Alfredo Co

Alfredo Pimentel Co 许培堆 (born November 30, 1949) is the foremost Sinologist in the Philippines, a leading Philosopher in the Southeast Asia and a professor of Philosophy in the University of Santo Tomas. He was the founding president of the Philosophy Circle of the Philippines. In 2008 he was the only Asian scholar so far to deliver a plenary lecture at the Conférence Mondiale des Institutions Universitaires Catholiques de Philosophie (COMIUCAP). He is currently the President of the Philippine Academy of Philosophical Research, and the chairman of the Commission on Higher Education’s Technical Committee on Philosophy.

Early years and education

In 1967 Co was named Outstanding Chinese Youth in the Philippines by the Republic of China during his sophomore year in high school in Naga City. Co graduated with a philosophy degree at the then Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas in 1972, and soon earned master’s and doctorate degrees four years after graduation at the same university.

Career

Co holds two post doctorates and two fellowships abroad. He was a Special Scholar of the Soka University to the International Asian Studies Programme of the Chinese University of Hong Kong for his Post Doctorate on Chinese Classical Philosophy from 1977 to 1978. He took intensive French at the Universite de Poiters, Technical French at Universite de Bordeaux, and Comparative Philosophy at the Paris Sorbonne University as a French Government Scholar from 1979-1981. He wrote a dissertation in French entitled: La notion de Yi chez Kong Zi et la concepcion de la liberte chez Jean-Jacques Rousseau: La Politique du devoir et la politique du droit (The Notion of Yi in Confucius and the Concept of Liberty in Jean-Jacques Rosseau: The Politics of Duty and the Politics of Liberty).

He was also Special Fellow of the Pacific Cultural Foundation of Taiwan and a Special Fellow of the International Society for Intercultural Studies and Research (India). A well sought after lecture in the Philippine and abroad, he has been invited to lecture in Japan, China Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, Russia, Canada, etc. As the foremost Sinologist in the Philippines, he has been invited as visiting professor in Ateneo de Manila University, De la Salle University, and University of San Carlos.

He founded the Philosophy Circle of the Philippines in 1972 and at present, he is the incumbent president of the prestigious Philippine Academy of Philosophical Research and the Editor of Karunungan – A Journal of Philosophy, a well-respected Philosophical Journal in the Philippines circulated internationally. He is also a member of the Federation Internationale des Societes de Philosophie based in Fribourg Switzerland and the Asian Association of the Catholic Philosophers. With numerous publications in prestigious journals, Dr. Co is also consultant to CULTURE and QUEST, Publication of the University of Calcutta, India, UNITAS journal of U.S.T. and BUDHI Journal of Ateneo de Manila. He is currently a chair of the Philippine Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) Technical Committee for Philosophy and full Professor of Philosophy in U.S.T.

Along with luminaries Franck Budenholzer, Juan Luis Scannone, and Jean-Luc Marion, Co was the first and only Asian scholar so far to deliver a plenary lecture at the Conférence Mondiale des Institutions Universitaires Catholiques de Philosophie (COMIUCAP) in 2008.

Festschrift

In 2010 he was awarded with an eight-volume festschrift by the University of Santo Tomas to honor him for his distinguished and outstanding achievements in the field of Philosophy. The Festschrift that contains collection of his writings and celebratory essays by colleagues and former students is considered a milestone in the history of philosophy in the Philippines. He is fondly called by his students as venerable master.