In this article, we study Latin American populist constitutions and their uses, seeking to analytically understand whether populist constitutionalism is, indeed, a thing. We posit that Latin American populist constitutionalism is a particular form of mixed constitutionalism in three senses: first, as a specific combination of substantive traits that includes both empowering and (some) constraining devices; second, as a peculiar politics of constitutional change that incorporates popular mobilization against pre-existing institutions as a key trait; and third, as a particular practice (...) of constitutional enforcement that involves weak and selective implementation, often through institutional capture. By considering not only the texts of constitutions but also the ways in which they are changed and implemented, we hope to complement legal perspectives of mixed constitutions with a sociopolitical analysis of practices and contexts. By capturing the distinctive contribution of Latin American populism to the discussion of mixed constitutions, we seek to challenge both legal conceptions of constitutionalism that reduce it to negative or constraining features, and political conceptions of populism that simply equate it to authoritarian rule. (shrink)

The Lasallian District of Medellin, Colombia requested Corporación Universitaria Lasallista to analyze the formation process received by postulants to De La Salle Brothers in Istmina, Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. Academic, religious, pedagogical, apostolic and personal formation experiences received there were analyzed in this case study –from a qualitative approach– by means of semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Personal and apostolic formations stand out among the results due to the characteristics of Istmina as a proper place for sensibilization and subjugation (...) in proof of vocation. However, the reach of integral formation is questioned because academic formation presented meaningful deficiencies. In conclusion, even though formation experiences in vulnerable contexts are appreciated –and contextualization of learning is deemed meaningful–, participants agree in the necessity of developing strong competences to face educational and apostolic practices. (shrink)

Many philosophers endorse “exclusionism”, the view that no instance of relearning qualifies as a case of genuine remembering, and vice versa. Appealing to simulationist, distributed causalist, and trace minimalist theories of remembering, I develop three conditional arguments against exclusionism. First, if simulationism is right to hold that some cases of remembering involve reliance on post-event testimonial information, then remembering does not exclude relearning. Second, if distributed causalism is right to hold that memory traces are promiscuous, then remembering does not exclude (...) relearning. Finally, if trace minimalism is right to hold that vicarious experiences sometimes produce the minimal traces that ground remembering, then remembering does not exclude relearning. While advocates of these theories might incorporate additional conditions designed to accommodate exclusionism, the only reason they can appeal to in favor of doing so is intuition: neither the fundamental components of the theories nor the empirical results on which they are based provide a reason to endorse exclusionism. An investigation of exclusionism thus raises metaphilosophical questions, so far overlooked in philosophy of memory, about the appropriate role of intuition in theorizing about remembering. (shrink)

In this work we review the three principal theses that Ignatio Vincentio, a Spanish thinker of the seventeenth century, defends about the agent intellect: 1) it is the same potency as the possible intellect, only with a formal distinction and plurality of names; 2) it has three tasks: a) to illuminate phantasmata, b) to make them intelligible in act, and c) to abstract the intelligible species from them; and 3) it will remain in the separated soul performing the same task (...) as in the present situation [?], but without conversion to phantasmata. (shrink)

Rosmini’s philosophy is a comprehensive effort toward the renovation of Christian thought in modern times. An intense discussion of the problem of knowledge led him to reformulate Augustine’s theory of illumination in terms of the ideal presence of universal being to the mind. Universal being is the lumen intellectus and our mind’s first object: it is implied in all our thoughts and makes them possible. Although devoid of reality, it shows remarkable features, such as infinity, necessity, and eternity. Without being (...) God, it may be called “divine,” and confers a special value to intelligent creatures, whose dignity comes from their being enlightened by universal being. The “divine” is also the seal of God’s presence in nature. The present article supports the logic of this argument. (shrink)

COVID-19 has resulted in extraordinary disruptions to the higher education landscape. Here, we provide a brief report on 295 students’ academic perceptions and emotional well-being in late May 2020. Students reported the high levels of uncertainty regarding their academic futures as well as significant levels of stress and difficulty coping with COVID-19 disruptions. These outcomes were related to the higher levels of neuroticism and an external locus of control. Female students reported worse emotional well-being compared to males, and the students (...) of color reported the significantly higher levels of stress and uncertainty regarding their academic futures compared to White students. These results suggest that some students may be at particular risk for academic stress and poor emotional well-being due to the pandemic and highlight the urgent need for intervention and prevention strategies. (shrink)

