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Are you the same person you were years ago?  

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Letters to Cupid Winners

The winners of UP KaPiTas' Letters to Cupid Valentine writing contest are:

3rd place: Entry #12 and Entry #18 (81 pts.)

2nd place: Entry #13 (84.33)

1st place: Entry #6 (84.67)

THANK YOU to all those who participated and CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners!

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We just released this year's Balitang Tasyo! Check it out ;-)

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Bridge: The Second Philosophy Convention Today, 1-5 pm @ CM Recto Hall, Faculty Center See you there!

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If you could talk to the Roman god of love, what would you say?

...

UP Kabataang Pilosopo Tasyo presents

Letters to Cupid: A Valentine's Letter Writing Contest

A. Eligibility 1. This letter-writing contest is open to all students in the Metro Manila area. 2. Letters submitted must have a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 500 in either English or Filipino. As it will be featured publicly, the participant may opt to use a code name. 3. There will be a registration fee of Php 20. Interested participants may contact Cupid at 0922 836 55 05. 4. One entry per person. B. Submission of Entries 1. Send your letter in .doc format to upd.kapitas@gmail.com (Subject: Letters to Cupid Submission). The email should contain the following details: Name of Participant: Codename: University/College: Contact no.: 2. Pay the registration fee of P20 at the UP KaPiTas tambayan. AS building, 3rd World Library, Under the bridge. 3. Once payment has been settled, your letter will be uploaded to the Letters to Cupid Facebook Page. Thereafter, you can ask your friends to ‘like’ your entry. 4. The submission of entries will be open from January 9 – February 13, 11:59pm.  5. The entries will be judged according to the following criteria: Content 40% Originality 30% Creativity 20% Audience Impact 10% = 100% 6. The top three entries will be selected as First Place, Second Place, and Third Place, respectively, and shall be featured in the Letters to Cupid Wall at the AS Lobby from February 14 – 17. 7. Winners shall receive the following prizes: 1st Place: P 1000 2nd Place: P 700 Third Place: P 300 8. Judging of winners shall be on February 14, 2012. Winners will be notified through text messaging and e-mail.  9. Winners are given 30 days to claim their prizes at the UP KaPiTas tambayan. Unclaimed prizes after 30 days are considered forfeited.

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When you ground your happiness on reputation, what happens when you lose it overnight? UP Kabataang Pilosopo Tasyo presents an Alternative Classroom Learning Experience on CYBER BULLYING with speaker Mr. Christopher Lao plus  Cyber Bully: A Film Showing Cake for first 40 attendees Coffee and tea will be served. :) See you! :)

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Happy New Year from UP Kabataang Pilosopo Tasyo!

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Merry merry Christmas from UP Kabataang Pilosopo Tasyo!

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There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

Socrates (via trustno1scully)

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Eros and Bad Faith

Situation:

Teen dies of over masturbation (Published Sept 4, 2011)

A 16-year-old boy in Brazil reportedly died after masturbating too much. He was allegedly to have masturbated more than 40 times throughout the night last month and was found dead by his mother in the morning. The woman said she had planned to bring her son for sexual addiction treatment, but it was too late. According to the teenager's classmates, the boy was "highly addicted" to sex and was always fascinated about women in all body shapes and ages. He had apparently also asked his friends to watch him masturbate through webcam. The boy had stacks of pornographic magazines in his room. A large amount of erotic pictures and films were also found in his computer.

Definition of Terms:

1) Masturbation refers to the stimulation of one's own sex organs for pleasure. It is a sexual activity that involves only the self. A universal phenomenon in one form or another, it is one of our earliest expressions of sexual stirrings and an important means of learning about our bodies. The activity has no harmful physical effects on the body. A widely practiced form of sexual release, masturbation is always accompanied by sexual fantasy.

2) Sartrean existentialism is the ethical theory that we ought to recognize that our value is rooted in the projects that we freely pursue and so promote the freedom of all to pursue their projects. This is not, however, simply the liberal view that each person should be allowed to pursue whatever they see as good so long as this does not infringe on the similar freedom of someone else, but rather the more stringent view that the only acceptable goals are those pursued “in the name of freedom.”

3) Freedom is a feature of human consciousness where by people are fundamentally, necessarily and inalienably free regardless of their circumstances. A person’s freedom does not consist in a complete detachment from all obligations; it consists in the constant responsibility of having to choose who he is through the actions he chooses to perform in response to the adversity and resistance of his situation. Even if he chooses to do nothing that is still a choice he is responsible for. There are, however, certain dispositions and responses that require conscious awareness in order to occur but are nevertheless not matters of choice. For example, sexual preference. One does not choose it and cannot choose to change it.

4) Bad Faith is the denial of the reality of freedom and choice, perhaps as a means of avoiding anxiety, as a coping strategy, or with the aim of relinquishing responsibility. Bad faith is not self-deception, rather an ongoing project of self-distraction or self-evasion. It is inauthenticity, wherein one’s outlook and behavior is rooted in a fixed nature determined by one’s inheritance, upbringing, or socialization.

