The purpose of this randomized controlled study was to investigate the effects of a 12-week coordinative ability training program on adolescents’ cognitive functioning, using evaluation tests of visuospatial perception, attention, and working memory. We randomly assigned 60 public school students (14–15 years) to either an experimental coordinative abilities training (∼40 min twice/week) group (n= 30) or a control group (n= 30) who received general psycho-physical wellness training (∼40 min., twice a week). At baseline and after training we used two standardized (...) motor tests and a single cognitive measure (Corsi’s Block-tapping test) to assess students’ visuospatial perception, attention, and working memory. We found a significant Time x Group interaction for the Throwing and Catching Test and Corsi’s Block-Tapping test, reflecting a meaningful experimental group improvement (p< 0.001), and there were no significant pre-post changes found in the control group. Thus, a 12-week program of coordinative abilities was able to improve not only coordination skills but aspects of cognitive functioning relevant to academic achievement. (shrink)

The purpose of this randomized controlled study was to investigate the impact of a 12-week physical education program on the self-efficacy of overweight schoolgirls. We randomly assigned 60 overweight schoolgirls to either an experimental moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise group or a control group that received non-specific regular PE lessons with activities chosen by the curricular teacher mainly focused on team games and sports skills that aimed to achieve general psycho-physical wellness. To assess the starting level of students and significant (...) changes reached, at baseline and after training, a battery of standardized assessment motor tests and a psychometric scale were administered. At the end of the intervention, the experimental group reported a considerable decrease in body mass index and a large improvement in self-efficacy. No significant changes were found in the CG. The results suggested that the 12-week moderate to a vigorous aerobic exercise program is an effective weight loss intervention and a vehicle to promote a range of outcomes important to the qualitative growth of adolescents. In fact, it could provide a positive and significant impact on the self-efficacy of overweight schoolgirls. (shrink)

Desde una hermenéutica discursiva y práxica, este artículo profundiza y madura teóricamente unas breves reflexiones epistémicas e históricas acerca de la problemática de la identidad plural en el pensamiento latinoamericano de estas últimas décadas. En un marco dominado por el giro “post” que caracterizan las ciencias sociales, se prosigue una línea de investigación que recupera importantes categorías y distinciones -brotadas en teorías de pensadores latinoamericanos-, para demostrar la ambigüedad socio-política del actual giro plural e intercultural de la identidad. Criticando debilidades (...) de ideas de algunos autores, se reconstruye una tensión entre contextualidad y universalidad que presupone topoi o lugares intra-latinoamericanos de enunciación, que van más allá de los tópicos diluidos de un cierto pensar postmodernista ligado mucho más a los contextos europeos y norteamericanos. A partir de ahí se descubren unos tópicos principales para renovar una interpretación intercultural del carácter propiamente latinoamericano de la identidad cultural. (shrink)

Pour diverses raisons, je tiens à souligner que le texte qui suit a été rédigé au mois de septembre 2004. Il est donc antérieur à la dernière élection présidentielle américaine. Il est antérieur, également, à la publication du « rapport Rufin ».C’est seulement le 20 octobre 2004 que j’ai appris, par..

Pour diverses raisons, je tiens à souligner que le texte qui suit a été rédigé au mois de septembre 2004. Il est donc antérieur à la dernière élection présidentielle américaine. Il est antérieur, également, à la publication du « rapport Rufin ».C’est seulement le 20 octobre 2004 que j’ai appris, par...

This volume provides a superb introduction to the philosophical, social, and political elements of Hispanic/Latino identity. It is an indispensable tool for anyone interested in issues that concern Hispanics/Latinos, social policy, and the history of thought and culture.

