Insofar as border policing and wall construction symbolize the reassertion of nation-state sovereignty, the fact that they exacerbate the problems they seek to contain makes them complicit...

BackgroundThere is increasing need for peer reviewers as the scientific literature grows. Formal education in biostatistics and research methodology during residency training is lacking. In this pilot study, we addressed these issues by evaluating a novel method of teaching residents about biostatistics and research methodology using peer review of standardized manuscripts. We hypothesized that mentored peer review would improve resident knowledge and perception of these concepts more than non-mentored peer review, while improving review quality.MethodsA partially blinded, randomized, controlled multi-center study (...) was performed. Seventy-eight neurology residents from nine US neurology programs were randomized to receive mentoring from a local faculty member or not. Within a year, residents reviewed a baseline manuscript and four subsequent manuscripts, all with introduced errors designed to teach fundamental review concepts. In the mentored group, mentors discussed completed reviews with residents. Primary outcome measure was change in knowledge score between pre- and post-tests, measuring epidemiology and biostatistics knowledge. Secondary outcome measures included level of confidence in the use and interpretation of statistical concepts before and after intervention, and RQI score for baseline and final manuscripts.ResultsSixty-four residents (82%) completed initial review with gradual decline in completion on subsequent reviews. Change in primary outcome, the difference between pre- and post-test knowledge scores, did not differ between mentored (−8.5%) and non-mentored (−13.9%) residents (p = 0.48). Significant differences in secondary outcomes (using 5-point Likert scale, 5 = strongly agree) included mentored residents reporting enhanced understanding of research methodology (3.69 vs 2.61; p = 0.001), understanding of manuscripts (3.73 vs 2.87; p = 0.006), and application of study results to clinical practice (3.65 vs 2.78; p = 0.005) compared to non-mentored residents. There was no difference between groups in level of interest in peer review (3.00 vs 3.09; p = 0.72) or the quality of manuscript review assessed by the Review Quality Instrument (RQI) (3.25 vs 3.06; p = 0.50).ConclusionsWe used mentored peer review of standardized manuscripts to teach biostatistics and research methodology and introduce the peer review process to residents. Though knowledge level did not change, mentored residents had enhanced perception in their abilities to understand research methodology and manuscripts and apply study results to clinical practice. (shrink)

Introduction: Physical distancing under the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic had a significant impact on lifestyles, including exercise routines. In this study, we examined the relationship between mental health and addictive behaviors, such as excessive exercise and the use of image and performance enhancing drugs across 12 sport disciplines.Materials and methods: A large cross-sectional sample of the adult population was surveyed. The mean age was 33.09. The number of male participants was 668. The use of IPEDs was assessed in conjunction with (...) psychometric measures such as the Exercise Addiction Inventory and the Appearance Anxiety Inventory. The participants were grouped into activity group and non-activity group according to the presence or absence of their exercise habits. The results were compared between these groups, as well as across sport disciplines, while taking into account the relationship between different psychological measures and IPEDs consumption.Results: The frequency of IPEDs use was higher among AG than NAG, although AG participants reported less history of addictions than NAG. The logistic regression analysis revealed that scores equal to or above cutoff points, in both the EAI and AAI, predicted the IPEDs use. Regarding the differences across the various sport disciplines, those who were involved in practicing Weight Lifting and Cross Fit were found to be more at risk of excessive exercising and more inclined to use a wide range of IPEDs.Conclusions: Although exercise could help to increase well-being and prevent addictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, our results show that those in the AG are particularly vulnerable to excessive IPEDs use. Sport disciplines associated with higher EAI and AAI scores have also shown a higher tendency to excessive IPEDs use. Furthermore, the factor of having above the cutoff scores in EAI or AAI in each sport could indicate larger IPEDs consumption regardless of the discipline. In light of the current findings, it is necessary to better define the “non-excessive” levels of exercise in various sport disciplines and an adequate intake of IPEDs to ensure the safety and well-being of people during a pandemic. (shrink)

