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In "The Runabout Inference-Ticket," the New Zealand-born philosopher and logician Arthur N. Prior presented the tonk argument as a case against the inferential role view of logical connectives -- the view that the meaning of a given logical connective is completely determined by its roles in deductively valid arguments. This paper evaluates the salient literature surrounding Prior's argument to draw some insights into what precisely it is supposed to show. In particular, it argues that combined with Prior's later thoughts expressed in "Conjunction and contonktion revisited," the tonk argument suggests a more metaphysical-cum-epistemic rather than just a purely (meta) logical view of the nature of logical connectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his two articles, F. P. A. Demeterio III attempts to classify works in Filipino philosophy using a list of twelve (or sixteen) supposed discourses that prominent philosophers in the Philippines have engaged in and published over the past few years. From this list, he advises current Filipino philosophers to invest their time and effort in contributing to only five of these because of their alleged higher measure of "developmental potential" as opposed to other discourses. In this paper, we raise some fundamental issues with Demeterio's approach. We show that (i) his work's conclusions rest on questionable methodological assumptions that make (ii) the discourses which the work arrived at and the rankings in terms of "developmental potential" superficial and ungrounded. Finally, (iii) instead of fulfilling the main aim of advancing research in Filipino philosophy, the proposed approach may actually lead to its stagnation and demise. We argue that these issues, if left unanswered, make Demeterio's whole approach to Filipino philosophy unsound and may put into question the employment of such an approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview with W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr, we discuss the metaphysical and ethical questions of grouping and classifying people in terms of race and ethnicity. Outlaw is the author of [On Race and Philosophy] and one of the recognised pioneers of Africana Philosophy. Outlaw talks about growing up in racial segregation in Starkville, Mississippi, the Black Power movement, the notion of the Black intellectual, scholarship and teaching, and philosophizing about race. We discuss the ambiguity of the concept of philosophy of race and explore the concepts of raciality, categories, human sociality, evolution, and oppression. With his philosophical, political, and sociological influences, Outlaw asserts that racism makes no sense at all because the diversity of our species is one of our greatest assets; and in terms of survival, we are all of the same species though certain group-shared differences do matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claro R. Ceniza [1927-2001] is arguably one of the best philosophers that the Philippines has ever produced. However, it is quite unfortunate that some of his important contributions are not that wellknown. This paper aims to rectify this by presenting an evaluation of his original insights on three outstanding problems in philosophy, viz., the paradoxes of material implication, the nature of probability, and the metaphysics of modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his Formal Logic, Arthur N. Prior (1914–1969) declared that Jan Łukasiewicz's logical notation is 'unquestionably the best logical symbolism for most purposes'. Whether he had a substantive, and not only practical, reason for this notational preference is unclear. Through an investigation of his philosophical outlook towards the nature of logic and representation in general, and the nature of logical 'operators' in particular, this paper suggests that there might be a substantive argument for this declaration. This argument is premised on Prior's own metaphysical view that an adequate notation must represent the functional nature of these operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has become a global health crisis, where, as of June 13, 2020, hundreds of thousands have died and millions of people have been infected. In a country with a dual and decentralised healthcare system, wherein only a part of the health premiums are subsidised by the government, the pandemic is a huge health challenge because of resource and capacity limitations. Alarmed by the human rights abuses that the Anti-Terrorism law may bring, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) Chairman Peter Murphy stated that the government seems to be 'giving priority to repressive legislation but remains bungling in addressing the pandemic. [Extracted from the article]

The hit American TV show The Good Place has garnered quite a following in recent years. Its main premise implies a scorekeeping view of the afterlife. People who have collected enough credits in their earthly lives will make the cut and go to the Good Place, while those who do not will be banished to the Bad Place. We suggest that such a premise would have to come to terms with Ted Sider's puzzle about the compatibility of a binary afterlife with God's divine attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In "Phenomenal Concept Strategy and a Master Argument," Mabaquiao presents the debate between physicalists and anti-physicalists in light of the plausibility of the phenomenal concept strategy vis-à-vis Chalmers' master argument. He argues that, as it currently stands, the debate is at an ontological stalemate. This paper argues that this indictment is not fair given an alternative picture of the current dialectical status of the debate. Furthermore, it suggests that, given this picture, we could have reasons to favor the anti-physicalists over the physicalists just by following how the debate has currently been pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recently published letter to the editor of this journal, the authors have called for the need to establish psychological support structures that cater to people's mental health in this time of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. To be more holistic, we extend this call to include people's spiritual well-being as well. We highlight the initiatives of the Philippines' religious sector. In particular, we report some of the interventions made by the Roman Catholic Church that have led to the social media hashtag, #ChurchInAction. These religious and spiritual interventions showcase the efforts of the Philippine Church and play an important role in providing assistance in time of public health crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]