Final exam for Philo

exam for phil 36 (The Philosophy of Man)

1. In what way that slave morality is a means with which the powerless can exploit the powerful?

2. What conditions are necessary in order for a dialog to succeed in arriving at a consensus?

3. Give an example of a situation wherein Habermas' theory can be applied.

submit your answers to the faculty room on or before the end of the semester

Gene-Ethics

When Stem Cell Biologist and Geneticist introduced the world to Dolly, the first ever cloned mammal in the universe many people raised the red flag, many questions where asked and many conservatives give off their most heaviest attack on science, most of these Anti-Stem Cell Research are clergymen. But when these clerics are ask what is the definition of Stem Cell Biology they tend to define it base on their own opinion and not as a collective word that is judge by its harm and benefits. Some of them define it as an act of the devil because it is playing God, in fact Stem Cell Biology is not playing God rather it is the utilization of God’s creation into something productive. Stem Cell Biologist do not create something out of nothing they only reprogram a particular cell of a living thing so that it will act in a completely different manner, its like teaching a Chinese how to speak English. With the Vatican attacking these people (Scientists) is like going back many centuries ago, to the time when the same religious institution condemn the works of Galileo and Johan Kepler and other scientists that agreed to the fact that earth is not the center of the universe, back to the time that many autistic, physically and mentally incapable citizens are feared not because they have this incapacities but because church-influenced society thought they are possessed by an evil spirit, back to the time where lepers and other maladies caused by microbial infestations are banished from the face of the earth because they (the people) believe these men (the lepers, etc.) are unclean and are carrying an evil demon with them, without them (the people) considering any form of scientific explanation. Yes, I may bluntly conclude that the church is ignorant about the advancement of science because their profession only deals with abstract theological thinking that confers to their standards of morality and not to the logical-mathematical thinking of science that is under a different kind of morality.

I, being a patron of Molecular Biology and Genetics, like the pope and his subordinates I am also obliged to stand on what I believe is right. So how do we reconcile these two opposing concepts? A proposal of Gene-Ethics, that is the proper ethics for the usage of the Stem Cell Knowledge, should be formed not only to set the proper application of this branch of modern biology but also to set some standards and limits to its application as well. Remember that this advancement of science have two faces, the one beneficial the other harmful. Lets consider first one of its benefits, the most common benefits of Stem Cell Biology is in the field of medicine, by reprogramming a cell to act into another particular type of cell structure (like for example reprogramming a human fibroblast cell into a brain cell) then it can be used as an artificial vector of diseases (like inducing tumor in the newly transformed brain cell) then new drugs can be applied to it and thus drug discovery requires no clinical trials on animals and men. Now lets consider the harmful causes of this technology, the most common harmful effect of this technology is the unethical use of this knowledge to manipulate human fetuses to obtain desirable characteristics thus the Stem Cell Biologist is interfering in the process of ethical natural creation, a process where only nature should control and that the development of the child should not be interfered by any mechanical means. So what should be the basic standpoint of Gene-Ethics? It is the job of biomedical ethicist to do this but if I may let me propose a few points that may help them.

First, it should not be used to interfere with the proper development of the child not unless it is critically needed or that the embryo needs to be manipulated in a way to benefit another or all of the people in which there is no other way but to perform the act. By doing this a single life sacrificed for the benefit of another life or for the benefit of all.
Secondly, the purpose of stem cell should be beneficial and for the benefits of seeking knowledge that can be helpful to the whole society. By doing this there is a limitation to what type of research can be done using the technology.
Thirdly, the aims of the Stem Cell Biology research should not benefits only the chosen few but to the greatest number of people as well. The result should not be destructive to any community and it should not be selfish.
These are the only points that I can suggest so that this branch of science will be used wisely and that the church will start appreciating the value of this knowledge.

