Posts Tagged ‘Philosophy’
2008
03.26
Tags: Body, Matter, Mind, Philosophy, Spirit, spirituality
Posted in Filipinos, Life, Philosophy, Psychology, spirituality | No Comments »
In Defense of Matter
by Michael Ian Lomongo (1992/98)
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
- The Fox, in “The Little Prince,” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
We are all too familiar with this perennial problem in philosophy (and life): the contraposition between matter and spirit, body and soul. The materialist says that there is no need to postulate such a “thing” as spirit. There is nothing beyond matter: what you see is what you get. The idealist, on the other hand, in putting forth and emphasizing the importance and supremacy of the spirit, belittles matter. In this great war between matter and spirit, the dominance (at least, in literature) almost always goes in favor of the spirit, even if people’s lives seem to indicate the contrary. Since it is the spirit that gives life, good is associated with it. On the other hand, matter (crude matter, body, the “flesh”) is somehow seen as the source of evil, disgrace, bad luck, or imperfection.
Matter, then, has acquired (no thanks to philosophers) quite a bad reputation. And this is especially true in a lot of idealistic, intellectualist, metaphysical, and religious philosophies. The exaltation of the spirit in these philosophies is inevitably tied up with the denigration of matter. Such a derogatory outlook on matter has especially been influential when coupled with the belief in a Supreme Being who is regarded as a pure Spirit, and the belief in man’s way to perfection as that of an active emulation of this paragon of perfection — God. The more you distance yourself from matter, the more you become perfect and God-like, God being immaterial. This naturally translates, for the believer, into a fascination for “things” (pardon the expression) immaterial or spiritual and an attitude of condescension, if not a direct aversion, towards matter.
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2008
03.15
Tags: Art, Duality, Femininity, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Layeta Bucoy, Life, Machismo, Maternity, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, spirituality, Theater, Tony Perez, Writing
Posted in Art, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Life, Love, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, spirituality, Theater | 1 Comment »
A Thousand Bitter-Sweet Poems for Women
By Michael Ian Lomongo, March 21, 2001
Last March 10, I watched PETA’s “Komedi Club,” a festival of 10 to 15-minute plays written by members of the PETA Writers’ Bloc. In celebration of the International Women’s Day, the plays featured during that weekend (March 8-10) were written by women playwrights (except for Nick Pichay’s “Kahit na Magtiis”). The line-up included “Flight,” an interpretative dance choreographed and performed by Martina Gonzales-Quesada, Regina Lasam, and Verni Severo, incorporated with a poem by Inge Saltarin; an adaptation of Liza Magtoto’s Palanca-winning “Despedida de Soltera“; Sheila Crisostomo’s “Emergency” (the grand prize winner of the second Charley dela Paz Awards of the PETA-PDP Writers’ Bloc); Nick Pichay’s “Kahit na Magtiis”; and Lallie Bucoy’s “Isang Libong Tula para sa Dibdib ni Dulce.”
I liked the last two plays best.
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2008
03.03
Tags: Agnosticism, Existentialism, God, Heidegger, Hume, Jokes, Kant, Life, Movies, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Rorty, Schopenhauer, spirituality, Superman
Posted in Filipinos, Jokes, Life, Movies, Nietzsche, Philosophy, spirituality | No Comments »
Jokes for philosophers:
1. Philosophaster: Who’s the most punctual philosopher?
Philosopher: Immanuel Kant.
Philosophaster: And why?
Philosopher: It is said that Immanuel Kant used to take his daily walk in the afternoon in Konigsberg with such regularity and punctuality. It soon came to a point that his townmates knew what time it was when they saw Kant walking.
Philosophaster: Nope.
Philosopher: Who then?
Philosophaster: Martin Heidegger.
Philosopher: Really? And why?
Philosophaster: Because he wrote a book entitled “Being On Time.”
