MSU Marawi Philosophy Department to launch Introduction to Philosophy book with Islamic Perspectives

The Philosophy Department of MSU Marawi will be launching its Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person textbook in December 2023. According to Dr. Godiva Eviota-Rivera, the book's editor, eight faculty members of the department are co-authors of the project. Atty. Aurora Lyn Racmat, chair of the Philosophy Department, said that the textbook will be used by the university's Senior High School and will be introduced to other schools in the whole Bangsamoro region. 

The book is novel in the sense that it will be the first in the country to incorporate Islamic perspectives on philosophical thinking and its method. The book will also discuss the concept of human embodiment and sociality, and the views of prominent Muslim scholars on the environment and climate change, human freedom, death, and intersubjectivity. The writers of the eight different chapters are Omera M. Serad, Atty. Racmat, Ni'mah Ummu Hani Barra, Norhaya Amerol, Carla Karmille Bernaldez-Litera, Khalid Datumanong Rinamuntao, Efren Jone Oledan, and Loriedel Baclayo. 

Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc, author of Radical Democracy in the Time of Duterte and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ateneo de Davao University and Visiting Professor for Philosophy at Silliman University, is the project consultant. He was the resoure person in the Book Writing Workshop of the MSU - Marawi Department of Philosophy held at Kingsway Hotel in Iligan City from July 27-29, 2023. The book will be released in the second semester of the present school year, according to Atty. Racmat.