Morality

What is the true measure of a morality? Is it how a certain moral ideals benefit the whole society by performing the actions that is good to all? Is it by valuing an individual by its true intrinsic values? Or is morality giving the utmost respect to everyone? Morality is quite unique to an individual, in which one man tends to value one ideal than the other. But to what extent is morality considered as still moral when too much of something is harmful? One can be abused with too much humility yet one can also become a tyrant with too much pride. Yes moderation is the key, the balance of what is good and what is bad. Man cannot be too divine in actions or too evil in deeds. The essence of true morality is the one on how a single ideal affect the mind of a child.

To whatever a certain moral ideal affect the life of a child and how it mold the child’s viewpoint in life. Remember that when a child is thought with one ideal to a much extent the other ideals are shadowed behind the main ideology. Too much kindness will ruin the heart but too much evil can ruin the soul. There is no perfect morality that can be applied to the world Nietzsche’s perception is too egoistic and very discriminating. There is no such thing that a man is above the other not a man below the rest. Kant’s is too impossible to apply. There is no such thing as Utopia, there is no such thing as paradise. The morality of one person can be considered immoral to another.

Moral ethicist are mere men that keeps on dreaming of a society that they wished to be a part of. So what then is the true essence of morality? The essence of true morality is the moderation of the two entity of life. The balance of both good and evil. Remember we are humans and we both have the potential to create and destroy and it is this cycle of kindness and hatred, humility and pride, darkness and light. The eternal dance of the dual forces that balances the universe therefore it could also be considered that to one extent man is good but to another extent he is evil.

On Fr. Gregor Mendel, Augustinian Priest

Since I was a child I am so curious with how do people get brown skin, while others get white? I kept on asking myself is there anyway to bring back an animal (like dinosaurs) that is long been extinct or even asking if I can breed a cat and a dog together or a frog and a turtle, yes such was my curiosity when I was a young boy. Now that I am in the last year of my bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, I have came to realize that I don’t want to end up as a mere chemical engineer alone, surely there is more to me than to calculate chemical engineering problems, I want more than these, I want to engineer not only materials but living materials as well which leads me to the interest of three particular fields: Genetics, Molecular Biology and Molecular Medicine. When I was in high school I met this interesting person. He was an Augustinian Priest and a Leader of Brno Observatory, although he failed the science exams at the University of Vienna two times, he still pursue his teaching career and lastly before me and this person bid our farewell he left a very interesting mark and influence in me, yes he may have failed two exams in one prestigious university but people like Watsons and Cricks praise him because he is not much as to found the science of Genetics, this man is no other than Fr. Gregor Mendel himself.

When I graduated high school, I thought that I wont come across with Fr. Mendel again, but life has a funny way of messing up things in a good way. After failing four subjects in my Chemical Engineering course I stumble again upon with my old acquaintance, Fr. Gregor Mendel, in the science library but his time he brought some friends with him to meet too. He brought with him his three friends Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns and Erich von Tschermak. He also brought with him his best friend to meet me his name is Mr. George Weldon, and to make things merrier he unhesitantly acquaint me with Mr. William Bateson, a biology professor at Cambridge University. After that I met William S. Sutton and Thomas Hunt Morgan along with his colleagues: Alfred Sturtevant, Calvin Bridges and Hermann J. Muller. Furthermore I also met the team of Mr. George Beadle and Edward Tatum and lastly I met James Watson and Francis Crick. For that instant I also knew that I am but a mere stranger to them, a young man named Gerard Ompad. But then again I also knew that day I met ordinary men and, like Fr. Mendel himself, may have made mistakes like I did but pursue to make their ordinary lives extraordinary by thinking on what things to do after failures has set in. like what Luis Pasteur said: "Chances favors the prepared mind". So I redressed my spirit and shove off the shame of my failed grades. I want to become a teacher someday, but I wont be any ordinary teacher who just come up with lecture notes and discuss my students to sleep. I will be a teacher to any of this field: Genetic engineering, Molecular Biology or Molecular Medicine.

