On 28 April 1611, a Spanish Dominican and sinologist Archbishop Miguel de Benavides, O.P. established the听Colegio de Nuestra Senora del Santissimo听Rosario, which was later renamed the University of Santo Tomas.
Two programs were offered in its year of foundation, Theology and Philosophy, patterned after the European system of tertiary education and aimed at fulfilling the Church鈥檚 mission of evangelization. Through the centuries, the university has established itself as a beacon of Catholic faith and vanguard of Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophy in the country.
Philosophy has been taught at the University since its very foundation in 1611. To address growing enrollments in civil education, the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters was established in 1896, then the College of Liberal Arts in 1926. In 1927, the complete separation of Ecclesiastical degrees in Philosophy took effect, and the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Philosophy was established. In 1964, the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and the College of Liberal Arts were merged to form the Faculty of Arts and Letters, and since, the civil A.B. Major in Philosophy program has been administered by the Faculty of Arts and Letters. The General Education courses (Logic, Philosophy of Man, and Ethics), however, were administered by the individual colleges.
草榴视频 has, from its inception, been awarding M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Philosophy. The UST Graduate Scholl was established in 1938, which integrated all civil graduate degrees offered in the University, including Philosophy.
The establishment of the Faculty of Arts and Letters in the 1960s brought a new wave of young scholars to the University, which allowed Philosophy programs to open its doors to philosophical trends beyond Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophy. Thomism in the university has kept up with the times, which is the reason for its enduring presence. Despite this strength in Thomism, however, no philosophy of the West, either continental or analytic, and no philosophy of the East, from the ancients to the postmoderns, have been heard within the university portals in its dialogical efforts across civilizations. Fresh ideas are welcome in this Pontifical University, even as we continue to contemplate on the Catholic tradition. In effect, the community of Philosophy faculty and students in UST has grown to welcome varying, sometimes opposing, philosophical trends; the inclusive and dialogical characters of philosophical culture in UST were conditioned by the University鈥檚 rich history.
Following the split within the defunct Department of Humanities, which created the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Literature, in May 2010, then-Rector of the University, Rev. Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., PhD, SThD, appointed the founding Chair of the UST Department of Philosophy, Prof. Dr. Alfredo P. Co, PhD, who was instrumental in the establishment and proper guidance of the Department of Philosophy. With the establishment of a university-wide Department of Philosophy, for the very first time, the different Philosophy faculty members of the civil academics units of the University were convened and adopted under one administrative body; the standardization of various General Education Philosophy courses commenced; and the A.B. major in Philosophy degree was revised.
The first-ever international event hosted by the Department of Philosophy was the 鈥淭homism and Asian Cultures: Celebrating 400 Years of Dialogue Across Civilizations鈥�, an international conference in commemoration of the 400 Years of Philosophy in UST and in the Philippines, held in May 2011, in conjunction with the University鈥檚 Quadricentennial celebration.
Today, the UST Department of Philosophy is one of only two Departments awarded by the Commission on Higher Education the status Center of Excellence on Philosophy in the Philippines.
