For centuries, heirloom rice varieties have been grown on the terraces of the Cordillera Mountains of Luzon, Philippines, terroirs known for their significant historical, cultural, and aesthetic values. However, heritage heirloom rice farming is gradually being abandoned, mainly because of its lower productivity and the struggle of the sector to create a sustainable niche market for heirloom rice by branding its cultural, social, and nutritional values. We propose several demand-side intervention strategies for the valorization of heirloom rice. To support the (...) development of a segmented marketing strategy for heritage farming, we provide evidence on urban consumers’ willingness to purchase heirloom rice. We interviewed 500 urban consumers from Metro Manila in July–August 2015, who placed a purchasing bid on a kilogram of heirloom rice. Consumers’ bids averaged PHP 72.61 kg−1, which is less than half its current market price. This explains why heirloom rice struggles to gain market share in urban markets in the Philippines. Given this bid price, we estimate a potential market size of PHP 20.3 billion that could be created for heirloom rice and tapped into by heritage farmers. Findings further indicate that women, business owners, and consumers who buy packaged rice and eat pigmented rice are willing to pay more for heirloom rice. Finally, our evidence suggests that proper information framing will be necessary to create demand and support the valorization of heirloom rice to preserve cultural heritage and in situ biodiversity of rice landraces in the Philippines. (shrink)

Depuis les années 1960, Gilbert Durand a fondé et développé une méthodologie et une épistémologie novatrices de l'étude des imaginaires individuels et culturels qui ont inspiré une Ecole de Grenoble, qui n'a cessé d'essaimer à travers un grand nombre de centres de recherches en France et dans le monde. Sa pensée, connue à travers la mythocritique et la mythanalyse, enrichie par une vaste culture historique et pluriculturelle, a été appliquée dans les domaines les plus divers des sciences humaines et (...) sociales. Loin d'être un système clos, son oeuvre a inspiré une épistémologie ouverte qui a permis, sur la base des acquis fondamentaux, de se préciser, de s'adapter à des champs nouveaux, de recevoir les apports d'autres écoles, courants ou traditions culturelles. Les contributions ici rassemblées permettront de mieux situer l'émergence de la problématique de l'imaginaire dans différentes disciplines ou champs d'études, de présenter les innovations théoriques apportées par l'anthropologie de l'imaginaire de G Durand, d'illustrer les innovations qu'elles auront permises, d'amorcer des éléments de prospective pour les chantiers actuellement en cours d'exploration. (shrink)

Many issues in ethics arise in relation to the contexts in which psychologists work. However, most ethical decision-making models reproduce the way in which psychologists tend to approach ethics by focusing on ethical dilemmas and proposing a step-by-step response to deal with them. Although these models might be useful, their emphasis on reactive approaches and their lack of contextualization constitute significant limitations on their applicability. In this article, an approach to ethical decision making that highlights the importance of the context (...) in developing proactive strategies to solve ethical issues is proposed. This approach is further explained through its application to medical and rural settings. The implications of these suggestions to the training in ethics are finally discussed. (shrink)

Since Darwin, Biology has been framed on the idea of evolution by natural selection, which has profoundly influenced the scientific and philosophical comprehension of biological phenomena and of our place in Nature. This book argues that contemporary biology should progress towards and revolve around an even more fundamental idea, that of autonomy. Biological autonomy describes living organisms as organised systems, which are able to self-produce and self-maintain as integrated entities, to establish their own goals and norms, and to promote the (...) conditions of their existence through their interactions with the environment. Topics covered in this book include organisation and biological emergence, organisms, agency, levels of autonomy, cognition, and a look at the historical dimension of autonomy. The current development of scientific investigations on autonomous organisation calls for a theoretical and philosophical analysis. This can contribute to the elaboration of an original understanding of life - including human life - on Earth, opening new perspectives and enabling fecund interactions with other existing theories and approaches. This book takes up the challenge. (shrink)

La siguiente reseña explora el libro más reciente del historiador Tomás Pérez Vejo, el cual se adentra en un relato de nación construido a partir de los acervos pictóricos. El imaginario visual que se construye desde las exposiciones y críticas de pintura marca un ciclo crístico de nacimientos, tormentos, liberaciones y resurrecciones, cuyo interés primordial es su poderosa impronta en la historia oficial nacional y en cómo esta permea aún el presente.

