Philosophy & Critical Thinking on Rielo Institute for Integral Development

Human Dignity and Artificial Intelligence

Ángel Rodríguez Guerro PhD & Duvan Alberto Henao Manrique Phd — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In this extensive article, I aim to address questions such as “Who is the human person?”; “on what the concept of human dignity is based”; “what artificial intelligence is”; “whether the human person can be reduced to an algorithm”; and whether “artificial intelligence can account for the transcendental nature of the human spirit—its state of transcendental openness to the Absolute—given that it is the Absolute itself that produces it.” These, and other questions that will arise along the way, will be the focus of this work.

The Human Boundary Between Posthumanism and Transhumanism

Cristina Scorrano — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In his book "Why I Want to Be a Posthuman", Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom describes the posthuman reality as follows: “You’ve just celebrated your 170th birthday and feel stronger than ever. Every day is a joy. (…) You’re communicating with your contemporaries using a language (…) that allows you to share and discuss thoughts and feelings that unenhanced humans couldn’t even conceive of or experience. When you play with your friends, you feel that every fiber of your body and mind is pushed to the limits of creativity and imagination, and you’re creating new realms of abstract and concrete beauty that humans could never (literally) dream of. You’re always ready to empathize with those who are suffering and to work hard to help them get back on their feet. (…) Things are getting better, but every day is already fantastic.”

Should the human race continue to inhabit the Earth?

Cristina Scorrano — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The question that gives this post its title—posed by Pope Leo XIV in the introduction to the book *“Disarmed and Disarming”* —is a crucial question for every person and calls for ethical responsibility. Can the human race continue to inhabit the Earth by recklessly exploiting its resources, plundering it, and applying the logic of domination and profit, while continuing to bring destruction and death through the countless wars that ravage the planet? Does war make sense? What about global rearmament? Is peace possible?

Humanity is not for sale

Annalisa Saccà PhD — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In a recent interview with Zanny Minton Beddoes , the Economist's Editor-in-Chief, Elon Musk was asked what the world will look like in ten years. He replied that it will be dominated by AI whose intelligence surpasses the sum of human intelligence — that "there really won't be anything AI can't do better than humans, except perhaps for the humans to be human." The most likely outcome, he continued, is an "age of amazing abundance where anyone can have anything they can think of," a "quasi-infinite economy" in which "the magnitude of change is indescribable." AI and robots, in his telling, will control the production of goods and services, generating more than any human could possibly consume. The only real task left for us, in this vision, is to ensure that AI has good values, cares about humanity, and is maximally truth-seeking and curious.

The family yesterday and today

Angel Rodriguez Guerro PhD — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Being a person is not something added on; it is not a quality or characteristic of the human being: it is the very way in which a human being exists, the very essence of their being. Dignity is not tied to moral, physical, or intellectual qualities, but simply to the fact that the person “is”—to the fact that, as an individual of the human species, they occupy an absolutely special place in creation.

Individualism and Human Rights

Angel Rodriguez Guerro PhD — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Contemporary secularism’s attempt to eliminate God from public life has also led to the erasure of the concrete human person from that sphere and his replacement with a legal abstraction that dissolves under analysis and criticism. It is doubtful that human beings can establish a code that effectively protects their lives and rights if they overlook the most fundamental aspect of that life: that it is a gift, not just any available good, and that man is not the master of the universe but a contingent being and a creature.

The Weight of Freedom III

Sarah Pattison, PhD — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This three part series explores the historic cycles of humanity's return to a just social order and the nature and role of Freedom in Integral Development through the lens of the mystic inner life.

The Weight of Freedom: Freedom Emerges from the Inner Life 2

Sarah Pattison PhD — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This three part series explores the historic cycles of humanity's return to a just social order and the nature and role of Freedom in Integral Development through the lens of the mystic inner life. The first parte in Essays.

The Weight of Freedom

Sarah Pattison PhD — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Part I
The Return of Astraea: Divine Justice Anew
Everywhere we are now witnessing the collapse of the ideals of liberal democracy, and the rise and normalization of authoritarian rule. It appears that “the new order for the ages” has become old, and is soon to pass away. As liberal democracy falters, we look on in fear and question: Is this the end of human civilization? Is this the failure of the project of Integral Development? And rightly, we question: where did we go wrong? Let us not despair. Rather, let us recall that the promise etched into the Great Seal of the United States, Novus Ordo Seclorum,¹ was adopted from the Roman poet Virgil when he wrote in 40 BC, “Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo,”² meaning, “The great order of the ages is born afresh,” or as others translate, “A great cycle of ages is born anew.”