5) Authenticity is the affirmation of the fundamental existential truth that we are free and responsible. Authenticity consists in embracing human reality for what it is and living in accordance with it rather than pretending it is something else. To be authentic is to realize fully one’s being-in-situation, whatever this situation may happen to be: with a profound awareness that, through the authentic realization of the being-in-situation, one brings to full existence the situation on the one hand and human reality on the other. Authenticity involves a person coming to terms with the fact that he will never be at one with himself, that he will never become a kind of thing that no longer has to choose what it is.

Eros and Bad Faith

In Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty endorses the view that bodily existence provides “the possibility of the barest raw material of a genuine presence in the world and establishes our first consonance with the world.” Having a body is significant because it orients us in a world where we are able to individuate subjects and objects. Since sexuality is inseparable from the notion of the body, then sexuality projects a manner of being towards the world. Therefore, the expression of sexuality is an expression of being as an embodied individual in the world. Merleau-Ponty further rejects the dialectic of the mind and body, saying that there is an inter-connection between the two such that they cannot be taken independently from one another. He accepts that desire and love have a metaphysical as well as physical significance. So, the “life of the body and the life of the psyche are involved in a relationship of reciprocal expression.” This is relevant to man as a consciousness and as a freedom.

Masturbation is an expression of sexuality. Since it is one of the ways in which individuals are acquainted with their bodies, it enables one to view and express oneself as a sexual being in the world. Such self-stimulation allows one to explore one’s body and become comfortable with it. This instinct to sex and pleasure is borne out of the reciprocal relationship of the mind and body. In other words, one does not masturbate because he is merely a ‘bundle of instincts’ or a machine governed by natural laws. It involves a psychosomatic subject in the decision to act so. Therefore, masturbation is an exercise of man’s consciousness and freedom.

Sartrean existentialism is founded on the dictum: existence precedes essence. It emphasizes that the value of individuals is rooted on the choices one makes and the actions one chooses to perform (essence), not the circumstances in which he finds himself in (existence). The exercise of one’s freedom must always lead to authenticity, which is embracing the human reality and taking responsibility for one’s actions. These choices must be freely decided; otherwise it is an inauthentic choice. And, inauthenticity or bad faith is unethical.

Sexuality is part of the human reality since man is both mind and body. The sexual-body-in-the-world is a being-in-the-situation where one is subjected to sensations and desires. Though it may not be one’s choice to be female or male, one is always responsible for what he does with the circumstances he is in. So, if he freely chooses to express his sexuality through masturbation, then it is considered ethical. Such an activity permits his essence to become. Otherwise, when he is acting merely out of upbringing or socialization etc., masturbation becomes an act of bad faith. Furthermore, if one rejects the idea of masturbation by appealing to traditional or religious figures etc., then it may also be considered inauthentic. To deny sexuality altogether is a form of self-evasion since man is a body in the world and he would have to deal with the consequences of being embodied.

It should be clear at this point, however, that even though masturbation is a legitimate expression of sexuality, it is not in itself authentic. Authenticity follows from the reasons for our decisions and actions which ultimately form our essence. It involves constant examination of one’s reasons at every masturbatory instance in order to determine whether or not it is at that instance ethical. Such an ethical framework obligates us to cultivate the “single over-arching virtue of authenticity: the disposition to recognize and promote what is most genuinely our own, the fundamental nature of our existence.” #

Sources:

Cox, G. (2009). How to be an Existentialist. London, United Kingdom: Continuum International. 

Merleau-Ponty, M. (2005). Phenomenology of Perception. London, United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis e-Library.

Webber, J. (2010). Existentialism. In J. Skorupski, The Routledge Companion to Ethics (pp. 230 - 240). Oxford, United Kingdom: Routledge.

http://www.ladyblitz.com/news/teen-dies-after-masturbating-42-times-in-a-row-3169/

http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/handouts/pdfs/masturbation.pdf 

Philosophical Discussion

Yoro, Mendoza, Villanueva, Gonzales

13 December 2011

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Submit your work now and be featured in this semester's Balitang Tasyo, to be released on 10 February 2012!

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How do you fit into the picture?

The Second Philosophy Convention.

Soon. 

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UP Association of Political Science Majors (UP APSM) and GLOBE Telecommunications bring you the hottest party for a cause- OVERDOSE! OVERDOSE lets you party all night to infectious beats with free-flowing booze and help raise proceeds for a medical mission! OVERDOSE- the reinvention of partying for a cause! FREE-FLOWING BOOZE  Plus syringe, test tube and jello shots! Beer pong and Beer bong events Beats by DJ Master Jon & DJ Itch Iwey FIVE MINUTES OF DARKNESS This event is brought to you by: Club Circa San Miguel Corporation Liquid Lounge Pool and Bar Bartenders at Work ClickTheCity.com In partnership with: UP Manila Junior Marketing Association (UPM JMA) UP Kasaysayan (UP Kas) UP KaPiTas UP Statistical Society (UP StatSoc) Pre-selling: Php200 | Door Price: Php 250

We're selling tickets! :-) Contact us if interested.

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Pakilala AVP 1112B

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We don't just study philosophy. We do philosophy.

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Sign-up week! 

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Because we're not just an organization. We're family.