Public trust in research and its output is essential for a healthy modern society. Although the research enterprise is self- correcting, this self-regulation occasionally needs help. Over the years, research institutions, professional societies, and governments have established several protocols, codes of conduct, norms, and principles to enhance that trust in research institutions, funders, producers, publishers, and products.

The COVID-19 pandemic paved the way for the emergence of the Boys’ Love (BL) theme and genre throughout various media platforms, causing disruptive visibility to the narratives and representation of gays (Andrada in an interview by Antonio, 2021; Ting, 2020). This disruption may have started a dialogue in social media, but this dialogue was only a limited attempt given that most of the discussions have stereotypical representations of gay men (Celso, 2020). This study analyzes how humor was applied in the (...) online comic, SariSari Story, and how humor is used in the portrayal of the gay characters in this online comic. The analysis uses Grice’s (2012) pragmatic framework of conversational maxims: quality, quantity, manner, and relation. Humor was indicated in the non-observance of one or more maxim(s), which, then, caused the implicatures. The study found that the most non-observed maxims were quantity, manner, and relation. The prominent type of humor present in the comic was the Freudian slip, where the slips contained sexual metaphors mostly associated with the characters’ sexual desires towards each other. As an example of the BL genre, the Sari-Sari Story online comic stereotyped its presentation of gay characters as hypersexual in their relationships with each other. In this, it deviated from the conventions of the Pinoy BL present in the mainstream media. (shrink)

Historical patterns of discrimination seem to present us with conflicts between what morality requires and what we epistemically ought to believe. I will argue that these cases lend support to the following nagging suspicion: that the epistemic standards governing belief are not independent of moral considerations. We can resolve these seeming conflicts by adopting a framework wherein standards of evidence for our beliefs to count as justified can shift according to the moral stakes. On this account, believing a paradigmatically racist (...) belief reflects a failure to not only attend to the epistemic risk of being wrong, but also a failure to attend to the distinctively moral risk of wronging others given what we believe. (shrink)

Who, over the age of 20, hasn’t experienced a serendipitous event: unexpected information that yields some unintended but potential value later on? Sitting next to a stranger on a plane who becomes a business partner? Stumbling onto an article in a journal or newspaper that helps tackle a nagging problem? Creating a new drug by accident?

Climate change is an existential risk reinforced by ordinary actions in afuent societies—often silently present in comfortable and enjoyable habits. This silence is sometimes broken, presenting itself as a nagging reminder of how our habits fuel a catastrophe. As a case in point, global warming has created a state of urgency among wine makers in Spain, as the alcohol level has risen to a point where it jeopardises wine quality and thereby Spanish viticulture. Eforts are currently being made to solve (...) this problem technologically by developing (non-GMO) strains of yeast that produce less alcohol. If successful, this could help save Spanish viticulture. This kind of technological solution is routinely criticised for ofering simplistic “techno-fx” solutions to solve complex societal problems. However, it is not clear what features are criticised by the notion of techno-fx and hence how to avoid this criticism. In our interpretation, the techno-fx notion is not exclusively used as a dismissive term. The notion points to a general virtue of engineering: to create technological solutions that work silently in the background. This asset of technological solutions might sometimes be problematic and sometimes not. Hence, it needs to be analysed case-by-case by paying attention to the moral relevance of the hidden implications of the technology and of the unrefective actions and habits that they facilitate. Such moral analysis will in turn inform strategies for foregrounding this technology to counteract silencing. We discuss what this means in the case of modifying yeast as a viticultural climate resilience strategy. (shrink)

This chapter has three aims. Firstly, it elaborates the so-called pragmatic approach to fictionalism. By evoking some classical pragmatic theories of fictive utterances, it gives an account of pragmatic properties responsible for the difference between serious and fictive utterances. The authors argue for the thesis that the pragmatic approach can be applied plausibly to all kinds of fictionalism, that is from instrumentalism to figuralism. Secondly, the authors investigate some consequences of the suggested account for fictionalist theories in general. They show (...) that some more or less known difficulties of fictionalist theories become more serious if one accepts the pragmatic approach. The chapter discusses two of them, namely the problem of entirely fictional discourses and the apparent contradiction between hermeneutic fictionalism and first person authority. Thirdly, the authors investigate the consequences of the pragmatic approach for mental fictionalism in particular. At the end of the paper, they argue that once the pragmatic approach is applied to mental fictionalism, the well-known problem of cognitive suicide becomes especially nagging. They suggest it is highly questionable that mental fictionalism is worth to endorse in the light of these serious difficulties. (shrink)

