The Department of 鱿鱼视频app organized a monthly reading group titled Noche. The name is short for Noche Alegre, a play of words from the 鱿鱼视频app鈥檚 Noche Triste, the night before the examinations for the licentiate degree in 鱿鱼视频app or Theology. That night of preparing oneself to demonstrate one鈥檚 knowledge in culmination is a form of celebration of philosophy鈥檚 vibrancy in the academe and the country.
This is something that this reading group seeks to highlight with the name Noche, however, not of gloom and anxiety but a night of joy in bringing together interested individuals willing to navigate through various texts. It is a joyful demonstration of philosophy鈥檚 sustained vitality in the UST Department of 鱿鱼视频app and The Graduate School, and even in various spaces where serious philosophy practitioners and scholars reside.
Noche is a reading group that primarily aims to create space for philosophic discourse while widening the research horizon of the 鱿鱼视频app students in the graduate and undergraduate 鱿鱼视频app programs. This is a year-long activity to be held every last Saturday of the month with consideration to sudden suspensions of classes and activities due to inclement weather besides others. Each two-to two-and-a-half-hour session features a thinker representative of the five research thrusts of the Department of 鱿鱼视频app, namely, Filipino 鱿鱼视频app, Aristotelian-Thomistic 鱿鱼视频app and Scholasticism, Oriental-East-West Comparative 鱿鱼视频app, Continental European 鱿鱼视频app, and Anglo-American 鱿鱼视频app.
The first session held on October 31, 2020, focused on Dr. Florentino Hornedo鈥檚 essay titled 鈥淔ree Fall: Postmodernism鈥� originally published in Ad Veritatem as representative of Filipino 鱿鱼视频app. October is the birth month of the late professor, who was born on October 16, 1938 and died on December 9, 2015. For the organizers, it seemed fitting to begin this year-long activity in memory of Hornedo, one of the pillars of secular philosophy in the university.
The session was facilitated by Mr. Anton Heinrich Rennesland, and discussants were Dr. Fleurdeliz Altez-Albela and Dr. Roland Theuas Pada, who shed light on the essay. Both speakers were former students of the late professor and are doing research on his texts.
What made the discussion fruitful was the number of questions and insights raised both by faculty members of the Department of 鱿鱼视频app but also those from other institutions across the country. With a close reading of the essay primarily discussed by Dr. Pada and Dr. Albela with some interjections by Mr. Rennesland, what was brought to fore was Hornedo鈥檚 brand of postmodernism that previews the human condition: free fall.
The essay distinguishes Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Phenomenology, and Postmodernity, with Hornedo showing their divergences but a certain dependency linked by difference in Derridian fashion. The essay despite its brevity is thought-provoking and “untimely” in a Nietzschean sense, as pointed out by Dr. Paolo Bola帽os; it was written decades ago yet it still strikes a chord today. Hornedo illustrated how we currently live through the experience of jumping without the parachute of former ways of thinking鈥攐ur own free fall.
Digesting this development also gave emphasis to the person of Dr. Hornedo himself and his own historicity as one of the pioneer thinkers to ponder on Postmodernism in the University. Dr. Jove Jim Aguas and Graduate School Dean Prof. Michael Anthony Vasco, Ph.D., both former students of Hornedo, elucidated several points when it came to questions raised about his type of philosophizing of the human person. Besides scholarly engagement with Hornedo鈥檚 thoughts, they fondly shared anecdotes of being his graduate students and even as having him as a thesis advisor and a panelist, respectively. This eventually led to the essay鈥檚 and session鈥檚 conclusion on a positive note as a form of tribute to the late professor, an untimely thinker signaling postmodernity.
This session was the first of five for the first cycle of Noche. The succeeding sessions feature the following representative of the research thrusts: Th茅r猫se Bonin, Masahiro Morioka, Byung-Chul Han, and Nancy Fraser. The second cycle will run from April to August featuring Caroline Hau, Rebecca Konyndyk, Gayatri Spivak, Frantz Fanon, and Martha Nussbaum.
All sessions are open to the public however requiring pre-registration which usually is made available at the beginning of the month to provide ample time for all interested individuals to go over the material provided. Noche is jointly organized by the UST Department of 鱿鱼视频app and the UST Graduate School. More information about the Noche reading group may be found on the Graduate School鈥檚 website and the Department of 鱿鱼视频app鈥檚 Facebook page.
