This paper takes a phenomenological perspective regarding the difficulties encountered in daily life by man in prehistory. I argue that the economics of beingnecessarily establishes man as a being that must make choices. Of these, man must eventually arrive at the realization that higher, rather than lower choices will safeguard human survival, well being and allow for prosperity. The economics of being is a form of identifying economic choice-making as a natural disposition of man’s. It is the latter condition that (...) makes man act in the world. However, even though man must act, action cannot be blind. Instead, human action is motivated and guided by man’s sense of interiority. That is, man’s existential capacity for self-reflection is also what can deliver us to autonomous rule. This form of reflective choice-making is a creative act. The paper attempts to trace this aspect of the human condition back to prehistory, in order to demonstrate that societies, institutions, invention, technology, artistic creation and economic responsibility come about as the result of human industriousness. None of the aforementioned are creations of modern man. (shrink)

COMUNIDADES DE DIALOGO E INDAGACION, PARA EXPERIENCIAS AGROECOLOGICAS EN EDUCACION INTERCULTURAL / CommunitIes of Dialogue and Inquiry, for agroecological experiences about intercultural education La Comunidad de indagación, practicada como herramienta para facilitar diálogos interculturales en el ámbito de la AgroEcología, en combinación con el “Método de Campesino a Campesino”. Propuestas metodológicas de la Filosofía con niñez y adolescencia, adaptadas a espacios educativos en zonas rurales atendiendo colectivos de diversas generaciones. Compartiremos experiencias acerca de Sistematización y Evaluación de proyectos educativos, con (...) énfasis en interculturalidad, relacionadas a la praxis de la agroecología, soberanía alimentaria y sustentabilidad. Entre Chiapas, México, del año 2001 al 2016; Huehuetenango, Guatemala, de 2009 a 2016, y una estancia como docente voluntario en el Instituto de Agroecología LatinoAmericana "IALA María Cano" en Cundinamarca, Colombia, en la primavera de 2017. Con el objetivo de compartir propuestas para otros espacios de construcción colectiva de saberes. -/- Community of Inquiry, practiced as a facilitation tool for intercultural dialogues in the environment of Agroecology, combined with the Method of “Campesino a Campesino”. Proposals from Philosophy for Children and Teenagers, adapted to rural education spaces attending to collectives of diverse ages. We´ll share experiences about systematization, and evaluating education projects with an intercultural emphasis, related with the praxis of agroecology, food sovereignity and sustainability. Between Chiapas, México, from the years 2001 to 2016; Huehuetenango, Guatemala, from 2009 to 2016, and a teaching volunteer stay during the spring of 2017 at the Institute of Agroecology for LatinAmerica “IALA María Cano” of Cundinamarca, Colombia. Aiming to share proposals for other spaces of collective construction of knowledges. (shrink)

ExcerptCzesław Miłosz issues from an age and place when making a distinction between the ethos of a poet, an essayist, or a philosopher seemed an unnecessary and imprudent indiscretion. His resplendent work on political philosophy, The Captive Mind, is along with Albert Camus' The Rebel one of the most insightful, historically accurate, and devastating critiques of Marxism and its entrenchment in twentieth-century thought to date. As such, The Captive Mind is unrivalled by other “theoretical” and abstract treatises in its sheer (...) ability to grasp the vital essence of political reality under totalitarian regimes. As a poet and an essayist, Miłosz's…. (shrink)

José Ortega y Gasset,, Spanish writer, philosopher and revolutionary was noted for his humanistic criticism of modern civilization. His best known work, The Revolt of the Masses earned him an international reputation. In it, he decried the destructive influence of the mass-minded, and therefore mediocre, people, who, if not directed by the intellectually and morally superior minority, encourage the rise of fascism and totalitarianism.

Con ocasión de la edición digital de sus Obras Completas y... nada más.

