This is the text of Dr. Sterrett's replies to an interviewer's questions for simplycharly.com, a website with interviews by academics on various authors, philosophers, and scientists.

‘Of Ephesus’ begins with a series of vivid impressions of a wild and free nature—vineyards rolling across the landscape, an untrammeled sky, a runaway donkey, flaming pinecones, roosters, and colorful kites and flags. Fire in some form (wildfires, the sun, flames, torches, lightning, sunlight) is the hallmark of a dynamic reality. The reference to ‘St. Heraclitus’ supports this interpretation: Elytis, like Heraclitus, seeks to alert his audience to the possible existence of a higher realm of being. So he fashions a (...) series of striking juxtapositions intended to disrupt our ordinary experience of the world and to spark a vision of an alternative reality. In the process he draws on Heraclitus’ doctrine of the unity of the opposites, on the conception of fire as the basic power that rules the cosmos, and on the conviction that beyond the world we know through ordinary sense experience lies a second, higher reality. (shrink)

This paper explored the frameworks of the learning continuity plan that shaped basic education delivery as issued by the Department of Education-Central Office in light of Sulong Edukalidad and KITE (K- K to 12 Curriculum review and update; I- Improvement of the learning environment, T- Teachers' upskilling and reskilling; and E- Engagement of stakeholders for support and collaboration) as national flagship programs. In particular, the paper examined the adoption and contextualization of the frameworks by the Regional Office - CALABARZON, (...) which is the PIVOT4A QuBE; 4A represents the four strategic thrusts, which are: (a) aligning focus and intervention, (b) advancing handholding initiatives, (c) amplifying defined technical assistance to target delivery units, and (d) appraising stakeholders on the progress of the intervention, and QuBE is the acronym for Quality Basic Education. For its part, the Schools Division Office of Laguna espouses LAGO Laguna or Leaders Actions towards Greater Outcomes. Furthermore, the school learning continuity plan of the San Pedro Relocation Center National High School Landayan Annex is summarized through the acronym SAGWAN or Sustaining & Advocating Genuine Welfare & Actions in the New Normal as the flagship program. In addressing the new normal in education, the juxtapositions of the said flagship programs that stem from national to regional, division, and school levels, are discussed. It also analyzed diversity and inclusiveness, as well as the guiding educational philosophies, in the conduct of school projects, programs, and activities (PPAs). (shrink)

This reference essay surveys recent work in the emerging sub-discipline of everyday aesthetics, which builds on the work of John Dewey to resist sharp distinctions between art and non-art domains and argue that aesthetic concepts are properly applied to ordinary domains of experience.

The culturally pervasive tendency to identify aspects of the body as aesthetically imperfect harms individuals and scaffolds injustice related to disability, race, gender, LGBTQ+ identities, and fatness. But abandoning the notion of imperfection may not respect people’s reasonable understandings of their own bodies. I examine the prospects for a practice of aesthetic assessment grounded in a notion of the body’s function. I argue that functional aesthetic assessment, to be respectful, requires understanding the body’s functions as complex, malleable, and determined by (...) the projects and interests of the person whose body it is. Aesthetically relevant functions, on this account, are determined neither by the body’s status as organism nor by cultural assumptions about how bodies should function or be used. (shrink)

Basant (Spring) is a time of dawning light, new life, new birth, and new hope — a time of warmth, vitality, dancing, and blossoming. Every year she comes out of the cold darkness and captivatingly dances around us. She embraces us with her warmth, intoxicates us with her aroma. Like a potent elixir, spring revitalizes our hope. She breathes life into the dead and teaches us the lessons of renewal and rebirth [1]. The dawn of Basant has well appreciated in (...) Gurbani as; "Among the months, blessed is the month when spring always comes."[Mehl First, SGGS: 1168]; "The delightful season of spring has come." [Mehl First, SGGS: 1168] Every year, the vernal equinox occurs on the 21st of March. It indicates the starting of long, brighter days. The birds trill, bees buzz, and the buds of plants and trees burst forth. Humans stroll with a bit more spring in their step and sparkle in their eyes. Gurbani appreciates the blooming of Spring as; "The season of spring has come. It blossoms forth luxuriantly." [Mehl Fifth, SGGS: 1185] Feeling good in spring is more than psychological. The more extended light period of spring days has the power to change our biochemistry in positive ways. The increased sunlight exposure affects hormonal and metabolic functions. We feel more optimistic and resilient; even our reproductive patterns are affected by the light of spring. (shrink)

This chapter will introduce everyday aesthetics and conceptions of happiness, explore their interconnections, and indicate some ways they might relate to depression. I introduce the main claims and concerns of everyday aesthetics and illustrate these with examples from the Indian, Chinese, and Japanese philosophical traditions. I then consider two popular accounts of happiness – ‘hedonic’ and ‘life-satisfaction’ theories – and offer an alternative phenomenological account of happiness. Aesthetic appreciation and agency and happiness, it is argued, depend on a phenomenologically fundamental (...) capacity to experience different kinds of significant possibility. It is the loss or disruption of that capacity which characterises experiences of depression. (shrink)