Ethical veganism is the view that raising animals for food is an immoral practice that must be stopped because of the harm it causes to the animals, the environment, and our health. Carlo Alvaro argues the only way to stop that harm is to acquire the virtues that enable us to act justly and benevolently toward animals.

Nos proponemos analizar el pensamiento de Álvaro García Linera, uno de los intelectuales más interesantes en lengua española, y que mayor difusión está teniendo en los últimos tiempos. Para ello, tomaremos como punto de referencia cuatro de las ideas centrales dentro de la filosofía del boliviano: proyecto político, estado, hegemonía y dominación (analizando las dos últimas de manera conjunta). Comenzaremos exponiendo las influencias de García Linera, así como las peculiaridades de sus planteamientos, para centrarnos posteriormente en la etapa de su (...) producción intelectual más reciente, y acabar con una conclusión que mencionará también algunas de las críticas más importantes que se han vertido hacia el antiguo vicepresidente. (shrink)

Recent research in philosophy of science has shown that scientists rely on a plurality of strategies to develop successful explanations of different types of phenomena. In the case of biology, most of these strategies go far beyond the traditional and reductionistic models of scientific explanation that have proven so successful in the fundamental sciences. Concretely, in the last two decades, philosophers of science have discovered the existence of at least two different types of scientific explanation at work in the biological (...) sciences, namely: mechanistic and structural explanations. Despite the growing evidence about the radically different nature of these two types of explanation, no inquiry has been conducted to date to determine the ontological reasons that might underlie these differences, nor the way in which these types of explanations can be systematically related with each other. Here, we aim to cover this gap by connecting this plurality of research strategies with the existence of emergent levels of reality. We argue that the existence of these different—and apparently incompatible—explanatory strategies to account for biological phenomena derives from the existence of “ontological jumps” in nature, which generate different regimes of causation that in turn demand the development of different explanatory frameworks. We identify two of these strategies—mechanistic modelling and network modelling—and connect them to the existence of two ontological regimes of causation. Finally, we relate them with each other in a systematic way. In this vein, our paper provides an ontological justification for the plurality of explanatory strategies that we see in the life sciences. (shrink)

According to the traditional nomological-deductive methodology of physics and chemistry [Hempel and Oppenheim, 1948], explaining a phenomenon means subsuming it under a law. Logic becomes then the glue of explanation and laws the primary explainers. Thus, the scientific study of a system would consist in the development of a logically sound model of it, once the relevant observables (state variables) are identified and the general laws governing their change (expressed as differential equations, state transition rules, maximization/minimization principles,. . . ) (...) are well determined, together with the initial or boundary conditions for each particular case. Often this also involves making a set of assumptions about the elementary components of the system (e.g., their structural and dynamic properties) and modes of local interaction. In this framework, predictability becomes the main goal and that is why research is carried out through the construction of accurate mathematical models. Thus, physics and chemistry have made most progress so far by focusing on systems that, either due to their intrinsic properties or to the conditions in which they are investigated, allow for very strong simplifying assumptions, under which, nevertheless, those highly idealized models of reality are deemed to be in good correspondence with reality itself. Despite the enormous success that this methodology has had, the study of living and cognitive phenomena had to follow a very different road, because these phenomena are produced by systems whose underlying material structure and organization do not permit such crude approximations. Seen from the perspective of physics or chemistry, biological and cognitive systems are made of an enormous number of parts or elements interacting in non-linear and selective ways, which makes very difficult their tractability through mathematical models. In addition, many of those interacting elements are hierarchically organized, in a way that the “macroscopic” (observable) parts behave according to rules that cannot be, in practice, derived from simple principles at the level of their “microscopic” dynamics.. (shrink)

