions after our whole thought process. It is how we react to the first and second Mimesis. Now I think that this is very similar to Marcel's mystery of being. We all interpret and react to things in our own unique way. Mimesis 3 talks about all these unique reactions to both our common and uncommon human experiences. I think that this is very similar to Marcel's mystery of being because these unique reactions are examples of the mystery Marcel is talking about. We all "be" differently. Our "inging" is not common with the person beside us. There is a mystery in the way we choose to react to our lives due to our many differences.

To conclude, I think the similarities between these two philosophical approaches show that there is a similar road we are all in as we live out life's journey. What happens during this journey is entirely up to us.  How we travel in life depends on the choices we alone make, and this is what philosophy helps us do, make wise choices in our common journey.

The Book That Changed My View

by Trixia Tan

The importance of words to existing is changing our individual points of view in life, transforming us and opening ourselves to the reality of the different perspectives in the world.

One book that changed my point of view in life and that inevitably changed me was The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. For those of you that have never read it, I truly recommend this book. It is a story retelling the life of a maintenance man in a fashion wherein his heroic death was the first narration, following that of the five people whose lives he inevitably crossed with or changed.

In this novel, we can truly see that life is not just as we see it.  It is not just like how we think that we are alone, and that our lives aren’t intertwined with each other. The author explicitly illustrated how Eddie’s life was intertwined with the child he saved, but then, with the Blue Man, the first person Eddie met, we can see that through small actions in our lives, we affect people and we affect our environment, no matter what. We are part of the community and in a way; we have a responsibility to be aware of this.

The second person Eddie met was his former captain in the army. His captain saved him in the war, but it also changed him because his Captain shot him in the leg to prevent him from reaching through the shadow he saw in the fire that he set, giving him his lifelong injury and ending his dream of living outside the confines of Ruby Pier where he worked as a maintenance man almost all his life, making him a somewhat bitter and lonely old man. This lead me to think of the reality of a single choice existing as more than just a choice, but something that truly influences us and the people around us to action.

Next was the owner of the carnival, the namesake of the carnival, he worked at for so long. He wasn’t able to exist at the same time with Ruby; however, his life is inevitably changed through her life. Making the historical distinction or interconnection of out lives more prominent. Ascertaining the reality that we are all interconnected in this world, no matter how long the past has passed or how far the future will go. We presently exist and our existence creates many differences in others’ existence. In illustration, life is just like a pool, wherein when one jumps in, waves are made throughout the whole pool. Ripples of these waves reach the end of the pool, its intensity dwindles into something that might seem nothing, but is really something present.

The fourth person that Eddie met was his wife who taught him that love is not loss after death. This is a great affirmation that the things we value in life, the things that we portray can never be loss with just the loss of our body on earth. We are still part of the on-going world, this might not be through physical existence, but through the values that we leave, through the influences that we bring, or even through small choices we have. We can affirm that we have existed.

Lastly, Eddie met Tala, the girl that he wasn’t able to save in the fire. He was filled with guilt for so long, but then Tala made him see that there is a purpose for his life, that his life is not meaningless. Giving me a glimpse of the importance and the more-ness of our individual actions.

The world might seem vast, but it is through this vastness that we can also say that it is small. Have you ever seen a person and realized that you’ve met that person’s brother/sister or any other relative? This just gives you an insight of how small the world really is. How interconnected we really are.

Yes or No?

by Kyla Relucio

In recent classes we’ve had in Philosophy, we’ve been talking about a Philosophy of Yes, “saying no to saying no”. Life will always be full of surprises. Sometimes these surprises make me realize how lucky and blessed I am. Yet other times, these surprises leave me feeling stuck, feeling the difficulty of being. When this happens, this whole idea of “saying no to saying no” becomes more than just a concept we are enlightened with in class. It becomes the challenge. It becomes my goal.

I am a Taekwondo jin and last Wednesday was the last day of UAAP Season 76 for Taekwondo. Let me begin by saying it did not end the way I wanted it to. Although the women’s team was able to rise from 7th place to 5th place, I expected more from myself.  My matches were all close fights, just a point or two away from winning but for some reason I faced defeat. For some reason, that ideal game I had in mind did not transpire. There it was, the gap between what I would like to do and what I have done. I hate it. It hurts. I’ve asked myself again and again why this has to exist? And even until now, there are no answers.
I believe that it is in this point of our lives, when we are feeling stuck that we are most challenged to “say no to saying no”. It is when we feel this gap the most that we must try our hardest not to give up. For some this challenge exists everyday but for some it may come only occasionally. If you ask me, this challenge continually and consistently arises in our lives but we are unaware of this. Everyday, we must decide, will it be a “yes” or will it be a “no”. However, it is only when it is most difficult to decide do we become conscious of that freedom we have to choose.