Apparently, Latinos are “taking over.” 1 With news that Latinos have become the largest minority group in the United States, the public airwaves are filled with concerned voices about the impact that a non-English dominant, Catholic, non-white, largely poor population will have on “American” identity. Aside from the hysteria, Latino identity poses some authentically new questions for the standard way in which minority identities are conceptualized. Are Latinos a race, an ethnicity, or some combination? What does it mean to (...) have hybridity as the foundation of an identity, as is the case for mestizos and most Latinos? The term “Latino” signifies people from an entire continent, sub-continent, and several large islands, with diverse racial, national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic aspects to their identity. Given all this internal diversity, is “Latino” a meaningful identity at all? Latino identity is, with few exceptions, a visible identity, for all its variability, and I will argue that unless we pay close attention to the way in which Latino identity operates as a visible identity in public, social spaces, our analyses of its social meanings and political effects will be compromised. In the following three chapters, I will address three issues that Latino identity raises, issues that have political ramifications but that also require us to think about the philosophical assumptions at work behind common ideas about race and ethnicity. First, what is the relationship between Latino identity and racial categories? Second, how do Latinos fit into, and challenge, the black/white binary thinking about race that has long dominated public discourse in the U.S.? And third, what does it mean to have a mixed identity, for Latinos or for other mixed race groups? Throughout, we will have to pay close attention to the especially significant heterogeneity of this particular population. Does such diversity threaten identity or does it reveal that identity has never presumed uniformity? Only recently has the concept of pan-Latino, or generic Hispanic, identity overtaken the older identity monikers of “Cuban,” “Mexican,” “Puerto Rican,” etc. in significant national discourses across the United States.. (shrink)

A first-of-its-kind book that seriously and profoundly examines what it means philosophically to be Latino and where Latinos fit in American society. Offers a fresh perspective and clearer understanding of Latin American thought and culture, rejecting answers based on stereotypes and fear Takes an interdisciplinary approach to the philosophical, social, and political elements of Hispanic/Latino identity, touching upon anthropology, history, cultural studies and sociology, as well as philosophy Written by Jorge J. E. Gracia, one of the most influential (...) thinkers of Hispanic/Latino descent. (shrink)

The social trust argument asserts that a political community cannot survive without social trust, and that social trust cannot be achieved or maintained without a political community having discretionary control over immigration. Various objections have already been raised against this argument, but because those objections all assume various liberal commitments they leave the heart of the social trust argument untouched. This chapter argues that by looking at the socio-historical circumstances of Latino/as in the United States, an inherent weakness of (...) the social trust argument gets exposed. Giving a political community discretionary control over immigration not only fails to deliver on the promise of social trust, but it actually seems to promote its opposite, social mistrust. This suggests that a far better way of promoting the goal of social trust, and at the same time abating social mistrust, is to actually circumvent a political community’s ability to control immigration by giving priority both to socio-historical circumstances and immigrant rights (at least in a minimalist sense) in determining immigration policy. (shrink)

This article explicates the views on both race and ethnicity of these three prominent Latinx philosophers, compares them (somewhat), and offers some criticisms. Corlett jettisons race as a categorization of groups, but accepts a form of racialization somewhat at odds with this jettisoning. Gracia adopts as a general principle that an account of both ethnicity and race should help us see aspects of reality that would otherwise be obscured; but this is at odds with his regarding the Latin American view (...) of race as more rational than the U.S. version with its “one-drop rule.” The latter has structured the reality of race in the U.S. for African Americans. Alcoff is much more concerned with the phenomenology of race and ethnicity than the other two, and she clearly adds “pan-ethnicity” to the mix of concepts required to understand Latino/a Americans. I argue that she fails to see the agentic and political aspect of black identity in the U.S., and in a sense shares with Gracia a misplaced sense that the mixedness of Latin American racial identity is somehow to be preferred to the more binary U.S. form. (shrink)

This paper aims to contribute toward coalitionbuilding by showing that, even if we try tobuild coalition around what might look like ourmost obvious common concern – reducing racism –the dominant discourse of racial politics inthe United States inhibits an understanding ofhow racism operates vis-à-vis Latino/as andAsian Americans, and thus proves more of anobstacle to coalition building than an aid. Theblack/white paradigm, which operates to governracial classifications and racial politics inthe U.S., takes race in the U.S. to consist ofonly two (...) racial groups, Black and White,with others understood in relation to one ofthese categories.I summarize and discuss the strongestcriticisms of the paradigm and then develop twofurther arguments. Together these argumentsshow that continuing to theorize race in theU.S. as operating exclusively through theblack/white paradigm is actuallydisadvantageous for all people of color in theU.S., and in many respects for whites as well(or at least for white union households and thewhite poor). (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Our Philosophy The Problem of Latino Philosophy Historiographical Characterizations of Philosophy Latino Conceptions of Latino Philosophy Latino Philosophy as Ethnic Philosophy Latino Philosophy and “Scientific” Philosophy Universalism, Culturalism, and Critical Philosophy Revisited American Philosophy Latino and American Philosophy.

