Suicide is a complex act whose meanings, while sometimes tragic, vary widely. This chapter surveys the ethical landscape surrounding algorithmic methods of suicide prevention especially as it pertains to social media activity and to the moderation of online suicide communities. We begin with a typology of suicide, distinguishing between varied goals in which suicide may factor as a means. Suicides should be understood as an act with varied eliciting desires, meanings, consequences, and ethics. Further,while many suicides may be grounded on (...) irrational desire, we argue that a desire to suicide may nonetheless be rational in some cases. We then offer a survey of the attempts by social media corporations to create suicide prediction algorithms and launch interventions aimed at preventing suicide as well as an overview of the current ethical debate. We argue that the values embedded within algorithmic suicide prevention nudges are “thick” in a substantive sense and deserving of scrutiny. Given that debates about the rationality, meaning, and permissibility of suicide are common and subject to intracultural and cross-cultural differences, we maintain that the task of suicide prediction is ill-suited to algorithmic approaches. Despite an algorithm’s ability to quantify a complex phenomenon like suicide risk and its appearance of objectivity, any suicide prediction algorithm is thoroughly subjective and involves moral judgments all the way down. Any such algorithm would necessarily impose a normative stance on suicide onto its user base that is subject to reasonable intra and cross-cultural disagreement. (shrink)

La formación basada en competencias es una orientación educativa que pretende dar respuestas a las necesidades de la sociedad contemporánea; el término competencia, a pesar de su amplia utilización y reconocimiento desde las Ciencias Pedagógicas, ha tenido diversas significaciones y es objeto de múltiples interpretaciones a partir de las disímiles posturas epistemológicas de los investigadores. En el artículo fueron valoradas algunas de las propuestas realizadas en el último decenio por varios autores sobre la formación de competencias, lo cual permitió asumir (...) posiciones acerca de esta problemática de acuerdo con los retos y problemas del contexto social, comunitario, profesional y organizacional de la universidad cubana. The competency-based learning and development is an educational orientation that seeks to respond to the needs of the contemporary society, the term "competence", despite its widespread use and recognition from the Pedagogical Sciences with different meanings and subject to multiple interpretations given the dissimilar epistemological positions of researchers. The article examined some of the proposals made in the last decade by several authors on competence formation that helped to assume scientific positions about this problem according to the challenges and problems of the social, community, professional and organizational of Cuban universities. (shrink)

There is a phrase by Paul Klee that insists and repeats itself in Deleuze's writing: "We are missing this last force. We are missing a people". However, the contemporary world is defined precisely by the fullness and the becoming population of peoples. This is why the concept of people constitutes an amphibology that is revealed in Deleuze's work as an appearance between people and thought. In this sense, the relationship between both concepts shows a set of aesthetic, political, and ontological (...) consequences that these notes attempt to address in Deleuze's thought and beyond. Hay una frase de Paul Klee que insiste y se repite en la mano de Deleuze: “Nos falta esta última fuerza. Nos falta un pueblo”. Sin embargo, el mundo contemporáneo se define justamente por el lleno y el devenir población de los pueblos. Es por esto que el concepto de pueblo constituye una anfibología que se revela en el trabajo de Deleuze como una comparecencia entre pueblo y pensamiento. En este sentido, la relación entre ambas categorías muestran un conjunto de consecuencias estéticas, políticas y ontológicas que estas notan intentan abordar en el pensamiento de Deleuze y más allá de éste. (shrink)

O referido artigo propõe apresentar uma reflexão diante da contribuição de uma didática crítica intercultural e decolonial para a construção de novas formas de se viver em sociedade. Baseando na teoria de Vera Candau, o texto busca evidenciar a importância de uma educação que valorize a diversidade cultural, com ênfase na promoção da equidade racial, além dos desafios encontrados tanto nas questões estruturais da educação, tanto nas forças que buscam uma internacionalização e padronização de práticas pedagógicas. Para a exposição dessas (...) ideias, foi feita a análise de partes do Projeto Político Pedagógico (PPP) da Escola Afro-Brasileira Maria Felipa, localizada na cidade de Salvador, Bahia, cuja a intencionalidade da proposta pedagógica tem como intuito, desde sua concepção, em ser uma escola afro-brasileira. A escola possui um currículo voltado para a redução das desigualdades raciais, assim como na valorização e promoção da cultura preta e afro-brasileira. O texto ressalta ainda, a importância de práticas pedagógicas interculturais e decoloniais que celebrem as múltiplas identidades e culturas como maneira a se sonhar com futuros possíveis, assim com o papel crucial da formação continuada de professores, para que estes se sintam aptos e seguros para incluírem a diversidade como parte fundamental de uma educação transformadora. (shrink)

