ISSN: 2390-0032 (Online) | DOI: 10.18566/escr Escritos is a biannual scientific journal published by the School of Theology, Philosophy, and Humanities at the Pontifical Bolivarian University. It publishes original research articles, theoretical reflections, academic debates, translations, and critical reviews in the fields of Philosophy and Literature, especially in Ethics and Philosophical Anthropology; Hermeneutics, Aesthetics, and Languages; Classical Studies; and Latin American Literature and Thought. The mission of Escritos is to contribute to the research, discussion, and dissemination of philosophical and literary thought in the declared fields, while serving as a forum for academic discussion among national and international scholars connected to the aforementioned thematic areas. Keywords: Philosophy; Literature; Literary Theory; Ethics; Philosophical Anthropology; Hermeneutics; Aesthetics and Languages; Classical Studies; Latin American Thought.
Thinking God in the experience of nihilism
Nihilism always raises the question of God, either by denying Him or by overcoming a certain concept of God through openness to another way of thinking about divine reality. This article discusses how to talk about God in the context of nihilism. First, it describes the evolution of the nihilistic experience, recognising that contemporary nihilism hides meaninglessness and thus avoids the question of God. Given this cultural situation, it argues that in order to think about God, one must confront the experience of nothingness and emptiness. Theology includes the experience of metaphysical and existential nothingness in the act of thinking about God. Thus, passing through nihilism, a conception of God is drawn that does not approach the divine with pre-established concepts, but rather from open categories that welcome the personal revelation of God. For this reason, a theological reflection on God is proposed from the categories of mystery, freedom and love.
Copyright (c) 2026 Escritos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Identity and Vocation: Explorations for an Interdisciplinary Dialogue between Psychology and Theology
The article proposes an interdisciplinary dialogue on the concepts of identity and vocation. It first explores the issue of identity from its origins in classical philosophy and in current social sciences, highlighting the concept’s complex unity. It then presents the psychology of identity, considering Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, James Marcia’s identity statuses, and narrative approaches to identity. Next, the concept of vocation is presented, from its biblical and traditional foundations to a contemporary theological conception, showing that the issues surrounding the concept of vocation are similar to those of identity in the social sciences. By way of conclusion, the article outlines several fields of mutual reception between psychology and theology in this regard.
Lesly Ariel Alexandra González Espíndola
Francisco Díez Fischer. La política cuestionada: Hans-Georg Gadamer y el arte de la pregunta
This review examines the book La política cuestionada. Hans-Georg Gadamer y el arte de la pregunta (2024), by Francisco Díez Fischer, in which the author proposes recovering Gadamerian hermeneutics as a tool for thinking about the formation of political community. The book argues that the conditions of possibility of the political can be understood through dialogical practices such as listening and questioning, whose exemplary structure is found in the relationship of friendship. From this perspective, dialogue is not oriented toward the homogenization of interlocutors, but toward the possibility of constructing a shared sense among participants who remain different. The review reconstructs the central thesis of the work, its argumentative structure, and the theoretical assumptions on which it is based. It also situates the proposal within contemporary debates on recognition and the digitalization of communication. Finally, it evaluates the scope of the proposal and raises the question of the mediations necessary to ensure that the impact of these ideas does not remain limited to the academic sphere.
El león en invierno. Leo Löwenthal y la integridad del intelectual
This text analyzes the thought of Leo Löwenthal, a member of the so-called “first generation” of the Frankfurt School, in light of several of his theoretical contributions to the field of critical social theory. To this end, it presents several of his ideas in relation to other thinkers associated with the same intellectual circle. Several of his postulates can be seen reflected in his intellectual dialogues with figures such as Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Max Horkheimer. The aim of this work, then, is to make explicit the importance of Löwenthal's influence on the development of critical social theory.