Note: “Sein und Zeit” (“Being and Time”), written by Martin Heidegger, cited by existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre as a seminal work. Heidegger, however, refused the tag “existentialist” as if it were “The Plague.” He was probably thinking: “Camu/s na lang. Wag n’yo na akong idamay.”
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2008
03.03
Tags: Literature, Movies, Pantheism, Philosophy, spirituality
Posted in Art, Filipinos, Life, Love, Movies, Philosophy, spirituality, Writing | No Comments »
* Off the top of my head, here is a random list of films I’ve seen and liked/loved:
1 Leolo (probably my all-time favorite; a Canadian film in French)
2 Splash (with Tom Hanks and Daryll Hannah, with a beautiful song – One Fine Day or Love
Came for Me? – by Lee Holdridge and Marvin Hamlisch)
3 Insiang, Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag, and Ora Pro Nobis (Lino Brocka)
4 Kakabakaba ka ba? (Mike de Leon?)
5 Alapaap (Tata Esteban)
6 Groundhog Day (with Bill Murray)
7 All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar)
8 Carlito’s Way (with Al Pacino, and the beautiful Penelope Ann Miller)
9 Santa Sangre (Axwl Jodorowsky)
10 The Girl on the Bridge (a French film in black and white)
11 Immortal Beloved
… and many others…
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2008
02.23
Tags: Alterity, Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Meaning, Objectivity, Perspective, Philosophy, Prejudice, Reading, Subjectivity, Text, truth, Understanding
Posted in Art, Education, Life, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Translation, Writing | 2 Comments »
the sequel to “reading with/and understanding”
from autograffiti@yahoogroups.com, may13, 2003
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Is the concern for a reader/interpreter’s having the “right attitude” tantamount to a so-called “primacy of the reader”?
I don’t think so.
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2008
02.19
Tags: Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Philosophy, Prejudices, Reading, Understanding, Writing
Posted in Art, Education, Life, Philosophy, Translation, Writing | 1 Comment »
a post in autograffiti, may 9, 2003
I once gave a remark:
“Read and read, until you understand.”
Rather harsh?
But it wasn’t meant to be a slight on anyone’s intelligence. Understanding (a text) is not necessarily premised on one’s intelligence. Tama ba ‘yon?
My point is that you need more than intelligence to be able to read and understand. You need a sympathetic ear, a willingness to “hear” what the other has to “say.” More than intelligence, you have to have the right attitude for a better understanding.
Hermeneuts like Schleiermacher (a hermeneut is one who specializes in the philosophy of understanding/interpretation) began with the presumption that there is always the possibility of MIS-understanding. That is why there is a need for hermeneutics (the art of interpretation).
Gadamer, following Heidegger, turned this around and said that we always already understand. All of us come from a fore-knowledge/fore-understanding of things which become the very basis of any future understanding. In other words, we all have biases and prejudices which determine the way we look at and understand anything in the world.
But lest we say, “Ah, we don’t need to make the effort to understand, anyway we always already understand,” Gadamer didn’t stop there, one’s “prejudices” (literally “pre-judgments”) is corrected by hearkening/listening to the otherness of the text.
That’s why the injunction “to read and read until one understands” is meant for all of us, especially when difficulty in understanding comes.
Reading and understanding is always meant to be a dialogue, a dialectic, a to-and-fro motion between the familiarity of our own assumptions and the strangeness of the otherness of the text.
It is definitely not masturbation.
best regards,
ian
next: the primacy of the text
2008
02.13
Tags: Art, Askesis, autografitti, Life, Philosophy, Writing
Posted in Art, Life, Philosophy, Writing | 2 Comments »
This was my first post in autograffiti@yahoogroups.com. May 6, 2003.
—-
Hi to everyone!
Thank you for joining Autograffiti.
As mentioned in the invitations you received and the description of the homepage of this new e-group, this is meant for artists and philosophers of all stripes, colors, and kinds.
Why Autograffiti?
Err… For want of a better name? =P
As I was thinking of possible names for the group, the following came up: essais, essaying_the_self, askesis, agon (greek for contest/battle), enkrateia (self-mastery), the_crucible, autography, and others which I now forget.
