La persona humana busca hacia dentro su verdad más íntima; o bien omite esa búsqueda y se olvida generosamente de sí. Entonces encuentra: advirtiendo sin llegar a ver, y también mirando y vigilando. Es el despliegue metalógico de la libertad personal: un don que aceptamos y devolvemos buscando la aceptación divina.

En este trabajo se exponen las dimensiones superiores del abandono del límite mental, distinguiendo algunos pasos en ellas. Como consecuencia se enfrenta a la persona humana con el entero ámbito de la existencia, y se distinguen los distintos niveles de su inclusión en ella. La libertad trascendental es, según Polo, la inclusión atópica en el ámbito de la máxima amplitud de la existencia.

La persona humana busca hacia dentro su verdad más íntima; o bien omite esa búsqueda y se olvida generosamente de sí. Entonces encuentra: advirtiendo sin llegar a ver, y también mirando y vigilando. Es el despliegue metalógico de la libertad personal: un don que aceptamos y devolvemos buscando la aceptación divina.

In this paper, after briefly reviewing and explaining the access to God in Polo's philosophy, according to the four ways of the "abandonment of mental limit" method, and showing what can be gained from each of them, I gloss the way of a possible access into the Intimacy of the divine as Origin. I hold that, while we cannot acquire an ultimate access to it, we can conclude at least that it is impossible for this Intimacy to be intrinsically (...) solitary. The consequences of this doctine are then expounded. (shrink)

The human person looks wither inside towards her more intimate truth, or it omits that search and one forgets himself generously. Then it finds: noticing without getting to see, and also watching and supervising. It is the metalogic unfolding of the personal freedom: a gift that we accept and we give back looking for the divine acceptance.

This paper examines the congruence of the method of abandoning the mental limit regarding what it states, what it does, and what it is. The solid congruence that this method exhibits obliges us to exceed its mere formal use: and it helps us discover that congruence constitutes an intrinsic feature of real truth. This finding overcomes the atavistic mistrust that has accompanied philosophical research, making unnecesary the searching for signals or proofs to recognize truth.

Este trabajo describe la vida y escritos de L. Polo hasta 1996. A los 25 años descubrió su método de pensamiento: el abandono del limite mental. Vivió en Madrid, Roma, Granada y Pamplona. Amante de la verdad y de la libertad personal. Entre sus obras más profundas se encuentran las que componen su Curso de teoría del conocimiento y su Antropología trascendental.

En la tesis de Luca Fantini "El conocimiento de sí en Leonardo Polo: un estudio del hábito de sabiduría publicada por la Pontificia Universidad de la Santa Cruz en Roma en el año 2007, el tema central es introducido haciendo referencia a la discusión contemporánea sobre la cuestión de la identidad, de especial relevancia en Antropología. Diversas corrientes de pensamiento modernas y posmodernas han llevado a una escisión entre objetividad y subjetividad provocando así una mirada del sujeto limitada y parcial. (...) La filosofía moderna de la subjetividad fracasa porque es pensada en simetría con la metafísica. Frente a esta cuestión Fantini se pregunta si es posible hoy un modo alternativo de pensar el tema del sujeto moderno. Se pregunta también acerca de la validez de Tomás de Aquino hoy, después de la modernidad. Propone en cambio a Leonardo Polo como el pensador contemporáneo que replantea estas cuestiones de un modo radical. Polo acepta la antropología tradicional pero propone su antropología trascendental como innovación que pretende perfeccionar nuestro conocimiento del ser personal. La filosofía clásica es continuada y la filosofía moderna es rectificada. Así, Leonardo Polo ofrece un nuevo método para hacer filosofía: el abandono del límite mental el cual consiste en la ampliación de la metafísica clásica con la antropología trascendental. Luca Fantini brinda con esta tesis un aporte significativo a la difusión del método poliano. (shrink)