Eduard Gans and the Crisis of Hegelianism
There are numerous studies that highlight the importance of associationalism in Eduard Gans’s thought, but they focus exclusively on Gans’s ideas about workers’ associations as precursors of trade unionism. By contrast, this article pursues four objectives. First, it explores the links between the social dimension of Gans’s concept of associationalism and the broader political orientation of his thought. Second, it expands and deepens the analysis of Gans’s relationship with French thought. Third, the article clarifies the ways in which associationalism led Gans to distance himself from many of the principles of Hegel’s political philosophy. Finally, it considers the relationship between Gans’s thought—both in its singular features and in its representative character—and the situation of progressive intellectuals in Vormärz Germany.
This fictional narrative symbolically recreates the emergence of dialectical thought. Through its protagonist, Diala, a Greek priestess renowned for her paradoxical aphorisms, the text offers reflections on transformation, the tensions between opposites, and the understanding of the human being. The story incorporates ideas drawn from thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, combining fiction, philosophical outreach, and allegorical storytelling to introduce classical concepts of Western thought to a non-specialist audience. Its inclusion in Escritos reflects the journal’s interest in welcoming works of literary creation that engage in dialogue with the philosophical and humanistic tradition from a narrative perspective.
Literatura y Pensamiento Latinoamericanos
Telling the History of Philosophy: Philosophical Thought in Sirvan la cicuta, crucifiquen al autómata
The latest work by Pablo Rolando Arango, professor and philosopher from Caldas (Colombia), is an appealing way to update our understanding of the spirit of philosophy. In its charm and texture, the book Sirvan la cicuta, crucifiquen al autómata is an example of a deep understanding of the history of thought through prose that, at the same time, characterizes a return to good writing in a genre that lost its energy at the beginning of the 21st century: the essay. The pretext, in this case, is the biographies of Plato, Saint Augustine, and Descartes, but the recipe includes the ingredients that give quality to the consolidation of the essays: discursive agility, everyday humor, and historiographical erudition. This article aims to encourage both the reading of the work and support for the reasons that led its author to turn his usual critiques of the world of contemporary philosophy into prose.
The Civilization of the Image and the Urgency of an Ethical Imagination
This article addresses the problem of how the contemporary civilization of the image—characterized by visual saturation, affective standardization, and the instrumentalization of the gaze—imposes specific obstacles to ethical imagination. The main objective of this research, with a theoretical-analytical scope, is to examine these obstacles (the erosion of narrative empathy, the weakening of critical judgment, and the closure of shared symbolic horizons) and to vindicate the ethical dimension of imagination as a transgressive force. The conceptual framework lies at the intersection of social theory —society of the spectacle, simulacrum, pornographic society, society of screens— and the philosophy of imagination, drawing upon, among others, María Noel Lapoujade. The methodology employed to support the thesis is a conceptual analysis in three stages: first, an analysis of the regime of the visible and its ways of interpellating the imagination; second, a historical-philosophical tracing of the concept of imagination; and third, an exploration of the potential of ethical imagination. The results of this analysis demonstrate that ethical imagination, understood as a situated and embodied faculty, makes it possible to construct collective narratives, recognize alterity, and project possible futures. The article concludes that ethical imagination is not an evasion of reality, but rather a condition of possibility for its transformation. One of the implications of the study is the urgency of its cultivation to resist the homogenization of dominant visual logics, in favor of freer, more empathetic, and pluralistic societies.
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Truth, objectivity and historical reality: an approach from Putnam's internal realism to Historikerstreit
Putnam's internal realism —the theory that maintains that reality has no fixed structure independent of the human mind, without thereby falling into extreme relativism— has potential application in differents fields because works with a pluralist conception of truth. In particular, Lorenz argues that Putnam's proposal sheds light on a paradigmatic case in history: the Historikerstreit. The objective of this paper is to determine whether Lorenz's analysis of the Historikerstreit, based on Putnam's proposal of internal realism, is satisfactory. The research is interdisciplinary and combines contributions from history, philosophy, the philosophy of history, and epistemology.