When the world order that Virgil knew was collapsing, he was writing about a promise as he watched the Roman civil wars rip the empire apart. At this moment in human history, where all order is being upended, Virgil is both mourning a great loss and prophesying a new birth. For everything that begins, is born from the death of the last thing that had once also been the promised new beginning. Instead of the demise of a cherished world order, it is the phoenix rising from the ash that Virgil sets his eyes upon. It is precisely from this focus that he told a prophecy of a miraculous child that would usher in a Golden Age, a return of justice as Astraea, the goddess of justice, would return a peaceful, ancient reign of Saturn.

When Virgil in Eclogue IV heralds, “Now returns the virgin, returns the reign of Saturn. Alas, Astraea is descending back to Earth!” ³ Virgil was not focused on the ending. He was focused on a new beginning. Indeed, in the coming years, under Augustus’ new imperial rule, Rome witnessed justice and a golden age of peace was, at least for the time of the Flavian Dynasty, restored to the early Roman Empire. We can see this same promise of the return of peace after the great upheavals caused by Reformation, as Queen Elizabeth used Astraea imagery to indicate that she was the reincarnation of the star-maiden destined to bring divine justice to Britain.⁴

The Freedom That Kills

Riccardo Colasanti MD — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

According to Pavel Florensky¹, the “fundamental difficulty” of ancient metaphysics lies in how to reconcile unity with multiplicity.

Applied to the field of politics, this means figuring out how to integrate the unity of a nation, an institution, or a people with the multiplicity and pluralism of the differences that are part of it—namely, citizens, intermediate institutions, ethnic groups, and minorities.

A major transformation has taken place: for Plotinus, the One preceded being in ontological dignity. For postmodernists, all reality is an infinite difference where richness consists in not participating in a universal—that is, in nothing that is common to all.

A person is not an algorithm

Cristina Scorrano — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An article published on April 13, 2026, in FQ Magazine by *Il Fatto Quotidiano* tells the story of Katie, a 32-year-old former human resources employee at a company who, according to her own account, overcame postpartum depression by using AI and entrusting the algorithm with complete control over her life. “I described my dream life to the AI, and now I always follow its orders. I don’t trust myself; ChatGPT even decides whether I should wash my hair.” The number of people downloading apps capable of creating custom chatbots—structured with specific data to act as confidants, coaches, and virtual friends—is growing exponentially, especially in the Western world. “AI Companions” offer comfort; they do not judge, do not contradict, remember everything, are charming, usually have a harmonious and gentle tone of voice, and create a “relational bubble” that makes people feel good, accepted, and understood. Young people are increasingly trusting chatbots, making requests that span the most diverse fields: from ethics to medicine to spirituality. The major digital platforms are seeking experts in moral philosophy, anthropology, and theology to provide ethical and wisdom-based information to the algorithms. In virtual relationships, empathy is not necessary, nor is the effort to listen to the other. These interactions between humans and AI using GPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), capable of generating text similar to human speech, raise at least two pressing questions: the definition of the person in their essence and in their distinction from AI, and the evolution of human language in the .....

I want to know if justice is possible…

Cristina Scorrano — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This famous verse by David Maria Turoldo introduces this brief – and certainly not exhaustive – reflection on ‘justice’, a theme that is often at the heart of debates and demands. Let us ask ourselves what the meaning of the term “justice” is in a globalised, multicultural society dominated by market forces and technology, and, above all, on what foundation can the concept of “justice” be anchored if religious and moral references are no longer valid or shared? Is a society that speaks the language of weapons just? These days, the terms most frequently heard in public debate are those relating to war, violence, the death of innocent people, and armed attacks. It seems that humanity is prey to an insatiable thirst for power and is capable only of devising plans for destruction, aggression, and the invasion of spaces belonging to others. Pope Leo XIV, too, in the Angelus on Sunday 15 March, drew attention to the “dramatic situations of injustice, violence and suffering that mark our times”.

Are we still human?

Riccardo Colasanti MD — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It is always terrible to see how humanity, generation after generation, finds its greatest aspiration in war, murder, and destruction. In the annihilation of part of itself. One might say, “It’s not my fault. It’s the other who is my enemy, and therefore I must crush him like a poisonous plant.”

This is the same argument used by Cain when questioned by Yahweh after spilling Abel’s blood, who gave the surprising answer, “Who made me my brother’s keeper?”

Innocence to be regained

Riccardo Colasanti MD — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After the Second World War we witnessed the aggregation of local markets into universal markets. This trend was driven by at least two postulates: that the market for all would be the secret formula for success and that a liberal guiding nation had been given the mission from heaven to lay down the rules and set the game.

Aggregation was seen as a good thing, as progress exported to peoples who, while maintaining a certain identity of their own, finally accepted the idea that their world was not the ‘right’ one, but that what was right was aggregation behind a demigod-nation that would lead everyone to the highest peaks. So, union of markets and hegemony of a nation.