I WOULD like to devote this column to a topic which is not popular among those outside academic circles: Philosophy. What prompted me to write this piece was the death of my mentor, Bro. Romualdo Estacio Abulad, aka Bro. Rommy. He was a Divine Word (SVD) missionary who taught in the University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle U, Loyola School of Theology, University of San Carlos, and Christ the King Mission Seminary.
Those who studied philosophy in the 80s and 90s must have read one or more of Abulad's works. He was among those who cultivated the ground for a fertile learning of philosophy in the country. In a world where "greatness" or achievement in the academe is measured in terms of ISI publications and citations, Bro. Rommy would not rank anymore as one among those cut above the rest. His publications are most found in local journals, some are even found in journals he himself edited.
I must argue however that between some of those articles published in so-called refereed journals and that of my mentor, those of my mentor are better written, well-argued, and apparently more characteristic of rigor. He did not write for ranking and merit increase. For him, writing is an activity an academic cannot be without.
He was one philosophy teacher who took writing seriously. If you cannot write your thoughts, either you don't understand or you are not thinking at all. I remember one of his punch lines: "I don't care where I publish, if they believe in me, they will find me."
In this world of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, the value of philosophy is put into question. I remember how much Bro. Rommy tried his best and strategized in order to address the decreasing enrollment in the Department of Philosophy in the University of San Carlos. There he was chair from 2009 up to 2013. Those were trying times for philosophy especially that the Senior High program was nearly for implementation. He was asked sometimes: is philosophy still important? Is it something which the world still needs?
I am sure that the questions did not sound pleasant to him, for neither it does to any serious philosopher. Citing Karl Jaspers however, he would simply say that "philosophy need not justify itself." I was one of those who at first thought that my teacher could have given a more biting if not practical answer. Through the years however, I have realized that he's right.
Philosophy need not justify itself. There will always be philosophy because as Alain Badiou would say there will always be "events" and moments that will push us to philosophize. Philosophy need not be discussed every day, and philosophers need not be interviewed like political analysts. Philosophizing cannot be an ordinary thinking similar to making political decisions or shelling out opinions whether solicited or not.
We cannot but philosophize however if there is a need to make a choice between "truth and power" and whenever there is "distance" between our convictions and the world we live. Philosophy like love is an outlier; sometimes the best ideas lie outside the conventions of society. Precisely, why Jaspers would say that among human beings the ones likely similar to a philosopher are the "child" and the "fool." Like them, philosophy talks about unusual stuff, asks questions which for the scientific minded -- are superfluous. Like the fool and the child, the philosopher and his philosophy can be annoying but only because it is "the truth" and of all the things in this world it is the truth which we usually do not want confront because it is a revelation of our pretensions.
My mentor lived his whole adult life as a teacher of philosophy. Though he was an SVD missionary but even in religious life, congregational work was always side by side with teaching philosophy. His whole life was a testament to the possibility of truly devoting our entire being to certain convictions. That living a philosophical life, a life of thinking is possible. Thinking is expensive but if one believes in its importance, then one would and should be willing not to trade it for anything.
Bro. Rommy's favorite philosopher, if I am not mistaken, was Immanuel Kant. From his lectures in Kant, I would always hear the line: "no matter how much you look at the thing, you will never get to know the thing-in-itself." Part of being truly human is to live in total admission that though reason is our power, it is also our limitation. The same reason that can prove the things we believe is the same reason that can think otherwise. We all need to be reminded of the newness of things and of the humility that always goes with life. It is only by doing this that we shall come into terms with ourselves and live a life worth examining.