El trabajo tiene como objetivo fundamentar teórica y metodológicamentela educación del adulto mayor en el contexto de la educación permanente. Para ello, se describe conceptualmente el carácter de la educación a lo largo de la vida, su integración a la existencia humana. Los métodos del nivel teórico empleados fueron el análisis y síntesis para la construcción del marco teórico-metodológico. Quedan argumentados tres modelos pedagógicos necesarios por su importancia en el estudio desarrollado. La educación del adulto mayor se inscribe en el (...) proceso íntegro de educación permanente, al proveer conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes valiosas para el crecimiento personal como respuesta a la dinámica de los cambios científicos, tecnológicos y sociales. The objective of the paper is to provide a theoretical and methodological basis on old people's education in the context of permanent education. To that end, the character of education throughout life and its integration to human existence is described. Theoretical level methods such as analysis and synthesis were used in order to construct the theoretical-methodological framework. Three pedagogical models, which are necessary because of their importance for the study, are argued. Old people's education forms part of the whole permanent education process, as it provides knowledge, skills and valuable attitudes towards personal growth as an answer to scientific, technological and social changes dynamics. (shrink)

Es lugar frecuente en la bibliografía cartesiana hablar de la influencia de la filosofía estoica en su pensamiento, sobre todo en la moral. Si bien la tercera máxima de la moral de provisión constituye un punto de referencia obligado por lo elocuente de sus planteamientos, esta influencia se puede rastrear también en la correspondencia, de manera particular en la que Descartes sostuvo con la Princesa Élisabeth de Bohemia, entre cuyas cartas sobresalen las que el filósofo le dirigió en el año (...) 1645, que delatan la presencia de ideas estoicas, en especial de Epicteto y de Séneca. No obstante, lejos de ser una simple réplica de la filosofía helenista en el filósofo del Siglo XVII, se trata de un proceso de recepción muy complejo, que es tanto asimilación de esa tradición, como posición crítica al respecto. (shrink)

Quantum mechanics seems to portray nature as nonseparable, in the sense that it allows spatiotemporally separated entities to have states that cannot be fully specified without reference to each other. This is often said to implicate some form of “holism.” We aim to clarify what this means, and why this seems plausible. Our core idea is that the best explanation for nonseparability is a “common ground” explanation, which casts nonseparable entities in a holistic light, as scattered reflections of a more (...) unified underlying reality. (shrink)

J. T. Ismael's monograph is an ambitious contribution to metaphysics and the philosophy of language and mind. She tackles a philosophical question whose origin goes back to Descartes: What am I? The self is not a mere thing among things--but if so, what is it, and what is its relationship to the world? Ismael is an original and creative thinker who tries to understand our problematic concepts about the self and how they are related to our use of (...) language in particular. (shrink)

J. T. Ismael's monograph is an ambitious contribution to metaphysics and the philosophy of language and mind. She tackles a philosophical question whose origin goes back to Descartes: What am I? The self is not a mere thing among things--but if so, what is it, and what is its relationship to the world?

In 1687 Isaac Newton ushered in a new scientific era in which laws of nature could be used to predict the movements of matter with almost perfect precision. Newton's physics also posed a profound challenge to our self-understanding, however, for the very same laws that keep airplanes in the air and rivers flowing downhill tell us that it is in principle possible to predict what each of us will do every second of our entire lives, given the early conditions of (...) the universe. Can it really be that even while you toss and turn late at night in the throes of an important decision and it seems like the scales of fate hang in the balance, that your decision is a foregone conclusion? Can it really be that everything you have done and everything you ever will do is determined by facts that were in place long before you were born? This problem is one of the staples of philosophical discussion. It is discussed by everyone from freshman in their first philosophy class, to theoretical physicists in bars after conferences. And yet there is no topic that remains more unsettling, and less well understood. If you want to get behind the façade, past the bare statement of determinism, and really try to understand what physics is telling us in its own terms, read this book. The problem of free will raises all kinds of questions. What does it mean to make a decision, and what does it mean to say that our actions are determined? What are laws of nature? What are causes? What sorts of things are we, when viewed through the lenses of physics, and how do we fit into the natural order? Ismael provides a deeply informed account of what physics tells us about ourselves. The result is a vision that is abstract, alien, illuminating, and-Ismael argues-affirmative of most of what we all believe about our own freedom. Written in a jargon-free style, How Physics Makes Us Free provides an accessible and innovative take on a central question of human existence. (shrink)