The paper has been written from a philosophical perspective and triggered by the recurrent discussions in psychology about the most suitable methods to study our multifaceted subjectivity. Its main point is that a phenomenological understanding of the human person provides a robust and also flexible philosophical framework for psychology. The first part discusses three classical distinctions –individual/general; explaining/understanding; induction/interpretation– which, in spite of possible deficiencies, are useful to illustrate the specificity of the human sciences relative to the natural sciences. If (...) not understood as an either-or dichotomy these distinctions represent the search of the right balance to reflect the complexity and richness of psychological science. The second part presents the phenomenological notions of ‘vital reduction’ and ‘personalist reduction’, where reductions does not take on an eliminativistic meaning, but of directing the mind’s gaze to attend to what is originally the case. The ‘vital reduction’ reveals a subject of experience at the center of the lifeworld, and the ‘personalist reduction’ sees in rationality –i.e., the power to grasp the meaning of things and to recognize other subjects of experience­– a deeper dimension of the subject, who we can thus call a person. Psychology and phenomenology converge in disclosing the person-centeredness of our lifeworld. (shrink)

RESUMENEn este trabajo se resume la influencia del pensamiento de Ockham en las corrientes de filosofía modernas de corte racionalista: racionalismo, Ilustración, idealismo y fenomenología y estructuralismo. Para notar dicho influjo, se atiende tanto al método cognoscitivo de dichas corrientes como al tema real por ellas tratado. A la par, se establece una sucinta corrección de sus tesis principales desde la filosofía de L. Polo.PALABRAS CLAVEOCKHAM, RACIONALISMO, ILUSTRACIÓN, IDEALISMO, FENOMENOLOGÍA, ESTRUCTURALISMO, L. POLOABSTRACTIn this paper we study the influence of the (...) philosophy of G. of Ockham in some rationalistic modern philosophies: rationalism, Illustration, idealism, phenomenology and structuralism. We focus on the principal method and theme of these philosophies. We also add a brief correction of these thesis according to the philosophy of L. Polo.KEY WORDSOCKHAM, RATIONALISM, ILLUSTRATION, IDEALISM, PHENOMENOLOGY, STRUCTURALISM, L. POLO. (shrink)

El trabajo tiene como objetivo averiguar si para Tomás de Aquino el peccatum naturae consiste únicamente en la privación de la gracia sobrenatural, es decir en un estado en el que la naturaleza humana carece de la gracia divina pero no presenta una debilidad en relación a sus propias fuerzas morales naturales, consistentes en la capacidad de obrar según la razón. El tema está en el límite entre lo teológico y lo filosófico, pero cómo se lo resuelva impacta llanamente en (...) la comprensión filosófica del hombre y de su condición moral. De la revelación cristiana sobre los orígenes de la historia humana no se sigue una lectura ingenuamente optimista ni una irremediablemente pesimista. (shrink)

We present 8 articles about the antropology of 7 philosophers of the XX century (Husserl, Gadamer, Pareyson, Fabro, Pieper, De Lubac and Mouroux), and the doctors who have writen these articles (respectively, J.J. Borobia, F. F. Labastida, P. Blanco, L. Romera, J. J. Franck, J.M. Galván and J. Alonso).

The debate over judicial review of legislation is profuse. But differences are often due to the lack of a common methodology. This article discusses the proper way to evaluate judicial review and confronts central challenges raised against it. It develops the two main models that can be used for analyzing the intersection between democracy and constitutional decision-making and shows that judicial oversight may not be rejected, regardless of how we interpret that connection. The article discusses in detail the model developed (...) by Jeremy Waldron. A nice attempt to answer methodological questions, Waldron's model wrongly tips the balance against judicial review. Its excessive level of abstraction and idealization renders it inoperable. Few systems meet its standards, and those that do pay a high price: they contradict the concept of democratic legitimacy that underlies the model. Paradoxically, a system with judicial review may end up being more legitimate than one without it. (shrink)

According to kin selection theory, indirect reproductive advantages may induce individuals to care for others with whom they share genes by common descent, and the amount of care, including self-sacrifice, will increase with the proportion of genes shared. Twins represent a natural situation in which this hypothesis can be tested. Twin pairs experience the same early environment because they were born and raised at the same time and in the same family but their genetic relatedness differs depending on zygosity. We (...) compared the degree of willingness to fight and sacrifice for the co-twin among monozygotic and dizygotic pairs in a sample of 1443 same-sex and opposite-sex twins. We also analyzed the effect of the subject’s gender and that of the co-twin on those altruistic behaviors. Results partly supported the postulated explanation. MZ twins were significantly more likely than DZ twins to self-sacrifice for their co-twins, but zygosity did not affect willingness to fight for him/her. The genders of the subject and of the co-twin, not genetic relatedness, were the best predictors of aggressive altruistic intentions. (shrink)

