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The Hermeneutics of Existence: Revisiting Heideggerian Ontological Hermeneutics ARCHIE R. MAGARAO Introduction Martin Heidegger What the contemporary hermeneutics consider as the “hermeneutic turn” is attributed to Martin Heidegger.  He initiated a so-called hermeneutics of existence in his notion of the Dasein (there-being). He also used the word “hermeneutics” in the context of his larger quest for a more “fundamental” ontology. [1] His conception of understanding is something that is not static but dynamic, having the power “to be”. Nevertheless, for Heidegger “understanding is the power to grasp one’s own possibilities for being, within the context of the lifeworld in which one exists.” [2] Understanding and the “World” What is the world? One might be wrong in conceiving the “world” ( Welt ) as we understood it now when Heidegger coined it. The “ world is not  the whole of all beings but the whole in which the human beings (Dasein) always fin

Panopticon: The Ever Watchful Eye By Archie R. Magarao                 Michel Foucault, a French social philosopher, is one of the key philosophers of the modern time. His critical philosophy is so wide-ranging that it includes psychology, sociology, jurisprudence, ethics, politics, philosophy, history, and natural sciences. No wonder why his thoughts are much talked about in the academe. In this very brief philosophical reflection on Foucault, allow me to introduce to you one of his key concepts namely the panopticon. Although the philosopher Jeremy Bentham generally coined the term, it was Foucault who took the matter seriously. Foucault argues that modern society is similar to penal colonies. What makes this resemblance possible is the existence of the ubiquitous and ever watchful faceless panopticon.                 The term panopticon is of Greek origin which simply means all-seeing. Technically, it is the prison’s central tower where the guards stay and watch over the