The intuitive difference between a system that choreographs the motion of its parts in the service of goals of its own formulation and a system composed of a collection of parts doing their own thing without coordination has been shaken by now familiar examples of self-organization. There is a broad and growing presumption in parts of philosophy and across the sciences that the appearance of centralized information-processing and control in the service of system-wide goals is mere appearance, i.e., an explanatory (...) heuristic we have evolved to predict behavior, but one that will eventually get swept away in the advancing tide of self-organization. I argue that there is a distinction of central importance here, and that no adequate science of complex systems can dispense with it. (shrink)

A reading is given of Curie''s Principle that the symmetry of a cause is always preserved its effects. The truth of the principle is demonstrated and its importance, under the proposed reading, is defended.As far as I see, all a priori statements in physics have their origin in symmetry. (Weyl, Symmetry, p. 126).

I want to consider some features of the position put forward by Julian Barbour in The End of Time that seem to me of particular philosophical interest. At the level of generality at which I'll be concerned with it, the view is relatively easy to describe. It can be arrived at by thinking of time as decomposing in some natural way linearly ordered atomic parts, ‘moments’, and combining an observation about the internal structure of moments with an epistemological doctrine about (...) our access to the past. The epistemological doctrine, which I'll call ‘Presentism’, following Butterfield, is the view that our access to the past is mediated by records, or local representations, of it. The observation is that the state of the world at any moment has the structure of what Barbour calls a ‘time capsule’, which is to say that it constitutes a partial record of its past, it is pregnant with interrelated mutually consistent representations of its own history. (shrink)

This chapter addresses the worry that the existence of causal antecedents to your choices means that you are causally compelled to act as you do. It begins with the folk notion of cause, leads the reader through recent developments in the scientific understanding of causal concepts, and argues that those developments undermine the threat from causal antecedents. The discussion is then used as a model for a kind of naturalistic metaphysics that takes its lead from science, letting everyday concepts be (...) shaped and transformed by scientific developments. (shrink)

There’s a long history of discussion of probability in philosophy, but objective chance separated itself off and came into its own as a topic with the advent of a physical theory - quantum mechanics - in which chances play a central, and apparently ineliminable, role. In 1980 David Lewis wrote a paper pointing out that a very broad class of accounts of the nature of chance apparently lead to a contradiction when combined with a principle that expresses the role of (...) chance in guiding belief. There is still no settled agreement on the proper response to the Lewis problem. At the time he wrote the article, Lewis despaired of a solution, but, although he never achieved one that satisfied him completely, by 1994, due to work primarily by Thau and Hall, he had come to think the problem could be disarmed if we fudged a little on the meaning of ‘chance’. I’ll say more about this below. What I’m going to suggest, however, is that the qualification is unnecessary. The problem depends on an assumption that should be rejected, viz., that using information about chance to guide credence requires one to conditionalize on the theory of chance that one is using. I’m going to propose a general recipe for using information about chance to guide belief that does not require conditionalization on a theory of chance at any stage. Lewis’ problem doesn’t arise in this setting. (shrink)

The role of probability is one of the most contested issues in the interpretation of contemporary physics. In this paper, I’ll be reevaluating some widely held assumptions about where and how probabilities arise. Larry Sklar voices the conventional wisdom about probability in classical physics in a piece in the Stanford Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy, when he writes that “Statistical mechanics was the first foundational physical theory in which probabilistic concepts and probabilistic explanation played a fundamental role.” And the conventional wisdom (...) about quantum probabilities is that they are basic, not reducible to the types of probabilities we see in statistical mechanics. In the first section of this paper, I’ll argue that in fact classical physics was steeped in probability long before statistical mechanics came on the scene, specifically, that an objective measure over phase space is an indispensable component of any informative physical theory. In the next section, I’ll argue that this objective measure is the fundamental form of physical probability and that quantum probabilities can be defined in terms of it. In the last, I’ll raise some questions about the metaphysical status of the fundamental measure. (shrink)