The pandemic outbreak in March 2020 and its associated sanitary regulations and restrictions triggered an abrupt and significant change for society in general and for families’ organization in particular. In Chile, the Santiago Metropolitan District was under a strict lockdown that involved the closure of the entire educational system. From a systemic-family stress perspective, the impact of these changes might have consequences not only for each individual family member, but for the parental dynamic and, consequently, for children’s well-being. This paper (...) presents the results of a follow-up study showing changes in self-reported parental depression and the perceived home organization of mothers and fathers assessed at three different moments: before the pandemic, at the initial outbreak, and after 1 month of strict lockdown. Relevant moderators were explored using linear mixed models to understand the within-subject changes in mothers’ and fathers’ self-reports across the different assessment times. Financial strain, personality traits of self-criticism and dependency, previous parent–child quality interaction, recent major stressful events, and number of children are highlighted as relevant factors that moderate changes in home chaos and parental mental health perception. Significant risks and protective factors are described for fathers and mothers. The use of pre-pandemic measures as baseline levels enabled the identification of personal and family characteristics that were related to better outcomes. The results help increase our understanding of the sanitary regulations’ impacts on the family system and identify vulnerability indicators that should be considered. (shrink)

Belandria, Margarita Artículos El erotismo como experiencia vinculada a lo sagrado Eroticism as an experience linked to the sacred order Castrejón, Gilberto Laberintos de sabiduría: Entre la razón y el mito Labyrinths of the knowledge: Between the reason and the myth Espar, Teresa Hacia una noción de "globalización" Towards a globalization notion González R., Javier y Belandria, Margarita Filosofía, semiótica, y ritmo Philosophy, semiotics, and rhythm Hocevar, Drina Más allá del pensamiento determinante, el pensamiento reflexionante Beyond deterministic thought, reflexive thought (...) Maldonado, Rebeca La muerte como imaginario social: una mirada de la modernidad a la postmodernidad cultural Death as a social imaginary: A view modernity to cultural postmodernity Mora García, José Pascual El impacto de la ideología y la política en la cultura y el arte de la América Latina Ideological and political interference related to artistic and cultural creations in the Latin American ambit Peña, Edilio Ontología de la trascendencia Metaphysics of Transcendence Ramis Muscato, Pompeyo Sentido de una reforma general de la educación The meaning of a general reform on education Suzzarini, Andrés Traducciones H. Arendt y la idea del derecho moderno Renaut, Alain y Sosoe, Lukas Interdisciplinares Los personajes femeninos en las novelas de Alejo Carpentier Márquez Rodríguez, Alexis Gobernabilidad y constituciones (De la colonización a la emancipación Zambrano Labrador, Laurencio Recensiones Conozca al investigador: Elías Capriles Acercamiento a la obra: Individuo Sociedad y Ecosistema Velasco, Fabiola CDCHT. (shrink)

This essay advances the thesis that Derrida’s ethics consists in the practice of philosophical responsibility. I contend that philosophical responsibility is the historical and ethical task of establishing a critical relation to one’s tradition which deliberately avoids passively and naively taking it for granted by questioning its origin and revealing its historicity. Further, I show that Derrida learns the task of philosophical responsibility from Husserl’s own version of philosophical responsibility, which he later transforms with the help of Husserl’s own methodological (...) tools. I maintain that the difference between Husserl’s and Derrida’s respective tasks is the injunction they are responding to and, concomitantly, the sense each gives to historicity. Whereas Husserl is responding to the principle of reason so as to reawaken the historicity of universal truth and its foundation, that is, the telos of Reason, Derrida is responding for the principle of reason with the purpose of disclosing the historicity of signification – différance – whose operation reduces the telos of Reason. (shrink)

Academics are confronted with multiple and conflicting narratives as to what it is to be an academic. Their identities, however, are not entirely of their own making. Through a qualitative study, and deploying a social realist perspective, this paper analyses academic identities in Chile and attempts to locate the patterns of identity in the context of a marketised higher education system. The data were collected in both a state and a private university. The results suggest that distinct kinds of fragilities (...) may be emerging among Chilean academics (ontological and contractual fragilities). These two fragilities can be traced to the attendant structures of the university system at an institutional level (reputational fragility in the public sector and a branding fragility in the private sector). The paper concludes by observing that, although the power of the structures is considerable, there are still spaces for agentic responses. (shrink)