I thank that time when Fr. Mendel plan to met me again and showed me the many possibilities of becoming a science teacher. Like him I am also a poor boy. He (Fr. Mendel) being a son of a farmer and me being a son of a police officer the only difference between us is that his father cannot support him for a college university while my father cannot support me to pursue my graduate studies. That’s why I am hoping that life will mess things up again and this time I will stumble up with Mr. Bill Gates to finance my Graduate studies maybe that will do fine with me. I am not a smart person, I should say but like Fr. Mendel I am a great experimentalist and I record keen details and process the collected data in both quantitative and qualitative manner. Apparently I know it will be a long way up the ladder with my situation right now, penniless to buy my own book, enduring that one kilometer walk from school to my house every day to save money to buy my lunch at school. But that will not stop me from planning and setting goals. As long as man has the will to pursue then he has the greatest capacity to survive even at the most harsh weathers and the most hostile conditions. Lastly before me, Fr. Mendel and his friends walk our own ways that day I learn I good lesson with them: "it doesn’t need great intelligence to make a science book but a simple curiosity and the will to seek the answers to these inquiries."
-Gerard D. Ompad

The Vatican Versus The Stem Cell Biologists

The Vatican Versus The Stem Cell Biologists

Since the dawn of time, religion and science never go out very well with each other, new discoveries that are made by science are always rebuked and condemned by the church. In my own opinion, the church should let science grow in its own accord. Yes it is quiet true that technology in wrong hands is very dangerous but one must compromise that no matter how noble a scientific research maybe there will always be a negative side effect from it. Remember also that too much faith can cause ignorance too, if people will only stick to predestination and faith there will be no advancement in society and everyone will stagnate as gullible savages believing only in the "Will" of the church not in the "Will" of men. Remember that God gave the power of Free Will. The freedom to choose and live on his own way as long as it is for the "Good" of himself and for the "Benefit" of all. I am also a God fearing man but I am also a patron of DNA technology including stem cell research. I have a vision that this technology will cure most men having affected with diseases that is incurable by current medical treatment. This could be the path to a safe cure in treating oncological illnesses, like brain cancer. If the church considers Stem Cell Research as a sin would it be more of a sin to stop the opportunity of many men, women and children to live a longer life? I agree to Stem Cell Research as long as the purpose of the research is for the benefit of everyone, not only of man but also of animals, not only for the present but for the future generations as well.

Let us have an in depth look into what Stem Cell Research is. Stem cell research is a branch of (biomedical) science that deals with tissue culture and tissue engineering. Meaning tissues are harvested from a source then are cultured in a nutrient agar plates, or any nutrient broth, under the desired conditions. Later, the tissue is manipulated so that the cells "acts" like another tissue in the body. For example, epidermal tissues are harvested then cultured then manipulated to act and literally transform itself into another type of tissue like duodenum tissues or joint tissues. The benefits of this research are of broad spectrum. The technology can be used to "literally" make an organ so desired so that it will be compatible for any individual’s body that will undergo organ transplant. It can help agriculture to improve crops by making disease-resistant, pest-resistant, drought-resistant plants thus helping decrease world hunger. The technology can be use to develop stronger bio-therapeutic products to fight diseases. On the other hand, this can be used for creating humans with super human strength or creating ideal people with ideal characteristics. But these negative effects can be prevented as long as proper authorities are always on the close guard.

Why is the church condemning this technology? Is it because the people in this field of science are playing God? No, they are not playing God but rather they are utilizing what God has offered to be put in good practical use. It would be humanity’s greatest shame to loose such a great achievement of science. People in this field are smart professional, they are seeking knowledge not only for knowledge’s sake but how this knowledge can be applied for the benefits of mankind and for the whole world in general.

