How Do I Know If My Stomach Is Bleeding

Stefan Gandler, critical Marxism in Mexico: Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez and Bolivar Echeverria

Stefan Gandler, critical Marxism in Mexico: Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez and Bolivar Echeverria , Mexico, FCE, UNAM and UAQ, 2007, pp. 621.

This beautiful book tells of the Latin American contribution - in this case, Mexican - the renewal of critical Marxism. Stefan Gandler managed not only to explain, in a profound and consistent - but not uncritical! - The thought of Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez and Bolivar Echeverria, his biography, the evolution of his ideas, a complete bibliography of his works, their convergence and divergences, but also provided a demonstration that the break with Eurocentrism is a prerequisite for true universal critical theory.

Mariátegui In the work, known in Latin America an early version of critical Marxism, which sought to break with the method of 'carbon copy' of European experience. (At this point, I can not agree to anything Gandler's trial, according to which Mariátegui simply represent a way to "Latin Americanize" read Soviet Marxism.) After his death (1930), predominate for many years in America Latin Vulgate Stalinized Soviet Marxism - with a few honorable exceptions. Only after the Cuban Revolution will be developed on the continent, in many forms, critical Marxism, which our two Mexican thinkers are one of the most original and innovative events. Despite belonging to two different generations, both political exiles in Mexico who speaks in this book, had as its point of departure for discussion refreshing the Cuban revolutionary experience, and, years later, the Zapatista Army of Liberation National.

Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez had not only the distinction of being one of the first Marxist - not only in Latin America, but internationally - to criticize positivism Althusserian point of view of philosophy of praxis, but also, as pointed Stefan Gandler, managed develop, without knowing the work of Walter Benjamin, a critical concept of history, embedded in its vision of praxis, not to mention its contribution to the discussion of Marxist politics, emphasizing the centrality of the issue to implement democratic transformation socialist. Gandler share the admiration of the philosophical and political integrity of the author of the Philosophy of Praxis , regardless of the criticism that can do this or that aspect of his work.

I think is also right when he stresses the novelty Gandler and the importance of the work of Bolívar Echeverría, and its project of radical critique of 'actually existing modern', but questions his utopia of a 'non-capitalist society producer of goods. " Echeverría's decisive contribution to overcoming Eurocentrism and the reformulation of a materialist theory of culture is, without doubt, the concept of the four ethe. The most interesting and 'productive' seems to me the concept of ' baroque ethos ', which gives us an invaluable key to understanding many aspects of American culture, a key that allows us to account not only of the Jesuit Reductions in Paraguay, but also, in the twentieth century, the phenomenon of' Christianity release 'and grassroots communities. (Incidentally, I think it is wrong to consider Stefan Gandler Don Samuel Ruiz and the liberation theologians as 'committed' to the 'strong and brutal power' of Karol Wojtyla.)

My main disagreement with the subtle type of ethe given by Echeverria has to do with its definition the ' romantic ethos' as confusion between market value and use value, conceiving capital as a great adventure and, therefore, naturalizing capitalism. Following Lukács some insights, I think the reverse of romanticism, understood not simply as a literary school or style of art, but, similar to the baroque, such as ' ethos', the beginning of construction of the world that extends for centuries and characterized by an attitude hostile to capitalism. The ' romantic ethos' in its manifestations from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the Surrealists, to Novalis, Hölderlin, William Morris, Joseph Carlos Mariategui and Ernst Bloch - in addition to various social movements, cultural or religious - is a protest against capitalist civilization in the name of pre-modern cultural values \u200b\u200band an attempt, almost desperate, to re-enchant the world.

Gandler Stefan's book is not only an excellent introduction, but also an acute reflection on an important chapter 'out west' - in the Latin American periphery of the system - what has been called 'Western Marxism' but it would be better to designate, as he does in the title, critical Marxism, that is, a thought 'universal / concrete' que tiene por objetivo radicalizar la crítica marxista a lo falso existente.

Michael Löwy

Panasonic Dygital Hybrid Intercom

Stefan Bird-Pollan: Review of Amartya Sen's' The Idea of \u200b\u200bJustice '

Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice , Belknap Press, 2009, pp. 496.

