Florentino Hornedo’s Vision for Filipino Philosophy: Discovering the Political in Loving and Cultural Valuation

Hornedo, Florentino. Pagmamahal and Pagmumura: Essays. Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press Office of Research and Publications, 1997.

Abstract

In this review, I highlighted Florentino Hornedo’s unique rendition of philosophizing human values vis-à-vis the historicity of the growth and struggles of the Filipinos. Through what Hornedo termed a “processualist perspective,” he has shown the political dimension in the development and decay of human values. Thus, the collective consciousness, as Hornedo argued, can be influenced by individual efforts, as shown by history, since the dominant value-concerns can affect the welfare of the nation. In so doing, Hornedo veers away from the cut-and-dried historiography of presenting the emergence of cultural phenomena by creatively placing a premium on the phenomenological grounds of its existence, which necessitates an ethical revaluation.

I introduced this book in line with the scholarly projects and philosophy of Hornedo as a research luminary. The second part of the book presents my discovery of Hornedo’s notion of Filipino identity, which is neither static nor immutable, as discussed in his developmental vision of a culture. This is followed by the third section of the review, in which I critically examined what led Hornedo to employ consequentialist vindication on the relevance of accepting the reality of change and cultural influences in social development, but without overlooking that Hornedo also believes that human consciousness cannot be completely reduced to issues of functionality and pragmatic concerns. The fourth part of the review deals with the attempt of Hornedo to realistically face the admixture of Filipino values as derived from its colonial history, nationalist spirit, and aboriginal elements that resulted in political confusion. This review ends with the hope that Hornedo offered as a gift to those who appreciate the delicate balance of objectivity and subjectivity in the axiological concerns of the Philippine society as interwoven to other social predicaments.