In Luca Fantini’s doctoral dissertation, a central question is introduced in reference to actual theories of identity. Many modern and posmodern philosophers introduce a division between objectivity and subjectivity conceiving the human subject in a partial way. Modern subjective philosophy fails because it is made in symmetry with metaphysics. Fantini asks if it is possible to understand the modern subject in another way. He asks is Aquinas is a valid answer today, after modernity. He proposes Polo as a contemporary philosopher (...) that examines this questions in a radical way. Polo accepts traditional anthropology but proposes his transcendental anthropology as innovative pretending to improve our understanding of personal being. Classic philosophy is thus enlarged and modern philosophy rectified. Polo offers a new method: the abandonment of mental limit, that consists in amplifying classical metaphysics with a transcendental anthropology. Fantini offers with this an important contribution to the diffusion of this method. (shrink)

First the rationalist tradition and then the cognitive revolution put limits on the philosophy and social sciences with regard to the analysis of emotion, of irrationality in mental events and actions, to the reduction of our representations to conceptual elements, and so on. This fact caused an increasing interest in these topics. In this paper, we intend to claim the significant relations among these three issues: emotion, selfdeception and non-conceptual content, with two aims: i) to analyse the relation between (...) non-conceptual content of emotion and the phenomenon of self-deception; and ii) to explain how self-deception canbe overcome by the conceptualization of some non-conceptual elements of emotion. (shrink)

Los puntos de partida y los recorridos de las filosofías medieval y moderna son a todas luces diferentes, pero en cambio las líneas ascendentes de ambos periodos filosóficos convergen hacia la persona como hacia lo más altamente real, sin que lleguen a poder asignarle de modo congruente el puesto que ella merece en el orden del ser y del saber. El obstáculo que impide llevar a término esas expectativas, aunque diversamente percibido por cada una, es común a ambas. En esta (...) investigación se señala la posible conciliación de esas filosofías en el conocimiento trascendental de la persona, mediante el método del abandono del límite mental, que convierte aquel obstáculo en camino. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo se pretende dar una respuesta a la pregunta que da título a esta investigación. Para dar cuenta de por qué el método propuesto por Polo y la metafísica no excluyen al lenguaje hay que elaborar una ontología del abandono del límite mental. Para ello, discuto con Juan A. García, Salvador Piá Tarazona y Francisco Javier Pérez Guerrero. Se concluye que el método propuesto por Polo pertenece a la esencia humana.

Los puntos de partida y los recorridos de las filosofías medieval y moderna son a todas luces diferentes, pero en cambio las líneas ascendentes de ambos periodos filosóficos convergen hacia la persona como hacia lo más altamente real, sin que lleguen a poder asignarle de modo congruente el puesto que ella merece en el orden del ser y del saber. El obstáculo que impide llevar a término esas expectativas, aunque diversamente percibido por cada una, es común a ambas. En esta (...) investigación se señala la posible conciliación de esas filosofías en el conocimiento trascendental de la persona, mediante el método del abandono del límite mental, que convierte aquel obstáculo en camino. (shrink)

Comparando la presencia teórica ante la inteligencia con el papel de la presencia intelectual en el actuar práctico se descubre la importancia y el valor del pasado histórico. Eso permite establecer el sentido de lo histórico en el hombre.

La fe como elevación del conocer personal. Con el método del abandono del límite mental, Polo descubrió el acceso a la realidad trans-inmanente o trans-operativa del ser humano, alcanzando así el entendimiento agente aristotélico o conocer personal como el conocimiento superior del ser humano. Dicho conocimiento no encuentra en sí su tema, lo cual lo abre para que trascendiéndose lo busque fuera de sí. El acto de fe debe consistir en la iluminación de dicho conocer por el (...) cual percibe en Cristo su tema o réplica, quien a su vez es réplica del Padre. (shrink)