Rehearsing the Mirror: The Gaze as Thought in “Capadocia”, by Mariana Oliver
Mariana Oliver’s essay “Capadocia” offers a reflection on vision as a form of thought. Through a poetics of observation, Oliver transforms the image into a cognitive device that links perception and language. This article analyzes how, in Aves migratorias, the author develops a hybrid form of writing that combines narrative, chronicle, and reflective elements to explore the tension between surface and depth, both spatially and epistemologically. Vision, understood not only as a physical act but also as an intellectual process, enables Oliver to contrast past and present ways of seeing, articulating a critique of contemporary superficiality embodied in performative tourism and photography as simulacrum. Within this framework, “Capadocia” emerges as an essay that thinks through the visible, where observation becomes both a mode of knowledge and an ethics of seeing.
The Figure of Genius as an Ideological Construct. A Critical Reading from Adorno and Plato
This article explores the controversy surrounding the figure of genius as the absolute referent of the work of art, questioning its role as an ideological agent in the process of artistic construction. Through a critical reading of the postulates of Theodor W. Adorno and Plato, it analyzes how both philosophers challenge the notion of genius as the origin and fundamental determinant of the work of art. Adorno and Plato agree that the idea of genius as the source of creativity and artistic value is problematic, as it implies a romantic and mystified conception of the creative process. Furthermore, they argue that linking genius to the objective value of the work of art diminishes its autonomy and establishes an ideological panorama of art, limiting its critical and aesthetic potential. By examining the critique of genius as an ideological agent, this article seeks to contribute to the understanding of the complex relationship between genius, the work of art, and ideology, and its impact on artistic theory and practice.
Humility as the Origin of Philosophy and a Metaphysical Virtue in the Thought of Gabriel Marcel
Since its beginnings, philosophers have reflected on the dispositions that enable philosophical thinking to emerge. While many have identified wonder as the origin of philosophy, Gabriel Marcel proposes an even more radical foundation: humility. This research inquires whether, in Marcel's work, humility can be considered a true origin of philosophy. The hypothesis is that this affective, intellectual, and moral disposition not only allows for philosophizing but actually founds it, as it is intimately related to the mystery of being and intersubjectivity. The study is structured in three chapters: the first analyzes the notion of ontological mystery as presence and call; the second examines intersubjectivity as the space where being manifests; and the third explores how humility predisposes one to encounter and enables access to mystery. Methodologically, the research is based on bibliographic and documentary analysis of Marcel’s works and his main interpreters. This approach allows for a critical review of his proposal and an assessment of how humility, far from being merely an ethical virtue, redefines the mode of philosophizing in terms of openness to the Other and to being, with possible implications for our time.
Logic and Ontology: Law of Identity Considered fromthe Perspective of Markus Gabriel’s Realist Ontology
This article aims to provide a critical review of the philosophical problem of identity between a formal-logical system and ontology—understood as the philosophical discipline concerned with the meaning of existence—in order to propose the modal implications of Markus Gabriel’s realist ontology of fields of sense as the most reasonable theoretical option for addressing this issue. The initial assumption is the negative position of the impossibility of an absolute identity between logic and ontology without a prior work of semantic interpretation. The article critically examines ontological systems that equate themselves with formal-logical systems, such as Alain Badiou’s ontology, to argue why they fail to establish such identity. Subsequently, we adopt a positive stance, suggesting the possible identity between logic and ontology based on the ontology of fields of sense. We outline the path toward an ontological theory of identity that interprets the principle of identity under a semantic point of view. This ontology holds that objects are presented in the logical form of descriptions; thus, the identity of an object is established through a correspondence between the object, and the field of sense in which it appears according to its guiding sense, which is conceived as a universal concept. This has significant modal implications and marks a step forward toward an ontological theory of identity.
