IN SEARCH OF FILIPINO PHILOSOPHY PRECIOSA REGINA ANG DE JOYA B.A., M.A. (Ateneo de Manila) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2013 ii Acknowledgments My deepest thanks to friends and family who have accompanied me in this long and wonderful journey: to my parents, who taught me resilience and hardwork; to all my teachers who inspired me, and gently pushed me to paths I would not otherwise have had the courage to take; and friends who have shared my joys and patiently suffered my woes. Special thanks to my teachers: to my supervisor, Professor Reynaldo Ileto, for introducing me to the field of Southeast Asian Studies and for setting me on this path; to Dr. John Giordano, who never ceased to be a mentor; to Dr. Jan Mrazek, for introducing me to Javanese culture; Dr. Julius Bautista, for his insightful and invaluable comments on my research proposal; Professor Zeus Salazar, for sharing with me the vision and passions of Pantayong Pananaw; Professor Consolacion Alaras, who accompanied me in my pamumuesto; Pak Ego and Pak Kasidi, who sat with me for hours and hours, patiently unraveling the wisdom of Javanese thought; Romo Budi Subanar, S.J., who showed me the importance of humor, and Fr. Roque Ferriols, S.J., who inspired me to become a teacher. This journey would also have not been possible if it were not for the people who helped me along the way: friends and colleagues in the Ateneo Philosophy department, and those who have shared my passion for philosophy, especially Roy Tolentino, Michael Ner Mariano, P.J. Strebel, Dr. Momok Barbaza, Dr. Guss Rodriguez, Dr. Ramon Reyes, Dr. Leovino Garcia, Dr. Zosimo Lee, Dr. Agerico de Villa, Dr. Leonardo de Castro, Dr. Rainier Ibana, Dr. Alfredo Co, Dr. Leonardo Mercado, S.V.D., Fr. Albert Alejo, Fr. Romualdo Abulad, S.V.D.; former San Beda philosophy teachers, Arcadio Malbarosa, Rafael Dolor, Feorillo Demeterio, III, and Max Felicida, and former editor of The Bedan, E.J. Mangahas; Michael (Xiao) Briones Chua, of Pantayong Pananaw; Dr. Nilo Ocampo, for letting me join his student field trip to Banahaw; film director, Jim Libiran and Dr. Boy Fajardo, for introducing me to the mysteries of Banahaw; Nikki Briones-Carsi Cruz and Trina Tinio, for egging me to finish, and telling me that things will be okay; Serizawa and Rena Takamichi, for the evening conversations and sumptuous dinners at their home; Alice Yap, for teaching me that gula jawa tastes better when savored slowly; Anjeline de Dios, for the occasional chats and sharing of woes; Ate Linda, who welcomed me to her home, and Conrado Olazo, for being around when life seemed unbearable. Finally, I would like to thank the National University of Singapore, for the generous scholarship that made this research possible; to Dr. Goh Beng Lan, for the occasional advice; to Dr. Teofilo Daquila, for generously agreeing to be my official supervisor and ensured a quick and easy flow on all things administrative; and Ms. Rohani Sungib, for patiently guiding me through the arduous task of filling out forms. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgement iii Table of Contents iv Summary v List of Illustrations vii Chapter One Learning to Speak 1 Chapter Two Father Ferriols and the Filipinization 43 Movement in the Ateneo Chapter Three Ricardo Pascual and the Struggle for 88 Academic Freedom Chapter Four Writing Our Story: Paths and Pathologies 138 Chapter Five Translations and Transgressions 198 Epilogue 244 Bibliography 253 Appendix 266 iv Summary This dissertation explores the intellectual landscape of academic philosophy in the Philippines, shaped and torn by diverse currents of desires for universal truths and an engagement in globally dominant philosophical traditions, as well as for the self, local relevance, and national identity. Language, translation and the localization of philosophical ideas and streams emerge as recurring key issues, as do politics and religion. Chapter One is a preparatory reflection on how the philosophical preoccupation in the Philippines has been, in the context of nationalism, one of a search for roots, revealing a feeling of exile, which is here not merely the unhappy consequence of colonial experience, but the existential human condition of always moving between the self and the foreign. In Chapter Two, the journey through the landscape of Filipino philosophy starts from—but never quite leaves behind—the author’s teacher, Father Ferriols, S.J. The chapter discusses his involvement in the 1960s Filipinization movement in the Ateneo de Manila University, situating the event in a broader historical context, but equally showing how his position, inspired by theological and philosophical precepts, was an attempt to challenge and overcome the limits of political thinking. In Chapter Three, the great journey of exploration takes us to a different world, all the way across the street to the University of Philippines, in order to glimpse the struggle, between liberalism and conservative forces of Catholic thinking. Here, the