Doing Philosophy in the Philippines Volume 1: The Thomasian Collection (1924-1949) by Alfredo P. Co

Copyright 2020
"DOING PHILOSOPHY IN THE PHILIPPINES: VOLUME I contains the earliest collected works of the last Spanish Dominican thinkers, who interacted with the earliest Filipino scholars who likewise were drawn to the beginning of philosophical publication in the University of Santo Tomas. The volume’s timeline covers the articles published in the UNITAS from 1924 to 1949. The twenty-five-year coverage is quite long compared to the future volumes of the collection, but it clearly reveals that at the earlier seminal stage of academic publication in the country, very few scholars were engaged in publishing their philosophical thoughts.
The idea of a publication was then a novelty and the venue for publication in the university was limited. But the primacy of UNITAS as the first academic journal in the land cannot be contested. At the outset, it paved the groundwork for thinking, writing and publishing philosophical works. Thus, what may delight this volume’s readers is the glimpse into the method, form style, issues, interest, and the intellectual environment in the academic life-word of the past.
The UNITAS was open to English and other languages. During the birthing of the academic journal, editors of UNITAS were aware of the growing Americanization of the academic formation as English was already being used as a new medium of instruction instead of Spanish. Yet, Hispanic remnants were still retained in the few last works. Therefore, articles in Spanish are included in the volume to show the transition of the academic scholarship from Spanish to English. This transition is especially evident in such articles in the volume where the reader will find the body of the article in English and the citations in Spanish, and vice-versa.
In terms of content, the first volume is a celebration of another transition, i.e., from the Spanish Thomistic themes that were transferred to the local Filipino Thomistic cogitation.
Alfredo P. Co
Editor
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