JournalTOCs

Solidarity : The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics
Number of Followers: 2

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Online) 1839-0366
Published by U of Notre Dame Australia

[2 journals]

Professional Responsibility: A Deontological Case-Study Approach
- Authors: Iñaki Xavier Larrauri Pertierra
  Abstract: Kantian Deontological Ethics concerns itself with the will as grounded in universalisable maxims. Such maxims are in turn based on rationally conceived laws that, in a professional setting, find expression in the autonomously made agreements constituting professional protocols and regulations. When applied to a case-study wherein public safety has been possibly jeopardised by company products, we can argue for priority in the agreed-to responsibility towards the good of professional autonomy, expressed as a rational mandate of nondisclosure of confidential product information, over that of the good of public safety. This priority persists regardless of whether the good of truth, such as the disclosure of confidential product information, has its value grounded in itself or the good of safety. Nevertheless, company and individual professional responsibility may prioritise safety over autonomy, but how this prioritisation is made must be sensitive to the autonomously willed choice of the employed professional.
  PubDate: Tue, 03 Aug 2021 23:41:03 PDT
Laudato Si, The Abolition of Man and Plato’s Republic
- Authors: Scott Ragland
  Abstract: In Laudato Si, Pope Francis attributes global climate change to a destructive “technocratic paradigm” of thought and action. He then calls for a renewed educational program to resist the technocratic paradigm. This paper shows how reading C. S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man and Plato’s Republic alongside Laudato Si can help students better appreciate some of Francis’ central points. Abolition of Man illuminates the technocratic paradigm’s essential features: (1) a reduction of value-laden creation (which demands respect) to value-neutral “nature” (which does not) and (2) the development of techniques to transform nature—including human nature—according to the desires of the dominant class. The allegory of the cave and the tripartite account of the soul in Plato’s Republic help clarify the notion of “objective value” at play in Francis’ encyclical, and also give students tools to foster a critical perspective on consumerist culture.
  PubDate: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:49:45 PDT
Declaration on Religious Freedom: Three Developmental Aspects
- Authors: Thomas Ryan SM
  Abstract: This article considers key aspects of the Vatican II declaration on religious freedom Dignitatis Humanae and John Courtney Murray’s role in its formulation. This will be done with concern for the broader theological context as exemplified in Thomas Aquinas. After a brief outline of the difficulties Murray faced and their resolution, the discussion moves in four stages: a summary of the key ideas in the document on the relationship between truth and freedom from which the following three ideas receive a focus; the person (dignity and conscience); rights and their evolving context; historical consciousness and its role as a mode and locus of theological reflection. Here, a suggestion is offered about the interrelationship of speculative and practical reason in doctrinal development.
  PubDate: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:49:32 PDT
Subsidiarity and a Free Society: The Subsidiary Role of the State in
Catholic Social Teaching
- Authors: Augusto Zimmermann
  Abstract: One of the key principles of Catholic social thought is known as the principle of subsidiarity. This tenet holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organisation which can be done by a smaller and simpler organisation. Subsidiarity, understood in this sense, is opposed to forms of centralisation, bureaucratisation, and welfare assistance that deprive citizens of their own responsibility toward themselves, their families, and their societies. Rather, subsidiarity supports personal empowerment and responsibility as much as a proper balance between the public and private spheres, with the resulting recognition of the common good that is inherently achieved through the spontaneous interactions between free and responsible people. Hence, the subsidiarity principle is a bulwark of freedom and it conflicts with all forms of collectivism. It sets the limits for state action.
  PubDate: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:49:22 PDT
The Pope and Henry George: Pope Leo XIII compared with Henry George, on
the ownership of land and other natural resources. A possible
rapproachement'
- Authors: John Pullen
  Abstract: The encyclical, Rerum Novarum, issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 was interpreted by Henry George as a criticism of the views he had expressed in Progress and Poverty, 1879, and other writings. Later in 1891 George published The Condition of Labor, a critical response to Rerum Novarum. It has been generally thought that the two sets of ideas are irreconcilable, and that a united policy for an equitable and efficient sharing of Earth’s natural resources is impossible. However, a re-assessment of the ideas of Leo and George suggests that their differences were not entirely opposed, and that some basic aspects are capable of rapprochement.
  PubDate: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:49:15 PDT
Solidarity through National Pride: The Future of Catholic Politics in the
21st Century
