This special issue of Journal of Poetry Therapy focuses on the use of poetry and other forms of expressive writing to explore the transformative experiences of military veterans, and so in this article I discuss how the use of poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy positively influenced my life while I was serving in the United States Air Force (USAF) from 2000 through 2004. This article briefly reviews my reasons for enlisting and discusses the importance that poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy had for (...) me during four different phases of my military history: (i) Basic Military Training, (ii) Aircraft Qualification, Combat Survival, and Water Survival Training, (iii) serving in the post 9/11 operations Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and (iv) the period after fulfilling my time of service for the USAF. In discussing each phase, I explain the unique challenges that I encountered, how I used poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy to successfully overcome these challenges, point out relevant examples of poetry, hip-hop, and philosophy that were particularly influential, and include pictures of my experiences throughout. (shrink)

En aquest article s¿analitzen els continguts i perspectives que es varen desenvolupar en el decurs del Diàleg Interacció del Fòrum Universal de les Cultures 2004. En concret, aquells que giraren entorn la problemàtica del desenvolupament cultural i de la seva relació/dependència respecte al desenvolupament econòmic en els àmbits locals, dins el marc d¿un món globalitzat. La proposta del Diàleg tenia com a objectiu analitzar les vinculacions entre ambdós àmbits per tal de potenciar noves polítiques locals (que haurien de concretar-se en (...) l¿¿Agenda 21 de la Cultura¿) que potenciessin l¿àmbit cultural, desubstantivat i banalitzat en favor de l¿àmbit econòmic. L¿anàlisi de les diferents categories i perspectives que es varen posar a debat, nogensmenys, ens aboca a un tractament realitzat i desenvolupat des dels paràmetres de l¿àmbit econòmic i, per tant, de caire més aviat descripitiu que prescriptiu. Les possibilitats de potenciar l¿àmbit cultural tot romanent dins una lògica economicista queden així reduïdes a la mera constatació de l¿existència de múltiples pràctiques que queden subsumides en el mercat, i amb les que hom s¿hi relaciona com a mercaderies. (shrink)

https://revistes.uab.cat/enrahonar/article/view/v55-shapshay-ferrell.

In their Minds and Machines essay How would you know if you synthesized a Thinking Thing? (Kary & Mahner, Minds and Machines, 12(1), 61–86, 2002), Kary and Mahner have chosen to occupy a high ground of materialism and empiricism from which to attack the philosophical and methodological positions of believers in artificial intelligence (AI) and artificial life (AL). In this review I discuss some of their main arguments as well as their philosophical foundations. Their central argument: ‘AI is Platonism’, which (...) is based on a particular interpretation of the notion of ‘definition’ and used as a critique against AI, can be counter criticized from two directions: first, Anti-Platonism is not a necessary precondition for criticizing AI, because outspoken Platonist criticism against AI is already known (Penrose, The emperor’s new mind (with a foreword by M. Gardner), 1989). Second, even in case that AI would essentially be ‘Platonism’ this would not be a sufficient argument for proving AI wrong. In my counter criticism I assume a more or less Popperian position by emphasizing the openness of the future: Not by quasi-Scholastic arguments (like Kary and Mahner’s), but only after being confronted with a novel ‘thinking thing’ by future AI engineers we can start to analyze its particular properties (Let me use a history analogon to illustrate my position: In the 19th century, mechanized aviation was widely regarded impossible—only natural organisms (such as birds or bees) could fly, and any science of aerodynamics or aviation did not exist. Only after some non-scientific technicians had confronted their astonished fellows with the first (obviously) flying machine the science of ‘Artificial Aviation’ came into existence, motivated by the need for understanding and mastering that challenging and puzzling new phenomenon). (shrink)

https://revistes.uab.cat/enrahonar/article/view/v61-fidora.

Festschrift for Maḍiniyavela Śrī Mēdhaṅkara, Sri Lankan Buddhist monk; contributed articles chiefly on economic and ethical aspects of Buddhism.

Jean-Paul Sartre is a man who lived half his life in the limelight of extreme notoriety. An intellectual who already in 1945 had to protest against attempts aimed at institutionalizing the writer, turning his works into 'national goods', exclaiming: 'it is not pleasant to be treated in one's lifetime as a public monument'. What must be equally unpleasant is to be constantly subjected to abuse. And the fact is that no writer in his lifetime has been the target of so (...) many attacks, from the most varied and rather powerful quarters, as Jean-Paul Sartre. What are the reasons? How should we approach the work of this man, our contemporary? (shrink)

In the contemporary context of increasing inequality and various forms of segregation, this volume analyzes the transition to neoliberal politics in Santiago de Chile. Using an innovative methodological approach that combines georeferenced data and multi-stage cluster analysis, Méndez and Gayo study the old and new mechanisms of social reproduction among the upper middle class. In so doing, they not only capture the interconnections between macro- and microsocial dimensions such as urban dynamics, schooling demands, cultural repertoires and socio-spatial trajectories, but also (...) offer a detailed account of elite formation, intergenerational accumulation, and economic, cultural, and social inheritance dynamics. (shrink)

