Matters of Need

by Lourd Ernest de Veyra

May I have some of your stash?
Please, I'll trade it for 'The Greatest Hits' of The Clash

Just a half a quarter will do, please
And you can have Synchronicity by The Police

I really need it dude, if you know what I mean?
And I'll slip this new one from Rage Against the Machine

Got some friends coming over and they don't wanna be bored
I'm actually planning to keep it but if you want this Robben Ford

Don't have cash here, but I promise to pay you back
Or my Miles Davis collection's just plain and simply wack.

Come on buddy, I need just a few, I'm begging you man.
Now take a look at this rare vinyl from Steely Dan.

I'm desparate, I'm existential. So please.
I'm giving up sound for some green disease.

Dispensa

ni Jose F. Lacaba

Humihingi ako ng tawad

Sa mga kritikong walang patawad

Na nagsasabing

Walang sinabi

Ang kasalukuyan kong berso

Kumpara sa mga hiyas na nilikha ko noong bata pa ako.

Ang noon

Ay bahagi na raw ng tinatawag nilang canon –

Pero ang ngayon

Ay naubusan na raw ng inspirasyon,

Mga dighay sa dilim

Ng isang palaging binabagabag

Ng kabag.

Ang ibig sabihin

Ng canon ay ito:

Ang lumang obra maestra mo

Ay muli’t muling

Inilalathala sa mga teksbuk

Nang walang bayad at walang pahintulot,

At kulang-kulang ang mga taludtod,

At maraming linyang mali

Ang bali,

At – ang lalong kalunos-lunos –

Pinagtatanggal ang lahat ng parteng bastos.

Masarap sana ang canon

Kung pwedeng ipambili ng ulam at kanin

The Phenomenological Method (Excerpt)

by Prof. Manuel B. Dy, Jr. Ph.D

Some Important Steps in the Phenomenological Method 

            Space and lack of time prevent us from giving a complete discussion of Husserl’s phenomenological method. For our own purposes we shall select only three important steps in his method:

First Step: Epoche

            Epoche literally means “bracketing” Husserl borrowed this mathematical term and applied it to the natural attitude. This is the preliminary step in the phenomenological method. Before I can investigate anything, I have to bracket, that is to say, hold in abeyance my natural attitude towards the object I am investigating. My natural attitude consists of my prejudices, biases, clear fixed precise, unquestioned, explicit knowledge of the object. These I have to suspend for a while, not denying it nor affirming it.

            Let us say, I am an Atenean and I meet a La Sallite. What is my natural attitude towards him? If I am a typical Atenean, I would say, here is a student who is “all form but no substance”. If I am a La Sallite and I meet an Atenean, my natural attitude would be, “here is one who is all substance but no form”. All these conceptions may have some truth, may be so clear to my mind, but if I am to use the epoche, I would have to suspend all these and let the other unfold himself before me.

            What is my natural attitude towards a priest? That he is one who is holy, pure, a messenger of God. What is my natural attitude towards a teacher? That he is one who give grades, a terror whom I have to coy and please. What is my natural attitude towards a pretty “chick”? That she is one who can probably satisfy my sexual appetites.

            It seems that we do have a natural attitude for anything, not realizing how much this hides the manifold richness of the object before us. We remain secure in the conceptual level, and unless we use the epoche, we will never perhaps come to see the richness, the beauty; the goodness of a person or thing. We have to use the epoche in order to see the world with “new eyes” and to return to the original experience from where our conceptual natural attitude after all was derived.

Second Step: The Phenomenological Eidetic Reduction    

                                    

            The term “reduction” is another term borrowed by Husserl from mathematics to refer to the procedure by which we are placed in the “transcendental sphere,” the sphere in which we can see things as they really are, independent of any prejudice. In Husserl’s philosophy, there are several reductions; and Merleau-Ponty, another phenomenologist, may even have more. But for our own purposes, we shall mention only the two most important ones: the eidetic reduction and the transcendental reduction.

Eidetic Reduction

            The eidetic reduction is derived from the Greek word “eidos”, which means essence. Under this step, I reduce the experience to its essence. How do I arrive at the essence? I start out with an individual example and investigate what changes can be made in the example without making it cease to be the thing it is. That which I cannot change without making the object cease to be the thing it is the invariant which is the eidos of the experience.

            Let us say I am describing the phenomenon of love. In the epoche, I bracket my biases and judgements on love, like love hurts or that love is a “many splendored thing,” etc. Now, I reduce the object love to the phenomenon of love, to the lived experience of love. In the eidetic reduction, I reduce the phenomenon of love to its essence, removing the contingent factors. I begin with an example, a relationship between two people. Can I change their age? Their sex? Their race? Their family background? Their social status? I discover that I can change all these without the relationship ceasing to be love. What is it that I cannot change? Perhaps, it is the activity of giving, the disinterested giving of oneself to the other as he is. I find that if this is missing in a relationship, then the relationship cannot be called love. This therefore becomes the essence of love.

Final Step: Phenomenological Transcendental Reduction

            Under this step, I reduce the object to the very activity itself, of my consciousness. Instead of paying attention simply to loving, seeing, hearing, etc., I now become aware of the subjective aspects of the object when I inquire into the beliefs, feelings, desires which shape the experience. In other words, the object is seen in its relation to the subject, and vice-versa, the subject in relation to the object.

            For example, if under the eidetic reduction, I see the essence of love as a disinterested giving of oneself to the other as he is, in the transcendental reduction I reduce this meaning of love to my experience of it. I see the meaning of love as such perhaps because I have experienced it that way, perhaps because I have been a lover myself. I discover that this meaning of love has a perspective, the perspective of the lover. I were to take the perspective of the beloved, then perhaps its meaning would be different – maybe, it would be more of a receiving rather than giving. If I were to take the perspective of a religious, then maybe love would be seen as the activity of God, the presence of God’s grace in man.

            What is rain? Rain can have many meanings. To the romantic, it is a creation of beauty – its patter is music to his ears, its sight recalls memories of the past, its touch cleanses long hidden inner wounds. To the children, it is a chance to play and to bathe at the same time. To the farmer, it is a blessing from heaven, a necessity for a good harvest. But to the commuter, it is a curse, a battle for a ride, a struggle to brave through the traffic. To the poor, a time of misery, of having to bear up with leaking roofs and walls, with hunger and the cold.

Publisher: Sta. Cruz, Manila : Goodwill Trading

All Rights Reserved 1986