Sílex

Transcending Human Limitations

2025-11-18T13:35:09+00:00

In a world where the boundaries of human potential are being redefined, transhumanism emerges as a cultural and philosophical phenomenon that challenges traditional notions of identity, ethics, and social progress, becoming the focal point of debates across various fields of knowledge. In this context, the present work aims to analyze the historical evolution, internal divisions, ethical debates, and sociopolitical implications of transhumanism to provide a comprehensive understanding of its impact. The findings reveal that transhumanism has undergone a multifaceted evolution, shaped by the counterculture of the 1960s, which fused technology with utopian ideals; the cyberculture of the late twentieth century, which emphasized digital innovation and cyborg identities; and the postmodern influences following the events of September 11, which introduced existential and security concerns. In conclusion, transhumanism represents a series of potential benefits, such as the enhancement of human capacities and longevity, though these are counterbalanced by risks such as inequality and ethical misuse. Therefore, regulation is essential to align technological progress with fundamental human values.

University, self-knowledge and citizenship.

2025-11-18T13:35:12+00:00

The experience of self-knowledge in the academic environment and its political impact is enriched through dialogue with diverse knowledge. This process not only facilitates an inner journey towards specific know-how but also influences professional practice, allowing for a critical understanding of social problems and their challenges. It highlights how the incorporation of existential and conceptual categories fosters personal scrutiny, helping to discover our identity and our place in the world.

"Buen vivir": education in harmony with Nature

2025-11-18T13:35:05+00:00

“Buen vivir” is a concept that emphasizes harmony with Nature. In the field of education, the concept contrasts with the European visions of education embodied in models such as Ausbildung (instruction), Bildung (formation) and Erziehung (self-cultivation). This essay discusses some examples of educational practices of buen vivir that illustrate a bio-centric approach to learning and the management of society and territory. The text concludes by emphasizing the need to align education systems around the world with biocentrism, recognizing the equivalence between learning processes and life processes.

Towards a Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Model

2025-11-18T13:35:04+00:00

This essay analyzes the persistent gap in wastewater treatment in Peru, proposing Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a viable and efficient alternative to the traditional model of state-led execution. This recommendation stems from the fact that, despite the State having allocated over S/ 37 billion to the sanitation sector in the last ten years, 24,4 % of the total volume of wastewater still goes untreated, with the greatest incidence in rural and jungle areas. The analysis focuses on the performance of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs), highlighting Sedapal’s experience in Lima. This is because Sedapal operates three concessioned plants under the PPP model (Taboada, La Chira, and Provisur), which treat 83.9% of the total flow, while the 17 plants directly managed by Sedapal cover only 16,1 %. This difference reflects the greater efficiency of the PPP model, attributed to its ability to attract larger investments, implement higher technical and operational standards, and ensure an optimal distribution of risks between public and private stakeholders. The essay also presents ProInversión’s project portfolio, which includes 13 wastewater treatment projects under the PPP modality, with an estimated investment of over US$ 1,6 billion. However, it also discusses the case of the Puerto Maldonado WWTP as an example of the contractual, technical, and economic challenges that can hinder the success of such projects. The initially unattractive conditions led to limited private interest, prompting a revision of the contract and the introduction of adjustments to improve its financial feasibility. The essay concludes that, although some progress has been made, it is essential to design more attractive contracts with flexible payment schemes that mitigate risks for investors. Only under an adequate contractual framework will it be possible to close the sanitation gap and improve the quality of life for millions of Peruvians.

Under the dredge: Illegal mining in Peru and the multidimensional threat

2025-11-18T13:35:02+00:00

Illegal economies in Peru exhibit an alarming and negative rise in their multidimensional impacts. Specifically, in our country, one of the illegal economies currently generating the most concern—positioning itself ahead of drug trafficking—is illegal mining, which is the focus of this essay. This essay will address how illegal mining generates negative social, environmental, and political impacts, from which it can be argued that there is a lack of effective and articulated state work to address this problem. Through the impacts of illegal mining, and taking into account considerations from the prior experience of drug trafficking in the 80s-90s, the transformations and consequences that illegal mining generates for the country will be revealed. The essay will evidence these consequences based on: insecurity, violence, and the expansion of organized crime; deforestation and contamination; and the weakening of the State.

