Merch Jarloe T.

Rubite Seminar on Individual Philosophers

AB Philosophy 4

Can “Nothing” be a Solution?

In the philosophical Symposium, our main topic is all about “Can there be

communion in the postmodern world?” This question is what we have been seeking for a

solution in the talk. To understand this question, one must understand Postmodern features

first.

Postmodern is the time now. Of course, if I am going to observe the world, well, I

cannot see why it is a great problem for unity or communion. Well, maybe my scope is

limited but if I take it seriously by searching in the internet or reading some books about this

era, a lot of things indeed change from the Ancient times to this time of Postmodernity. The

tragic point is that it is not just a normal change but also a change in an extended and

unexpected ways.

Postmodernism has six features that Fr. According to Alimajen, the first characteristic

is the "extreme liberalism "that this thinking holds that man can do whatever he wants, he

can decide his physical appearance, his sexuality and his beliefs. Here the second feature is'

materialism,' people's thinking that the only important thing now is matter, so nowadays

people accumulate a lot of things or need to possess everything and no longer want spiritual

things. The third is the "plurality "where there is more than one truth, today people believe

two or more truths pertaining to one thing, which is the cause of false news or false truth. In

addition, the fourth is individualism, man's thought is self-sufficient and man can live by

themselves. That is why indifference develops and creates the break between rich and poor.
The fifth is post-structuralism in which people now hate the systems or the organization of

society, so that these structures are abolished. Sixth, deconstructionism, in which people

decide, regardless of author and authority, how the text or structure has significance. The

last is non-functionality, this thinking is simply that people today have no solid foundation on

their principles, so that they easily change or abandon life's principles.

For me, the very source of the problem of this time is what Rev. Fr. Domingo said:

Extreme Liberalism. From this kind of thinking, all is relative. Anything is good as long as I

see it as good. Just like in Religion. Roman Catholic now is not the only religion that can

satisfy the understanding of the people. It is not the only good church and for some it is not

good for them. We tend to choose our own purpose and do it our way.

Another product of Liberalism is the runaway technology. Technology is good for

many of us. They make our work fast and clean. In our time now, technology have gone

through many evolutions. It changes in a year and continues to progress every time. The

problem now is that technology have gone through things we never really wanted just like

cloning, making an artificial intelligent for pleasure and some created some weapons that

can ruin things brutally and so on. It is very possible to think that maybe someday we will live

in a virtual reality and robots will take care of this Earth. Well, that seems problematic.

To these characteristics that Rev. Fr. Dominggo Alimajen have provided in his talk it

is clear is that Postmodernists are totally unclear and imprecise to what really is their goals

and ways. He even said that if we are going to defend our Church or even attack President

Rodrigo Duterte’s claims, we will be in big trouble and will put a shame to our Church

because of the fact that he is a kind of Postmodern man. We should not expect that he will

sail on our tides or dance on our beat if we attack him because he will certainly not. He will
go on to a different way that anyone does not know, to handle our attacks and later, put us

down. No matter how logical we are, even logic now is useless against these

Postmodernists. You cannot put a cage to a postmodern man. That is how problematic we

are if we aim communion.

In his presentation, Rev. Fr. Alimajen have provided some answers from well-known

philosophers to take down this problem of Communion.

For the solution of extreme liberalism, he claims that the infinite responsibility of

Levinas can solve it. Infinite responsibility is where everyone is responsible for the other so

there will be no liberalism because our beingness tied with the other. Second, it's the Person

of Husserl as Spirit for the characteristic of Materialism, in which he says that a man is not

only matter, but a spirit. The third is Husserl’s theory of the reduction whereby the reality is

reduced and becomes one according to the observer in the observation. The Scheler

concept of the person can solve the characteristic of individualism, the next solution is that

Husserl 's Constitution, for the solution of post- structuralism, where he claims that there is

what the being is and how the beings are. The next solution is the Hermeneutics of Gadamer

in which people have to play their part.

In the end, these solutions, Rev. Fr. Alimajen claim that cannot really handle and fall

short from solving Postmodern problem of communion. As the last resort, maybe, of Rev. Fr.

Alimajen he then stated that “Nosology” is the solution to all of these. “Nosology” is the

philosophy he now studies in order to counter Postmodernism. He is the founder of this kind

of new philosophy. But what really is this “Nosology”?

 Honestly, I do not know “Nosology” but as I can remember, it comes from latin word

“Nos” which means “We”. It is the study of “We”. “We” here for me can get us an idea that it

will talk about communion, but the question now is “how”?

Every person or anything are connected. The “I”, “we” and the “World” are one. “I” is

the “We”, “we” is the the “World”, and “I” is the “World”. Everything is connected. if we try to

commune this must be our individual idea because even if you are only one and if you have

the idea of being one with others and the world, then it is communion.

In Hiligaynon, Rev. Fr. Alimajen term this to “Akitalibutan”. This word comes from

three Hiligaynon words: the “Ako”, the “Kita”, and the “Kalibutan”. In english “ako” means

“I”, “Kita” means “We” and “Kalibutan” means the “World”.

Under the philosophy of “Nosology” Rev. Fr. Alimajen claimed that this is really had to

explain and even summarize on how he can explain this and on how can it deal

Postmodernity. In his presentation, he just ended up by giving us an analogy for this

“Nosology”.

For Fr. Alimajen, Nosology is the “Nothing” beyond nothing. (well, his philosophy, he

thinks an Heidegger’s continuation) First, we should imagine that there is a table, and this

table has a book and this book on the table has a wide space including them. We must think

that the table is the nothing and this nothing holds something and that is the book, but in

this nothing with something is lying in space and that space, Rev. Fr. Alimajen states the

“Nothing” or the “Nosology”. All of space “Nosology” have has no boundary, it is boundless

compared to the two. That is how big or bigger than the biggest the study is.
 In the end, of course, as a young philosopher who just have gained some knowledge

of Philosophy, I honestly swear that I do not really know “Nosology”. Even Rev. Fr. Alimajen

has difficulties in making it more clearly to us and he even said that, maybe if we only study

“Nosology” for a semester we would know what he means. Well for me, “Nosology” is truly

“Nothing”.