In a famous passage drawing implications from determinism, Laplace introduced the image an intelligence who knew the positions and momenta of all of the particles of which the universe is composed, and asserted that in a deterministic universe such an intelligence would be able to predict everything that happens over its entire history. It is not, however, difficult to establish the physical possibility of a counterpredictive device, i.e., a device designed to act counter to any revealed prediction of its behavior. (...) What would happen if a Laplacean intelligence were put into communication with such a device and forced to reveal its prediction of what the device would do on some occasion? On the one hand, it seems that the Laplacean Intelligence should be able to predict the device's behavior. On the other hand, it seems like that device should be able to act counter to the prediction. An examination of the puzzle leads to clarification of what determinism does entail, with some insights about various other things along the way. (shrink)

Huw Price has argued that on an interventionist account of cause the distinction is perspectival, and the claim prompted some interesting responses from interventionists and in particular an exchange with Woodward that raises questions about what it means to say that one or another structure is perspectival. I’ll introduce his reasons for claiming that the distinction between cause and effect on an interventionist account is perspectival. Then I’ll introduce a distinction between different ways in which a class of concepts can (...) be said to depend on facts about their users. Three importantly different forms of dependence will emerge from the discussion: Pragmatic dependence on us: truth conditions for x-beliefs can be given by a function f \ of more fundamental physical structures making no explicit reference to human agents. But there are any other number of functions ) ontologically on a par with x and what explains the distinguished role f plays in our practical and epistemic lives are facts about us. Implicit relativization: truth conditions for x-beliefs are relative to agent or context; the context supplies the value of a hidden parameter that determines the truth of x-beliefs. Indexicals: like implicit relativization except that the surface syntax contains a term whose semantic value is context-dependent. I suggest that Price’s insights are best understood in the first way. This will draw a crucial disanalogy with his central examples of perspectival concepts, but it will refine the thesis in a way that is more faithful to what his arguments show. The refined thesis will also support generalization to other concepts, and clarify the foundations of the quite distinctive research program that Price has been developing for a number of years. (shrink)

The arrival of Buddhism to Uruguay is related to various historical and cultural factors, such as the democratic opening at eighties, the progressive globalization in the country, the break of post (modernism) with a hegemonic rationalist-positivist model, the emergence of so-called New Religious Movements and opening of goods symbolic-religious markets, generally aimed at middle and upper social strata with economic and cultural capital is conducive to the proposed use of existential and introspective way of life. In this paper we analyze (...) the arrival of the different Buddhist lineages in Uruguay (Tibetan and Japanese), and the historical and socio-cultural context which activates their emergency. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present a renewed reading of ethical-normative debates on recognition of cultural differences, by interrogating the initiatives that have constituted the international minority rights framework. The article is divided into three sections: 1. The first section approaches an introductory definition of minority rights. 2. The second section presents the philosophical reading of Charles Taylor on minority rights, within the ethical framework of his communitarian conception of freedom and individual development. 3. The third section presents (...) the philosophical reading of Bhabha on minority rights, within the ethical framework of his humanistic critique to the political construction of cultural differences. (shrink)

ArgumentUp until the French Revolution, European mathematics was an “aristocratic” activity, the intellectual pastime of a small circle of men who were convinced they were collaborating on a universal undertaking free of all space-time constraints, as they believed they were ideally in dialogue with the Greek founders and with mathematicians of all languages and eras. The nineteenth century saw its transformation into a “democratic” but also “patriotic” activity: the dominant tendency, as shown by recent research to analyze this transformation, seems (...) to be the national one, albeit accompanied by numerous analogies from the point of view of the processes of national evolution, possibly staggered in time. Nevertheless, the very homogeneity of the individual national processes leads us to view mathematics in the context of the national-universal tension that the spread of liberal democracy was subjected to over the past two centuries. In order to analyze national-universal tension in mathematics, viewed as an intellectual undertaking and a profession of the new bourgeois society, it is necessary to investigate whether the network of international communication survived the political, social, and cultural upheavals of the French Revolution and the European wars waged in the early nineteenth century, whether national passions have transformed this network, and if so, in what way. Luigi Cremona's international correspondence indicates that relationships among individuals have been restructured by the force of national membership, but that the universal nature of mathematics has actually been boosted by a vision shared by mathematicians from all countries concerning the role of their discipline in democratic and liberal society as the basis of scientific culture and technological innovation, as well as a basic component of public education. (shrink)

