ANGELO DE LA CRUZ AND THE POLITICS OF VICTIMS

Ibana’s paper proposes an articulation of the noble aspirations of traditional cultures against the horizon of the monolithic grids of Western globalization. The case of Mr. Angelo de la Cruz, the truck driver whose life was saved by the Philippine government by withdrawing its troops from Iraq has shown that the intrusive powers of the global geopolitics can be thwarted by local cultures as long as the latter can justify their values within the broader context of the community of human persons. The withdrawal by the weaker party from the game of power can succeed only to the extent that such a withdrawal is premised on the affirmation of higher values

The Relevance of St. Thomas’ Philosophy of Education to Information Technologies and the Structure of the Human Brain

This paper attempts to reflect on the method of teaching by returning to St.Thomas Aquinas’ insights on education. Teaching, as St. Thomas puts it, is nothing else than “the awakening of the power of reasoning in another person.” Important to this idea of education as a kind of therapy is the process of discovery. The task of the teacher, therefore, is to create the external conditions for the possibility of discovery. This is investigated in connection with contemporary technologies and with support of findings in the neurosciences

Confucian Moral Education in the Ta Shueh and Analects

Confucian philosophy has always considered education as a mechanism to improve the quality of life in society. The Confucian classic, Ta Hsueh and the Analects emphasize this pivotal role of education. The ethics of education and life in the family also has a deep impact on government and business enterprises. Each one plays assigned roles and lives by the rules that govern his or her station in social life. The ninth chapter of the Ta Shueh teaches that correct deportment can rectify a whole country. Projecting the ethics of the family to the social order and extending the ethos of particular cultural practices to the global community, however, poses certain problems. The scope of the latter is much more extensive than the family and broader than the cultural practices of particular nation-states. When family relations are preferred over that of others, authoritarian political power will not be too far behind. This paper is an investigation of the nature and limits of Confucian educational philosophy and its influence on society against the backdrop of globalization