It is a mark of the greatness of John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice that, after nearly 40 years, it still retains its position as the one work of post-war political theory which must be contended with. One might say of Amartya Sen’s new book what Jürgen Habermas, in his own debate with Rawls, once said: namely, that any disagreement between the two is basically a family feud. The dispute, to be sure, is a significant one. It concerns the viability of an idealized theory of society such as Rawls has presented it in A Theory of Justice . I say viability since it is not really Sen’s concern to argue about the philosophical foundations of Rawls’ approach. Rather, Sen wishes to substitute a more practically oriented theory of justice, the capabilities approach, for Rawls’ foundationalism about institutional structures and their relation to justice. Sen’s main criticism is thus that Rawls’ idealized theory excludes too much of what we should care about: the person’s
real position in the world, as well as parts of the world which are not included in Rawls’ closed system of the state. In short, Sen is driven by the practical need to provide a theory which is truly universal in scope, but which is also able to deal with vexing questions of real world politics like persistent inequalities among people and relative lack of basic freedoms. This situates Sen’s work at the intersection of political theory and social science.

Sen’s book is in many ways an introduction to and summary of work done over the past 50 years. Readers who are already familiar with Sen will find here a compelling elaboration and systematization of the many topics that Sen has worked on: economics, philosophy, and, it seems, all of the social sciences which lie in between. New readers will be dazzled by the copious references not only to Sen’s own work, but by the near encyclopedic knowledge Sen evinces of work done in the past 50 years in the social sciences and political philosophy. Sen peppers his pages with references to friends and colleagues, especially at Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, who have influenced him and who, inevitably, have been influenced by him. His style in these references is chatty and warm, and further contributes to the impression that what we have in these pages is a disagreement only within liberalism, which, in different forms, Sen believes has carried the day. (The only prominent references to a non-liberal thinker that I could detect are to the late G. A. Cohen, whose own recent book takes issues with the central tenets of Rawls’ theory.)

Sen has many philosophical heroes but chief among these is Adam Smith who, for Sen, himself an avowed child of the enlightenment, represents a sort of counter current to the Kantian enlightenment, which Sen sees Rawls embodying in his emphasis on abstraction. This counter-current includes thinkers like Mary Wollstonecraft, the Marquise de Condorcet, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and even Karl Marx. What all of these thinkers have in common, according to Sen, is their comparative rather than foundationalist approach. Thus, Smith’s concept of the impartial spectator is championed as a comparative version of Kant’s foundational categorical imperative. The difference between the two is that the impartial spectator, while impartial, proceeds by comparison of different perspectives rather than by moral judgment concerning the correct position to take, as the Kantian categorical imperative does. Smith’s view is meant to permit us to see other positions without judging them right or wrong, but rather giving the spectator an appreciation of the relative advantages and disadvantages of a particular comprehensive position.

Sen’s thought, as he makes clear on several occasions, is also influenced by Indian philosophical thought. Here the distinction between niti and nyaya conceptions of justice is particularly important to him. The niti conception of justice is characterized by “organizational propriety and behavioral correctness”, while the nyaya conception “stands for a comprehensive concept of realizing justice” (20). And with this, the central concern of theory has been named: Sen is concerned with realization of justice rather than the determination of its pure definition. Sen writes: “an approach to justice can be both entirely acceptable in theory and eminently useable in practice, even without its being able to identify the demands of perfectly just societies.” (401) What Sen wants, in other words, is a theory that is both responsive to the needs of justice and responsive to real world problems.

For someone who has worked as extensively on real world problems, from the Bengal famine of 1943, which Sen witnessed first hand, to the problems of the ‘missing’ generation of women in Asia (due to the impact of inequality on life expectancy of children and newborns), Rawls’ idealized theory of justice surely leaves something to be desired. The problem with a procedure like Rawls’ original position is that, as Sen uts it, “there is still a large question about how the chosen institutions would work in a world in which everyone’s actual behavior may or may not come fully into line with the identified reasonable behavior [stipulated by Rawls].” (68) The problem, however, is not only that people are not sufficiently rational, but also, that formulating the question of justice in the way Rawls does means that certain important features of justice will be neglected. These are, as I have noted, the agent’s real position and her real possibilities.

Sen develops this theory out of the social choice model developed by Kenneth Arrow. While much social contract theory depends on an idealized conception of rational agents, the social choice model, as developed by Sen, relies on our actual and only somewhat rational ability to rank different outcomes based on our particular situation. Such ranking, for Sen, means that we can weigh outcomes that are not ideal against each other, regardless of how close to the ideal outcome they get. Social choice theory thus makes room for incompleteness.