Where am I coming from?
From the belief that life, philosophy, and the arts are intricately connected. Our struggles to become the good/better/best artists that we can be cannot be divorced from the effort to philosophize. Being an artist necessarily involves creation, and perhaps the greatest artwork in progress that we all have is our very lives.
Thus, you will notice that the names aforementioned are all, in one way or another, connected with the idea of creation/trial/formation of oneself.
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2008
01.26
Tags: Art, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Philosophy, Samuel Beckett, spirituality, Theater, Translation
Posted in Art, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Philosophy, spirituality, Theater, Translation | No Comments »
Paghihintay sa Chuvatienes
ni Michael Ian Lomongo, August 18, 2006
Hindi maikakailang malaki na rin ang naging impluensya ng salitang bading o gay lingo sa pang-araw-araw na pananalita ng madla. Sa pinoy gay lingo, kapansin-pansin ang mala-chopsuey na paghahalo ng iba’t-ibang wika (Tagalog, Japanese, Spanish, English, atbp.) at sari-saring alusyon sa pop culture (gaya ng mga pangalan ng mga artista). Kadalasan, dahil na rin sa dami ng variations at pagpapalamuti ng mga salita, halos ‘di mo na makilala at malaman kung saan hinango ang mga ito.
Halimbawa, san kaya nagmula ang katagang “chuvatienes”? Maaaring ang “chuva“ ay variation ng “chever/cheber,” na maaari namang pinaikling “whatever/whichever” (o posible rin sigurong updated version ng salitang Tagalog na “keber,” na mula naman sa Spanish que ver); ang “tienes” naman (kung saan hinango ang “chenelyn”) ay Spanish ng “you have.” Kaya, kung tutuusin, ang “chuvatienes” ay Spanglish ng “what-have-you.” Sa madaling salita, “anuman,” “whatever.”
Nitong nakaraang Hunyo, napanood ko ang produksyon ng Tanghalang Pilipino ng “Waiting for Godot” ni Samuel Beckett. Bilang pagdiriwang sa ika-isandaang taon ng kapanganakan ni Beckett, nakipagtulungan ang CCP, Alliance Francaise, Embahada ng Pransya at NCCA para imbitahan ang isang direktor mula Avignon, si Alain Timar, na idirihe ang isang adaptasyon ng nasabing dula (sa panibagong salin ni George de Jesus III).
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2008
01.20
Tags: Music, names, Philosophy, Writing, xn3ct, xtc
Posted in Life, Music, Philosophy, Writing | 2 Comments »
Well, I’m writing my first post here in this site. (I wrote “Acting as a Path to a Spirituality of Compassion” a long, long time ago. 2001? My brother Errol posted it here.) I don’t know much about blogging. All I know is that, at the very least, without meaning to be derogatory to those who do practice it, it could be some kind of an “online diary or journal.” Or simply, where one puts up the ramblings and rumblings of one’s mind. And heart.
I’ve had some posts in my friendster account: http://xn3ct.blogs.friendster.com/xn3ct/
And one of these days, I’m going to organize the writings I’ve done. Perhaps here.
For now, let me “talk” about the name of this site: xn3cts.com
I first thought of the name “xn3ct” in the 80′s. There was this song “Dear God.” (No, not the one by Midge Ure which has lines like “Give me… peace in a restless world…”) I’m thinking of the more scandalous (and for me then, probably heretical and blasphemous) song of the same title by xtc. (Some of the lines go like this: “Did you make man after we made you?” And this was way before I even heard of Marx and Feuerbach.)
Anyway, I thought the name of the band was clever. Instead of spelling “ecstasy,” they had “xtc.” And remember this was also the era of bands like the INXS (“In excess.”)
It was 1988, I was still in the seminary and I was thinking of a name for a band to form. I came up with “xn3ct.” Yeah, for “eccentricity.”
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