I ACCEPTED AND WILL TALK ON AQUINAS HERMENEUTICS UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY UST: S014-00-LE67 A.Y. 2013-2014 1 June 2014 Rev. Fr. Ranhillo Aquino, Ph.D Dean Graduate School of Law San Beda College Mendiola, Manila Dear Fr. Aquino: Quaestio, like disputatio, is one of the most significant and popular literary and pedagogical forms of philosophic discourse during the Middle Ages. One finds the prominence of quaestio in St. Thomas Aquinas’ magnum opus, Summa Theologica as well as in the transcripts of his numerous questiones disputatae. As a thinker and teacher par excellence, St. Thomas was one who never balked at the questions of his time, especially those coming from the fertile minds of his wards and such interlocutors whose opinions he didn’t share. Although a theologian by reason of profession, he was constantly employing philosophic discourse to provide new renditions of Catholic teachings even if it meant arguing against the privileged tenets of tradition and appropriating those which are considered strangers to the canons of Catholic faith. Aquinas would say: “We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth and both have helped us in the finding of it.” It was this reverence for truth, blended with a commitment to dialogic inquiry, which marked St. Thomas Aquinas’ whole intellectual career and made his legacy resonate well into the current generation. St. Thomas has always been unfairly lampooned as a vanguard of conservatism yet history, as well as his philosophical and theological corpus would bear witness to this on the contrary. What he had to say about justice, human emotions, the practice of virtues, the integrity of the human person, law and governance, cosmology, engagement with Islamic and Jewish thought, his creative critique of the ancient and medieval thoughts and his tireless efforts to wade through the apparent chasm between faith and reason testify to the breadth and uniqueness of his intellectual disposition which most scholars conceded as well ahead of his time. Pope John Paul II’s Fides et Ratio, the most progressive encyclical on Thomism to date, may be read therefore not just as an explicit endorsement of Thomism but veritably an outright recognition of the indispensability of the dialogic nature of philosophic enterprise which St. Thomas Aquinas represents. In an age where we see a global rethinking of the role of faith/religion in the public sphere; the emergence of a variety of problems impinging on the dignity of the human person such as poverty, modern slavery, human trafficking, prostitution among others; the degradation of the environment brought about by the excessive confidence on the instrumental function of reason; the rise of competing ethical views; the shared interest on the search for an alternative discourse that would mitigate the economic and technological determinism of the present-day; the erosion of public good in favor of private interests, we turn once more to St. Thomas Aquinas for the necessary intellectual impetus as we engage with the questions and problems of our time just as he did in his own. May we then invite you to join us in honoring and celebrating such legacy as the Department of Philosophy of the University of Santo Tomas convenes the Fourth Thomasian Philosophers Convention on 30-31 January 2015. The conference aims to bring Philosophy alumni of the university together in a dialogue. May we invite you to share with us your expertise by being one of the plenary speakers in the said conference? The conference theme is QUAESTIO: Aquinas, Truth and the Passion Not to Stop Asking. With the above theme topics may revolve around the following nominated themes:, Thomism and the evolution of Catholic philosophic tradition, Thomistic revision of Aristotelian Philosophy, Thomistic Cosmology and the Environment, the compatibility of Thomist-Marxist critiques, Thomism as a strand of Filipino thought, Thomism and modernity, updating of Thomistic philosophical anthropology, hermeneutic of existential Thomism, re-reading Thomistic view on women, resonances of Thomistic thought with Eastern culture. So that we could finalize the program on time, we wish to receive your confirmation on or before 30 June 2014. For confirmation and inquiries, please contact Ms. Marella Ada V. Mancenido- Bolaños through marella_ada@yahoo or 0917-563-8337. Thank you for your attention and we look forward to a positive response. Sincerely, Marella Ada V. Mancenido-Bolaños Convenor President, Society of Thomasian Graduate Student of Philosophy University of Santo Tomas Noted by: Paolo A. Bolaños Chair, Department of Philosophy University of Santo Tomas Room 109, Ground floor, Main Bldg, UST, España Boulevard, Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines 1015 Tel No: (63-2) 406-1611 loc 8669 Telefax: (63-2) 749-9779 ● E-mail: ustphilodept@gmail ● Website: philosophy.ust.edu.ph
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 15:59:54 +0000
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