La arqueología ha revelado recientemente la existencia de una importante revitalización urbana en Córdoba durante el Califato Almohade, apenas tratada hasta ahora por la historiografía, centrada principalmente en su pasado omeya. Por un lado, se ha observado una importante inversión del poder almohade en elementos defensivos y palatinos, acaso por tratarse en estas fechas de un centro fundamental en la conceptualización histórica de al-Andalus y en la lucha contra los reinos cristianos; por otro, se ha documentado un importante crecimiento orgánico (...) y privado extramuros. Todo ello coincidió con su elección como capital andalusí en 557/1162 por ‘Abd al-Mu’min, lo que suponía un hito fundamental para la legitimación de su nuevo califato. Tras su muerte pocos meses después, Abū Ya‘qūb Yūsuf hizo regresar la corte a Sevilla, creando un importante cambio de rumbo en la política almohade que no afectó al resurgir urbano de la antigua sede omeya. En realidad, Córdoba seguiría muy presente en la mentalidad colectiva andalusí durante el gobierno almohade, manteniéndose como referente principal del esplendor pasado y como núcleo esencial de la tradición mālikī. (shrink)

Se analiza la apuesta ontológica de Arturo Escobar a partir de dos formas en las que esta se expresa, para vislumbrar los alcances y limitaciones de esta concepción ontológica. La primera concepción radica en lo que el autor denomina ontología relacional y la segunda versa en la llamada ontología política. El texto está dividido en cuatro apartados, el primero introduce al lector a lo que representa la pregunta por el ser, haciendo hincapié en Martin Heidegger. El segundo expone brevemente el (...) contexto que se puede evidenciar en la apuesta académica del antropólogo colombiano a través del giro ontológico, desarrollado desde la antropología, en el que se destaca una crítica al paradigma occidental dualista naturaleza/cultura y, a su vez, de la teoría decolonial que denuncia a la Modernidad y la vigencia de la colonialidad de ser, para así poder comprender la propuesta de la ontología relacional de Escobar. El tercer apartado expresa desde las categorías de territorio y pluriverso una premisa fundamental: pensar lo político presupone una ontología, es decir, una visión de mundo sobre lo que es y está, de esta manera se articula el proyecto de la ontología desde la relacionalidad con luchas que reivindican los mundos y los derechos de las comunidades; en el cuarto y último apartado se exponen los alcances y límites de la ontología de Escobar, así como caminos posibles para considerar en investigaciones futuras. (shrink)

I would like to discuss the possibility of a parallactic view of ecology and the environment. There is very little discussion of theoretical approaches to ecocriticism that is not either polarizing dualism or reactionary attempts to dissolve important boundaries between us and the space around us. I draw significantly on the work of Timothy Morton who in turn utilizes new readings of Descartes, Heidegger and other phenomenologists, Marx, and Lacan, among others, to discuss the aesthetic in eco-critique. This has significant (...) links to Zizek’s description of parallax and his positioning of Hegelian dialectics, in particular the need for tension between positions, determinate negation, and resurrection of irony as necessary for understanding paradox. (shrink)

Розкрито сутність поняття «рейтинг». Доведено значущість рейтингової оцінки для суб’єктів фінансового ринку, зокрема для страхових компаній, потенційних страхувальників, інвесторів та кредиторів.

With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, teaching online became a norm for universities in Canada. Besides the challenges of teaching topics that may be impossible to be taught online, a major issue that the mandatory physical distancing brought is the relationality between teachers and students. In order to investigate how educators were making sense of such changes, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 education professors across Canada. In light of Derrida’s and Ruitenberg’s ethic of hospitality, this paper explores (...) how the abrupt shift to online education unveiled the nature and challenges of hospitable education, especially in the online context. The implications of online instruction to professors’ relationality, however, are also instrumental in illuminating the complexities and ambiguities of a teacher’s responsibility even in what could be considered the “normal circumstances” of face-to-face instruction. (shrink)

La intención fundamental de la presente investigación es dar cuenta de la paradoja política que supone la identidad para la teoría crítica feminista, como lugar del que es necesario partir y como heterodesignación limitadora que queremos superar en parte. La identidad ha devenido un concepto clave para los feminismos contemporáneos: así, si el desde el diferencialismo se opta por un reforzamiento de la identidad femenina; desde la teoría queer se reclama la constante desestabilización de toda identidad. Queremos reivindicar, para el (...) siglo XXI, la necesidad de recuperar la idea ilustrada de un feminismo de la igualdad que beba de la tradición republicana, que parta de la identidad no como fin, sino como el comienzo necesario para un proyecto emancipatorio a la vez que sede de opresiones. Sostenemos que el feminismo de hoy debe atender a dos tareas fundamentales: (1) hacerse cargo de la paradoja de la identidad para la construcción de una subjetividad política feminista y (2) pensar las condiciones materiales, institucionales y simbólicas de la igualdad y la ciudadanía como aspiraciones a reivinidicar. (shrink)