reto de un jurista que urge a la razón individual de cada lector para que éste verifique por sí mismo la falacia de las modas ideológicas en las que puede hallarse eventual e inconscientemente inmerso. El autor ha pretendido hacer un libro «sensato», es decir, de sentido común o «buen juicio», que es una manera de sabiduría llana y común; todo lo contrario de la sensacional originalidad que suele estragar al público de nuestros días. Aunque quizás ocurra hoy que lo (...) sensato resulte ser excepcional y nuevo, es lo más conforme al auténtico estilo de un jurista, que, por su profesión, nunca busca destacar por su singularidad, sino por la conveniente edificación crítica del derecho fundado sobre una tradición respetable. Como hay un arte de ser sencillo, hay también un arte de ser sensato, y a esa «sagesse» aspira precisamente el autor. I. Naturaleza. II. Verdad. III. Patrimonio. IV. Potestad. V. Persona. VI. Matrimonio. VII. Servicio. Índice tópico. Referencias bibliográficas complementarias. (shrink)

Les sciences humaines sont en crise. Psychologies, sociologies, histoire et ethnologies ont confondu leur visée, l'Homo sapiens, avec une méthode unidimensionnelle héritée d'une physique périmée depuis l'apparition du " Nouvel Esprit Scientifique ". Gilbert Durand constate que cet échec péremptoire n'est dû qu'à un mirage pédagogique. A travers les recherches de pointe des anthropologues renaît l'aurore de retrouvailles avec le destin immémorial de l'Homo sapiens. Nous assistons progressivement à la résurgence d'une " Science de l'homme " qui, dans sa (...) singularité, retrouve bien des données transmises par les savoirs traditionnels : là où la Méthode exerçait son emprise totalitaire, le pluralisme des singularités - le " polythéisme des valeurs " - devient le garant de l'unité compréhensive du Sapiens. Une " raison autre " reconstitue lentement mais sûrement les assises prometteuses d'un " Nouvel Esprit Anthropologique ". (shrink)

The debate over ape personhood is of great social and moral importance. For more than twenty-five years, attorney Steven Wise has been arguing that animals who have cognitive complexities similar to humans should be legally granted basic rights of au- tonomy. In my view, granting personhood status and other rights to great apes are at- tainable goals. But how should we go about it?

En las últimas décadas los especialistas de la filosofía cartesiana se han enfocado en indagar si la naturaleza de la duda metódica que el meditador instaura en la primera de las Meditaciones debe ser considerada como una preocupación sistemáticamente rigurosa o si, por el contrario, corresponde a un artificio que cumple un valor instrumental dentro del planteamiento que propone el autor, con la esperanza de que la respuesta a esta pregunta logre esclarecer el proceso que guía a las Meditaciones. Tanto (...) quienes sostienen que la duda metódica es fingida como quienes piensan que, en algún sentido, debe ser considerada rigurosamente, recurren a una distinción conceptual advertida por el propio Descartes para validar sus respectivas lecturas, a saber: la distinción entre certeza metafísica y certeza moral. En el presente artículo se postula que la interpretación más apropiada es la que sostienen quienes consideran que la duda metódica guarda cierto nivel genuino de rigurosidad. Para justificar nuestra adhesión se evaluará el rendimiento explicativo de cada interpretación, tanto para el orden de desarrollo planteado en la primera meditación como para la aproximación a otros problemas filosóficos planteados en las Meditaciones. (shrink)

La democracia es un sistema de poderes que debería estar al servicio del pueblo. El actor social de estos poderes es el sujeto político en su condición de persona, individuo, ciudadano. Ningún otro actor puede atribuirse el uso de los poderes políticos en beneficio personal o colectivo; menos todavía, en detrimento de los otros. Se crea un principio de exclusión que pone en contradicción o nulidad pública el ejercicio del poder de la democracia como sistema de poderes populares. Es indispensable (...) denunciar la coacción política de la que se sirve la democracia representativa, abstracta o nula, en su intento de minimizar y reducir la acción social del pueblo como destinatario de los poderes políticos. La respuesta a este sistema antidemocrático, coactivo de los poderes populares, es el desacato, la desobediencia cívica, la disputa ideológica, las estrategias para la subversión pública y la recuperación de los derechos de participación en la transformación de la democracia política. (shrink)