In recommending a book like this, one is tempted to fall back on cliches such as 'brilliant insights', 'original perspectives', etc. The origina lity of this book is on a different plane. The problem of subject and object has been central to Western philo sophic thinking at least since the time of Descartes. So much so that many students of philosophy see it as the philosophical problem. In his Mundus Cognobilis and Mundus Causalis Mr. Mes offers an ontological-epistemological view, the (...) originality of which consists precisely in the fact that it is not an innovation. Rather, it seeks to put 'in order' the elements already at hand in such a way as to show the subject-object paradox to be non-existent where it seems to be significant and trivial where it really does occur. He has a new and interesting perspective both on what 'materialism' might mean and on how a 'scientific' view of the world has to be constructed. 'Energy-patterns' emerge as explanatory ulti mates, although there is no effort to arrive at any sort of ultimate meta physics. (shrink)

[1] Ḥeleḳ ha-moʻadim -- [2] Ḥeleḳ parashiyot ha-Torah -- ḥeleḳ 3. Be-ʻinyene midot.

A pesquisa procura não só conceituar e expor a estética de Hegel, mas também elucidar seu pensamento referente à questão. Em suas palavras, estética seria o belo artístico, criado pelo homem. Nesse sentido, a ascendência da arte está na precisão que o homem tem de objetivar seu espírito, morfosiando o mundo e também se transformando. Assim, nas páginas que se seguem há uma exposição do conceito vulgar de estética em contraponto a visão hegeliana, para tanto, o filósofo cita a ascensão (...) e declínio do conceito de arte e estética buscando contextualizá-la enquanto função na história do homem. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende, através de uma breve apresentação da teoria da memória de Henri Bergson (1859-1941), compreender como o conceito de duração possibilita a coexistência entre passado e futuro na obra deste autor. Para isto, será necessário entender em que consiste o tempo para o filósofo francês, assim como a relação do tempo com a memória e com o corpo. A partir da obra Matéria e memória, escrita e publicada na virada do século XIX para o século XX (1896) e (...) um dos textos fundamentais para a compreensão da filosofia da duração bergsoniana, será explicitada a concepção de tempo real como sucessão, continuidade, mudança, memória e criação e, consequentemente, como duração. (shrink)

Previous theoretical accounts have predicted that warfare and intergroup conflict are environmental factors that contribute to the emergence of a fast life-history strategy. However, this assumption has never been directly empirically tested. We examined youth who grew up in a territory that experienced violent intergroup conflict and compared them with a control group on various life-history measures: age of first sexual intercourse, mating behavior, desired timing of marriage and first reproduction and desired number of children. We also measured other characteristics (...) to explore the congruence between them and exposure to conflict. Participants from the postconflict society showed indications of faster life-history strategy: greater mating effort, a tendency to marry and have their first child sooner, and a larger desired number of children. Furthermore, interactions between exposure to conflict and participants’ sex were found: females from a postconflict society want to have their child earlier, and males have elevated short-term mating success. Finally, the exposure to violent conflict turned out to have congruent effects with economic poverty but not troublesome family relations. The findings are in accordance with life-history theory and show the adaptiveness of human behavior related to fitness optimization in hostile and dangerous environments. (shrink)

It is frequently argued that home birth is morally irresponsible because it involves the taking of risks on behalf of the fetus. Against this position, I argue three things. First, the fact that home birth involves risks does not necessarily entail that choosing or attending one is morally unacceptable, irresponsible or wrong. Second, parents have a prima facia prerogative to decide on behalf of their fetuses and children whether risks should be taken. While this prima facia prerogative can be overridden, (...) reasonable and widely accepted criteria for doing so are not met in the case of home birth. Third, since the current attitudes and behaviours of physicians with regard to home birth constitute a de facto morally and socially unjustifiable overriding of an informed parental decision, physician autonomy should be restricted so as to preserve the autonomy of the medical consumer. (shrink)

Si l'art n'est pas d'abord considéré en tant que production d'objets mais comme manière d'être au monde, intéressant tout homme et toute société, si la foi n'est pas considérée en tant qu'adhésion intellectuelle aux vérités de la foi, mais comme acte capable d'illuminer et transformer le monde, alors, loin d'être uniquement en rapport d'interaction, d'interdépendance, ou de ressemblance, l'art, la foi et le politique sont une unique réalité vivante. En ce sens, chacune des trois entités sera d'autant mieux comprise et (...) pensée qu'elle sera vue comme l'une des modalités de la même dynamique. Cette thèse se développe en trois étapes éclairant successivement les présupposés de sa démonstration, son effectivité dans la personne individuelle comme dans la société, enfin sa portée programmatique : le monde n'aura d'avenir qu'en assumant le ressort poétique qui le constitue et l'anime depuis le commencement. (shrink)