The Reconfiguration of University Teachers' Subjectivity in Colombia:Self-Exploitation and Psychopolitical Control in Late Modernity
This article critically analyzes the reconfiguration of the subjectivity of Colombian university professors in late modernity, marked by the commodification of knowledge, academic performativity, and psychopolitical control. The central problem lies in how the research professor has been transformed into an "entrepreneur of the self," driven by the neoliberal imperative of "can-do" and immersed in self-exploitation. The main objective is to understand the historical and cultural processes that have shaped this subjectivity, as well as their ethical and educational implications. The research employs the genealogical method, drawing on thinkers such as Foucault, Han, Heidegger, and De Sousa Santos, to trace a shift from disciplinary power to psychopower within the framework of cognitive capitalism. The analysis revolves around two axes: modern instrumental rationality, which instrumentalizes the teaching profession, and the university-market dynamic, which promotes self-exploitation through symbolic incentives and productivity demands. The results show that global policies (such as the Bologna Declaration and OECD guidelines) have configured the teacher as a functional actor within the educational-market system. The main conclusion is that this transformation represents a subtle form of domination, in which the teacher voluntarily reproduces systemic logic, sacrificing autonomy and well-being, in the search for self-construction as a professional, as an entrepreneur of oneself, who self-exploits in freedom.
Kant and the Question of Moral Judgment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
This article analyzes the possibility of attributing moral agency to artificial intelligence (AI) from a Kantian perspective. It argues that although AI systems can simulate ethical behavior through preprogrammed algorithms and rules, they lack transcendental freedom and autonomous will, which are essential conditions for Kantian morality. The study combines key concepts of practical philosophy –such as duty and the categorical imperative– with exploratory experiments illustrating AI responses to moral dilemmas. Findings show that machine actions are amoral, as they are limited to external ends determined by human programmers. The article concludes that Kantian ethics provides a critical framework to highlight the limits of artificial moral agency and emphasizes the need for a human-centered approach in AI development.
On Divine Filiation. Translation of the Opuscule De filiatione Dei
This is a translation of the opuscule De filiatione Dei by the German Neoplatonic Renaissance thinker Nicholas of Cusa. In preparing this translation, the Latin version of the opuscule published by Felix Meiner was primarily examined, although the German versions by Harald Schwaetzer and Wilhelm Dupré, as well as the English version by Jasper Hopkins, were also consulted. The opuscule is divided into six chapters. The first offers a broad definition of the concept of filiation according to Cusa, identifying it with the terms theosis and deification, and outlining the conditions under which filiation occurs. In the second chapter, Cusa explains what filiation consists of, identifying it with the knowledge of God and the implications of this. The third chapter addresses the accuracy of the knowledge that constitutes divine filiation. According to Cusa, such knowledge can never be entirely perfect, and in this part of the opuscule, he clarifies his reasons for asserting this. In the fourth chapter, continuing from the previous one, Cusa discusses the ineffability of God and the reasons for it. The fifth chapter, still in continuity with the previous two, addresses the divine nature and its relation to the world. In the sixth and final chapter, the author recapitulates what has been said and presents his conclusions on filiation, based on his conception of divine nature.
Poetry in Popular Music: A Living Art Between the Quotidian and the Transcendental
This article examines the aesthetic and symbolic dimension of popular music as a form of living and collective poetry. The problem it addresses is the academic undervaluation of popular song compared to written poetry, despite sharing equivalent rhythmic structures and expressive functions. The objective is to demonstrate that popular music constitutes a poetic space where the emotional, ethical, and social converge, becoming a path to sensitive knowledge, constitutive of cultural identity. The conceptual framework draws on the contributions of Octavio Paz, who conceives of rhythm as poetic revelation, and Carlos Monsiváis, for whom popular song acts as an archive of collective memory. The research adopts an analytical-hermeneutic methodology, based on the textual and performative examination of lyrics and performance styles from various Latin American genres (tango, bolero, ranchera, nueva trova), it manages to capture universal emotions —love, nostalgia, betrayal, and resistance— that in their apparent simplicity mask a poetic complexity. Furthermore, the artist's interpretation, voice, and arrangements transform each song into a living poem. The concepts presented show that popular song integrates literary resources —symbol, image, narrative, and musicality— into communicative structures that transform everyday experience into aesthetic expression. The conclusion is that popular music democratizes poetry by moving it from elitist spaces to the community sphere, preserving its emotional and reflective power. It is proposed to recognize song as a vehicle for sensitive pedagogy and as a cultural heritage that articulates memory, beauty, and collective belonging.