Se glosa el método poliano del abandono del limite mental como un 'trascendimiento' de la presencia - la cual detiene el inteligir objetivante y como actualidad lo separa de la actuosidad y dinamismo reales-. Se excluye así la extrapolación de la actualidad presencial como forma del ente sustancial tanto como su reducción a determinación efectiva a manera de modalidad del juicio asertivo. De donde se interpreta la distinción real de la esencia potencial con respecto al acto de ser (...) creado que la trasciende - sin separación- como el inherente distinguirse de posibilidades temporalmente desplegado por este acto, y se averigua la real distinción entre la primalidad radical que compete al acto de ser principal - extramental- y al intrínsecamente dual- personal humano-. (shrink)

In this paper I show the importance of the methodical dimension in the philosophy of Leonardo Polo. This point is well illustrated in the recent book of Héctor Esquer Gallardo, El límite del pensamiento. La propuesta metódica de Leonardo Polo.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es poner en diálogo la filosofía poliana del límite mental con el criticismo de Kant. Mantengo que por comenzar desde el hecho de que ellos toman el mismo método como tema, ambas posiciones teóricas están interconectadas. La limitación del conocimiento, el problema de su fundamentación, y la antropología que responde a ambas cuestiones será objeto de estudio del presente artículo.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es poner en diálogo la filosofía poliana del límite mental con el criticismo de Kant. Mantengo que por comenzar desde el hecho de que ellos toman el mismo método como tema, ambas posiciones teóricas están interconectadas. La limitación del conocimiento, el problema de su fundamentación, y la antropología que responde a ambas cuestiones será objeto de estudio del presente artículo.

El límite mental y la fenomenología.- En este artículo se compara la fenomenología de Husserl con la filosofía del límite mental de Leonardo Polo; dicha comparación quiere subrayar la importancia de los hábitos en antropología.

Dios es el Ser. A partir de esta afirmación tomista clásica se estudia la nueva forma de plantear la teología natural como consecuencia del abandono del límite mental en cuanto método de la metafísica. Dicho abandono permite pensar los primeros principios en su carácter existencial y en su mutua vigencia. Se descubre que el carácter existencial de Dios es el primer principio de identidad. A partir de ahí se estudia a Dios como Incausado. Se reflexiona sobre (...) el alcance de la demostración de la existencia de Dios y se desarrollan las nociones de Origen, ámbito de la máxima amplitud y reserva originaria. De esta manera se delinea la arquitectura de una teología natural novedosa y con grandes posibilidades especulativas. (shrink)

Entender a san Agustín desde la filosofía poliana. Este trabajo confronta algunos logros de la filosofía agustiniana con aportaciones de Leonardo Polo. Se centra en la gnoseología, el método y la antropología de ambos filósofos. Compara el trascendimiento agustiniano con el abandono del límite mental, la intimidad agustiniana con los radicales humanos y las tríadas agustinianas con las dualidades humanas.

En el tomo II de la Antropología trascendental, L. Polo estudia la esencia humana de acuerdo con el método del abandono del límite mental. La esencia aparece entonces como la manifestación y el disponer de la persona, que hace posible la constitución del don que completa la estructura donal del amar y el aceptar personal. La tarea de constituir el don toma el relevo a la búsqueda de réplica, que no puede alcanzar su tema, al ser éste (...) inaccesible al intelecto personal. (shrink)

This paper deals with the third dimension in the Polian philosophical method, the abandonment of the mental limit, in correspondence with the habit of wisdom, and explains the intrinsical duality, or transparence, which characterizes the personal human being, theme of transcendental anthropology, distinguishing it from the extramental being studied in metaphysics.

