This article studies natural food packaging as enabling artifacts of the traditional material culture of Antioquia in Colombia. For this purpose, we consider artifacts as objective nodes that combine design and use intentions, functions, materials, histories, artifactual lineages, and cooperative relationships that stabilize ritualized practices of a human group. We take the example of natural packaging as artifacts that enablers and stabilizers of traditional cooking and food preparation practices. Natural packaging materials are here assumed to be leaves having some favorable (...) property to contain a food product. After providing a theoretical reflection, we analyze the data collected from fieldwork we conducted in two towns in Antioquia, Colombia (Santa Fe de Antioquia and Amagá), as well as from an interview with an expert in the field. Finally, we show that it is possible to postulate an analysis under a relational ontological description of a traditional practice with conceptual categories of the philosophy of technology. (shrink)

The present paper intends to draw the conception of language implied in the technique of word embeddings that supported the recent development of deep neural network models in computational linguistics. After a preliminary presentation of the basic functioning of elementary artificial neural networks, we introduce the motivations and capabilities of word embeddings through one of its pioneering models, word2vec. To assess the remarkable results of the latter, we inspect the nature of its underlying mechanisms, which have been characterized as the (...) implicit factorization of a word-context matrix. We then discuss the ordinary association of the “distributional hypothesis” with a “use theory of meaning,” often justifying the theoretical basis of word embeddings, and contrast them to the theory of meaning stemming from those mechanisms through the lens of matrix models (such as vector space models and distributional semantic models). Finally, we trace back the principles of their possible consistency through Harris’s original distributionalism up to the structuralist conception of language of Saussure and Hjelmslev. Other than giving access to the technical literature and state of the art in the field of natural language processing to non-specialist readers, the paper seeks to reveal the conceptual and philosophical stakes involved in the recent application of new neural network techniques to the computational treatment of language. (shrink)

Mediante el presente artículo se realiza un recorrido aproximativo a la historia de la Educación Social de forma que se conozcan los elementos que la conforman como práctica socioeducativa emergente en la última década del siglo XX y la importancia que tiene en la sociedad; de la misma forma se acomete una aproximación al proceso de profesionalización de la Educación Social a través del modelo teórico que los autores Sáez y García (2006) proponen, mediante el cual se delimitan los actores (...) que están involucrados en el proceso profesionalizador de la Educación Social y la interacción que existe entre ellos. Finalmente la cuestión que se trata es la idea de la Educación Social como elemento transformador de la ciudadanía a través de la participación, que propicia el cambio de actitudes y motivaciones en los individuos. (shrink)

En contraste d’avec la pensée de Spinoza, pour qui la foi n’est qu’un phénomène extérieur et étrange, une notable exception à sa théorie du salut par le control des passions et l’amour intellectuelle à Dieu et par Dieu que l’homme de connaissance peut atteindre seulement grâce à la véritable philosophie, on analyse ici très brièvement la compréhension que de la foi nous proposent, en ayant l’expérience intérieure, surtout Descartes mais aussi Pascal. Pour le premier la foi relève de la volonté, (...) à qui la grâce incline d’embrasser le message révélé à peu près comme la perception claire et distincte incline au jugement dans l’acte deconnaissance. Pour Pascal la foi et la connaissance sont de l’ordre, toutes deux, du coeur, qui comme on sait a des raisons que la raison ne connait pas. (shrink)

A favourite discussion topic about Wittgenstein is his concept of philosophy. One of its characterizations takes it as an activity by which we reach a panoramic vision of language. This panoramic vision is neither a theoretical issue nor a theoretical construction, but a state of the philosopher or of those readers who understand Wittgenstein´s thought. He often puts it in terms of a path: "the real discovery is the one that gives philosophy peace", he claims in a famous passage of (...) Philosophical Investigations [133], and he is even more explicit and personal on its Foreword: "The philosophical remarks in this book are, as it were, a number of sketches of landscapes which were made in the course of these long and involved journeyings, which now had to be arranged and sometimes cut down, so that if you looked at them you could get a picture of the landscape" Almost paradoxical: the panoramic vision of the landscape is acquired passing through it.. (shrink)

