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The evolution of patent law, from its historic beginnings to its current hegemonic state, reveals a dichotomy between patent protection and indigenous appropriation and  exploitation.  The patent system continues to protect novel inventions — even those with no use —  and provides a legitimizing legal facade for the appropriation of traditional knowledges of the uses… Continue reading The Geographies of Race, Patents and Traditional Knowledge

Indeed, we are living in interesting times. Our relationships, both with ourselves and others, constantly pass through intermediaries composed of our beliefs and ideologies that work as the distorting mechanisms limiting or expanding our horizons. These ideologies are created to socialize and orient us in society, but our society itself has become disoriented. Our disoriented… Continue reading Ideology and Orientation: State Power and Catholic Social Thought

The absolutism of state power, being the nexus of coercion and violence in Anarchist and Marxist theory, narrows our attention on the state as the central site of transformative politics and resistance.  Anarchists critique the belief that a modern society requires a state system to foster social order, equality, and justice.  Generally, Anarchists are antiauthoritarian… Continue reading Anarchism, the State Apparatus, and Andean Water Reforms

In Sollicitudo Rei Socialis by John Paul II, published in 1987, he makes note of what he calls ”super-development.”  He posits, super-development ”consists in an excessive availability of every kind of material goods for the benefit of certain social groups, easily mak[ing] people slaves of ”possession” and of immediate gratification, with no other horizon than… Continue reading Reflections on Catholicism and Consumerism

Bernard Lonergan stated, ”[i]n the main it is not by introspection but by reflecting on our living in common with others that we come to know ourselves.”  Through a continual process of  ”self-constituting,” he argues, we communicate what we are to others, and this communication becomes collaboration and brings upon us more learning experiences of… Continue reading Self Actualization Through Mistake Correction

Aquinas’ treatment on law shaped by reason and for the benefit of the common good reveals analogous contemporary principles and problems.  He notes that ”the chief and main concern of law properly so called is the plan of the common good” and that interests of the individual are subordinate to this common good of the… Continue reading Aquinas on the Importance of Breaking Unjust Laws

Aristotle’s several chapters on friendship in Nichomachean Ethics is thought provoking in the way he relates the character of friendship to the fundamental character of the person capable of friendship. In other words, the prudent and just man is capable of a deeper connection with someone else because he has a deeper connection with himself.… Continue reading Aristotle, Friendship, and the Intercultural Connection

The ”Allegory of the Cave” is a beautiful piece of work.  It encompasses the mental landscape.  We constantly move in a circular motion towards the sun and the cave — between belief and knowledge; between illusions of goodness (the fire) and true goodness (the sun).  Education plays an integral role in this chaotic stream of… Continue reading Education and the Classroom as a Site of Transformation

Helprin’s chapter entitled, The Acceleration of Tranquility, in his book, Digital Barbarism, creates two separate worlds — one historical and one futuristic — or, one simple and one abstract.  Through his thought exercise, he attempts to bring to our attention the importance of a life aware of ”natural limitations, mortal requirements, and human preferences”(9).  For… Continue reading Technization of the Lifeworld – Short Critique

One of the themes that stood out to me in this week’s readings was the geographical exclusion delineated and legitimized by law.  While that may be a fancy way to describe prison, I do not want to exclude the socio-economic spaces minority/oppressed peoples inhabit.  In Committee to End the Marion Lockdown, Oscar Lopez-Rivera mentioned the… Continue reading Tight Control and the Regulation of Minority Spaces