Una de las características más destacadas del momento actual la constituye precisamente el convencimiento generalizado de que el recurso a la historia ya no ilumina nuestro presente. Adiós, historia, adiós intenta analizar las causas por las que ello ha podido ocurrir. Porque, en efecto, no hemos llegado a un escenario así por casualidad, ni, menos aún, como resultado de ninguna fatalidad o destino. En cierto modo incluso podríamos decir que constituye un desenlace previsible de la confluencia de un esquema (...) class='Hi'>mental con el que abordar lo humano, el diseñado por la Modernidad, y las transformaciones que ha ido sufriendo nuestra sociedad en los planos social, económico y político en las últimas décadas. El proyecto moderno nace con el desarrollo del modo de producción capitalista y lo ha acompañado en sus cambios hasta el presente. Ambos han sufrido su propia evolución, que no siempre ha ido acompasada. El ideal ilustrado acabó dando lugar a patologías en el plano del discurso político que finalmente han quedado asociadas al siglo XX mismo. Por su parte, el modelo de crecimiento económico y de producción de riqueza ha ido adoptando una deriva tal, que ahora se diría que precisamente él constituye la causa de buena parte de los males que nos asolan. En definitiva: ni estamos donde esperábamos, ni somos como (¿o quiénes?) creíamos podría ser la forma de resumir la percepción que en esta época tenemos de nosotros mismos y del lugar en que hemos ido a desembocar. De ahí a afirmar que no hemos aprendido nada de la historia o, peor aún, a sostener que la historia nada puede enseñarnos no hay más que un paso que la presente obra intenta mostrar que ya hemos empezado a dar. (shrink)

Desde los propios tiempos de su constitución y en no poca medida todavía hasta el presente, el paradigma general del idealismo poskantiano ha sido objeto de numerosos malentendidos. La historia estándar de la Filosofía Moderna dominante sobre todo en los países de habla inglesa tiende a ver a la filosofía de Kant como el límite máximo de idealismo capaz de ser asimilado de forma consistente por la reflexión filosófica. A partir de Kant, la radicalización del motivo idealista en las (...) filosofías de Fichte, Schelling y Hegel ha sido así considerada a menudo como un abandono de los patrones viables de racionalidad. En la base de esta visión no es en modo alguno inusual encontrar la confusión del idealismo poskantiano con una forma desorbitada y excéntrica del idealismo de Berkeley. Sin embargo, el proyecto teórico de radicalización del idealismo trascendental de Kant poco tiene que ver con esta interpretación. Una de las claves principales para poder entender correctamente ese proyecto es comprender su particular teoría sobre la relación entre conocimiento sensible y conocimiento intelectual, entre intuición y concepto. En el marco teórico de un idealismo absoluto se abandona la diferenciación radical entre intuición y concepto y con ello se excluye por principio la posibilidad de resolver el problema de la referencia de la mente humana al mundo mediante una concepción empirista del conocimiento sensible. En este nuevo contexto, el problema del vínculo de lo mental y lo real debe ser resuelto en el propio plano inmanente de los conceptos. El objetivo de nuestra ponencia será justamente analizar, con ocasión de la teoría de Hegel sobre la relación entre intuición y concepto, los presupuestos teóricos que hacen plausible una concepción de la relación entre la mente y el mundo que no apela para justificar esa relación a categorías como la de receptividad y causalidad. (shrink)

La doctrina de Polo sobre la muerte afirma que se debe al límite mental. El objetivo de este trabajo es aclarar esa afirmación exponiendo la noción de cuerpo propio como un hecho enigmático, que late bajo el límite mental; y que por ello mismo puede faltar: su falta es la muerte. La libertad personal no informa suficientemente el cuerpo, sino que lo da por hecho; y como el propio cuerpo escapa así de su completo dominio, le (...) puede ser expropiado a la persona. La falta del propio cuerpo es la muerte; y sin su propio cuerpo, la persona humana sale del mundo y deja la historia. (shrink)

This essay argues that the practical reason approach to the study of social conventions (and social normativity more generally) fails to adequately account for the fluency of social action in environments that we experience as familiar. The practical reason approach, articulated most recently in Andrei Marmor’s Social Conventions: From Language to Law (2009) does help us, though not wholly adequately, to understand how we tend to react to, and experience, unfamiliar situations or unfamiliar behaviors, that is, those situations in which (...) a certain practice becomes problematic or is problematized, or where we are obliged to, or moved to, justify or deliberate. The reason why the practical reason approach is not wholly adequate when it comes to understanding unfamiliar situations or unfamiliar behaviors is that it tends to subsume the unfamiliar under the familiar, that is, it tends to negatively evaluate anything that is deemed to be not in accordance with the rules and reasons already familiar to the observer. This excludes the possibility of the observer having to transform himself or herself, and thus change what is familiar to him or her. (shrink)