Sen identifies several features of the social choice framework. (1) Focus on the comparative, not just the transcendental . For Sen this means that “a theory of justice must have something to say about the choices that are actually on offer”. (2) Recognition of the inescapable plurality of competing principles . This means that there will be different conceptions of freedom that can be employed in social choice theory and this, in turn, means that there will be different and potentially incompatible outcomes of social choice theory. ( 3) Permissibility of partial resolution . This means that the result of social choice may be tentatively incomplete (a work in progress) or that it may arrive at an impasse which is conceptually accounted for, though also open to further revision. (4) Social choice theory reflects diversity of input which means that social choice can give us functional connection between individual rankings and priorities on the one hand and results relevant to social policy on the other. These too will be helpful in determining a closer approximation to justice. (5) Finally, social choice, even if it yields conclusions which conflict, tells us a great deal about current positions and thus should help us come up with better solutions than the ones we already have (106-111).

Sen argues that this framework can help us evaluate relative freedom and justice in terms of outcome as well as in terms of agency. Avowing that he shares Rawls’ commitment to the priority of liberty (62), Sen argues that justice in actual human affairs is not simply a matter of cumulative outcome (what results) but also of comprehensive outcome (what results and how it is brought about), as in Rawls’ proceduralism. Sen thus sides with Rawls against economists and utilitarians who tend to see human freedom merely as welfare. Sen’s approach of freedom as capability holds that freedom is valuable for at least two reasons: freedom must provide opportunity to pursue our ends, and freedom must give us a choice about which opportunities to pursue (228). Sen calls this capability. The approach is pluralist in the sense that it “points to an informational focus in judging and comparing overall individual advantages” without specifying how
information may be used (232). It does not specify any particular ‘primary goods’ as Rawls does. Its second decisive feature is that it “is inescapably concerned with a plurality of different features of our lives and concerns.” (233) These are what Sen calls functionings. Sen writes: “The capability that we are concerned with is our ability to achieve various combinations of functionings that we can compare and judge against each other in terms of what we have reason to value.” (233) Freedom as capability thus seeks to do justice to the diversity of human positions as well as to the diversity of human interests.

But how are these different interests to be coordinated? Sen’s answer is: through public debate. For Sen the model of debate is essentially given by the comparative model of Smith’s impartial spectator, as I have noted. The impartial spectator permits open and open-ended discussion, hence the opportunity for people to revise their views based on their changing positions and changing information. This, for Smith, is taken as a fairly unproblematic point.

It is difficult to do justice to such a synthetic work in a few pages, and perhaps more difficult to launch any substantive criticisms of it. However, philosophy being what it is, it is perhaps worth dwelling for a few moments at least on what Sen’s book is and what it is not. As I said at the outset, Sen’s book is not concerned with the grounding of its theory in any meta-ethical sense, that is, Sen does not seek to give a final justification of his pluralist approach to liberty nor to his claim that the impartial spectator is the best
sort of model for deliberation. He does argue, however, that the impartial spectator can help us become more clear about the ways in which human agency could be more fully realized in terms of both functionings and capability. He has, however, also argued that Rawls’ conception of the original position is idealized in a way that makes it unsuitable to tackle real world problems. This too I will not dispute. Sen’s book is a work that seeks to form a bridge between philosophy and social policy in the sense that it argues for the me thodology of the capability approach largely from a mixture of philosophical and empirical observation but does not try to systematize these in a philosophical foundational way.

For all of Sen’s criticism of Rawls there is one concept that Sen barely mentions: the concept of the reflective equilibrium. The reflective equilibrium , which in Rawls is meant to ground the whole theory of justice, is the idea that we can abstract from our own perspectives, check these against those of others and adjust our own views accordingly. The reflective equilibrium, in my view, is remarkably close to Sen’s own view of public deliberation. When all is said and done, Sen’s and Rawls’ theories bare remarkable similarity to one another when it comes to their philosophical commitments about the role of rationality and human agency. What they share is a rejection of Kant’s attempt to provide a metaphysical foundation for morality. This means that they have, from a philosophical point of view, more in common than Sen may think.

Resource:  Reason Public , Vol 2, No. 2, December 2010

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Eels in our rivers.



the end I gave stronger than expected, and what began as a strong cold running accompanied by the entire body. Overall a real pain in the ass than it seems I've recovered enough now not to say everything.

On Sunday I wanted to do a completely normal life, go out, take the stitching, walking ... so any day. I walked in the scope ORT an artificial lake that exists in curiously shared Logroño and tour with the French Way to Santiago. I often is a stunning natural setting, well connected that started years ago the government of the community and worth. magnificent work of entertainment.