In this paper the strategy for the eliminative reduction of the alethic modalities suggested by John Venn is outlined and it is shown to anticipate certain related contemporary empiricistic and nominalistic projects. Venn attempted to reduce the alethic modalities to probabilities, and thus suggested a promising solution to the nagging issue of the inclusion of modal statements in empiricistic philosophical systems. However, despite the promise that this suggestion held for laying the ‘ghost of modality’ to rest, this general approach, tempered (...) modal eliminativism, is shown to be inadequate for that task.<br><br>. (shrink)

I take issue with an argument to the effect that because contractualism proves--both practically and theoretically--the philosophically superior moral theory, we have the result that nonhuman animals can have no, nor ought be extended any, moral standing. The combined argument belongs to Peter Carruthers, and appears in his The Animals Issue. My response involves demonstration that on careful analysis contractualism fares even less well than the two theories against which Carruthers compares it--rights and utilitarian. Furthermore, I offer a sketch of (...) a theory which does not fall for reliance on a singularly problematic premise--a premise which plays pivotally in traditional contractualist, rights and utilitarian accounts. The upshot is that this "alternative rights theory" fares best in reflective equilibrium analysis as against not only those theories Carruthers decries, but contractualism as well. We are, it appears, drawn back to the nagging question of whether and how things nonhuman may matter morally. For, Carruthers conclusion is disallowed. That the alternative rights theory offers novel yet satisfactory means by which to account for moral motivation and knowledge, as well as differences in moral respect due morally relevant beings, is explored. That the theory avoids the troublesome pitfalls of intuitionism and supervenience further secures its frontrunning position--which, again, begins to indicate that and how more than solely humans are of moral relevance. (shrink)

Abstract: It is the aim of this paper to establish a temporal and cultural link between entheogen-use1 in Classical mystery cults and their possible use in a segment of the early Christian Gnostic Church. As early Christianity was heavily influenced by the Classical world in which it first developed, it is essential to examine the evidence of entheogen-use within Classical mystery cults, and explore their possible influence on the development of Christian ritual. We will first present textual evidence from the (...) New Testament and Nag Hammadi Library (NHL) that indicate possible use of ritual entheogens. Next we will examine entheogen-use by some of the main religious sects of the ancient Mediterranean world as part of their liturgical practice between c. fifth century BCE and the third century CE. Then we will show that the different schools of philosophical thought examined were quite fluid, and that there was considerable overlap among schools with respect to several key philosophies and practices. Ultimately the subject of entheogen-use in the Classical world necessarily falls into the realm of plausible speculation mainly due to the lack of primary sources. However, should the entheogenic hypothesis2 prove to be correct, it promises to be quite useful in future research and in the translation of original documents. (shrink)

Kapwa nakalatag sa heograpikal, ekonomiko, at kultural na aspekto ng Asya-Pasipiko ang bansang Australia at Pilipinas. Bagama’t kaiba sa kontinenteng kinaroroonan, mababakas pa rin ang dimensiyong nag-uugnay sa dalawang estado ng Pasipiko. Kung uungkatin ang kasaysayan, napakatibay ang ugnayang namamagitan sa Australia at Pilipinas sapul pa noong Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig o ang pagpapalaya sa Pilipinas laban sa puwersa ng mga Hapones nang tumakas tungong Australia sina Pangulong Manuel Quezon at buong pamilya noong Pebrero 19, 1942. Ngunit kung tutuusin, sa ganitong (...) kaganapan at alaala lamang nakapako ang ating kamalayan sa tuwing ginugunita natin ang relasyon ng dalawang bansa. Marami pa ang hindi nabubuksan at nabibigyan ng pansin sa kanilang pinag-isang kasaysayan at direktang ugnayan sa kadahilanang hindi ito napaglalaanan ng tuon at pagpapahalaga sa historiograpiya ng mga Area Studies o disiplinal na pag-aaral ng kasaysayan ng ibayong dagat. Katulad ng ilang mga nauna at pagtatangkang pag-aaral, aambagan ng rebyung ito ang pagpupunla, pagpapahalaga, at pagpapaunlad sa ugnayang kultural na mayroon ang Australia at Pilipinas. (shrink)