Luca Del Baldo's Visionary Academy of Ocular Mentality is an extraordinary testament in the recent history of visual studies. It brings together a group of outstanding scholars who have devoted their lives to art history, philosophy, history, ethnology, focussing predominantly on questions of human perception and imagination. Working from photographs provided by the scholars, Luca del Baldo painted his series of 96 portraits reproduced in this book. The portraits are accompanied by texts written by the persons portrayed, in response to (...) their portrayal, and as an exchange: the artist gifted the original painting to the portrayed person, and the portrayed gifted her or his response. "The result is a unique and profound conversation between image and text focussed on the enigma of the human face in all its mediations.". (shrink)

For Descartes, nature must be interpreted through a limited number of simple laws used to describe the multiplicity of the real, focusing on the rule and normality rather than on the exception and monstrosity. Nevertheless, monstrosity has a vital function in Descartes' philosophy. By offering a new reading of the evil genius and the deceiver God in terms of absolute monstrosity, I intend to demonstrate the novel role played by the will in this philosophical ‘teratomachy’. Examining the peculiar status Admiration (...) occupies in the economy of the passions, I also analyze a passage from the Cogitationes circa generatione animalium , the only text in which Descartes explicitly discusses physical monstrosities. I argue that these pages, in which Descartes subscribes to a rigidly mechanistic, epigenetic view of embryology, are in tension with his doctrine of final causes and the idea of continuous creation. My theory is that the entire philosophy of Descartes can be read as a veritable war against a certain idea of monstrosity. (shrink)

We argue that voluntary mental health registries integrated into the 9-1-1 system, where patients and caregivers can establish a repository of this information, will help fill this information gap by enabling first responders to quickly understand the context of a call for service with a mental health component, and to make better informed decisions. Despite valid concerns about privacy, stigma, and the potential misuse of protected health information, such registries, if carefully designed and administered, can improve the health (...) outcomes of 9-1-1 calls for service involving mental health-related crises. (shrink)

Crowdfunding is increasingly common in medical research. Some critics are concerned that by adopting crowdfunding, some researchers may sidestep the established systems of review of the social and scientific value of studies, especially mechanisms of expert-based review. I argue firstly that such concerns are based on a misleading picture of how research value is assessed and secondly that crowdfunding may turn out to be an useful complement of extant funding systems. I start with the idea that medical knowledge is a (...) structured and intermediate public good and explain from this perspective that funding systems as a whole, rather than any of their parts ought to be considered devices for the discovery of the social and scientific value of research. If so, we should not be concerned with whether crowdfunding bypasses expert reviews, but with whether it may constitute an improvement of extant funding systems. In the second part, I speculate that crowdfunding may ameliorate, albeit limitedly, some recalcitrant failures of funding systems, such as the sponsorship of research on neglected diseases, and smooth funding adaptations for scientific transitions. If, after trial, such hypotheses turn out to be true, crowdfunding ought to be promoted. (shrink)

Suffering, defined as a state of undergoing pain, distress or hardship, is a multidimensional concept; it can entail physical, psychological and spiritual distress that prompts the sufferer to seek medical attention. As a construct originating from and unique to each patient, no patient’s suffering is equal to another’s or completely reducible to any generalizable frame of understanding. As it happens in a common medical encounter, the suffering patient requires an anamnesis provided by attentive and comprehensive listening to both the said (...) and unsaid parts of his or her discourse interpreted through the hermeneutical skills of the physician. Suffering can then be decoded into a complex construct, which can guide the formulation of a strategy to help patient coping by attempting to find meaning in it. To help this search for meaning, one may employ philosophic therapy, bibliotherapy and counseling, among other approaches. Suffering-based medicine (SBM) thus circumvents the limitations of the reductionistic Allopathic medical frame of understanding of disease. Such an attitude should be a common goal for all scientific medicine practitioners, as it complements and does not conflict with any of its therapeutic modalities. Furthermore, medical education should include humanistic disciplines to empower physicians to better understand their patients’ experience of suffering. (shrink)

