Filipino Philosophy

Philosophy could be seen in different ways. On the one hand, it is an academic pursuit
typical of any western philosophy. On the other hand, it is purely a pursuit for wisdom which is
characteristically eastern. If given the perspective that philosophy is a pursuit for wisdom in
general, Filipino philosophy is indeed a philosophy. In the Philippines, philosophy is understood
in its academic or popular level depending on the paradigm and background the individual.
Mercado adopts what he described as a holistic methodology. So in his quest to expose
the Filipino mind/world view, he analyzed Philippine languages and behavior, since these are
products of the human mind. The methodology would include Metaliguistic Analysis,
Phenomenology of Human Behavior, Comparative Oriental Philosophy and Value Ranking. In
his book Elements of Filipino Philosophy, Mercado generally used only the first two
(metalinguistic and the phenomenology of Filipino behavior). For him this is justified because
by concentrating even only on Filipino languages and behavior, more in-debt thoroughness can
be achieved. Language as a methodology, presupposes that language mirrors the world view of
a particular culture. Hence, through the world views extracted from the language of the Filipinos,
Filipino thought is drawn out. The thoughts and values of the speaking group are encoded in the
language. Mercado developed this methodology by using the analogy of the family resemblance.
This analogy tells that each member is unique in his own right but, at the same time, shares a
common feature with the members of the family. Applying this to the analysis, some
characteristics of Filipino philosophy can be uncovered by getting some hints from neighboring
nations. As a popular saying goes, tell me who your friends are and Ill tell you who you are.
Using this methodology, Mercado probed into the evolutionary and process-oriented philosophy
of evil of the Filipinos, meticulously explored into the principles of Filipino Legal Philosophy,
and elaborated the Filipino concept of loob and sakop which became a model and basis in the
present study of the Filipino worldview. Adopting the Thomistic position that morality is based
on human nature, Mercado holds the notion that because of the sharing of some unique aspects
of human nature Filipinos could infer their interpretation of morality. So in judging moral issues
one depends on the value-ranking of the people.The analysis was applied in his study of the
concept of marriage and justice (legal philosophy).
An alternative Filipino philosophy using Deleuze is a corrective to the belief that such
hope is lost and such hope is past. We are a people composed of singularities who continue to
create and recreate ourselves from various social, cultural and historical intensities. As a
philosophy of difference, Filipino philosophy is a narrative of our constant becoming. The
principal task of Filipino philosophy is to resist not only the tendency to define itself according
to the framework of ethnicity; it should in fact defy the very tendency towards definition. To use
ethnicity to designate how we think and what we are thinking as Filipinos is to denigrate both
philosophy and the Filipino by reducing them into metaphysical categories. Filipino philosophy
means philosophy becoming Filipino and Filipino becoming philosophy. What needs
articulation is not identity but the creative process of engagement with a variety of forces which
affect the singularities they both continuously become.