How can consciousness, how can the mind be causally efficacious in a world which seems—in some sense—to be thoroughly governed by physical causality? Mental causation has been a nagging problem in philosophy since the beginning of the modern age, when, inspired by the rise of physics, a metaphysical picture became dominant according to which the manifest macrophysical world of rocks, trees, colors, sounds etc. could be eliminated in favor of, or identified with, the microconstituents of these entities and their basic (...) physical properties, plus their effects on human or animal minds. Against the background of this ontology, the argument from causal closure, or the causal completeness of physics, exerts strong pressure to also identify consciousness with microphysical entities—or even to eliminate it in favor of the latter—the only other options apparently being either the denial of the causal closure of the physical level, epiphenomenalism about the mind, or the view that its physical effects are generally overdetermined. In this paper, however, I want to introduce what I call the “microstructure view” (MV) of the brain-consciousness relation, and I want to try to make plausible that the problem of mental causation can also be solved, or perhaps rather dissolved, on the basis of this account. On the MV, the minimal neuronal correlates of consciousness—of the global state of consciousness, or specific states of consciousness such as pain—are not identical with these states, but rather constitute their microstructure, or, as I shall also say, equivalently, compose them. (shrink)

Sa bawat aklatan o sabihin pang mga bookstores, hindi talaga nawawala ang sikat na sikat na mga aklat ni Ambeth Ocampo. Isa na rito ang labintatlong tomo ng Looking Back na tumatalakay sa iba’t ibang paksa sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas. Noong mga panahong nag-aaral pa ang may-akda sa PUP ng kursong Kasaysayan, walong serye pa lamang ng Looking Back ang nailathala at sabihin pang nabasa niya—Looking Back (2010); Dirty Dancing (2010); Death by Garrote (2010); Chulalongkorn’s Elephants: The Philippines in Asian (...) History (2011); Rizal’s Teeth, Bonifacio’s Bones (2012); Prehistoric Philippines (2012); Storm Chasers (2014); at Virgin of Balintawak (2014). Hindi naglaon, tila bagang isang palos ang pagkakalathala ng mga sumunod pang mga akda—Demonyo in Tables: History in Artifacts (2015); Two Lunas, Two Mabinis (2015); Independence X6 (2016); Quezon’s Sukiyaki (2016); at Guns of the Katipunan (2017). Sa mga nabanggit na akda ni Ambeth Ocampo, ang Chulalongkorn’s Elephants: The Philippines in Asian History ang higit na pinagtuunan ng pansin at diin ng rebyuwer. Sa kasalukuyang pagkakataon, ilalatag ng rebyuwer sa papel na ito ang kanyang mga natatanging komendasyon (kalakasan) at kritik (kahinaan) hinggil sa 102-pahinang aklat ni Ocampo. Sisipatin din ang kanyang pagkakadalumat sa ugnayan ng Pilipinas sa mga Asyanikong bansa na siya naman talagang dapat maging tunguhin ng rebyung ito. (shrink)

Saksi ang huling bahagi ng ika-19 na dantaon sa panaka-nakang pagbaba’t pagtaas ng populasyon sa kapuluan. Isinaad na pangunahing sanhi ng malaking kabawasan sa bilang ng tao ay ang pagdapo at paglaganap ng sakit, tulad ng kolera sa kapuluan sa mga taong nabanggit. Kaalinsabay ng pagbaba’t pagtaas ng populasyon sa kapuluan, nasaksihan din sa kasagsagan ng dantaon ang malawakang pag-unlad ng agham na ginamit ng mga Espanyol bilang kanilang kalamangan sa hakbang ng kolonisasyon. Gayunman, hindi maitatatwa na nagdulot din ng (...) positibong aspekto ang kolonyal na agham sa kapuluan. Umusbong sa kapuluan ang iba’t ibang uri ng ciencia colonial na nag-ambag sa pag-unlad ng kapuluan. Isang uri ng kolonyal na agham namayagpag ay ang edukasyong medikal. Sa akda, susubukang bigyang katwiran ang edukasyong medikal at iba pang kaugnay na larangan bilang tugon ng pamahalaan sa mga suliraning nakaugnay sa sakit sa kapuluan. Sa pamamagitan ng datos ng populasyon at demograpiya, ilalahad ng akda ang naging epekto ng pagkalat ng sakit sa bilang ng tao. Nakatuon ang akda sa institusyunal na kasaysayan ng Facultad de Medicina y Farmacia ng Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas na lunan ng mga medicos na magsisilbing instrumento ng pamahalaang kolonyal sa hakbang upang sugpuin sa suliraning pangsakit sa Pilipinas. Sa huli, ilalahad ng akda ang naging resulta ng edukasyong medikal bilang tugon sa pagsugpo sa suliranin. (shrink)

