Discipline and Ideas

In the
Social Sciences

(Famous Filipino Social

Thinkers)
Jose Rizal (Reformist)
 -Intelligence is the solution to the ills of the country
 -Their consciousness should be freed from fanaticism,

docility, inferiority, and hopelessness.

 -He started La Liga Filipina with the job of

enlightening the minds of the people.

 -Believed in Agnostic Deism – the view that God

created the universe with its law, never to interfere

with it again.
 -“Human problems are irrational human creations and

can be solved through rational solutions. If reason

commits mistakes, only reason can correct them.”
 -“What is the use of independence if the slaves of

today will be the tyrants of tomorrow.

Andres Bonifacio (Revolutionalist)
 -Founded Katipunan/KKK. (kataastaasan,
kagalanggalangang, Katipunan ng mga anak
ng Bayan)
 -His philosophy of revolution was published

in the revolutionary newspaper, “Kalayan”.

 -Transformed the blood compact (sandugo)

as a kinship contract.
 -According to him, a revolution of war is

justified when there is breach of contract.

Emilio Jacinto (Revolutionalist)
 -He capitalized on the idea of a free reign of reason, of
the freedom to think and do, rather than the freedom
to will and do. (Gripaldo, 2002)
 -In a colonial situation where both will and thinking

are suppressed, where intellectual fanaticism is the

rule, where one’s will is conditioned to submit to
tyranny, it is intellectual liberty that comes primary.”
 -Believed in social Darwinism – governments are

products of political struggles for survival.

 -“Partyless Democracy” – political parties influence the

politician, the people.

 -Believed in the democratization of education for all,

national languages, and justice.

 -Equal access to essential raw materials.
Jose P. Laurel (Political
Philosopher)
 individuals cannot forever remain in solitude.
 “Good governance is founded on

righteousness and foreign relations must be

based on full reciprocal rights and privileges
between and among nations.”
Renato Constantino (Nationalist)

 -Colonial experience has developed a captive

consciousness. An effect of this “crab
mentality”. This is the tendency to those on
top.
Manuel Luis Quezon (Political
Philosopher)
 -Political pragmatism and political operation for an
eventual Philippine Independence.
 -Political Pragmatism “one must fight for a goal but if
obstacles towards that goal are difficult to summon
the one fall back to an alternative that is better than
nothing provided it’s in the right direction.”
 -Social differences
 -“Human rights cannot be guaranteed unless the
citizen’s firs do their obligations towards the states.”
 -“When one makes a nationalist choice, he or she
chooses not for himself or herself alone but for the
entire nation as well.”
R. Esquirel Embuscado (Dissectionist)

 -As a painter, he believed that the task of an

authentic artist is to cut the umbilical cord of
the past, to make use of the present, and to
protect that present to the open future. He
called this art of “Dissectionism.”
 -True are must not be part-oriented, but

present-future oriented.
Cirilo Bautista (Political Theorist)
 -“Rubber Toner” – a poem
 -“History can be read as a poem in the same

way a poem can be read as history.”

Claro Centeza (Meta Physician)

 -To “exist” is to “stand out”
 -To “exist” is “to make a difference.”
Rolando M. Gripaldo (Circumtantialist)
 -“Free choice” – Choices are done in situations,
which are 2 broad types: rational and non-rational.


Isabelo Delos Reyes (Labor

Activist/Anthropologist)
 -Father of Socialism
 -Initiated labor strikes against American business
firms
 -Founded ‘El Ilocano”
 -He organized the first labor union, Union Obrera
Democratica Filipina
 -Mother Tongue based Multilingual Education
Teodoro M. Kalaw
 -Published Cinko Reglas de Nuestra Moral
Antiga

Camilo Osias
 -“Tayo” concept
 -Believes that education must secure for

every Filipino the fullest measure of

efficiency, freedom, and happiness.
Vicente Sinco, Francisco Dalupan,
and Conrado Aquino
 -Liberal Education – an approach to learning
that empowers individuals and repairs them
to deal with complexity, diversity, and
change.
 -Sinco envisioned the need for well-trained

teachers as one of the essential factors to

improve the quality of the educational
program in schools.
 -Aquino also stressed that those responsible

for the education of the citizens must also

educate them in the fullness of their rational
nature.
Thank You !!