Hence, I would like to propose that despite not knowing why this gap exists, we must always try our best to understand how we could confront this prevailing gap in our lives.

First. We need to be aware that we have ALWAYS had the choice. We need stop taking this freedom to choose for granted. We need to be conscious of the fact that ever day we are bombarded with opportunities to say yes or to say no. If we are more aware of this fact, it would be easier to understand the consequences and the ripple effects of our choices, making it easier for us to see what we can gain or lose from our yes or no, making it easier to see that it is absolutely up to us to close the void between what we want to be and who we currently are.

Second. Do not make saying no a habit. Believe it or not our decision today will most likely be similar to our decisions tomorrow. The exception however is if we make the extra effort to change the way we decide and the way we choose. If we wake up in the morning and say “yes, I will make sure that today will be better,” chances are today will really be better and this will most likely be the same if you wake up the same way every single day. On the other hand, if you say no once, what makes you think you wont say no again? When we are faced with various opportunities every day, and we immediately say no to these chances we are given, it wont be so difficult to say no again. Once this becomes a habit, we miss out on an opportunity to learn, to grow, to become better.

Lastly, We need to try our best to finish what we started. Sometimes we are on track with our lives. We are on the way to being able to be what we want to be. This track however isn’t always easy. Sometimes we need to face difficulties but these difficulties must not stop us and make us turn back. These difficulties must push us harder and motivate us to just keep going. We need to be strong, brave and tough. We need to consistently say yes to the yes we committed to in the very start because only by doing this will we be able to slowly fill the void between what we want to be and who we are.

As human beings, our being finite is not an indication that we cannot do everything. It is not an indication of our weakness and possible shortcomings. In my opinion, our finitude signifies our capacity to overcome life Being human is about being able to stand up no matter how badly we’ve fallen down. Being human is about waking up every morning with the urge to say yes despite how painful it can be, in the hopes that even just for a while our fumbling human ways have helped fill that void in our lives, that gap between who we want to be and who we already are.


As I face the last few days of this semester, I dedicate and offer myself to the commitment of “saying no to saying no”.

Can We Reach the Absolute Truth and Find the Absolute Meaning?

by Jun Hyeok Park

To answer the question if we, as human, can reach the absolute truth, we have the consider what exactly the question is talking about by looking at the word "the Absolute Truth" and "the Absolute Meaning". The word Truth and Meaning may make sense and are self-explanatory by the words itself but the additional word "Absolute" in front of them makes itquite vague.

If the word "Absolute" here refers to the unimaginative and the undefinite viewpoint of God, then we can consider that the question itself is falsely stated. In this sense, the question can never be answered by any human being because it is asking the viewpoint of God which the human beings will never know. Since we cannot imagine what it is to see in the view of God, the question is not anymore valid for us.

Then what if it refers to something 'final' and 'finite'? Then we can pose the answer, "maybe". First of all, truth that we are talking about is not universal. People have different sets of minds and ways of thinking; thus, it is not simple enough to generalize if the truth and meaning can be found to every single person in this world. Unfortunately, there is not a mathematical formula to solve the x in this case which means that any scientific attempts to answer the question may be difficult. Second, we have to recall that the process of finding the truth and meaning is endless. It is an endless journey to find the meaning and truth; therefore, there is no such thing as 'final' or 'finite' answer to it. Lastly, we as human beings may be limited but we are not just a finite being stuck in our own body. The endless journey to find the truth may 'free' us from the limits and make us to see the world different which only can be derived from own will and experience, not by others.

Now, considering the points I posted above, the answer to the question can be either yes or no. Rather than fighting each other with yes or no, it is better to settle down with the answer "negatively maybe".

One is To Many

by Fuze Andrey

It was mentioned in class that one of the basic capacities of the capable self is to remember polysemy of words which means that a word has many meanings. When I heard this, I remembered our lesson from Filipino 12 about the same topic. Our professor in Filipino 12 told us that every meaning of a word represents a different kind of situation that a person has experienced with that word. He stated the word ice as an example. He said that the people in cold places like Antarctica have about thirty or more definitions of ice. This is because each person, who contributed to the meaning of the word ice, has physically experienced a different situation with the ice. To explain this further, I would like to site a scenario wherein two different people have experienced a different situation with ice. The first person might define dry ice as a very cold object because that person has felt it physically. On the other hand, the second person might define it as an opaque substance by just merely looking at it. By now, it is clear that a definition of a word depends entirely or mostly on the experience of the person with that word.

Also, it was stated in class that when you combine words to make a sentence, you will produce a new meaning. In my understanding, we can change the meaning of a sentence by just changing a word in the sentence. So in reality, meanings or definitions in our world are infinite. Everything that we can see, feel, touch, taste and smell in this world of ours has meaning.