En el siglo XX, la música popular fue el lenguaje artístico más contundente y una de las grandes fuerzas estéticas de Brasil. Desde los años 30, ella ocupó una posición importante en debates culturales y proyectos nacionalistas y, a lo largo de los años, expandió su alcance con el avance de los medios de comunicación. Dicha inversión todavía resultó, más allá de lo esperado, en la producción de una modalidad crítica de canción. Así que en los 60, Al igual que (...) el arte moderno, la canción se tornó reflexiva, operando de manera crítica en relación a sí misma y al contexto cultural y político. El componente reflexivo de la canción parece haber ampliado considerablemente su alcance cultural. Tanto es así que no parece irrazonable señalar una conexión profunda entre la canción y un cierto horizonte de construcción nacional. En este trabajo, intentamos hacer un panorama del desarrollo de la música popular brasileña de modo a aclarar ese proceso y, tal vez, posibilitar nuevos planteamientos para pensar sus posibilidades críticas desde su dimensión estética. (shrink)

En este artículo se investiga la índole y supuestos filosóficos básicos de dos perspectivas metafísicas y epistemológicas contrapuestas en torno a la célebre prueba ontológica de la existencia de Dios. Tales perspectivas son, por un lado, la esencia lista o realista fenomenológica, para la que, por admitir la objetividad y trascendencia de las llamadas "cualidades eidéticas necesarias", la prueba es válida y concluyente; por otro, la perspectiva existencialista o conceptualista, que, al negar tal objetividad y trascendencia, rechaza la validez de (...) la prueba. De este modo, la posición ante este problema metafísico fundamental puede constituir un criterio básico de diferenciación entre defensores y detractores del célebre argumento anselmiano. (shrink)

La Carta al Abate Raynal fue publica por primera vez en 1782 como respuesta a la aparición, un año antes, de la traducción al inglés del relato del Abate Raynal sobre la Revolución en América. Aunque empieza reconociéndole su estilo al autor de la muy influyente Historia filosófica y política de los establecimientos y del comercio de los europeos en las dos Indias, le reprocha su falta de sentido práctico, y corrigiendo lo que consideraba errores y falsas suposiciones sobre los (...) orígenes de la Guerra de la Independencia y el papel de Francia en el movimiento independentista, Thomas Paine expone en la Carta la dimensión universal de sus principios revolucionarios. Eclipsada por otras obras y pasada por alto, la Carta, escrita en el contexto de las negociaciones diplomáticas para la paz, representa un punto de inflexión en el pensamiento de su autor al empezar a pensar en términos internacionales. (shrink)

Com o tema: Filosofia da Educação: é possível educação sem filosofar? O Curso de Filosofia da Metodista promoveu a Semana da Filosofia 2019. A proposta foi articular pressupostos e referenciais filosóficos e sua interface com a educação. Além disso, identificar a relação necessária entre essas duas áreas fundamentais para a formação humana.

Background The prioritization protocols for accessing adult critical care in the extreme pandemic context contain tiebreaker criteria to facilitate decision-making in the allocation of resources between patients with a similar survival prognosis. Besides being controversial, little is known about the public acceptability of these tiebreakers. In order to better understand the public opinion, Quebec and Ontario’s protocols were presented to the public in a democratic deliberation during the summer of 2022. Objectives (1) To explore the perspectives of Quebec and Ontario (...) citizens regarding tiebreakers, identifying the most acceptable ones and their underlying values. (2) To analyze these results considering other public consultations held during the pandemic on these criteria. Methods This was an exploratory qualitative study. The design involved an online democratic deliberation that took place over two days, simultaneously in Quebec and Ontario. Public participants were selected from a community sample which excluded healthcare workers. Participants were first presented the essential components of prioritization protocols and their related issues (training session day 1). They subsequently deliberated on the acceptability of these criteria (deliberation session day 2). The deliberation was then subject to thematic analysis. Results A total of 47 participants from the provinces of Quebec (n = 20) and Ontario (n = 27) took part in the online deliberation. A diverse audience participated excluding members of the healthcare workforce. Four themes were identified: (1) Priority to young patients - the life cycle - a preferred tiebreaker; (2) Randomization - a tiebreaker of last resort; (3) Multiplier effect of most exposed healthcare workers - a median acceptability tiebreaker, and (4) Social value – a less acceptable tiebreaker. Conclusion Life cycle was the preferred tiebreaker as this criterion respects intergenerational equity, which was considered relevant when allocating scarce resources to adult patients in a context of extreme pandemic. Priority to young patients is in line with other consultations conducted around the world. Additional studies are needed to further investigate the public acceptability of tiebreaker criteria. (shrink)