Generic statements (‘Tigers have stripes’) are pervasive and early-emerging modes of generalization with a distinctive linguistic profile. Previous experimental work found that generics display a unique asymmetry between their acceptance conditions and the implications that are typically drawn from them. This paper presents evidence against the hypothesis that only generics display an asymmetry. Correcting for limitations of previous designs, we found a generalized asymmetry effect across generics, various kinds of explicitly quantified statements (‘most’, ‘some’, ‘typically’, ‘usually’), and variations in types (...) of predicated properties (striking vs. neutral). We discuss implications of these results for our understanding of the source of asymmetry effects and whether and in which ways these effects might introduce biased beliefs into social networks. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Nietzsche’s Rhetoric on the Grounds of Philology and HermeneuticsAdrian Del Caro"The philosopher believes the value of his philosophy lies in the whole, in the structure: posterity finds it in the stone with which he built."Human, All Too Human, 1.201"All science only achieved continuity and constancy when the art of correct reading, that is philology, reached its height."Human, All Too Human, 1.270The complexity of Nietzschean rhetoric demands first a basic (...) working definition of rhetoric. In the etymological sense of Greek rhe¯torike¯, the art of oratory, and extrapolated to include the art of communicating effectively through writing, Nietzsche's rhetoric is a highly stylized, deeply self-aware manner of expression designed to convey meaning and to appeal. In the more limited sense of my essay, Nietzschean rhetoric is furthermore a discourse whose communicative and appealing aspects are aimed at the earth for the purpose of grounding human beings. By "rhetoric" I do not mean the negative connotation associated with "insincere or grandiloquent language" (Webster's), though it is certainly the case that Nietzsche's rhetoric frequently takes flight and requires grounding. It is to be expected that a classical philologist by training, and both a teacher and a writer by profession, would have a close understanding and practiced application of rhetoric; the particular challenge in explicating Nietzsche's rhetoric lies in the task to which his rhetoric is put, as well as in the zeal with which he pursued his task. I am not primarily concerned with what Nietzsche had to say about rhetoric while lecturing at the University of Basle, though I agree that Gilman, Blair, and Parent are right to emphasize the importance of rhetoric for the interpretation of Nietzsche's writings and in its own right as a competitor with philosophy (1989, xii, xvi, xx), rather, I am concerned [End Page 101] with the practice of rhetoric that distinguishes Nietzsche's writings from the early 1870s until the so-called Wahnsinnszettel (postcards and letters of madness) written in early January 1889. I also agree with Moore, who analyzes the specifically biological and medical idiom of Nietzsche and concludes "that new light can be thrown on [Nietzsche's] thought by situating it within the historical context of nineteenth-century theories of evolution and degeneration" (Moore 2002, 1-2).1In an early aphorism entitled "Origin of faith" Nietzsche concluded: "Habituation of spiritual principles [Grundsätze] without grounds [Gründe] is called faith."2 I provide the German to demonstrate that whenever possible, Nietzsche drew on the Germanic Grund in his discussions of grounding, even though he was keenly aware of Greek and Latin alternatives and could have used them. So for example Nietzsche's translator (say Holling-dale) could have chosen to use English "grounds" for German Gründe, but chose instead to use "reasons," which is also correct though not exactly in the spirit of Nietzsche's etymological nuance.3 Grundsätze, literally "grounding propositions," given idiomatically as "principles," has no comparable etymology in English. What one becomes accustomed to or adopts as a habit based on faith versus grounds, cannot by definition be grounded, whether or not it is a principle. Based on this example, living with grounds or reasons is living with foundation, with base and support. Living without grounds is simply acquiring habits, living by faith, living groundlessly. A similar usage is involved in English "grounds for dismissal," whereby "grounds" equals "reasons." Even the words founded and unfounded preserve some of the strength of "grounded" and "ungrounded" as I use them. In German "unfounded" is unbegründet or grundlos, participle and adjective respectively, and Nietzsche availed himself whenever possible of German expressions based on ground.The aphorism immediately following "Origin of faith" relies even more on Grund, and its translation into English deserves close attention. "Aus den Folgen auf Grund und Ungrund zurückgeschlossen" becomes "Reasons judged a posteriori on the basis of consequences,"4 which I would render as "grounds and ungrounds retroactively concluded from consequences." Nietzsche uses Grund twice already in the title, and in the body of this "aphorism" of thirty lines a variation of Grund occurs six more times (Gründe, Gr... (shrink)