focus is on the outspoken logical positivist Ricardo Pascual, whose philosophy and politics contrast starkly with the theologically-inspired thinking of Ferriols. While Chapters Two and Three are focused explorations, primarily on events in the 1950s and 1960s, Chapter Four takes a broader view, expressing the desires and frustrations of philosophers in their search for Filipino philosophy, a long-standing preoccupation, which began in the 1970s and continues to persist until the present. My aim here is to unravel the hopes and fetishes that have led to the idealization of the Western philosophical, resulting to an undervaluation of the work and efforts of fellow philosophers. In further exploring philosophical discourse in the Philippines, Chapter v Five focuses on the work of philosophers who have sought to expose and go beyond the limits of the Western philosophical tradition. But despite their critical spirit, I argue that a certain form of humanism has continued to delimit their thinking. To bring out these antinomies, I juxtapose their ideas to those of social scientists who have equally concerned themselves with the fate of the philosophical discipline in the country, critiquing the essentializing and universalizing tendencies of philosophical concepts. In doing so, I present the contributions of the social sciences as an important critique of the philosophical discipline. Finaly, the Epilogue ventures (further) beyond academic philosophy, its distinctions, assumptions, and desires, not only to suggest possibilities for further research into Filipino thought and ways of going beyond its limits and prejudices, but also to remind ourselves of a larger world of thought, within which (Filipino) philosophy is located. vi List of Illustrations Illustration 1 Emmanuel Lacaba’s article on Ferriols, published in 52 The Guidon, on October 16 1968. Illustration 2 Teodoro Agoncillo’s controversial book review of 126 Pascual’s Dr. Jose Rizal Beyond the Grave. Illustration 3 Frontispiece of Ricardo Pascual’s Rizal Beyond the Grave 135 Illustration 4 PAPR Pulong-Isip in Kalyabne Resort Years Ago. 144 Left to Right: Manny Dy, Emerita Quito, Leo Garcia, Alfredo Co, Florentino Timbreza, Leonardo Mercado. Taken from the Philosophical Association of the Philippines (PAP) Facebook page, April 24, 2014. Illustration 5 Cover of the 65th issue of The Bedan. Taken from 181 http://www.scribd.com/doc/18047886/Red-is-Dead-Issue-by-65, April 27, 2014. Illustration 6 Roque. Ferriols,S.J. Taken from 203 http://kilawen.tumblr.com/post/25169082157, April 27, 2014. Illustration 7 Virgilio Enriquez, ed. Mga Babasahin sa Pilosopiya: 227 Epistemolohiya, Lohika, Wika, at Pilosopiyang Pilipino, cover and author's note: "To (my) fellow thinkers – Just a clarification that aside from Psychology, the field of Philosophy also encompasses the mind.” Illustration 8 Pak Ego, in Kinahrejo, Mount Merapi, the village where 246 the late Mbah Maridjan lived and died. Illustration 9 Frontispiece of Driyarkara’s Pendidikan Ala Warung Pojok: 246 A cartoon drawing of Pak Nala as shop owner, talking to a man, who asks: “Wah, you’ve got everything in your shop, ya? Are you planning to sell anything else?” Pak Nala answers: “[I want to] sell dreams.” vii viii Chapter One Learning to Speak Exposition and Iconoclasm When I was writing my master's thesis in philosophy, my supervisor, John Giordano, would always urge me to contextualize my ideas. Seeing that his advice was not getting through, he once chastised me for writing in a vacuum. Anyone would have been easily jolted by that comment, but I was too confident that I was only doing what was expected of a philosophy thesis. My intention was simple: to present a clear and comprehensive exposition of ideas. I could not see how a philosophy thesis could or why it should be more than that. After all, this was how scholarship was often practiced in the Ateneo Philosophy department. It was only long after I passed my thesis that my supervisor’s words began to haunt me. I began to doubt the relevance of my own writing, and what I regarded as the norm suddenly appeared strange. In a discipline that underscores the importance of thinking, how did exposition become, with no discussion or explanation, the “stuff” of philosophical research? And if philosophy were a reflection of one’s context and lived experience, as my Ateneo philosophy teachers coming from an existential phenomenological tradition claim, then why has scholarship been more often than not a mere description of ideas and theory? Dissatisfied with philosophy and the disconnectedness it fostered in my own thinking, I decided to seek out a kind of scholarship that would demand, beyond the reflection of dis-embodied ideas, a more palpable engagement with the world. It was then that, instead of taking a doctorate in Philosophy, in Europe, and on a Western philosopher as I had initially planned, I decided to pursue Southeast Asian Studies, in Southeast Asia, and under the supervision of a Filipino historian.