The counterfactual thinking cannot be only developed in early childhood, but it also could be a requirement for the causal reasoning. In this research a replica of German was made using counterfactual stories with Latin American kids between three and four years, demonstrating the possible main role counterfactual reasoning, by using computer animations. This was a different approach to the most recent made by Nyhout and Ganea. Nonetheless, the participants of the study evidenced counterfactual reasoning to the relevant choice and (...) the negative consequence conditions shown on the stories that represented the choices made by a starting role. Although some of the results were not totally conclusive under the analyzed conditions. Lastly, some possible not controlled effects are discussed from stories shown to the children, that could have motivated the counterfactual thinking. (shrink)

BackgroundDistorted gambling-related cognitions are tightly related to gambling problems, and are one of the main targets of treatment for disordered gambling, but their etiology remains uncertain. Although folk wisdom and some theoretical approaches have linked them to lower domain-general reasoning abilities, evidence regarding that relationship remains unconvincing.MethodIn the present cross-sectional study, the relationship between probabilistic/abstract reasoning, as measured by the Berlin Numeracy Test, and the Matrices Test, respectively, and the five dimensions of the Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale, was tested in a (...) sample of 77 patients with gambling disorder and 58 individuals without gambling problems.Results and interpretationNeither BNT nor matrices scores were significantly related to gambling-related cognitions, according to frequentist analyses, performed both considering and disregarding group in the models. Correlation Bayesian analyses largely supported the null hypothesis, i.e., the absence of relationships between the measures of interest. This pattern or results reinforces the idea that distorted cognitions do not originate in a general lack of understanding of probability or low fluid intelligence, but probably result from motivated reasoning. (shrink)

Automatic public malware analysis services provide controlled, isolated and virtual environments to analyse malicious software samples. Unfortunately, malware is currently incorporating techniques to recognize execution onto a virtual or sandbox environment; when an analysis environment is detected, malware behaves as a benign application or even shows no activity. In this work, we present an empirical study and characterization of automatic PMAS, considering 26 different services. We also show a set of features that allow to easily fingerprint these services as analysis (...) environments; the lower the unlikeability of these features, the easier for us to fingerprint the analysis service they belong to. Finally, we propose a method for these analysis services to counter or at least mitigate our proposal. (shrink)

En varias oportunidades, el filósofo francés Maurice Merleau-Ponty plantea que hay una "carne del lenguaje" que se puede entender como la comprensión paradójica de sí y del otro en el seno mismo del lenguaje; esta "carne" está en relación con el desarrollo de la vida humana y da testimonio del cambio en los individuos que, observándose a sí mismos, quieren ser individuos nuevos a cada momento. Siguiendo a Merleau-Ponty, el presente ensayo se propone reconocer la condición del ser reinventado continuamente (...) por la expresión del lenguaje. On several occasions, the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty says there is a "flesh of language" that can be understood as a paradoxical understanding of self and the other within the same language. This "flesh" is related to the development of human life and bears witness to the change in individuals, observing themselves, who want to be new individuals each time. Following Merleau-Ponty, this essay proposes to recognize the condi-tion of being continually reinvented by the expression of language. (shrink)

Este artículo aborda los efectos del voto preferente en el sistema de partidos políticos colombiano a la luz de las elecciones al Senado de la República entre el año 2006 y 2018. Específicamente se pregunta por los incentivos institucionales para los actores políticos en relación con la reputación partidista o personal y sus efectos reales en el comportamiento electoral de los partidos políticos. Teórica y metodológicamente se parte del paradigma post-positivista, de un enfoque neoinstitucional desde la elección racional y de (...) una metodología mixta, que combina instrumentos y técnicas cualitativas con indicadores cuantitativos. Se identifica la estructura de incentivos del sistema electoral colombiano a partir de las normatividades legales utilizadas y se utilizan indicadores cuantitativos para analizar el comportamiento de los actores políticos en relación con dichos incentivos. Este ejercicio se fundamenta en la necesidad de realizar un estudio sistemático y prolongado en el tiempo de los efectos de la Reforma Política del 2003, especialmente de uno de sus instrumentos con mayor influencia en las decisiones políticas de maximización de beneficios y disminución de costos: el voto preferente. (shrink)