Lastly, Sir Garcia also mentioned that all of Shakespeare’s words can be found in the dictionary, but no one else can put those words together in a way that he can, nobody can do it but him. In my opinion, this means that every single one of us have a different way of constructing our own sentences or language even if we do speak the same language. We all have our unique way of expressing ourselves not only in action, but also in our words. By having our own unique way of constructing sentences or language, we are able to add ourselves to the infinite meaning that our world possesses.

A Raving Metaphor

by Nini Neri

Last Thursday’s lecture was about the ‘capable self’ and creativity. As mechanical as those two words (‘capable self’) put together may sound, there is actually an abstract depth to them.

The self is capable because it can ‘do’. Not only is this self able to ‘do’, it is also able to choose what it does. It has the freedom of defining and executing what it is ‘to be’ according to what it intends; it has the freedom to cause an effect.

Although there are, in fact, no limits to these actions (let us not delve into the details of moral and ethical acts but leave them instead as they are)—there is still an essence which they measure and upon which they are made. This essence is creativity. And the medium of creativity is imagination.

The ‘capable self’ has creativity somewhere in its core (the capability of language, human action, etc.), that creativity develops in the person’s imagination then is manifested in his/her actions. The actions may not always be processed this way, but it still happens somehow—even when the person is unaware of it!

Creativity is a small revelation of the ‘abstract depth’ upon which the ‘capable self’ may be easily related to. This creativity—in essence—takes no definite form (that is, until it is manifested in action), thus fulfilling the ‘abstract’ aspect, yet it delves deep into the ‘abyss’ which is the human person. It is an ‘abyss’ because of the depth and mystery of that which is the self.

One can never truly define the self and one is always learning something new about the self which makes it seem like as life goes on, one is plunging deeper into the mystery of himself (that gives it an ‘abyss-like’ characteristic). The mystery of the self is never-ending.

The ‘capable self’ has an abstract depth; that of which is the mystery of the self. This mystery of the self can be only partially revealed by creativity that is manifested in human action, narrative, and language. Each time we do something, we manifest our creativity, which reveals a small part of who we are. Through this, we may continue to learn about ourselves even more.

Creativity helps us with uncovering (though in the most minimal of ways) the mystery of who we are. I mean, just as I was writing this blog post, I’ve come to think of a lot of things. As I proofread (to the best of my abilities at 4am), I got to reflect on what I wrote and see myself in a sort-of-new light. I’m not saying that this reflection is creative or anything, but since it came from somewhere inside me, it reveals a glimpse of what sort of ‘creativity’ I hold. It also reveals a part of who I am.

We will all come across these moments of hazy revelation at some points in our lives. But we will always have to keep delving, for it is a never-ending plunge as we fall deeper into the mystery of ourselves.

A Mystery behind the Text

by Patrick Cruz

In reading texts, it is more often that we tend to visualize the setting, the physical features of the characters based on what is described there, etc. We see how the characters move, act and feel as well as how the conflict arises and how it is resolved. Then, after one point, some people go back to what they call “reality.” They have seen texts apart from their lives, as source of diversion, escape or entertainment for the various things that we face in life. We have forgotten that texts are given birth, written by people like us in some definite time and place.

Texts are literally just pieces of papers filled with meaningful ideas or events arranged on a particular plot or direction, but there’s something more to them than just this. This more-ness is the one that more often people tend to disregard as they read the texts. . What I am referring to in this more-ness is that in every direction and every sense, when dealing with texts, there seems to be an intimate connection between the writer and the reader. Consciously or unconsciously, the writer’s and the reader’s strings of thoughts get connected and it is in this very simplistic sense that one has touched the other’s lives. For example, an author may have seen a young high school student reading his novel; the author will suddenly get interested and join the student in his reading. Then, after talking about the text, suddenly, they will start to share something about their own experiences. In this specific case, the text builds a new connection, extends the boundaries of the two people and allows them to share their lives with one another at that short span of time. It enlarges both the world of the student and the author to include another person in their lives


A point to add, an argument may be raised here by considering a case like this: if the reader gets a different interpretation from what the author intends to mean, which one will be technically correct? This question cannot be directly answered, but one thing is certain— by the fact that the two gather different meanings in the same text only strengthens the idea that texts are indeed rooted to the richness of reality. As they are rooted from a rich source, the texts themselves become rich in nature and there are plenty of insights that can be gathered. We must note too that though a text roots deeply in the richness of reality, it lets us not just only see reality, but also act on reality based from what we have seen so far. Thus, it calls for a particular transformation based on what we have seen, an action for striving and making our lives more meaningful and a movement toward a better self at infinite possibilities.