Approximately 47 million Latinos currently live in the United States, and nearly 25 percent of them are undocumented. The USA is a very different country from just a generation ago – culturally, socially, and demographically. Its presumed core values have been transformed largely by the changes wrought by immigration and ethnicity. A multicultural society has, in 2008, elected a multicultural president. This article examines immigration discourse, framed in terms of fear and security, and the evolution of the US immigration policy. (...) Latino immigration is presented as a force that has shaped the nation's past and continues to shape the economic, demographic, and cultural future of the United States. Psychological barriers to the social integration of immigrants are also explored. This article concludes that government policy makers should encourage a more tolerant, multicultural society by integrating Latino immigrants into the social, economic, and political fabric of the nation. (shrink)

Preventive War, Pro-Americanicanism and Anti-Americanism. Protests against the war in Iraq or against American support for Israel have led to the accusation that there now exists an Anti-Americanism of the left that is virtually indistinguishable from an Anti-Americanism of the right. D. Losurdo points out that the United States was actually endowed with a certain fascination for Marx, Engels, Lenin, Boukharin or Gramsci, and that the indignation which they voiced concerning the regime of white supremacy was not unmitigated. In contrast, (...) an American Herrenvolk democracy met with widespread admiration in the leading circles of the Hitlerian regime, while American racial theorists such as Ford and Stoddard received a warm welcome in Berlin. The current celebration in the US of the imperial presidency on the part of fundamentalist Christians, along with the contempt recently shown toward America’s « allies », stems from an exclusivist nationalism which harks back to this tradition. (shrink)

The 2018 SCE meeting focused on the theme “Retrospect and Prospect” in order to build greater understanding of the discipline of Christian ethics in its varied cultural, methodological, and confessional forms. Latino/a ethics in the United States, by embodying a cooperative methodology grounded in a liberative reading of the Christian Scriptures that employs a hermeneutics of suspicion, seeks to articulate an emancipatory and inclusive vision that yields distinctive forms of social and political action while working toward the common good. (...) This essay provides a brief introduction to and history of Latino/a contributions to the field of Christian ethics, defines key themes that unite its various proponents, and identifies future trends. (shrink)

The politics of ethnic names, such as ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic’, raises legitimate issues for three reasons: because non-political considerations of descriptive adequacy are insufficient to determine absolutely the question of names; political considerations may be germane to an ethnic name’s descriptive adequacy; and naming opens up the political question of a chosen furture, to which we are accountable. The history of colonial and neo-colonial conditions structuring the relations of the North, Central and South Americas is both critical in understanding (...) the political condition of Latinos in the USA and relevant in current colonial relations. Key Words: ascriptive class segment • colonialism • ethnic names • Hispanic • Latino • neo-colonialism • political contestation. (shrink)

The politics of ethnic names, such as ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic’, raises legitimate issues for three reasons: because non-political considerations of descriptive adequacy are insufficient to determine absolutely the question of names; political considerations may be germane to an ethnic name’s descriptive adequacy; and naming opens up the political question of a chosen furture, to which we are accountable. The history of colonial and neo-colonial conditions structuring the relations of the North, Central and South Americas is both critical in understanding (...) the political condition of Latinos in the USA and relevant in current colonial relations. (shrink)

The presence and impact of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States cannot be ignored. Already the largest minority group, by 2050 their numbers will exceed all the other minority groups in the United States combined. The diversity of this population is often understated, but the people differ in terms of their origin, race. language, custom, religion, political affiliation, education and economic status. The heterogeneity of the Hispanic/Latino population raises questions about their identity and their rights: do they really constitute a (...) group? That is, do they have rights as a group, or just as individuals? This volume, addresses these concerns through a varied and interdisciplinary approach. (shrink)

This chapter makes the claim that pragmatism is a philosophy that affirms and reflects values that are predominant and are cherished by Latin, not North American culture. It breaks the thesis up into five parts. They include an exploration of philosophy and culture, the values and vices of Anglo-Saxon and Latin culture, pragmatism, Anglo vices and Latin traits, pragmatism and the balance of America, and a Latinization of America.

Maya Sabatello and coauthors, in “Structural Racism in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” have called our attention to how preexisting systemic racism in the United States has produced exactly the racial disp...