An Unexamined Life is a Life Worth Not Living

" An Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living"-Plato

This quote that was stated by Plato is synonymous with Rene Descartes’s "Cognito ergo sum" (It think therefore I exist) and Marcus Aurelius’s "Know thyself". In general only by examining one’s self a human can achieve a full realization of his existence on earth. Because a human being will not reach full development if he cannot recognize his purpose of living and fail to attain the qualities of having a purposeful life. The fullness of self-realization takes a long span of time to take its full fledge. One way of examining oneself is by fully understanding that humans have potentials, and by examining these potential one can have a life worth living. One human potential is his mental abilities, his capacity to think rationally and to create imaginations and set up ideals and goals and to gain and apply knowledge, to judge what is right and what is wrong, another human potential is his physical abilities to develop one’s body to its full strength and capabilities and communication capabilities. But on the other hand examining one’s life is also connected with examining not as an individual human being but something that is a part of a whole. To realize that as a human being we are in connection with a greater reality, that everything around us is also connected with us and that the consequence of our actions will not only affect us but also the system around us.

As the basic law of physics said "In every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Examining life is also like examining the universe, which includes its cognitive and orectic capabilities, as well as its affection (feelings) and conation (striving) characteristics. To examine one’s life one must know that in life everything is in a constant dualistic struggle of good and evil, like the constant struggle of day and night. Man by nature is both a medium of creation and destruction, that as a human being we are have the potential to be good and the potential to be evil and by examining one’s purpose in his life is one way of knowing where he stand in this two opposing forces. It is still not purposeful to say that only those selected people who have the "will" and the "strength" can survive the constant struggle of living, for life is more than the "brute force" of the human body and also more than the impetus of the "will" but also of relating with the system around us, the way we treat our surroundings. One’s examination of life will affect the development of a human being.

An unexamined life is a life full of confusion and turmoil. It is a life full of stillness and stagnation not only of knowledge, strength and potentials but also a stagnation of values as well. This stagnation of life will only put the person in a state of confusion, one will not know where he will go next, what will he become in the future. He will not realize what is right and what is wrong. His actions will only cause destruction not only to himself but the whole reality as well, for man is a part of a greater whole. It is a life not worth living, for one cannot give contribution to the whole greater part where he is a part. Everything is created for a purpose and thru examining one’s life he will recognize his part in this greater reality and that he will determine his place in the society.

Measure of Strength

Strength? What is the true measure of strength? Is it the action of opposing pain with brute force? Is it the firm standing that a person is immune to pain? Is it the moment a person is too hard to be hurt? No, that is not the true measure of strength. The true measure of strength is this: to admit one’s failures, to accept the pain that is carried along with it and to submit to its consequences, no matter how painful it is. And for a person that is left behind by somebody that he loves true strength is this: he accepts the painful way of the parting ways yet behind this unbearable moment he endures because he knows that by the end of the day even when he cries himself to sleep he is still cradled by other people.

True inner strength is to submit yet to endure because he is driven by that single force that can even shake mountain, that force is called hope. Remember we are but mortal human beings, predictable and vulnerable. Open to pain and failures but it is this vulnerability that we seek to love and to be loved in return. We are not created to hate neither we are created to be bitter, we are born to learn, we are born to move forward not to stand still and stagnate at a single moment in our life. Because if we do we shall never see what lies ahead, what is in the future waiting for us. Loving is not a goodie bag all the time, one must undergo thru a cycle of make ups and break ups, the sanity of hellos and the madness of goodbyes. One must undergo many painful tasks and sacrifices before he can truly say: "this is it, I have found what I am seeking…." Yes living is an infinite dance of laughter, anger, sadness and mercy. One is never complete with out the other. And it is the balance of these elements that we can learn true strength not by pride that feeds shame but by patience that feeds humility. And remember this that even in the darkest of days the only thing the soul can cling to is his torch called hope.


-gerard d. ompad
"Thursdays with maurons"

The Introduction

We are all born wondering what is our purposes for being brought about, we experience pain and joy, sadness and happiness, madness and sanity. But for me the past 22 years of my life was a great experience, full of lessons. i meet many people, we became friends, some became enemies. I fell in love and fall out of love due to some maurons who prefer to play around than to get serious. I commited mistakes and learn from them and every lesson i learn, every memory i experience i write them in my journal, now i will compile these works and publish it and title it:"Thursdays with Maurons"
a collection of anecdotes that both praise and criticize life and teaches you how to be humble and how to black mail your enemies even without them knowing....
so enjoy....