Taong 2019 nang magsimula ang paglaganap ng COVID-19 sa Pilipinas, kaya samu’t saring mga impormasyon ang ipinakalat sa bansa upang maiwasan ang pagkalat ng virus lalo na sa mga lugar na matataas ang bilang ng nag positibo, gaya na lamang sa Lungsod ng Quezon. Hinggil rito, ang saliksik na ito na naglalayong malaman at maitala ang Gampanin ng Wikang Filipino sa pag papalaganap ng impormasyon patungkol sa COVID-19. Upang matugunan ang mga hinihingi sa pananaliksik, ito ay gagwin sa deskriptibong paraan, (...) mag o-obserba ang mga mananaliksik sa mga post mula sa mga social media sites ng Lokal na Pamahalaan ng Lungsod ng Quezon, upang malaman ang ginampanan ng Wikang Filipino sa pagpapalaganap ng impormasyon patungkol sa COVID-19. Bilang proseso sa pagkalap ng mga datos, naghanap ang mga mananaliksik ng mga pages o sites na minamanipula ng Lokal na Pamahalaan ng Lungsod ng Quezon na pinagkunan ng mga post na pumapatungkol sa COVID-19. Mula rito makakagawa ang mga mananaliksik ng content analysis mula sa mga post sa iba’t ibang sites kung paano nagamit ang Wikang Filipino at kung paano ito nakatulong upang mas maiwasan pa ang paglaganap ng virus sa Lungsod ng Quezon. Sa saliksik na ito natuklasan na hindi lamang ang Filipino ang ginamit, marami sa mga post na nakalap ay nasa Tag-lish o pinaghalong Filipino at English, dahil sa bago ito sa mga tao, nilayon ng pamahalaan at maging ang Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino na gamitin ang Wikang Filipino dahil hindi lahat ay may kakayahang umintindi ng wikang banyaga. Gayunpama’y nagkaroon din ng ambag ang wikang Ingles dahil maraming pagkakataong gumamit ng mga teknikal na termino na kadalasang maririnig natin sa agham. Nakatutulong ang saliksik na ito upang mas mabigyang linaw ang ginampanan ng wika at sa kung paano nagiging epektibo ang mga pabatid upang maiwasan ang COVID-19. (shrink)

Ang papel ay paglalagom ng itinuturing na pinakamahalagang yugto ng buhay ni José Rizal—ang kanyang pagkakatapon sa Dapitan, sa lente ng konseptong “bagani” ng ating mga ninuno. Sa pagbanggit sa lang nauna nang pag-aaral ukol kay Rizal, ipapakitang kung papaanong ang yugto sa Dapitan ay ang katuparan ng kanyang mga layunin sa La Liga Filipina, na kanyang isinabuhay kasama ang bayan. Sa lente ng kasalukuyang pandemyang COVID 19, makikita natin na tila naranasan din ni Rizal sa kanyang pagkakatapon ang ilang (...) bagay na ating dinaranas ngayon, na tila siya isang frontliner na nasa lockdown, inilagay sa kuwarentena, nag-homeschooling, nagkaroon ng lockdown sickness at namahagi ng ayudang pangkabuhayan sa mga mamamayan ng isang natutulog na bayan upang ito ay sumiglang muli. Nawa ay maging inspirasyon sa bayan na anuman ang hamon at mga balakid, walang makapipigil sa isang Pilipino na magsilbi sa bayan gamit ang kanyang mga talento at manatiling liwanag ng katotohanan at kaalaman. (shrink)

For the prominent figures of dystopic posthumanism biotechnological progress means not only new possibilities of solving the most nagging problems, but also many extremely dangerous consequences: a modification of social organization, an undermining of morality, and some changes in the way we understand our identity. Thinkers such as Fukuyama, Kass, Sandel and Habermas consider those consequences as a threat to human nature. In the article I examine the way they construct the latter notion (i.e. human nature) in their arguments.