Over the course of the year 2020, the global scientific community dedicated considerable effort to understanding COVID-19. In this review, we discuss some of the findings accumulated between the onset of the pandemic and the end of 2020, and argue that although COVID-19 is clearly a biological disease tied to a specific virus, the culture–mind relation at the heart of cultural psychology is nonetheless essential to understanding the pandemic. Striking differences have been observed in terms of relative mortality, transmission rates, (...) behavioral responses, official policies, compliance with authorities, and even the extent to which beliefs about COVID-19 have been politicized across different societies and groups. Moreover, many minority groups have very different experiences of the pandemic relative to dominant groups, notably through existing health inequities as well as discrimination and marginalization, which we believe calls for a better integration of political and socioeconomic factors into cultural psychology and into the narrative of health and illness in psychological science more broadly. Finally, individual differences in, for example, intolerance of uncertainty, optimism, conspiratorial thinking, or collectivist orientation are influenced by cultural context, with implications for behaviors that are relevant to the spread and impact of COVID-19, such as mask-wearing and social distancing. The interplay between cultural context and the experience and expression of mental disorders continues to be documented by cultural-clinical psychology; the current work extends this thinking to infectious disease, with special attention to diseases spread by social contact and fought at least in part through social interventions. We will discuss cultural influences on the transmission, course, and outcome of COVID-19 at three levels: cross-society differences; within-society communities and intergroup relations; and individual differences shaped by cultural context. We conclude by considering potential theoretical implications of this perspective on infectious disease for cultural psychology and related disciplines, as well as practical implications of this perspective on science communication and public health interventions. (shrink)

Este trabajo analiza el concepto de espacio público en el pensamiento de Hannah Arendt a partir de metáforas provenientes del ámbito teatral. El objetivo principal es reconstruir el camino entre las intuiciones provenientes del mundo del teatro y la construcción del concepto de lo público arendtiano. Después de algunas precisiones metodológicas, se enumeran las expresiones vinculadas con el ámbito teatral que se encuentran en distintas obras arendtianas. Posteriormente, se analiza la fuente de la metáfora teatral y se caracteriza el concepto (...) de espacio público a partir de ellas. Este trabajo muestra que: 1. La fuente de la metáfora teatral incluye a la tragedia antigua tanto como a formas contemporáneas de teatro. 2. Las formas contemporáneas de teatro permiten: a) conceptualizar las formas sociales de publicidad y, b) considerar el rol de los espectadores como políticamente relevante. (shrink)

The Cooperative Extension System serves as the conduit through which scientific knowledge generated by the 130 land-grant colleges and universities in the United States is translated and delivered directly to its constituents. Since its inception over 100 years ago, Extension has been integral in developing, delivering, and applying cutting-edge knowledge in agriculture and natural resources, youth development, family and consumer sciences, and community and rural development. Today, more than ever, Extension will need to lead the way in building and maintaining (...) sustainable partnerships across disciplines and with organizations at the local, state, and national levels to tackle complex issues considering diminishing resources. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, this volume discusses how Extension is addressing issues and opportunities relevant to children, youth, families, and communities across the country both now and in the future. Topics include Extension's role in supporting childcare, social media use, entrepreneurship, rural communities, and underserved audiences. (shrink)

La educación patrimonial es necesaria para asegurar la protección, el respeto y la sostenibilidad de los bienes que constituyen nuestro patrimonio. En este sentido, procurar la concienciación patrimonial debe ser un objetivo común tanto para la educación reglada como para la no reglada, fortaleciendo la cooperación entre escuelas e instituciones de investigación y museísticas. Conocer cómo colaboran las instituciones educativas, museísticas y de investigación de la ciudad de Mérida para educar en patrimonio cultural es el objetivo de este trabajo. Para (...) ello, por un lado, entrevistamos a docentes de diferentes centros educativos de Educación Primaria y a los responsables de los departamentos de divulgación de instituciones patrimoniales y, por otro lado, valoramos el interés de alumnos y alumnas, de distintos colegios de la ciudad, mediante un sencillo cuestionario. (shrink)

The book Teorizando desde los pequeños lugares is presented, with the intention of showing the importance of thinking in non-hegemonic places.

