Wisdom and Silence: Essays on Philippine Nakem Philosophy

Wisdom and Silence (Nakem ken Ulimek) is a modest contribution to the pursuit of a huge dream; that is, the pursuit of the elusive Nakem, the consciousness of the Ilokano and the core of their being as a people. It explores to work out a philosophical rendition on the rich resource of indigenous culture and language from the perspective of the Ilokano-Filipinos of the Amianan or northern Philippines.

Wisdom and Silence affirms the beauty of non-Western perspectives as hermeneutical keys to the grandeur of existence. There is then more to wisdom traditions than the Western paradigm that wittingly or unwittingly has sadly silenced other sources of creative thought. Wisdom and Silence aims to give a voice to those other wisdom traditions. It emboldens the commitment to the creative formation of philosophical approaches to the study of indigenous cultures, in view of achieving an adequate understanding of the complexity of human society.

Wisdom which inspires harmony grows out of diverse discursive spaces created by different cultures and modes of thinking. Wisdom and Silence opens the discursive space for the emergence of an indigenous Ilokano philosophy that hopes to contribute to the decolonization of the Philippine mind. Decoloniality is not so much a wholesale severance of Western influence, but an awakening of uniquely cultural creativity to understand the world in new ways.