BackgroundResearch has demonstrated that exposure to suicide can lead to increased vulnerability for self-harm or suicide. As a result, ideation-to-action models of suicide recognise exposure as a significant risk factor which may be implicated in the translation of thoughts into actions. However, few studies have tested this theoretical link explicitly within an adolescent population, and examined how it compares to other types of bereavements.MethodsA 6-month prospective questionnaire study was conducted with 185 Scottish adolescents aged 11–17. The questionnaire included measures on (...) experiences with bereavement and lifetime engagement in self-harm, as well as measures of defeat, entrapment, social support, coping, and other psychological variables.ResultsAt baseline, 11% of young people reported exposure to a suicide death, and 62% to a non-suicide death. In addition, 21% of pupils reported ever engaging in self-harm, while 24% had experienced self-harm ideation without engaging in it. Cross-sectional multivariate logistic regressions showed that maladaptive coping, family social support, glorifying/normalising beliefs about suicide, and family self-harm were significantly associated with self-harm group membership. At follow-up, 9% of pupils reported exposure to a suicide death and 11% to a non-suicide death for the first time. A total of 29% of the sample reported self-harm at T2, and 23% reported self-harm ideation without engaging in it. Multivariate analyses found that stigmatising beliefs about suicide, glorifying/normalising beliefs about suicide, and self-harm ideation at baseline were the only variables to predict self-harm group membership prospectively. Bereavement experiences, whether by suicide or non-suicide, did not predict self-harm group status at baseline nor at follow-up.ConclusionsThis study provides support for the validity of a theoretical model of suicide, even though predictive ability over the 6-months period was limited. Although difficulties with recruitment may have limited the statistical power, this study provides insight into the prevalence and experiences of suicide bereavement among adolescents and the factors related to the onset and maintenance of self-harm. (shrink)

Linguistics of Saying is to be analyzed in the speech act conceived as an act of knowing. The speaking, saying and knowing subject, based on contexts and the principles of congruency and trust in the speech of other speakers, will create meanings and interpret the sense of utterances supplying the deficiencies of language by means of the intellective operations mentally executed in the act of speech. In the intellective operations you can see three steps or processes: first the starting point, (...) intuition or aísthesis; second, the process of abstraction; and third, the inverse: the process of determination or fixing the construct created. (shrink)

Linguistics of saying studies language in its birth. Language is the mental activity executed by speaking subjects. Linguistics of saying consists in analyzing speech acts as the result of an act of knowing. Speaking subjects speak because they have something to say. Tthey say because they define themselves before the circumstance they are in. And this is possible because they are able to know. Speaking, then, is speaking, saying and knowing. In this sense there is a progressive determination. Knowing (...) makes possible saying, and saying determines speaking, or, in other words: speaking involves saying and knowing, and saying involves knowing. The problem thus is to determine the meaningful intentional purpose of the individual speaker to say something in every speech act. (shrink)