- Authors: Christopher Dowson
  Abstract: This paper raises the Pragmatist concepts of solidarity and national pride, as espoused by American philosophers such as John Dewey and Richard Rorty, as potential means for Catholics in Western democratic nations to approach the current political issues facing them in the 21st century. Though Dewey and Rorty were neither politicians nor Catholics (being liberal thinkers trained in philosophy), their views on solidarity and patriotism in modern liberal democracies provide useful roadmaps for Catholics in Europe and the Anglosphere to navigate our present period of polarised and highly partisan politics, potentially reaching a ‘sensible centre’ akin to the American Catholic political tradition since the 1930s. This centrism relies on this Pragmatist solidarity through a shared hope of a pluralistic society constantly improved upon for the benefit of future generations. Catholics can only achieve this solidarity and hope if they feel, in the spirit of Rorty, a deep sense of national pride for their country. This type of national pride is not reactionary in nature, but advocates a politics of pluralism rather than identity, democratic nationalism rather than amorphous internationalism, and active engagement in the public square to implement an achievable political programme of action which is hopeful and borne out of a collective imagination for a better future for their countries.
  PubDate: Sun, 11 Aug 2019 16:49:05 PDT
Climate Justice: The Cry of the Earth, the Cry of the Poor (The Case of
the Yolanda/Hayain Tragedy in the Philippines)
- Authors: delfo cortina canceran
  Abstract: In the Encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis relates the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. Literally, cry is a metaphor pregnant with meanings. It can mean the feeling of pain and suffering, the experience of sadness and loss calling out for relief and sympathy. The earth and the poor have equally endured this tears of lamentation. The cry is not just an expression of pain but also an appeal to responsibility. Thus we need to take seriously the groaning of our ecology and humanity. In the context of climate change, the global warming affects the whole world but it specifically affects the poor more. The poor people vulnerable to exposure to disaster as demonstrated by the supertyphoon - internationally known as Haiyan and locally known as Yolanda - tragedy that worsens the poverty of the already poor. The poor daily depend on the earth for their sustenance and livelihood. Moreover, they are mostly endangered in times of disaster. Since they are made from light and cheap materials, their properties are easily damaged or even totally destroyed in times of disaster. Scholars argue that climate change is an issue of justice. Thus, they propose climate justice in distributing responsibility caused by global warming and eventually taking responsibility to the earth as a common home.
  PubDate: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 17:28:55 PST
Laudato Si’s call for dialogue with indigenous peoples: A cultural
insider’s response from the Christianized indigenous communities of the
Philippines
- Authors: Gaston Kibiten
  Abstract: Picking up from Laudato Si’s suggestion to dialogue with indigenous peoples in line with its urgent call to address the current ecological crisis, this paper interrogates the Catholic Church’s complicity in undermining the cultures of indigenous peoples in the Philippines. It argues that the matter has to be revisited and acted upon accordingly, as this remains a challenge to the relations between the indigenous communities and the Church, including their common advocacy for environmental care. As a case for discussion, the paper presents an autoethnographic analysis of the Church’s proselytization of the indigenous Kankanaeys of the Cordillera region, focusing on how this process undercut and transformed the people’s worldview and religion, and eroded their traditional relations with nature. From the autoethnographic case, the paper proposes several lines of action that can be considered in dialogue by the Church and the indigenous Christian communities: a Church-wide formal apology and rectification of wrongs, radical inculturation, integration of indigenous deities and spirits, and shaping up an indigenous-Christian ecological ethos. These measures, aside from mitigating the lingering impact of Christian conversion on indigenous cultures, could pave the way towards better partnership between the two parties in today’s environmental politics in the country.
  PubDate: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 17:28:47 PST
Pakikipagkapwa: A Filipino Value in Attempt to Counter Biodiversity and
Cultural Diversity Loss
- Authors: Kristine Meneses
  Abstract: Many would think of biodiversity merely in the context of environment, ecology, or nature. Species thrive because of diversity, and that includes human beings. However, this article treks an unusual terrain of biodiversity. The damage we made towards nature bespeaks the harm we likewise do against the vulnerable ‘other’in society, in particular the Deaf people. The people who are Deaf discussed in this article are the ones who identify themselves as entho-linguistic cultural minority. In addition, they do not consider deafness to be a deficit; rather, some of them view their condition as different, or to some is diversity. Contextually, this writer presents an alternate way to afford respect with humility by employing a moral Filipino value of pakikipagkapwa (shared inner-self).In a society that seems to remain numb to the groaning of our kapwa (the Other or fellow-being), this article challenges us to reconsider if we truly care for the non-human and the Deaf, who remains the vulnerable ‘other’ today.
