Abstract of the Paper of Zeus A. Salazar on the Locus of National Renewal.

The article presents an abstract of a paper presented by University of the Philippines associate professor Zeus A. Salazar on March 23, 1972, as part of the Philippine Sociological Society's "Social Issues '72" public lecture series. The first point of view sees Philippine problems rooted in the nature of man in general, and of the Filipino in particular. The Filipino is tainted, both by nature aid by the historical heritage of a vanquished race. Basically this point of view is psychological, and takes no account of structural, systemic features of the environment. The second point of view, the scientistic, draws on four kinds of findings the economistic, the political-scientistic, the socioanthropological and the historicist-humanist. To the economistic mind, the Philippines' problems may be traced either to a state of stagnation induced by the malignant action of certain external forces, or alternatively to a transitional phase on the route to progress with the help of those nine external forces. The problem is, in essence, that of articulating in the most efficient but democratic manner the needs and aspirations of the national community, of correcting a maladjustment in the interplay between political man and his institutions.