Social fabric and coexistance: Reflections on memory, education and politics

2025-10-31T22:01:57+00:00

This edition of Revista Sílex addresses the discussion on social fabric and coexistence in the current Peruvian context. It brings together articles and essays that explore these concepts from the perspectives of education, memory, and politics. It reflects on social reconstruction, biopolitics, human rights, social memory, and current issues such as illegal mining and environmental protection. An invitation to deepen respect for diversity and tolerance.

Johan Galtung and Education for Peace.

2025-11-18T13:35:07+00:00

This research, resulting from a qualitative documentary review, aimed to analyze Johan Galtung's contributions to peace education, in an attempt to clarify hopeful horizons that expand the path toward human reconciliation and the recovery of social fabric. The results indicate that life in society, due to its undeniable dynamism and the human plurality, requires enhancing democratic processes as well as humanity's willingness to engage in fruitful and symmetrical dialogue. This means recognizing the other as a subject of rights, who is entitled to a series of guarantees that seek to safeguard their moral integrity and human dignity above any human conditioning. Achieving these objectives is understood as the reclaiming force of fraternal reconciliation that results in respectful treatment and the reconstruction of social fabric. What has been discussed constitutes a global invitation to overcome differences, manage controversies, and handle conflicts through both civic and civilized approaches. In conclusion, ensuring the construction of a possible world requires, in the first instance, the consensual overlay of moral principles and universal values based on which to outline the horizons of a supportive, tolerant, and democratic conviviality. This implies learning to manage differences through horizontal exchange and the unification of wills around the common goal: to live within the framework of permanent and sustainable dignification.

Human rights defenders.

2025-11-18T13:35:11+00:00

The defense of human rights is essential for democracy, yet in Peru it takes place in a highly vulnerable context. Between 2019 and 2024, defenders—particularly Indigenous and community leaders in the Amazon—faced threats, harassment, and murders linked to illegal economies such as logging, mining, and drug trafficking. Although an Intersectoral Protection Mechanism was created in 2021, violence and impunity persist, exposing a critical gap between legal frameworks and actual protection. The Mechanism seeks to bring together the State, civil society, and Indigenous peoples to address both immediate attacks and structural risks. However, its implementation has faced serious obstacles: Regional Tables with irregular meetings, lack of field managers, insufficient budget, and widespread distrust of the police. Preventing violence requires identifying risk patterns, ensuring justice to combat impunity, and strengthening the legitimacy of defenders’ work in the face of stigmatization campaigns.

The Triumph of indirect Powers

2025-11-18T13:35:06+00:00

The goal of this article is the historical-conceptual description of the process by which the so-called “indirect powers” have managed to subjugate the sovereign power of the State through the use of biopolitics. In this regard, we will attempt to clarify the nature of such powers, taking as a guiding thread their relationship with three fundamental institutions of the modern world: the State, the market, and government. From its emergence in the mid-17th century until its establishment as a "form of government" in the 20th century, biopolitics has been the principal instrument used by capitalism to neutralize state sovereignty. The turning point in this process was the rise, at the beginning of the 20th century, of totalitarianism, especially the German National Socialist movement, which took the biopolitical instrumentalization of the State to its ultimate consequences. According to our hypothesis, due to the progressive neutralization of state sovereignty, generated by the gradual colonization of the State by indirect powers, a new form of organizing power developed, consisting of the control of life. Although this form of social control was not new, it only truly expanded with the disproportionate development of the market. By reading the work of Carl Schmitt, we will attempt to explain the process of weakening state sovereignty carried out by the various indirect powers; second, we will turn to the work of Michel Foucault to explain how the market and governmental biopolitics established themselves within state power itself, thus paving the way for the triumph of neoliberalism on a global scale; finally, thanks to the work of Giorgio Agamben, we will study the scope of the phenomenon of biopolitics in today's world.

Social memory and structural poverty

2025-11-18T13:35:01+00:00

The trajectory of the Yalpana Wasi highlights the limits of European memory theories in Andean contexts. Halbwachs (2004) assumes stable social frameworks, yet the violence in Junín (1980–2000) fragmented communities and weakened institutions (CVR, 2003). Nora (2008) conceives a “site of memory” as condensing the past, but the museum’s association with political interests (Inga, 2020) undermined its legitimacy. Assmann (2011) distinguishes between communicative and cultural memory, but the museographic narrative prioritized the latter, sidelining Quechua oral traditions, songs, and rituals. Latin American authors (Jelin, 2002; Del Pino, 2008) show that memory in contexts of structural poverty is also carried in huaynos, pilgrimages, or protective silences. This case calls for a situated theory that acknowledges these practices as legitimate supports beyond the official record.