La ética de la responsabilidad planteada por Hans Jonas responde a las demandas tecnocientíficas actuales a través de un imperativo axiológico, mediado por la denominada “heurística del temor”, la prevalencia en la investigación de los pronósticos malos sobre los buenos y la conjunción del bien, el deber y el ser como soporte metafísico de la ética; la cual, aplicada y orientada al futuro, se presenta como una alternativa fiable para guiar los procesos y desarrollos de la tecnociencia, haciendo énfasis en (...) el saber del progreso biomédico sobre el poder de la técnica y apelando a una prudencia responsable. (shrink)

Suenan timbres, by the Colombian poet Luis Vidales, is an urbanely rural work. The fact that flowers, spiders, cats and landscapes are found in these short poems-vignettes –all of which are a reflection of a city in the process of modernization–; confirms how interested was the author in the idea that his poetic project could erode the barrier separating the cultural and natural spheres. Bearing this in mind, the article attempts to show that the intersubjective dialogue between the two spheres (...) is not peaceful, balanced or horizontal. On the contrary, the article, through a philosophical analysis based on the ideas of ecocriticism, seeks to reveal that underlying this dialogue, there is the desire of modern men to dominate, control and subdue nature to the laws and rule of culture. (shrink)

Gracias al invaluable aporte hecho por Foucault, hoy sabemos que la transición del acto de tortura de un espacio público y abierto a un espacio cerrado y secreto trajo consigo una serie de repercusiones filosóficas, políticas y físicas de gran complejidad. No obstante, vale la pena significar que, dentro del contexto de las dictaduras militares del cono sur, el acto de la tortura –si bien fiel a su naturaleza cerrada, inaccesible y secreta– evidenció en ciertos casos una regresión atávica a (...) espacios que si bien no eran públicos sí eran abiertos: los registros de los hombres y mujeres que tras ser sedados, golpeados y brutalmente enceguecidos fueron arrojados al mar, las montañas, los volcanes y el desierto chileno así lo confirman. Debido a esto, los rasgos físicos de la geografía chilena terminan siendo constituidos por los cuerpos anónimos de todas estas personas. Por eso, en su afán por re-construir tanto el cuerpo de la nación chilena como los cuerpos de los torturados, con su INRI (2004) Raúl Zurita apela a una inversión filosófica y física de la geografía chilena. Si bien es cierto que dicha inversión cosmogónica confirma que la redención está negada para estas almas, el despliegue astuto del recurso de la metalepsis, como concatenación metonímica que ya de por sí es, permite que estos cuerpos, antes fustigados, concebidos siempre como ajenos al país, irónicamente terminen por configurar la fisionomía misma de un Chile zuritano en el que los términos “democracia” y “muerte” resultan estar ligados de manera indisoluble. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es volver la mirada a un oficio intelectual y a un producto literario del que se podría decir que no ha enfrentado aún los desafíos que plantea la crítica literaria. El culto y el cultivo del haikú en escritores colombianos reclama hoy horizontes de comprensión propiamente literarios, ya que ante todo son, como cualquier otra expresión literaria, palabra, lenguaje, comunicación y sentido; hay en ellos campos semánticos y visiones de mundo, como hay epistemología, fenomenología e (...) ideología. Poder involucrar todo este andamiaje de reflexión y análisis no desapropiará el haikú de los escritores colombianos de su vínculo con la experiencia sensible e intuitiva recogida de la tradición japonesa. (shrink)

CONTENIDO: Lo mental natural - Buscando un lugar a lo mental - Cuerpo y comprensión mental en una emoción llamada temor - Que sea, sí, el dolor es un estado mental - Alucinaciones: lo mental y lo aparente - Ponderaciones del Yo - Un papel para el yo en la filosofía de la mente - ¡Urgente el yo a la deriva¡ - Del yo a los memes, claves para la comprensión de la replicación - versiones en el proyecto de la (...) inteligencia artificial - "matriz", inteligencia artificial con o sin barrera - Modelar el cerebro, un sobrevuelo al conexionismo. (shrink)

El proyecto de investigación “Del canon a las márgenes: revisión crítica de la poesía en Colombia, siglo xx” dio pie a la invitación para reunir en este número distintas reflexiones sobre la literatura en las márgenes. En cada caso el propósito principal consistió en identificar y documentar manifestaciones poéticas del ámbito iberoamericano que puedan ser interpretadas como omplementarias o alternativas a los hitos y autores tenidos como canónicos. En otras palabras, dar cuenta de las transformaciones de la poesía; valga decir: (...) formas, expresiones y contenidos deliberantes, diversos, mediáticos, interculturales, etcétera, desprendiéndolas de la concepción restrictiva del canon para afirmarlas a cambio en las voces que, desde las identidades culturales, las posiciones autónomas o marginales, sustentan visiones y versiones alternativas del ser y el hacer humano. (shrink)