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THE COLLEGE OF ARTS OF THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES believes with Dr. William J. Cory, the famous master at Eton, that one goes to a great school not so much for knowledge as for Arts and habits. For the habit of attention. For the art of expression. For the art of entering quickly into another person’s thoughts. For the art indicating ascent and dissent in graduated terms. For the art of working out what is possible in a given time. For the taste. For discernment. For mental and moral courage and sobriety. For creativity. For living and realizing truth. For sharing with and serving his countrymen. The College of Arts of PUP, likewise, affirms the insights of Dr. Eugene S. Wilson, Dean of Admission, Amberst College , that of the many qualities to be nurtured in the students, curiosity and resolution are paramount, for only the curious will learn and only the resolute will overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient should be given priority over intelligence quotient. Dr. Zosimo E. Lee, Department of Philosophy, University of the Philippines claims in his letter to the Editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the fundamental issue in our educational system is whether or not critical and creative thinking is being promoted, or what kind of intellectual skills are being propagated both by the methods of teaching and the substance of academic courses. Dr. Lee subscribes to the views expounded by Mathew Lippman in his book Thinking in Education that there are two contrasting paradigms of educational practice: the standard paradigm of normal practice and the reflective paradigm of critical practice. Dr. Lee states that the dominant assumptions of the standard paradigm are: (1) Knowledge is about the world and this knowledge is not ambiguous, neither equivocal, nor mysterious; (2) Knowledge is distributed among disciplines that are overlapping and exhaustive; (3) Teachers play an authoritative role in the educational process, for only if the teachers know students learn what the former know, and (5) students acquire knowledge by absorbing information – an educated mind is a well-stacked mind. In contrast, Dr. Lee continues, the reflective paradigm of the critical education practice assumes the following: (1) education is the outcome of participation in a teacher-guided community of inquiry. Among whose goals are the achievement of understanding the good judgement; (2) students are stirred to think about the world., the knowledge of which is revealed to be ambiguous, equivocal and mysterious; the disciplines in which the inquiry occurs are assumed to be neither overlapping nor exhaustive, hence, their relationships to their subject matters are quite problematic; (4) the teacher’s stance is fallibilitic; (5) students are expected to be thoughtful and reflective, and increasingly reasonable and judicious; (6) the focus of the educational process is not acquisition of information but on the grasp of relationship within the subject matters under investigation. Dr. Lee maintains that the more important question is not so much the kinds of courses taught but the manner they are taught. Whatever the subject matters might be, as long as the process of learning is reflective, the students will learn to think on their own. The task of teachers is to encourage the model critical and creative thinking, allowing the students to think by themselves and even to advance thinking beyond the teachers. Dr. Emerita S. Quito, a leading Filipino philosopher of the De La Salle University writes: “No scholar can truly delve into different disciplines without solid foundation in Philosophy”, that “No scientist can be exceptional in his field without an understanding of the infra-structure of reality”, and that “no guidance and no direction, no science and no art can be effectively imparted without a philosophical spirit behind it.” While the College of Arts of PUP occurs with Dr. Quito, the Department of Humanities does not attempt to teach a philosophy of philosophies, but aims to develop in the student’s philosophical attitude – an attitude which is reflective, critical and creative. Dr. Quito philosophizingly defines philosophy as “a discipline where the questions are more important than the answers and very answer becomes a new question.” Philosophy, therefore, is to philosophize. To philosophize is to ask questions. To wonder. So, for the College of Arts of PUP, to teach philosophy is to make the students philosophize; to make then to ask questions to wonder, and endeavour to make the students delve into philosophy by actually experiencing it. Our task as teachers is to entice and facilitate students to philosophize, to ask questions and to wonder about life, about right and wrong, about love, hate and loneliness, peace war and death, about freedom, justice, truth, beauty, time and space, poverty, about human rights, man’s inhumanity to man, …yes, about God and evil and many more. We, likewise, seek to let our students realize that philosophy is life, an exploration of life; that it means breaking free to questions and to resist any answers. To philosophize is not forever keeping on the public road, but leaving the well-beaten track occasionally and diving into the woods. To philosophize is to seek in oneself the courage to ask the painful questions. And that philosophy is for those who have the capacity to wonder and ask questions… only for a human being. Only for Man.