This chapter examines the connection between culture and democracy with an eye toward developing a foundation for American citizenship that is informed by the experiences of Latinos/as in the United States. It begins by surveying arguments from philosophers within the American pragmatist tradition that correlate the stability of a democratic political regime with habits, tastes, and attitudes of a given people. These thinkers, namely Horrace Kallen, Jane Adams, and John Dewey, have developed two models to conceptualize the relationship of immigrant (...) communities to democratic citizenship and governance: cultural pluralism and multiculturalism. The chapter intends to demonstrate that Latino cultural citizenship is a form of cultural pluralism and, as such, does not seek to transform liberal representative democracy in any deep, significant sense. We can see this when we hold up Latino cultural citizenship to the radical challenge posed by progressive thinkers, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr., who argued that social justice in the United States cannot be achieved unless we move beyond liberal multiculturalism, and the idea of what it means to be an American is altered to reflect the experiences of non-white peoples. (shrink)

Science motivational beliefs are crucial for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) performance and persistence, but these beliefs typically decline during high school. We expanded the literature on adolescents’ science motivational beliefs by examining: 1) changes in motivational beliefs in three specific science subjects, 2) how gender, immigrant generation status, and perceived support from key social agents predicted differences in adolescents’ science motivational beliefs, and 3) these processes among Latino/as in the United States, whose underrepresentation in STEM is understudied. (...) We used hierarchical linear modeling to estimate the changes in 104 (40% female) Latino/a high school students’ physics, chemistry, and biology motivational beliefs from 9th to 11th grade. Subject-specific ability self-concept, interest, and utility were regressed on gender, immigrant generation status, and perceived science support while controlling for family income, parent education, and adolescents’ school. Adolescents’ utility declined from 9th to 11th grade whereas their interest remained stable for all three science subjects. Adolescents’ ability self-concept increased for biology, decreased for physics, but remained stable for chemistry. Gender differences in adolescents’ motivational beliefs at 9th grade only emerged for physics utility as well as physics and chemistry interest; yet, there were no gender differences in how adolescents’ science motivational beliefs changed over time. Contrary to expectations, immigrant generation status was not significantly associated with adolescents’ science motivational beliefs at 9th grade or in terms of how they changed over time. Adolescents who perceived higher science support generally had higher motivational beliefs in 9th grade, but did not differ on their rate of change. Our findings highlight the need to examine specific science subjects, and that typical gender differences in adolescents’ motivational beliefs discussed in the literature may not generalize to all racial and ethnic groups. (shrink)

In some ways that have been largely ignored, ethnic-group names might be similar to names of other kinds. If they are, for instance, analogous to proper names, then a correct semantic account of the latter could throw some light on how the meaning of ethnic-group names should be construed. Of course, proper names, together with definite descriptions, belong to the class of singular terms, and an influential view on the semantics of such terms was developed, at the turn of the (...) nineteenth century, from discussion of a puzzle about some differences in the cognitive value of certain statements of identity. Clearly, that a = a (e.g., that Mark Twain was Mark Twain) is trivial, and its truth could be known a priori, just by thinking. On the other hand, that a = b (e.g., that Mark Twain was Samuel Clemens) is of course informative and knowable only by empirical investigation. To solve this puzzle, Frege famously proposed that those variations in the cognitive value of statements of identity “can arise only if the difference between the signs corresponds to a difference in the mode of presentation of that which is designated.” On his view, although in the above statements of identity, the singular terms, ‘a,’ and, ‘b,’ may designate the same thing, they do so with different senses, or under different modes of presentation of that object. When the puzzling statements involving ‘a’ and ‘b’ are true, they may then be said to have exactly the same reference. But since those singular terms pick out the object of reference differently (i.e., under different senses or modes of presentation), therefore the cognitive value of these statements also varies significantly. On this account, then, the reference of a non-vacuous proper name is secured by the name’s sense, or mode of presentation, which constitutes its semantic content. And given that Fregeans (here under the influence of Russell) cash out that sense as consisting in whatever concept (or cluster of concepts) could be uniquely associated with that name, they might hold, for example, that the property of being the author of Huckleberry Finn, and that of being an American who lived his early life in Hannibal, Missouri, and later became a famous writer, amount to the senses of ‘Mark Twain,’ and ‘Samuel Clemens,’ respectively.. (shrink)