The twenty-first century presents a major challenge for civil engineering. The magnitude and future importance of some of the problems perceived by society are directly related to the field of the civil engineer, implying an inescapable burden of responsibility for a group whose technical soundness, rational approach and efficiency is highly valued and respected by the citizen. However, the substantial changes in society and in the way it perceives the problems that it considers important call for a thorough review of (...) our structures, both professional and educational; so that our profession, with its undeniable historical prestige, may modernize certain approaches and attitudes in order to continue to be a reliable instrument in the service of society, giving priority from an ethical standpoint to its actions in pursuit of the public good . It possesses important tools to facilitate this work (new technologies, the development of communications, the transmission of scientific thought.···); but there is nevertheless a need for deep reflection on the very essence of civil engineering: what we want it to be in the future, and the ability and willingness to take the lead at a time when society needs disinterested messages, technically supported, reasonably presented and dispassionately transmitted. (shrink)

Drawing from physics and philosophical debates, Ismael combines a set of essays on the time worn debate of symmetry from both fields.

: I’m going to generalize the points that L.A. Paul makes in her Transformative Experience and push them in a somewhat different direction. I will begin by talking about transformative experience in a generic sense and say how ubiquitous it is. Then I’ll distinguish that from the strict, specialized sense of transformative experience that Paul identifies. I will say why Paul’s focus on the strict and specialized sense allows her to arrive at a strong conclusion, but bypasses the more interesting (...) lessons which concern the importance of de se imagination and the possibilities for educating it. Keywords: Transformative Experience; Laurie A. Paul; Imagination; Decision Esperienza, trasformazione, immaginazione Riassunto: Intendo generalizzare le questioni sollevate da L.A. Paul nel suo Trasformative Experience, spingendole in una direzione differente. Inizierò parlando dell’esperienza trasformativa in senso generico, illustrando quanto questa sia diffusa. Quindi distinguerò questo senso generico di esperienza trasformativa da quello più ristretto identificato da Paul. Illustrerò poi le ragioni per cui la messa a fuoco di questo senso ristretto e specifico da parte di Paul le consente di giungere a conclusioni forti, evitando però i compiti più interessanti che riguardano l’importanza dell’immaginazione de se e le possibilità di educarla. Parole chiave: Esperienza trasformativa; Laurie A. Paul; Immaginazione; Decisione. (shrink)

In this paper, I accomplish a conceptual task and a historical task. The conceptual task is to argue that (1) Einstein’s Principle of Separability (henceforth “separability”) is not a supervenience principle and that (2) separability and entanglement are compatible. I support (1) by showing that the conclusion of Einstein’s incompleteness argument would still follow even if one assumes that the state of a composite system does not supervene on the states of the subsystems, and by showing that what Einstein says (...) in “Quantum Mechanics and Reality” (1948) strongly suggests that separability is not a principle about how subsystem states relate to the state of composite systems. I support (2) by showing that if separability was incompatible with entanglement, then Einstein’s argument would be incoherent in a trivial way. Thus, by arguing for (1) and (2) I directly challenge what has been, and still is, a very common reading of separability. The historical task is to offer the first detailed review of the different ways in which separability has been defined by physicists and philosophers in the last 60 years. Among other things, such a review distinguishes three different definitions of the principle, and shows that since the 1990s and up until the present date, it became standard to take separability (as presented by Einstein) to be a supervenience principle. (shrink)

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive substance from the Amazon rainforest regions of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. Although its use originated among indigenous tribes in the Amazon basin, it has become increasingly popularized in Western society through the transnational markets of spirituality and religiosity driven by globalization, Postmodernity, and new forms of religious practice. In this paper, we will overview the arrival of ayahuasca in Uruguay by way of four different groups. We will then focus on one of these groups, a (...) holistic alternative therapies center, influenced by Peruvian shamanic traditions in the design of its ceremonies. Last we will introduce a “distributed cognition” model to explain ayahuasca rituals as a system of activity. (shrink)