Güinope, Honduras was the site of a highly acclaimed people-centered development project in the 1980s. The ACORDE/Ministry of Natural Resource/World Neighbors Integrated Development Program (IDP) was unique for its time, since rather than relying on technology transfer, it promoted innovation skills for local generation of responses to needs. Furthermore, it was one of the first efforts in Latin America to employ villagers as principal agents of change. Fifteen years after the inception of the IDP and ten years after its completion, (...) the authors interviewed farmers in their fields and held a series of participatory workshops over eighteen months with ten outstanding farmers who had become project leaders. The leaders identified influential factors behind their involvement and produced recommendations for rural development interventions. Further, a generalized concept map typifying ideal characteristics for farmer promoters was constructed. Recommendations for development agencies centered on project design and implementation, demanding a methodology for strengthening local innovative capacities, participation, and control over resources. Ultimately, the leaders downplayed the role of technologies in rural development and called for special attention to enabling communities to confront external pressures, in particular recent government ``modernization'' policies, that they felt threatened community livelihood. (shrink)

The determining role that tool development plays in neuroscientific progress poses special challenges to the Kuhnian-rooted philosophy of scientific change. Some philosophers of neuroscience argue that revolutions in neuroscience do not involve paradigm shifts, but instead depend exclusively on technical or experimental innovation. By studying the historical episode of the discovery of the neuron (1873-1909), I argue that revolutions in neuroscience, like many other laboratory revolutions, are frequently driven by the intertwining of technical innovations and conceptual change.

The objective of this paper is to identify, from a historical perspective, the presence of elements of the protagorean thought in the Herodotus’ Histories. I realize an analysis of the passages in which Herodotus refers to νόμος and φύσις, which constitute a conceptual antithesis within the framework of the fifth century a.C. From this analysis I will try to show that Herodotus retakes the intellectual discussions of the fifth century BC, but makes a controversial reception of these concepts highlighting the (...) climate of conflict on the level of the symbolic. (shrink)

Reseña bibliográfica de LAKS, André & MOST, Glenn W.: Early Greek Philosophy, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2016, 9 vols.

Este artículo presenta las principales constataciones del informe "La situación social de los inmigrantes acompañados por Cáritas", trabajo de investigación elaborado por el Observatorio de la Realidad Social de Cáritas, con la información recibida de las 54 Cáritas Diocesanas (CCDD) que participaron en el estudio y que representan un 80 % de la Confederación de Cáritas Española.

This paper examines the explanatory distinctness of wiring optimization models in neuroscience. Wiring optimization models aim to represent the organizational features of neural and brain systems as optimal (or near-optimal) solutions to wiring optimization problems. My claim is that that wiring optimization models provide design explanations. In particular, they support ideal interventions on the decision variables of the relevant design problem and assess the impact of such interventions on the viability of the target system.

Rencontrer Dieu en Jésus Christ et vivre de la relation avec lui est ce que prétend faire tout chrétien, c'est ce qui fonde son identité. Mais quelle figure d'humanité propose celui qui déclare vivre en Jésus Christ ? Comment rencontrer le Seigneur, le connaître, le comprendre ? Est-il possible d'espérer une humanité meilleure que celle que nous connaissons ? Nous pouvons trouver les réponses à ces questions dans les textes bibliques, en particulier dans les récits évangéliques qui témoignent de l'expérience (...) des disciples de Jésus, qui abordaient des questions sensiblement analogues à celles que nous nous posons. (shrink)

The death penalty raises ethical questions at a minimum of two levels: regarding the persons directly involved in the events and penal procedures, and regarding the life and structures of society. The issue lies within the wider question of punishment, which calls into question 'justice' in personal and social life, the idea of the common good, finality and shared logics. As understood ethically, the common good indicates, in the sharing of existence, the meaning and purpose of every form of social (...) life. The human quality of relations is relevant to matters concerning the victims, the perpetrators and the responsibilities of society. (shrink)

Realism and utopia usually represent antithetic political perspectives. In this essay I argue that these might find some common points by overtaking the secular interpretation they usually place on themselves.

As jornadas de junho de 2013 se constituíram espontaneamente nas ruas de todo o Brasil, iniciando uma era de intensa polarização política e gerando todo um legado social e cultural nos anos seguintes. O objetivo do presente artigo é compreender e analisar o cenário da poesia nacional desde então, buscando rastros daqueles acontecimentos nos poemas recentemente produzidos. Para tal, buscou-se aprofundar dois universos poéticos distintos e muito pouco relacionados: o slam e a chamada “poesia tradicional”, a partir da leitura de (...) autores como Luz Ribeiro, Paulo Ferraz e Pádua Fernandes. (shrink)

The June/2013 protests happened spontaneously all over Brazil, starting an era of deep political polarization and creating a social and cultural legacy in the following years. This article aims to comprehend and analyze the national poetry scene since then, searching traces of those events in recently published poems. To do so, it sought to dive into two different unrelated universes: slam poetry and the so-called “traditional poetry”, using as a resource the work of poets such as Luz Ribeiro, Paulo Ferraz (...) and Pádua Fernandes. (shrink)

This article analyses the Italian philosopher and anthropologist Ernesto De Martino’s The Land of Remorse from a philosophical viewpoint. After having presented the main Demartinian concepts (e.g. ‘presence’ and ‘crisis of presence’) and examined the phenomenon of ‘tarantism’ (that is a magical-religious ritual practiced in southern Italy), the author interprets ‘ritual symbols’ as useful ‘fictions,’ which permit to resolve the problem of ‘indeterminacy’ (that refers to vague objects and unknown events), and rescue the human Self from psychological and existential crisis.

Italian translation by Sergio Cremaschi of ROBERTO MANGABEIRA UNGER, Knowledge and Politics, , Free Press, New York 1975.

El presente artículo aborda las primeras obras de Gilles Deleuze desde el ángulo que a él mismo le han merecido. Utiliza los textos, prólogos y entrevistas aparecidos en La isla desierta y otros textos (1953-1974), para proponer un comentario cuyo interés de fondo es la pregunta por la filosofía cuando a esta, sin ignorarlas, no le da por imitar a las ciencias positivas ni se presenta como sustituto de la religión.

This article deals with the problem of philosophy seen through myth, and that of the latter after the irruption of philosophy. Adorno and Horkheimer's texts on the Dialectic of Enlightenment and Giorgio Colli's text on The Birth of Philosophy are basically used to show their transfers and reconversions. The conclusion is that the scenario that opens up to lucidity is that of an innocent and ruthless game of forces within which none of them prevails absolutely and for eternity. Neither dialectic, (...) nor scientific, nor mystical: what is real is music. (shrink)

Volume I. Dall'Antica Grecia al Classicismo -- Volume II. Dal Romanticismo alla contemporaneità.

Despite the tremendous progress in the development of scientific knowledge, the understanding of the causes of poverty and inequality, and the role of politics and governance in addressing modern challenges, issues such as social inclusion, poverty, marginalization and despair continue to be a reality across the world - and most often impact Indigenous Peoples. At the Margins of Globalization explores how Indigenous Peoples are affected by globalization, and the culture of individual choice without responsibility that it promotes, while addressing what (...) can be done about it. Though international trade and investment agreements are unlikely to go away, the inclusion of Indigenous rights provisions has made a positive difference. This book explains how these provisions operate and how to build from their limited success. (shrink)