La 4e de couv. indique : "Il platonismo è l'esclusivo "sfondo" teoretico della cultura filosofica di lingua latina tra il IV secolo e il XII, "scenario" che comprende, e si confonde con, gli elementi aristotelici, stoici e neopitagorici che le fonti del pensiero medievale trasmettono agli ambienti colti latini secondo le forme dell'uso neoplatonico della tradizione filosofica classica ed ellenistica. Scopo di questo lavoro è evidenziare, alla luce di testi e problematiche rappresentativi della tradizione filosofica del medioevo latino "alto" (...) (secc. VI-X) e "centrale" (secc. XI-XII), le trasformazioni del modello tardoantico di filosofia come scienza dell'essere e del rapporto tra quest'ultima e la teologia mistica, collegando tale movimento delle idee ai contesti, civili e religiosi, e alla crescita della biblioteca filosofica, che, a fronte di una scarsa conoscenza diretta dei dialoghi di Platone, consentono di usare le idee che indirettamente sono a lui riferite e la sua immagine in funzione dell'attualità culturale.". (shrink)

The philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia engages fifteen prominent scholars on race, ethnicity, nationality, and Hispanic/Latino identity in the United States. Their discussion joins two distinct traditions: the philosophy of race begun by African Americans in the nineteenth century, and the search for an understanding of identity initiated by Latin American philosophers in the sixteenth century. Participants include Linda M. Alcoff, K. Anthony Appiah, Richard J. Bernstein, Lawrence Blum, Robert Gooding-Williams, Eduardo Mendieta, and Lucius T. Outlaw Jr., and their (...) dialogue reflects the analytic, Aristotelian, Continental, literary, Marxist, and pragmatic schools of thought. These intellectuals start with the philosophy of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and then move to the philosophy of African Americans and Anglo Americans in the United States and the philosophy of Latin Americans in Latin America. Gracia and his interlocutors debate the nature of race and ethnicity and their relation to nationality, linguistic rights, matters of identity, and Affirmative Action, binding the concepts of race and ethnicity together in ways that open new paths of inquiry. Gracia's Familial-Historical View of ethnic and Hispanic/Latino identity operates at the center of each of these discussions, providing vivid access to the philosopher's provocative arguments while adding unique depth to issues that each of us struggles to understand. (shrink)

El populismo latino proclama el principio de la unanimidad. Es inclusivo, pero puede volverse totalitario en nombre del pueblo. Puede tener una base popular e implementar políticas distributivas, pero su característica sobresaliente es la ambición de transformar a su pueblo en todo el pueblo. Animado por un impulso unanimista y una pulsión redentora, el populismo latino es un fenómeno que tiene profundas raíces religiosas. Estas raíces se basan en el humus antiguo de la cristiandad colonial hispana y evocan (...) el imaginario organicista en que estaba basado, imaginario que, en el transcurso del tiempo, se ha levantado como un baluarte identitario contra la difusión de las ideas iluministas y liberales. (shrink)

Fundado na obra de José Roberto Dromi, que estabelece as características do “constitucionalismo do futuro”, o presente trabalho busca delinear as características do novo constitucionalismo latino americano e traçar um paralelo entre os dois. Para tanto, através de uma abordagem dedutiva, será realizada uma pesquisa bibliográfica e estudo comparado das constituições latinas. Os pensamentos anticolonialistas são fundamentos desse novo modo de pensar o constitucionalismo, que devolve o poder ao povo, sustentando um Estado plurinacional, promovendo uma verdadeira refundação estatal. Esse (...) modelo, que parte da prática para a teoria, ainda está sendo formatado, mas apresenta avanços inegáveis em relação ao constitucionalismo. (shrink)

Meister Eckhart escribió textos en alemán y en latín. Pero, fuera del ámbito de los estudios eckhartianos, es conocido sobre todo por su obra alemana. De la obra latina, los textos menos frecuentados son los llamados “sermones latinos”: una serie de notas o borradores que podrían haber servido como material preparatorio para lo que en el Prologus generalis in Opus tripartitum el mismo Eckhart llama el Opus sermonum, del que no tenemos más noticia que la del Prologus mencionado. En castellano, (...) el destino de la obra latina de Eckhart no ha sido hasta ahora demasiado afortunado. Pocas son las traducciones. Y, en cuanto a los “sermones latinos”, ninguno ha sido traducido todavía. Ofrecemos la traducción de uno de estos sermones, el XXXVII, en el que Eckhart comenta un texto de Pablo (Efesios 4, 1-6): Unus deus et pater omnium. En el estudio preliminar se ofrece (1) una introducción a la obra latina de Eckhart en general y, en particular, a los “sermones latinos” y (2) un comentario del texto traducido. (shrink)