The biogeographic contributions of Léon Croizat (1894–1982) and the conflictive relationships with his intellectual descendants and critics are analysed. Croizat’s panbiogeography assumed that vicariance is the most important biogeographic process and that dispersal does not contribute to biogeographic patterns. Dispersalist biogeographers criticized or avoided mentioning panbiogeography, especially in the context of the “hardening” of the Modern Synthesis. Researchers at the American Museum of Natural History associated panbiogeography with Hennig’s phylogenetic systematics, creating cladistic biogeography. On the other hand, a group of (...) New Zealand biologists formalized Croizat’s original concepts and soon began arguing with cladistic biogeographers over the relative merits of their approaches. In Latin America, panbiogeography and cladistic biogeography were incorporated as parts of an integrative approach. A recent development, molecular panbiogeography, is based on the use of molecular phylogenetic data. The current practice shows that some authors insist on considering panbiogeography as the only appropriate approach and vicariance as the only relevant process, whereas others accept Croizat’s dictum “Earth and life evolve together” as a useful guide to understanding broad, general patterns, but recognize that dispersal also contributes substantially to biotic assembly. The framework of integrative pluralism allows to explain the complexities of the biogeographic processes involved in biotic assembly without the need of unification on a large scale. This historical analysis intersects with the existing historiography of the Modern Synthesis and may provide some insights on the dynamics of integrative pluralism, which may be especially relevant in the current development of the Extended Synthesis. (shrink)

Ecological psychology (EP) and the enactive approach (EA) may benefit from a more focused view of lived temporality and the underlying temporal multiscalar nature of human living. We propose multiscalar temporality (MT) as a framework that complements EP and EA, and moves beyond their current conceptualisation of timescales and inter-scale relationships in organism-environment dynamical systems. MT brings into focus the wide ranging and meshwork-like interdependencies at play in human living and the questions concerning how agents are intimately entangled in such (...) meshworks, utilising them as resources for skilful living. We develop a conceptual toolkit that highlights temporality: Firstly, we address lived temporality. We use a case study from psychotherapy to show how a person’s skilful engagement with the world is best described as adaptive harnessing of interdependencies of constraints residing across a wide range of timescales. We call this skill time-ranging. Secondly, the case study provides a proof of concept of the integration of an idiographic approach to human conversing and a more general theory of emergent organisation rooted in theoretical biology. We introduce the existing concept of constraint closure from theoretical biology and scale it up to human interactivity. The detailed conceptualisation of constraint interdependencies constitutes the backbone of the proposal. Thirdly, we present a heuristic mapping of what we call organising frames. The mapping guides the conceptualisation of the emergence of inter-scale relationships and serves as an epistemic tool that brings together nomothetic and idiographic approaches. Finally, we combine new ideas with re-interpretations of existing EP and EA concepts and elaborate on the need of a fresh new look at the implicit and sometimes missing conceptualisations of temporality in the EP and EA literature. (shrink)

Se hace una revisión crítica de la hipótesis de Manuel Ocaña Jiménez según la cual parte de los signos lapidarios de la Mezquita Aljama de Córdoba identifican a trabajadores de religión cristiana. Se concluye que tal hipótesis es insostenible.

Esta reflexión plantea la necesidad e importancia de investigar de forma más profunda una pedagogía del gusto a través del desarrollo autónomo de la autonomía, con el interés de que, mediante la contemplación de las formas bellas, pueda acercarse el individuo al desarrollo de su persona y a la vivencia de la belleza como un retorno a casa, algo que es posible si el hombre tiene la disposición de ser acogido por la belleza, pues para poder habitar en ella es (...) necesario antes preparar en nosotros el lugar donde habite. Cuando el hombre desarrolla su libertad expresada como autonomía del gusto, puede dar verdadera acogida a la belleza, y ella a cambio, se manifestará como lo más íntimo a su ser y le entregará el mundo que contempla como su morada. Palabras clave: Belleza. Persona. Vida interior. Libertad. Morada. (shrink)

Se trata de la reseña del libro de Carlos Balzi, “Introducción”, en Hobbes, Thomas, Leviatán. Buenos Aires: Colihue, 208 páginas.

