Journal of the Philosophy and Religion Society of Thailand

The Meaning of Life After Savagery: Gaza/Palestine as Decolonial Categorical Imperative

Hadje Sadje — 2026-06-29

ABSTRACT

This paper engages with Hamid Dabashi’s After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization (2025) to argue that the ongoing genocide in Gaza constitutes an epistemic and moral rupture. For Dabashi, this requires a fundamental decolonial reorientation of philosophy and politics. It posits that Gaza, as the focal point of contemporary colonial violence, exposes the “metaphysics of barbarism” that underlies Western civilization’s universalist claims (Dabashi, 2025). Moving beyond critique, the essay explores how Dabashi reframes Palestine as an epistemic world and site for a liberatory poetics. Its core contention is that Gaza generates a new categorical imperative: an absolute obligation to think, witness, and act from the perspective of the most brutalized (Dabashi, 2005). This imperative calls for decolonizing thought, building planetary solidarity, and freeing memory, paving the way for a post-Western consciousness. The meaning of life after savagery, therefore, is to be rebuilt from this imperative, with Gaza as its non-negotiable starting point.

Aristotle’s Concept of Nicomachean Ethics: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of Friendship in Society

WILSON MIASCO — 2026-06-29

This study investigates the critical role of friendship as portrayed in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, positing it as a fundamental component of individual virtue and communal well-being. Utilizing a socio-cultural framework, the research delves into Aristotle’s typology of friendship, which delineates three categories: friendships of utility, pleasure, and virtue. Each category's purposes and moral underpinnings are meticulously analyzed, revealing that the highest form of friendship is anchored in mutual goodness and moral character that serves as a normative benchmark for personal integrity. For Aristotle, while friendship is deeply personal, it also holds important political significance, serving as a key force that nurtures trust and common goals in the community.

In the midst of rising individualism, social disconnection, and moral uncertainty, this study aims to reframe friendship as a lasting foundation for societal advancement. It explores the role of virtuous friendships in building resilient support systems that reinforce communal bonds and promote collective harmony. The research delves into the transformative impact of such friendships in cultivating empathy, collaboration, and a deep sense of belonging. It also considers how these meaningful relationships can help ease social tensions and encourage a culture rooted in mutual respect and understanding. The study argues that virtuous friendship is not only vital to living a purposeful and enriched life but also essential to the formation of a just and flourishing society. By highlighting the relevance of friendship in both individual and civic life, this analysis deepens our understanding of social ethics, active citizenship, and the lasting importance of Aristotle’s philosophy.

Mortality as Jest:

Alvin Servaña — 2026-06-29

This treatise explores the paradoxical nature of human mortality through the lens of existential philosophy, grounded in poetic meditation and lived experience. Drawing from the immediacy of near-death encounters and the quotidian reality of death's omnipresence, it argues that mortality functions as both cosmic jest and profound truth, inviting an embrace of contradiction rather than a search for resolution. By reframing death as a transformative process rather than a terminal event, the work shows that mortality’s “joke” lies not in falsity but in its capacity to simultaneously reveal and conceal existential truths. Synthesising existential dread, satirical awareness, and contemplative acceptance, the meditation proposes a philosophy that honours terror and comedy alike, suggesting authentic response lies neither in denial nor morbid fascination but in a meditative wonder that holds multiple truths in productive tension. Methodologically, the treatise integrates phenomenological analysis, interdisciplinary empirical findings, and poetic exegesis to bridge abstract theory and embodied experience. It examines how proximity to death sharpens perception, dissolves hierarchies, and democratises being by exposing shared vulnerability across species and social strata. The argument advances implications for ethics, aesthetics, and end-of-life practice, proposing that recognising death’s transformative role can foster creative living, compassionate care, and public philosophy that engages communities. Ultimately, the paper contends that mortality’s paradoxical character is a source of wisdom: a destabilising jest that, when attended to with humility and curiosity, deepens meaning and cultivates a more generous, attentive way of living. It invites readers to live more fully in each fragile present moment now.

Perfecting Judgment or Releasing It: Two Paths to Transcendence in Stoic and Daoist Philosophy

Imi P. Y. Lo — 2026-06-29

Ancient philosophical traditions agree that human beings possess divine potential, yet they diverge fundamentally on how such transcendence is realized. This paper argues that the contrast between Stoic and Daoist accounts of meaningful existence reflects deeper cultural-philosophical assumptions about whether wisdom requires perfecting discriminating judgment or dissolving it entirely.

For the Stoic thinker Epictetus, humans are "offshoots of God" whose divine nature manifests through rational capacity. The meaningful life consists in perfecting prohairesis, a term that literally means "to choose one thing before another." Through years of examining impressions and ranking them hierarchically according to rational criteria, practitioners achieve transcendence by becoming increasingly skilled at making correct distinctions, separating true impressions from false ones, good from bad, what lies within our control from what does not. The sage embodies perfected discrimination.

For Zhuangzi, humans possess innate attunement to Dao that becomes obscured through discriminating judgment itself. The meaningful life consists in suspending the compulsive imposition of binary categories—this versus that, right versus wrong, useful versus useless—that fragment continuous reality. Transcendence is achieved not by refining discrimination but by dissolving the need to discriminate, enabling spontaneous responsiveness that flows with natural patterns without conceptual mediation. The sage embodies impartial receptivity.

The paper demonstrates that this divergence reflects distinct cultural-philosophical orientations. Greek philosophical method, rooted in Socratic dialectic and Aristotelian categorization, treats language as capable of capturing stable universal truths through precise definition. Wisdom emerges through argumentative refinement and systematic judgment. Chinese philosophical method, emphasizing practical knowing over theoretical reasoning, treats fixed principles as inadequate for navigating particular circumstances. Wisdom emerges through embodied responsiveness below linguistic levels.

The analysis reveals that disagreement about the meaningful life extends beyond surface-level differences in practice to fundamental assumptions about whether human flourishing requires making better distinctions or transcending distinction-making itself. Contemporary practitioners seeking spiritual cultivation must consider whether wisdom lies in perfecting judgment or releasing its grip—a choice reflecting not merely personal preference but deeper commitments about language, reason, and truth's accessibility.

The impact of using AI on children’s self-development

Weerawut Rainmanee — 2026-06-29

AI has become an integral part of the children’ lives. It is currently utilized in many fields, including education, medicine, and business. One of the ethical concerns of using AI is how its use impacts children’s self-development and whether it is ethical to allow children to use it. To answer these questions, one must examine the purpose of using AI, the reasoning behind it, and the evidence that shows its positive and negative impacts. In this paper, I will argue that even current research offers a divergent view of AI, presenting a mix of positive and negative outcomes rather than a consensus, using it in education nevertheless alters the learning environment. This shift impacts children’s self-development since their cognitive system is shaped by AI environments.