As you travel through one of his many trips the lake, you see posters advertising the features of the environment and river life is inside him. I never noticed a 'description of one of the inhabitants of these waters and yesterday "d escubrí" first and sure many of you already know.

is the mysterious and strange life of eels. Amazing what I read there and totally up-front summary. Upon arriving home, I need to continue reading the incredible vicissitudes along life of this unknown and mysterious inhabitant of our fresh water even though I have seen child fishing boat, once clean Ebro River

colloquial way as narrated, I read that ...

Eels are a few things that have fascinated naturalists of all time, beginning with Aristotle, the number of puzzles it presents its biology. Even today are still full of unsolved mysteries. For example, remains a mystery how they are targeted at sea. It remains a mystery where are the eels at sea. There are only documented five sacks and five near the coast.

Eels live most of his life in the rivers, the males in the lower and upper females. Salinity influences the sex of eels. For example, in the Baltic Sea, low salinity, all eels are females. Those that remain in the brackish waters of estuaries become males.

reaches sexual maturity in males between 4 and 8 years old and females between 7 and 12 and at that time in the fall, prepare to spend the HONEY MOON IN THE Caribbean in the Sargasso Sea, RIGHT IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE. This is where they mate, lay eggs and larvae on a long voyage into rivers of origin. After two and a half of travel, when measured 75 mm and are about to become elvers appear on European shores. In Spain, between December and February.

To learn more about the life of eels, in the form of questions raised related issues.

Why make a journey of 5,000 km to mate?

The final answer, sure, we do not. But we do know is that 140 million years ago the current Sargasso Sea was a swamp between America and Europe that were stuck. It is assumed that Eels went there to play. It is not uncommon that certain animals have special breeding sites. Probably the males were in the brackish and females in the headwaters of rivers. Females mate and lay down to eggs. All quite normal. But little by little, the continents were separating, and that wetland area was moving away and becoming deeper. Farther and farther and deeper. Eels were adapted slowly to the new situation. We think they have spent 140 million years.

How can withstand 5,000 kilometers without eating?

Before embarking on the journey of migration stop eating, its color darkens over the back and becomes silvery on the belly, it will enlarge the eyes, digestive tract and wasting huge amount of fat accumulates, it becomes 25% of its weight. Eels have been four years in salt water without eating and have resisted well, not only alive but active. That is, the fat that accumulates before your trip perfectly resist the two-year journey.

How old are they when they are called elvers?

are the size that we see in the fish stalls and age is three and a half years.

How old can live up to an eel?

We have said that undertake the autumn migration of males between 4 and 8 years and females between 7 and 12. When they reach the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die. That in normal circumstances, but if not then migrate leaves can reach 50.

"At that age will be huge?

female eels reach up to over a meter in length.

Eels are found in lakes that have no connection with rivers that come from the sea. How can you get there?

eels are able to glide like snakes and wet for several miles, and that's what they do out of the lake and go crawling up the river that lead to the sea and there the Caribbean.

"And how do they breathe?

Their skin

with many blood vessels and oxygen from the air they breathe through it.

Aristotle had the eels in the lakes appear dry after rain, is it true?

When a lake dries, eels burrow into the mud and encyst being able to survive several years in that state. So when it rains appear "suddenly", such as Aristotle noted. Rather, in a similar way, as Aristotle said that appearing in the mud, not preserved in the mud. So Aristotle is a great observation, the eels come out when it rains on a dry lake that takes a long time, and an error: not born from the bowels of the earth as he thought.

European and American eels, are the same species?

No. And to think the opposite has been one of the great blunders of the twentieth century biology. In 1959 an American researcher, named Tucker, successfully defended the European eel could not make the trip of 5,000 miles without food they had to die. He argued that only the larvae of the American put, which are much closer to the Sargasso Sea. And then some others emigrated to America and Europe. His ideas were widely accepted, until the arrival of modern genetic testing have proven without a doubt that they are two different species. In 2000 a group of German researchers from the Institute of Biodiversity Research, University of Rostock, published a study on mitochondrial DNA of eight species of eels, there are 16 - and study it appeared that the more similar were the European and Americans, but there was no doubt that they were two different species.

Moreover, recently it has been found that eels American spawn in a different place than European. The two in the Sargasso Sea, but not exactly in the same place, but a few hundred miles apart.

How Americans know that the larvae must go to America and Europe should go to Europe?

Here is a beautiful enigma. Science is so, does not have answers for everything and is good to have issues without research to some people are able to solve.

seems, according to another source you consult, the trip is done once in his life and after mating and spawning, they die.