My dissertation is a critical study of Jose Ortega Y Gasset's attempt to reconcile his notion of lived-experience , which is fundamentally immediate experience, with his idea of life as vital-reason. But life as vital reason is, itself, best understood as consisting of life as a rational-existential project. This, in effect is Ortega's manner of fusing idealism and realism. The result of this mediation is to be interpreted as the self-with-things or what amounts to: I-in-the-world. Man is never what he (...) is in his immediacy and therefore he must create his essence through a self-conscious existential project. Thus, Ortega's notion of life as radical reality is the culmination of an underlying dialectic that is present throughout his work. That is, man's self-awareness of his life as a pre-reflective extranatural phenomenon vis-a-vis the material world can only be understood through reflection and therefore never in its immediacy. Therefore I conclude that for Ortega the synthesis of these apparently antithetical notions culminates in a form of subjective idealism given that primacy is necessarily attributed to the self over the external world. Even though I accept the fundamental tenets of his argument concerning the synthesis of Realism and Idealism and Rationalism and Vitalism, I have focused upon the inherent tension that exists in any such reflective endeavor. I believe that due to Ortega's emphasis that all reflection must originate and therefore concern itself with life as phenomenon, his philosophy necessarily gives primacy to the self over the material world . In arguing "Yo Soy Yo Y Mis Circumstancias" Ortega stresses the character of the Rational Vitalism that results from my self-awareness of my life as a problem for reflection that is forged through my necessary dealings with the world. The result of this self-knowledge is the foundation of a metaphysics of life that is best understood as man as radical reality. (shrink)

Some Lessons in Metaphysics is José Ortega y Gasset’s testament to metaphysics in relation to existential longing. While Ortega writes about metaphysics in other of his works, it is in Some Lessons in Metaphysics that he defines metaphysics as springing from man’s immediate necessity to find coherence in individual human existence, which man experiences as a «shipwrecked» being in the cosmos. Metaphysical reflection aims to establish coherence and meaning in human life. As a result of existential inquietude, Ortega argues that (...) metaphysics is the cornerstone of thoughtful philosophical reflection for people who «need it». (shrink)

According to Ortega, human history comes about as the discovery of differentiated, self-aware life that encounters itself in a reservoir of possibilities. Properly speaking, history does not exist until man, who is a metaphysical/existential entity, becomes aware of responsibility in choice-making. For this reason, human history signifies more than just historical events. Instead, history is the outward manifestation of the trajectory of personal life, either as ensimismamiento or alteración. In Toward a Philosophy of History, Ortega explains history as a vital (...) process that originates in the exuberance of free will. In Ortega’s thought, history is the domain of metaphysical/existential beings, and not the culmination of a “blind” process. Ortega’s philosophy of history locates history-making in the choices of individuals through vital reason. This is what he ultimately means by historical reason.ion, he suggests, revolts against life. (shrink)

Meditations on Hunting is a book that expands José Ortega y Gasset’s philosophy of man as an extra-natural being. Man is extra-natural because, while man has a relationship with his physical circumstance, this is not the only factor that defines man. In Meditations on Hunting Ortega reminds us that a life worth living is a life that is alert to itself. Existential authenticity, then, requires that man sustain a sense of awe and wonder about his own existence and the world (...) that surrounds us. The life-long strain that existential authenticity demands of man, I refer to as existential alertness. This intensity of vital reflection is fueled by a form of reflective perspicuity that never allows human existence to become too comfortable; to the point of acting as a detriment to self-reflection. I believe that existential alertness is an existential category that Ortega’s work illuminates in a way that few thinkers have paid attention to. (shrink)

Philosophical Perspective on Cinema addresses the relationship between human existence and sensual reality. Applying metaphysical/existential reflection to cinema, the author explores the philosophical clarity that cinema can offer reflective persons about the human experience.

Sobre la edición de Juan Valera, Obra histórica, por Leonardo Romero Tobar, Urgoiti Editores, 2004.