  PubDate: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 17:28:40 PST
Contextualizing Laudato Si’ through People’s Organization Engagement:
A Kalawakan Experience
- Authors: Arvin Eballo
  Abstract: AbstractBarangay[1] Kalawakan[2] is one of the eight barangays of Doña Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan[3] situated at the Sierra Madre Mountain Range[4] of Luzon. Likewise, the place is considered as Bulacan’s last frontier because of its tropical rainforest flora and fauna, preserved biodiversity and balanced ecosystem. However, this barangay has also attracted several large-scale mining companies to extract metals and minerals either from or below the earth. As a defense mechanism of the locals, they initiated to form a people’s organization (PO) known as Samahang Makakalikasan ng Barangay Kalawakan[5] composed of the Tagalogs (lowlanders) and indigenous people locally known as Dumagats through the help of some academic institutions. This organization which aims to promote justice, peace and integrity of creation, has complied with the requirements mandated by the Security and Exchange Commission of the Republic of the Philippines. On this note, the proponent described how the members have protected and preserved their natural environment, resources and wildlife habitat. He also explained how the group opposed and exerted efforts to foreclose the two influential large-scale mining companies through series of protests, public consultations, court hearings, conferences, fora, exhibits, fieldtrips and symposia in collaboration with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources[6], the Provincial Government of Bulacan and several educational institutions. Part of this research article also explains how the members have sustained their integral ecology through livelihood, environmental and health programs in partnership with the Kamanlalakbay Program of the University of Santo Tomas-Office for Community Development[7] as indicators of contextualization of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’. The proponent utilized participatory action research as a tailor-made method. He also utilized an overarching framework known as reflection/action/realization process which emerged from his experiences as a community organizer. This model has 5 stages: first is experience, where one reviews the concrete situation including his/her experiences of the lived reality; second is brief social analysis where one understands the deeper systemic and structural of a particular social injustice; third is theological reflection wherein one is given the opportunity to examine the issue through the perspective of faith; fourth is action, where one decides what he/she can do and should be done to address the root causes of the problem; and fifth is realization, wherein one has to learn from his/her discernment. The aforementioned paradigm should be consistently followed when reducing social theories into practice.[1]It pertains to the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward.[2]Literally, it refers to universe or outer space. It can also be defined as a territory with huge land area. Hereafter, Barangay Kalawakan will be referred to as Kalawakan.[3]Doña Remedios Trinidad is the largest municipality in Bulacan, occupying almost 1/3 of the total land area of the province. Hereafter, this town will be referred to as DRT.[4]Sierra Madre is a long mountain range that encompasses Northern, Central and Southern Luzon.[5]Hereafter, this group will be referred to as SAMAMAKA.[6]Hereafter, this government agency will be referred to as DENR.[7]Hereafter, this institution will be referred to as UST-OCD.
  PubDate: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 17:28:33 PST
Sustainable Development and Integral Ecology: The Philippine Ecological
Experience
- Authors: Jove S. Aguas
  Abstract: Two of the most important concepts that are related to environmental care and our present ecological situation are sustainable development and integral ecology. Pope Francis in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’ focused on these concepts and stressed the need to safeguard our environment to ensure that while we meet the needs of the present generation we also do not compromise the needs of the future generation. He proposes a development that is both sustainable and integral, a development that is authentically just and for the common good. In this paper I discuss the ideals of sustainable development and integral ecology as expounded by various scholars and from both the western and oriental perspectives and as discussed in Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’. The last section of the paper highlights the Philippine ecological situation to serve not as an ideal but a kind of mirror as to what is happening in a developing country like the Philippines which is situated in an area where different ecological factors converge. The Philippines has always been at the center of the many ecological crises mainly because of human and natural factors. In the end, I stress that sustainable development must be premised on integral ecology and this should be the case not only in the Philippines but in the entire planet.
  PubDate: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 17:28:26 PST

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