The purpose of this paper is to present a formalization of the language, semantics and axiomatization of justification logic in Coq. We present proofs in a natural deduction style derived from the axiomatic approach of justification logic. Additionally, we present possible world semantics in Coq based on Fitting models to formalize the semantic satisfaction of formulas. As an important result, with this implementation, it is possible to give a proof of soundness for $\mathsf{L}\mathsf{P}$ with respect to Fitting models.

This paper describes the ways by which state regulations created fertile soil on which legal labor migration in Israel developed into an unfree labor force. We show how state policies effectively subject foreign workers to a high degree of regulation, giving employers and manpower agencies mechanisms of control that they do not have over Israeli citizens. These mechanisms create a group of non-citizen workers that are more desirable as cheap, flexible, exploitable and expendable employees through enforcing atypical employment relations: fixed-term (...) contracts, the binding system enforcing direct dependence of the migrants on manpower agencies and employers, and the threat of automatic deportation. These stringent state regulations have provided the context for the legal labor migrants to turn into a captive labor force, the system sometimes even degenerating into a human trafficking industry. (shrink)

This paper argues that epistemic errors rooted in group- or identity- based biases, especially those pertaining to disability, are undertheorized in the literature on medical error. After sketching dominant taxonomies of medical error, we turn to the field of social epistemology to understand the role that epistemic schemas play in contributing to medical errors that disproportionately affect patients from marginalized social groups. We examine the effects of this unequal distribution through a detailed case study of ableism. There are four primary (...) mechanisms through which the epistemic schema of ableism distorts communication between nondisabled physicians and disabled patients: testimonial injustice, epistemic overconfidence, epistemic erasure, and epistemic derailing. Measures against epistemic injustices in general and against schema-based medical errors in particular are ultimately issues of justice that must be better addressed at all levels of health care practice. (shrink)

Se revisitan las distintas resoluciones de Schmitt y Agamben ante una misma percepción ontopolítica: la contingencia en la definición del derecho, cuya función primaria es la organización de lo múltiple, tradicionalmente entendido como caos. Mientras Schmitt se decanta hacia un posfundacionalismo organicista, hacia una política del origen, Agamben opta por suspender, en un plano ontoético, la fundación del nomos. En este artículo se recorre con Schmitt la búsqueda de la forma transcendente y se acompaña a Agamben en la descripción aporética (...) de la política, exponiendo el estado de excepción como muestra de los factores de politización y despolitización que la atraviesan, y concluyendo con la propuesta mesiánica que pretende recuperar la potencia (múltiple del no-origen). (shrink)

El presente texto versa sobre la reflexión teórica del ser de la mujer latinoamericana desde una perspectiva dusseliana, de manera que el objetivo del artículo radica en la comprensión filosófica de lo que significa ser y estar como mujer latinoamericana, además de concebir los aportes y retos que nutren dicha reflexión. Por tal motivo se encontrará: primero una justificación de la pertinencia de esta reflexión mediante una breve contextualización de la situación actual de la mujer en América Latina; segundo, una (...) síntesis del aporte de Enrique Dussel que, sin duda alguna, es un análisis que nace del método analéctico ; tercero, dado que el reto está en dilucidar la afirmación del ser que ha sido negado para llegar a comprenderlo, propongo tres postulados que retroalimentan el problema de investigación. (shrink)

Asia, America, and Europe have been intellectually intertwined for centuries. Several studies have been published revealing European scholars’ interest in the “exotic” languages of Asia and America, as well as in ethnographic and anthropological aspects. Some scholars such as Polymath Leibniz (1646–1716), were interested in these languages in an attempt to construct a universal language, while others tried to establish language families, like the Jesuit Hervás y Panduro (1735–1809). However, all acknowledge the importance of language and the circulation of knowledge. (...) This paper analyzes the dissemination of the compilation of eighteenth‐century multilingual lexical compilations for comparative purposes as an early globalized project. These compilations were designed by European scholars and subsequently elaborated in different languages by missionaries, explorers, and scientists in the Philippines and America. Taking the correspondence and relations between botanist Mutis (1732–1808) and bureaucrats, European scientists such as polymath Humboldt (1769–1859) and Botanist Linnaeus (1707–1778) among others, and navy officers of the scientific exploration commanded by Malaspina (1754–1809) and Bustamante y Guerra (1759–1825) into consideration, I will analyze how simultaneous projects followed a unified aim, and illustrate their substantial contribution to the study of language in the late eighteenth century. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta una reflexión política acerca del VIH-sida, estructurada en cuatro momentos: primero, una aproximación a las políticas de la vida donde se devela el actuar de la necropolítica, el biopoder, la biopolítica y biolegitimidad en relación con el VIH-sida; segundo, se aborda una antropología política del cuerpo, la cual advierte las distintas formas de poder, violencia y verdad que experimentan las personas que viven con VIH-sida; tercero, un acercamiento al modo en que se reproduce una economía moral del (...) castigo, donde se articulan elementos normativos, médico-sanitarios, de la vida, el cuerpo y la sociedad; cuarto, se propone repolitizar el VIH-sida, a fin de brindar insumos que permitan construir un orden social diferente para las personas que viven con dicha realidad. (shrink)