This article shows the results of an investigation registered in the field of pedagogy. The scenario and starting point to situate our company is the fact of knowing that the subordination of education is increasingly greater than the mechanisms of the free market economy; besides that, a real reform of the education will not be carried out if the elements for the construction of the professional identity of the educator are not analyzed in depth, we think that a substantial reform (...) of the educative system involves the reconstruction of the educator's identity from the perspective philosophical, for this reason our goal is to help uncover the educator reason to be, that is, to expose –in front of present concealment– his identity, as well as to explain the keys of constitution of the educational act. (shrink)

Human beings are getting fatter and sicker. As we question what we eat and why we eat it, this book argues that living well involves consuming a raw vegan diet. With eating healthfully and eating ethically being simpler said than done, this book argues that the best solution to health, environmental, and ethical problems concerning animals is raw veganism―the human diet. The human diet is what humans are naturally designed to eat, and that is, a raw vegan diet of fruit, (...) tender leafy greens, and occasionally nuts and seeds. While veganism raises challenging questions over the ethics of consuming animal products, while also considering the environmental impact of the agriculture industry, raw veganism goes a step further and argues that consuming cooked food is also detrimental to our health and the environment. Cooking foods allows us to eat food that is not otherwise fit for human consumption and in an age that promotes eating foods in ‘moderation’ and having ‘balanced’ diets, this raises the question of why we are eating foods that should only be consumed in moderation at all, as moderation clearly implies they aren’t good for us. In addition, from an environmental perspective, the use of stoves, ovens and microwaves for cooking contributes significantly to energy consumption and cooking in general generates excessive waste of food and resources. Thus, this book maintains that living well and living a noble life, that is, good physical and moral health, requires consuming a raw vegan diet. Exploring the scientific and philosophical aspects of raw veganism, this novel book is essential reading for all interested in promoting ethical, healthful, and sustainable diets. (shrink)

A inspiração positivista da revolução republicana de 1910 dificilmente se poderia harmonizar com os valores vigentes na sociedade portuguesa de então. Para compreender o seu êxito será necessário identificar as pontes esta-belecidade com orientações que lhe deveriam ser absolutamente estranhas, como era a do messianismo. A literatura da época, mormente a poesia de mais elevada inspiração, testemunha eloquentemente essa assimilação entre o ideal republicano e a esperança messiânica no advento de uma nova era redentora. Não menos significativa é, porém, a (...) construção teórica que, nesse mesmo sentido, foi elaborada por Sampaio Bruno. /// L'inspiration positiviste de la révolution républicaine de 1910 ne pourrait que difficilement s'harmoniser avec les valeurs régnant dans la société portugaise d'alors. Pour comprendre son succès il faudra reconnaître les ponts établis avec des orientations qui devraient lui être absolument étrangères, comme celle du messianisme. La littérature de l'époque, à savoir la poésie de la plus haute inspiration, est le témoin éloquent de cette assimilation entre l'idéal républicain et l'espérance messianique dans l'instauration d'une nouvelle ère rédemptrice. Non moins significative est cependant la construction théorique qui, en ce même sens, fut élaborée par Sampaio Bruno. /// The Republican revolution of 1910, inspired in positivism, was not harmony with the values which were dominant at that time in Portugal. In order to comprehend its success, one would have to establish its ties with themes that are quite foreign to positivism, like that of messianism. The literature of the epoch, especially in the poetry, bears witness to the assimilation of the republican ideal and the messianic hope in a new, redeeming era. In the context of this assimilation, Sampaio Bruno's theoretical construction can be seen as equally significant. (shrink)