Spiritual exercises in Epicurus: A way of facing pain and suffering
Although limited, Epicurus' philosophy offers a precise and relevant perspective for the present day. More than a theory, it proposes a therapeutic practice of virtue, where philosophy is experienced as a way of life. This research seeks, through a hermeneutic and reflective approach, to describe how Epicurus understands pain and suffering, as well as identify the spiritual exercises as a therapeutic means to confront them. The results reveal that in Epicurus' work, although pain and suffering do not have a univocal meaning, they are often understood as an imbalance or the counterpart of pleasure. Among the spiritual exercises in Epicurus are the recognition that we are beings with the possibility of exercising freedom, which makes it necessary to assume a position of self-care, even in adversity; furthermore, the impossibility of accessing unique and irrefutable truths is emphasized, thus recommending the avoidance of adopting rigid and inflexible stances. Finally, the importance of valuing the present and regulating oneself through reason as a universal criterion to distance oneself from suffering is highlighted.
Metaphorical Juxtaposition of Football and Everyday Life in La vida que pensamos. Cuentos de fútbol, by Eduardo Sacheri
The linguistic and emotional metaphor of football, commonly present in the lives of literary characters, is surpassed in La vida que pensamos. Cuentos de fútbol, by Eduardo Sacheri. In this anthology of short stories, football and life are shown to be juxtaposed within the characters’ everyday experiences. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how this juxtaposition influences the events narrated in the selected stories. Through a categorical analysis, the article explores the levels of influence experienced by the characters throughout the narratives they inhabit. In doing so, the Argentine author establishes a horizon of understanding for literary creation, grounded in the relationship between football and human existence.
Dehumanization and immunization in the evasive discoursein the face of “falsos positivos”
The article examines extrajudicial executions in Colombia, known as “falsos positivos”, focusing on the dehumanization of the victims and the significance of public mourning as a form of dissent and resistance. The analysis is grounded on the premise that the vulnerability of certain individuals turned them into “sacrificable bodies” in the eyes of a society shaped by a state-driven security narrative. This directive, propelled by the “security axiom,” promoted an immunitary logic that regarded anyone outside the dominant social order as a potential enemy. The article concludes that these immunization strategies can be challenged through political agency, the pursuit of truth, and the construction of a more inclusive historical memory.
Can we carry out an ethical reading of the work of Gilles Deleuze? The simple answer is that, although he is best known for his work in political philosophy, aesthetics and ontology, his thought also contains elements (themes related to freedom, power, subjectivity, and the relationship of the individual to the world) that could be interpreted from an ethical perspective. But our response, although it takes the above into account, goes the other way: we raise the question of the existence of a certain circularity between ethics and reading, but also, in a twist, between ethics and reading confronted with each other. And we do it from two scenarios: the reading that Deleuze makes of certain philosophers and the reading that his commentators (and we in this article) make of his work, continuing an internal movement of thinking from Deleuze towards other works. Ultimately, it comes down to the issue of reading and commenting.
“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, by Gabriel García Márquez: A Becoming of Reading, Writing and Lived Experience as Transtextual Hermeneutics from Gérard Genette’s Perspective
This article considers the reading of Gabriel García Márquez's ‘The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World’ as a transtextual hermeneutic from the perspective of Gerard Genett. This means that the writing of the work is not only a kind of imitation of a previous text to produce a new one, but it is the product of a creative process on the part of the author. Accordingly, this paper relies on three referents for the writing of the story, which together can also contribute to a more comprehensive reading of the symbolic, cultural and poetic universe narrated in the story. These are transtextualities, writing techniques and the author's lived experiences. These elements constitute the body of the text in which idiosyncratic, literary and mythical interpretations are introduced, contrary to the ideological positions referring to the Spanish conquest or the folkloric peculiarities of the local order. This gives an image of Gabriel García Márquez not only as an author, but also as a diachronic reader who writes what he has lived from the reinterpretation of the referents of literature, history and culture. Thus, some critics consider that the author's context, his formation as a human being and writer, bring him closer to his sensibility and provide resources to find possible meanings for his work.
Esquirol, Josep Maria. The School of the Soul. From the Way of Educating to the Way of Living. Editorial Acantilado, 2024. 188 pp.
Este texto de Esquirol corresponde a su última obra dedicada a la escuela. En ella el autor ha meditado, de manera elocuente y concreta, sobre las formas de la educación y la manera de vivir. Esquirol propone una nueva perspectiva sobre la escuela. Esta no es solo el lugar al que se va en cierto momento de la vida, sino en la que el humano permanece, comprendiendo que la educación es un proceso que abarca toda la vida.
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The Body Imagined by Modernity: Sensibility, Capitalism and Arrogance
The body has become a key visual resource for presenting and defining personal identity, accompanied by a call for sensitive exploration through experiences that intensify a localized sense. This article addresses the question, “How can we make the body imagined by modernity intelligible?” by structuring the discussion around four layers: first, the inability to denote a completely naked body, that is, a hermetic, substantial or essential body; second, the emergence of the body as a psychosomatic reality; third, the positioning of the body within the city post-Industrial Revolution; and fourth, the consideration of sustainable consumption as an arrogant class trait. This framework establishes a confrontation that combines studies on the body in terms of sensibility, historiography, urban organization after the 18th century, and capitalism, with a marked political/social emphasis. It is concluded that the body, as our position or condition of being and affecting the world, is an open, flexible reality, historically and politically shaped by the past. Sensibility, which seems evident regarding our nervous system and senses, responds to structures, specifications, focalizations and distributions. The goal of this article is to examine how sensibility and its production converge with capitalism and individuality as blurred forms of socialization since the consolidation of the city and the ostentation of a monetary status that prioritizes the body.
“El protagonista de una fábula única”. Analysis of “El Narrador” by Olga Orozco
The poetic work of Olga Orozco (1920-1999) is deeply religious, with the body serving as a central theme in her quest for the divine. In this sense, the body holds a dual significance: it acts as an impediment and as a condition of possibility. The interdisciplinary approach between literature and philosophy allows for an original reinterpretation of the body in Orozco’s work, revealing the philosophical implications of her poetic intuition. The first part explores passages where the body is viewed as an obstacle that isolates individuals and hinders their return to the divine. Her dark and disparaging imagery, such as “wall,” “burden,” and “shadow,” are analyzed. The second part examines the poem titled “El Narrador” from the book En el revés del cielo (1987) as a turning point. The body takes on a new meaning there, and the poet attributes to it the power to narrate her own story. A profound analogy between body and language emerges: their mediating function. The use of conceptual tools from hermeneutic phenomenology helps delve into the ambivalent experience of the body as portrayed in the poem. The notion of “flesh,” as the first otherness, explains the estrangement described by the poet and is an essential condition for the mediation between the self and the world, others and one's own ipseity. The hermeneutic of “El Narrador” sheds poetic light on the interpretation of the body as a sign and a condition of possibility for encountering otherness. Other readings of Orozco will likely illuminate various anthropological and metaphysical themes, as poetry and thought converge toward the same mystery.
Journaling, Attention and Language: A Phenomenological Approach
This article begins by reflecting on the shared position of the phenomenologist, the artist and the diarist, namely, the omission of an existential stance toward reality. The theoretical exploration continues by establishing some general considerations regarding the diary and attention, the latter understood in light of the phenomenological insights of Edmund Husserl and his predecessors. We then link the faculty of attention to the diarist's work in two fundamental aspects. On the one hand, the focus of attention provides the diarist with topics to write about. On the other hand, writing represents a second attentional moment, where attention is reflexively placed on the attentive acts of consciousness and the act of writing itself. The simultaneity of this turning of attention enables diary writing, which represents an aesthetic look at the surrounding and inner world of the subject. Intentional objects are apprehended on the basis of a pleasure that emanates from them. Interest considers objects as something more and different than what they are; they become objects of feeling. This look is comparable to a form of contemplation, that is, an aesthetic consideration of the world. We conclude by discussing the function of naming and its linguistic connections. This reflection allows us to develop how the diarist renames what they mention, leading us to conclude that this new and secondary act of naming is a poetic act.
The “Homilías” of Tomás Carrasquilla. The Region as a Starting Point of the National Imaginary
This article aims to interpret Tomás Carrasquilla’s work through nationalism and regionalism, with the goal of identifying his ideas on national identity. We will focus on the literary criticism known as “Homilías,” published by Carrasquilla in 1906 in the magazine Alpha. Through a critique of the influence of European modernism on the writers of his generation, the Antioquia author defended the inclusion of indigenous or regional elements in the creation of a national literature. This purpose will be achieved through two main points: first, by examining Carrasquilla’s firm rejection of modernism, and second, by defining the concepts of environment, region and national soul. We will conclude that in proclaiming a literary July 20, Carrasquilla exposes the features of a thought that oscillates between regionalism and nationalism. To explore the foundations of national identity in Carrasquilla’s work, we will draw upon the canonical definitions of nationalism and national identity from authors such as Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner, Anthony D. Smith, Claudio Lomnitz and Gilberto Freyre. Finally, methodologically, this study will be conducted as a documentary research project with an interpretative level.
The dam is a form of border. A notion of environmental historical memory in the work of Carolina Caycedo
This text analyzes a series of works about rivers and dams by artist Carolina Caycedo entitled Be Dammed. (2012-present). The main question this research addresses is how do the aesthetic strategies of these works identify the socio-ecological problems generated by dams and ontribute to articulate political imaginaries of sustainability? The main argument is that Caycedo’s works on the Magdalena or uma river contribute to the construction of an environmental historical memory based on popular knowledge, peasants and indigenous cosmovisions. To this end, this text characterizes the problem of the dams based on Macarena Gómez-Barris notion of extractivismo, Rob Nixon’s concept of deterritorialization, and then it embarks on a journey through the artist’s works, from whose analysis a characterization of the environmental historical memory of a segment of the Magdalena or Yuma River is constructed. The conceptual framework of the work includes the notions of arthbeings by Marisol de la Cadena and territory by Arturo Escobar, as well as the memory of the rivers by Kristina Lyons. The methodology is based on the conceptual and technical analysis of Caycedo’s art pieces within the interdisciplinary framework of Environmental Humanities. The analysis concludes that Caycedo’s works generate spaces of environmental historical memory from transnational perspectives and in these spaces of encounter that constitute the works, the extremes of false antagonisms as nature/culture, human /non-human and art/science and are related and rearticulated.
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Editorial: Voces testimoniales: apuntes para la creación de unas memorias críticas sobre América Latina y el Caribe, 1970–2021
In April 2023, the Master's Program in Latin American Studies at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), with the support of the School of Theology, Philosophy and Humanities and the EPIMELEIA Research Group, held the first edition of the UPB Symposium on Latin American Studies. The event focused on reflection concerning testimonial voices in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1970 and 2021 and brought together researchers from academic institutions in Colombia, Mexico, the United States, Cuba, and Italy. From disciplines such as literary studies, anthropology, social and cultural history, the humanities, and environmental social sciences, among others, the symposium fostered an interdisciplinary dialogue aimed at understanding the ways in which the region constructs and deepens its interpretations of itself. Reflection on testimonial voices is presented as a process of critically revisiting the past in order to identify the historical, cultural, and social dynamics shaping contemporary realities. The dossier brings together contributions that support the construction of critical regional memories and strengthen analytical perspectives on Latin American and Caribbean experiences.
The Authentic Person’s Limited Bad Faith. A Sartrean Perspective
Drawing on Sartre’s account of violence, I argue that not only is bad faith inevitable in practice, but a limited bad faith is necessary for authenticity. Although violating the freedom of others is bad faith, it is impossible to never violate anyone’s freedom. Moreover, and more fundamentally, the ontological structure of the for- itself entails that the for-itself can only be authentic in the mode of not being authentic. Seeking to altogether avoid bad faith is bad faith, for it is an attempt to constitute oneself as essentially authentic, yet the for-itself has no preexisting essence. By recognizing one’s complete responsibility for choosing bad faith, however, one limits one’s bad faith. This limited bad faith is in fact necessary to authenticity, which is a project lived out in concrete situations and not a categorical moral law that forbids bad faith.