CULTURE 145

them form_ part of that phenomenon called reality. This is

philosophy.

To talk of belief systems, Filipinos cannot help but consider

certain philosophies which help them understand what people
believe in. Naturalists, for example, believe in nature as the only
real thing. Knowledge of this is received by man's senses. Mes-
. sages are then transmitted to the brain by specialized nerves to
make way for perception. The method of investigation of natural-
ists is scientific, believing in the value of beauty as inherently
simple and natural. Human beings grow and in the process un-
dergo cyclical stages of development. This is natural. occurrence.
It is society's as well as an individual's duty to strike a balance in
the development of both the mind and the body because it is nec-
essary for self-preservation.

The idealists' belief is that reality is in the mind and outside

of its knowledge will render a thing non-existent. Men, as idealists
should be guided by principles which lift them up closer to a
" model", God, that is. Human minds comprise the universal mind.
Idealists believe in this state that man is capable of rising above
mediocrity to attain excellence and self -realization. Such values
as beauty, truth and goodness strengthen the idealist's convictions.

Pragmatists believe in the value of theory and practice and

in the functionality of resources and resultant products. They are
not contented with the acquisition of knowledge. These knowl-
edge have to be filtered in experimentations and testing before
their applicability is decided upon. In other words, utility and rel-
evance are values by pragmatists.

Man's belief -disbelief system is based on his philosophies in

life and it constitutes a facet of social order which is defined as
consisting of social relations guided by a set of prescriptions.

Some sociologists concedes with this definition of social_ order

when they state that it is "the consequence of any set of moral
norms that regulate the way in which persons pursue objectives.
The order that results from these norms is not dictated by the
norms themselves. Rather, the norms dictate the means by which
individuals legitimately seek their ends; social order emerges as a
con se q uence of the influence of norms upon conducts.'