The consideration of the development of the being like personality is seen in this article on the base of the unit of the theoretician, epistemology and the methodological, offered as the contribution to the production of scientific knowledge, in the Superior Education, on the category of persona..

"Williams's masterful translation satisfies (at last!) a long-standing need. There are lots of good translations of Augustine's great work, but until now we have been forced to choose between those that strive to replicate in English something of the majesty and beauty of Augustine's Latin style and those that opt instead to convey the careful precision of his philosophical terminology and argumentation. Finally, Williams has succeeded in capturing both sides of Augustine's mind in a richly evocative, impeccably reliable, elegantly readable (...) presentation of one of the most impressive achievements in Western thought--Augustine's Confessions." --Scott MacDonald, Professor of Philosophy and Norma K. Regan Professor in Christian Studies, Cornell University. (shrink)

Barrero, Tomás Andrés. “Aserción, expresión y acción. Una lectura de J. L. Austin.” Dianoia 60.74 (2015): 81-107.

En este breve comentario discuto algunos aspectos de la interpretación de la epistemología de Davidson que sugiere Willian Duica en su reciente libro. Luego de una presentación somera del libro me centro en tres asuntos centrales de la interpretación de Duica. En primer lugar, argumento que su lectura de la crítica de Davidson al dualismo esquema/contenido es muy restrictiva y deja abierta la posibilidad de un realismo directo empirista. En segundo lugar, argumento que en su lectura el propio Duica se (...) compromete inadvertidamente con un empirismo de este tipo y, de este modo, su interpretación entra en tensión con el coherentismo de Davidson. Finalmente, discuto algunos aspectos de la interpretación que hace Duica de la tesis davidsoniana de la triangulación. In this short comment I discuss some aspects of William Duica's interpretation of Davidson's epistemology in a recent book. After a brief review of the book, I focus on three central issues of Duica's interpretation. First, I argue that his reading of Davidson's criticism of the scheme/content dualism is too restrictive and leaves open the possibility of an empiricist direct realism. Second, I argue in his reading Duica inadvertently commits himself to an empiricism of this sort and, as a result, his interpretation is in tension with Davidson's own coherentism. Finally, I discuss some aspects of Duica's interpretation of Davidsonian triangulation. (shrink)

La investigación aborda el dilema que implica la relación entre economía y ética, el cual se deriva de la separación entre filosofía moral y economía positiva. Analizarlo a través de la teoría del bienestar permite acercarse a los preceptos de un cognitivismo ético o de psicología moral, mediante una propuesta distinta de individuo representativo. La finalidad es ofrecer algunos elementos para observar a la economía desde otra perspectiva, al estrechar los lazos teóricos con la ética.

This essay deals with the problem of religious transformation in Tanabe Hajime. In his Philosophy as Metanoetics, Tanabe examines this transformation through the relationship between vows of the Buddhas as described in the writings of the Pure Land Buddhist thinker Shinran. For Tanabe, each vow expresses a moment of the religious transformation. Furthermore,he argues against all possibility of immediacy in human existence and sets out to demonstrate that the meaning of existence is mediated by the transformation of self-power into Other-power, (...) wherein the drive to affirm the self is transformed into a radical return to the world in which the self becomes a medium for the salvation of others. This is where Tanabe locates the deepest power of nothingness: in negating every effort of the self to ground itself and to make human being an upāya, a skillful means to a greater end. This is possible, in turn, because being itself, in all its manifestations, is upāya. (shrink)