Chair's Message

Philosophy and Religion are the twin disciplines that constitute the bulwark of any University's school or institute of Humanities and the Liberal Arts, what the Germans call Geisteswissenschaften, the true qualitative measure of a country's mind and consciousness.  Poverty in these areas eloquently speaks for the poverty of a people's Spirit and its lack of both depth and breadth.

It is therefore a source of pride for us that in the Visayas and Mindanao the University of San Carlos, arguably the oldest school in the country, provides home for the strongest resources and most complete academic programs for Philosophy and Religion.  We do not think that the University will survive the radical educational reforms of the coming years without the intellectual and spiritual support of these disciplines, which are as ancient and as ever-new as humanity itself.  The whole apparatus of K12 will stand on shaky ground without the invincible rock of philosophy and religion, giving a constant foundation for even the most malleable directions driving humanity's cultures and societies.

That, in our institution, the two disciplines have merged as one Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies is significant, pointing to as far back as the earliest days of USC's foundation and indicative of our missionary commitment to the loftiest and profoundest aspirations of the human soul.  Here we welcome everyone to explore the terrain that is bound to yield the key to the meaning of life, relevant to anything that a man or woman could possibly aspire for, the source of all the values and attitudes that one can bring with him or her wherever one goes, whatever one does, through all of one's existence.

We welcome everyone to the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.  This is everyone's home in the world of the intellect, as well as outside of it.  This is where the Filipino identity is passing through the crucible of history, shaping itself as surely as the Creator is molding our humanity.  Here you will find all ideas and persuasions, from the most earthly to the most heavenly, as free and undogmatic as it is rigorous and disciplined, the locus too of paradoxes - which is what being human is all about.  Come and enjoy your stay!

Br. Romualdo E. Abulad, SVD, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies