Philosophical Perspectives on Contemporary Challenges

We are pleased to present the new issue of Dialektika, which addresses contemporary topics from diverse philosophical perspectives, covering areas such as biology, art, human freedom, technology, and social criticism. This volume delves into the relationship between philosophical theory and current issues, with essays that invite reflection on how ideas can transform the way we inhabit the world.

We begin with Philosophy and Biological Evolution by Jorge Vélez Vega, which explores the intersection between the history of philosophy and evolutionary theory, using the ideas of Darwin and Lynn Margulis to propose an ethics of planetary coexistence. In On Automatism and the Escape from Freedom, Marcos de J. Aguirre Franco analyzes how automation and economic processes affect our creative capacities and freedom, questioning the primacy of economic profit over the meaning of human life.

Mariana Arbeláez-Cataño, in Silence as a Language for Contemplation: A Sensory Approach to Edmond Jabès and James Turrell, examines the concept of silence as a path to contemplation, connecting Jabès' literary work with Turrell's light interventions. Rayner García Hernández, in Along the Paths of the Mind: A Media Apology, examines the sociotechnical transformation and expansion of the human mind through technical systems, exploring how these relationships develop in a globalized world.

In The Politics of the Common: A Dialogue between Silvia Federici and Ernesto Laclau on Marxism, Iván Patricio Ríos Sangucho studies the concept of the common and the visions of feminism and the plurality of social identities as a response to classical Marxism. Julio Norberto Pernús Santiago, in The Concept of the Poor in Cuba According to the Catholic Church, analyzes poverty in the Cuban revolutionary context, offering a perspective on how the relationship between spirituality and adversity defines an ethics of resistance. Alejandro Villamor Iglesias, in Key Concepts in Paul Feyerabend, introduces the fundamental concepts of the anarchist epistemology of the Viennese philosopher, recovering Feyerabend's critical and destabilizing spirit. Finally, Ignacio Zavala Aránguiz, in On Social Acceleration and Religious Deinstitutionalization, examines religious institutional disaffiliation through the lens of lived religion studies and Hartmut Rosa's theory of social acceleration. He analyzes how accelerated modernity influences the deinstitutionalization of religious experience and the creation of situational identities, characteristic of contemporary religious expressions.

This issue of Dialektika represents a mosaic of reflections that cross disciplines and theoretical boundaries, offering readers a space where philosophy remains a vital tool for thinking about the present and envisioning a more conscious and just future. We invite you to explore these pages with the hope that each article will inspire new questions and perspectives.