The most documented juridical studies about hispanic woman in the late Middle Ages, belong to three specialities: political law, civil or common law (matrimonial), and criminal law. It is in the sphere of matrimonial law where the influence of christian principles has been described as prominent, contributing to the juridical conjugal parity, thus recognizing woman a full civil capability.

This article seeks to raise the problems of the notion of difference according to Heidegger and Deleuze, for, to our knowledge, they are two of the mayor contemporary thinkers who have influenced our time by addressing this issue. What is “new” about the ways Heidegger and Deleuze think the notion of difference? What convergences appear between their proposals? What disagreements occur between their philosophies? The article is an attempt to provide critical answers to these questions.

A Latin-American/Spanish edition of the medieval classic. Boethius' treatises on meditation and beauty are still valid to this very day.

This paper tries to contribute to the elucidation of some intellectual conundrums and policy questions regarding scientific knowledge (SK). As for modelling , I have shown that the Solow model is independent of human agency, has rich and precise policy implications and captures some features of S(SK). As for policy I have obtained three results. First, the optimal path of scientific production can be reached through an attainable public intervention. Second, whether this public intervention ought to be implemented depends in (...) part on the relevant period of adjustment , a rather unconventional notion. Third, the analysis of this relevant period of adjustment may help to understand the development of science. Finally and in relation to epistemology I have been able to suggest that visual representation can be very misleading and that the proliferation I have uncovered forces a reconsideration of the desideratum of science. (shrink)

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic beverage from the Amazon rainforest, used in spiritual and religious settings for medical purposes. Since the 1990s onwards, several religious and neo‐shamanic groups have been using it in Uruguay within the psychospiritual networks. Some participants go to rituals of ayahuasca looking for therapeutic alternatives to certain ailments, such as substance use disorders (SUDs). In this chapter, three cases of former patients who recovered in a neo‐shamanic center that uses ayahuasca for the treatment of SUDs are described (...) and analyzed. The center is conducted by a psychologist trained in the Peruvian vegetalismo tradition. An ethnographic description of the ritual setting as well as the process of psychotherapeutic intervention of the center are described. In‐depth interviews were used to collect the narratives of the three patients. A medical anthropology perspective is used, focusing on different subjective trajectories: the general biographic trajectory, SUDs trajectory, spiritual trajectory, and the trajectory under the entheogenic field, ayahuasca included. As we discuss, the impact of ayahuasca rituals ceremonies should be explained not only by ayahuasca as a psychedelic compound, but as a psychotherapeutic tool immersed in a social, cultural, and spiritual setting aimed at the treatment of SUDs. (shrink)

The paper critically examines Bobbio's famous disctinction between legal positivism as a method, a theory and an ideology. The author first highlights certain problems of the distinction itself and then focuses on Bobbio's self-determined position within it. Delving on Bobbio's analysis of the concepts of basic norm and rule of recognition, he demonstrates how Bobbio's later rejection of these two concepts implies acceptance of positivistic legal theory and ideology – despite the fact that he explicitly rejected them in the first (...) place. The reason for this Bobbio's slip is found in his absorbtion in the positivist legal culture which is permeated with the internal point of view on the law. The author suggests rejecting Bobbio's tripartite disctinction of legal positivism and proposes instead to view this as a set of seldom indvisible standpoints forming a specific legal culture. (shrink)

His rich and multifaceted thought influenced many different traditions; he has been seen as an eclectic. This book elucidates Henry of Ghent's philosophical and theological system with special reference to his Trinitarian writings.