The Totonac homegarden is a traditionally designed agroecosystem mixing different elements, such as cultivated and wild plants, and livestock. Our objective was to understand the role and importance of homegardens as a strategy for subsistence and natural resources management. Anthropological fieldwork was carried out in Coxquihui, Veracruz, Mexico, a Totonac community. Conventional sampling using a questionnaire yielded a sample of 40 individuals, each representing a family group. Personal interviews, life stories, observations, and field transects enriched survey information. Fieldwork permitted identification (...) of four types of Totonac homegardens: backyards, cropping fields, acahuales or fallow fields, and fences or field edges. Each of these gardens yields an array of products and services important for several cultural roles and natural resource management aims. Totonacs see land as the dominant and most critical resource. A great deal of terrain is steeply sloped and soils are poor. Homegardens play a key role in a production system that minimizes these site limitations, striking a balance between resource maintenance and subsistence needs. Their functions are ecological, to foster a multistrata vegetation cover, and a continuous supply of organic matter to the soil; economic, serving as living storehouses where diverse products (food, timber, firewood, forage, animals, ceremonial supplies, medicinal products), are kept through the annual cycle; and social, performing various social roles such as growing medicinal, ritual, and edible plants, thus supporting beliefs and culture continuity. Studies like this contribute to a better understanding of Totonac culture and native ecology, and give ideas for a better land management. (shrink)

Este artículo cuestiona la función del escritor comprometido en una época posmoderna que se caracteriza por la diversidad, la ausencia de criterio, el relativismo conceptual, la banalidad en la política, el consumismo desenfrenado y el reduccionismo de los límites entre lo público y lo privado. Para ello, se pondrá como referente Latinoamérica, desde las perspectivas de Avelar, Cornejo Polar, Sarlo y Jameson. Y se planteará la hipótesis de que el lector no se ha distanciado de lo que le ofrece la (...) clase dominante a la cultura de masas. Más bien, será necesario redireccionar esa responsabilidad a los escritores y los intelectuales, quienes están aptos de revelar los verdaderos percances de la sociedad y que perjudican el concepto de cultura (y Literatura). Por ese motivo, se propondrá como solución la participación comprometida según Gramsci, ya que incorpora la ideología que posee el discurso y su transferencia en espacios interdisciplinarios. (shrink)

BackgroundThe globalization of medical science carries for doctors worldwide a correlative duty to deepen their understanding of patients' cultural contexts and religious backgrounds, in order to satisfy each as a unique individual. To become better informed, practitioners may turn to MedLine, but it is unclear whether the information found there is an accurate representation of culture and religion. To test MedLine's representation of this field, we chose the topic of death and dying in the three major monotheistic religions.MethodsWe searched MedLine (...) using PubMed in order to retrieve and thematically analyze full-length scholarly journal papers or case reports dealing with religious traditions and end-of-life care. Our search consisted of a string of words that included the most common denominations of the three religions, the standard heading terms used by the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRCBL), and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used by the National Library of Medicine. Eligible articles were limited to English-language papers with an abstract.ResultsWe found that while a bibliographic search in MedLine on this topic produced instant results and some valuable literature, the aggregate reflected a selection bias. American writers were over-represented given the global prevalence of these religious traditions. Denominationally affiliated authors predominated in representing the Christian traditions. The Islamic tradition was under-represented.ConclusionMedLine's capability to identify the most current, reliable and accurate information about purely scientific topics should not be assumed to be the same case when considering the interface of religion, culture and end-of-life care. (shrink)

Hay diversas maneras de entender y definir la religión. El filósofo canadiense Charles Taylor —quien se ha ocupado del fenómeno religioso en los últimos años— la ha intentado definir desde la trascendencia. El problema de esta definición es que no está exenta de críticas: la primera de ellas plantea que la religión propone ideales humanos demasiado altos, tales como el ascetismo, la mortificación o la renuncia a los fines humanos ordinarios. La segunda crítica, por su parte, pone el acento en (...) que la religión no es capaz asumir y reconocer la agresión y el conflicto en la humanidad. La religión tiende a expurgar la realidad. En este artículo presentaremos estas críticas y, también, cuáles pueden ser las posibles maneras de responder a ellas. (shrink)