Note: I wrote this first in 2010 but have revised it several times since then. To celebrate Teacher’s Day and to incorporate my experience of teaching in the pandemic, I rewrote it again today – 5 October 2021. There are five things I am immensely grateful for in my life. These are, and not necessarily …
Category Archives: Philosophy
To Build Better, we need Inclusive Capitalism
Co-written with Jayvy Gamboa. ‘Is inclusive capitalism not the same as vicious capitalism, now only couched in a more PR-friendly way?’ Trusted. Fair. Responsible. Dynamic. Sustainable. This is how the Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican envisions a reimagined capitalist economic system for the world. Launched in December 2020, the Council, under the moral …
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Catechesis on Community Pantries
“What we are seeing in action is this political love.” The gospel on the Sixth Sunday of Easter is familiar. Jesus, speaking to his disciples, issues a clear command: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my …
Media and the coronavirus: Frontliners against the ‘infodemic’
Co-authored with Jayvy Gamboa In the novel The Plague by Albert Camus, Raymond Rambert is a journalist from Paris visiting Oran, a plague-stricken town. Longing for his wife, Rambert stubbornly appeals to the authorities, and then eventually resorts to illegal smugglers, just to break quarantine. At the night of his negotiated escape, however, he finally releases his …
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Government in times of plagues
In the novel The Plague by Albert Camus, there are three characters – Joseph Grand, The Prefect and M. Othon – that represent how government officials responds to pestilence. In this coronavirus pandemic, their responses are mirrored by today’s officials. First let us examine Joseph Grand. He is a fifty-year-old clerk working for the city …
Faith, doubt and love during plagues
A central character in the novel The Plague by Albert Camus is Father Paneloux, a learned and militant Jesuit, an expert on the thought of Saint Augustine, and representing what Christian doctrine can offer in times of pestilence. From his story, as Camus tells it, there are lessons that today’s pastors and churches should heed. …
Business unusual: When the business community responds to a virus
Co-authored with Jayvy Gamboa In the novel The Plague by Albert Camus, there is an eccentric and mysterious character who goes by the name of Cottard. Unlike most people, this man welcomed the coming of the plague and lamented its end, since he was engaged in the illicit trade of contraband, taking advantage of the people’s cravings and …
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Lessons from Camus’ The Plague
The Covid-19 pandemic, as in all crises, brings out the best and worst of humanity. There is heroism and perfidy, complacency as well as discontent and cynicism; despair, anger, and fatalism. All told, individuals exhibit a wide spectrum of emotions, mind set and attitudes towards a distressing event such as the present pandemic now sweeping …
Truth, politics, and ethics
This is the final column in a series based on my Ramon C. Reyes memorial lecture entitled “Listening through philosophy: an ethical lens for the discourse on truth and politics”. In his textbook, Ground and Norm of Morality: Ethics for College Students), Doc Reyes provides students with a comprehensive overview of how philosophers from Plato …
Defeating the trolls
Professors Jonathan Corpus Ong, associate professor of communication at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Jason Cabañes, lecturer in international communication at the University of Leeds, released last February 2018 an interesting and excellent report entitled Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines (Ong and Cabanes, …
Tony La Viña 