Science and morals

O autor discute as relações entre Ciência e Moral: os dilemas éticos relacionados aos avanços da Ciência e os questionamentos da Moralidade à luz dos métodos científicos. A partir de questões como “O que há de correto na crítica da Moral à Ciência?”; “Que reações aos modos de pensar e atuar atuais são justificáveis?”; “O que é legitimo na acusação de que os códigos morais estão sendo descartados pelo conhecimento científico?” e, em especial, “É verdade que a Ciência é amoral e que a Moral não pode ser científica?” o autor desenvolve uma reflexão crítica a respeito do aspecto autoritário presente em uma Moral imposta. A conclusão é que a decisão moral deve levar em conta e ter seus fundamentos no conhecimento científico, nas emoções e no máximo possível de liberdade.The author discusses the relationship between Science and Morals: the ethical dilemmas related to the advancements of Science and the contention concerning Moral in the light of scientific methods. Included are such questions, as “What is right in criticizing Science from a moral point of view?” – “What is justifiable in the reaction against the present way of thinking and acting?” –and, moreover, “What is legitimate in the accusation that current moral codes were surpassed by the advancements of scientific knowledge of man, as a thinking and social being?” – more generally: “What are, in fact, the different aspects of the relationship between Science and Ethics?” – “Is it true that Science is amoral and Morals cannot be scientific?” – which, thus, leads the reflection towards a critical review of the authoritarian aspect of an imposed Morality. The author states that the moral decision, must be rooted in knowledge, emotion and as much freedom, as possible

Do Bottom-up Effects Define The Structuring Of Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Communities In A Restinga Remnant?

Restingas are lowland sandy ecosystems located between mountain ranges and the sea. For living organisms in this ecosystem, restingas can be seen as habitats formed by islands of vegetation separated by a sandy matrix. These organisms are highly influenced by the environmental conditions and physical characteristics of the landscape, including size, connectivity and environmental heterogeneity. Given the recognized effectiveness of ants as bioindicators, this study uses these organisms as a model to assess how vegetation complexity affects ant communities. The study was carried out in the Parque das Dunas, Salvador - Bahia. Within this park, four categories of vegetation islands (Small, Medium, Large and Continuous) were delimited, where the ant fauna was sampled and the forms of vegetal life were analyzed, using the Raunkiaer analysis. A total of 69 ant species were collected from 31 genera and six subfamilies. We found a positive relationship between the diversity of plant life forms (H') and ant richness. In general, there was a significant difference in the composition of ant species in each microhabitat and between the areas of continuous vegetation and the different vegetation islands. There is a bottom up effect mediating the ant community associated with dune vegetation, the local richness of ant species responds to vegetation heterogeneity

Notas sobre a produção feminina da socialidade segundo o ponto de vista de um bebedor de caiçuma

Partindo da descrição de uma festa de iniciação feminina, este artigo procura esboçar algumas ideias acerca dos modos pelos quais as mulheres contribuem na produção cotidiana da socialidade. Entre os diversos produtos da ação feminina, o texto busca colocar em relevo dois: a produção do corpo de outras mulheres mais jovens que passam pela menarca e a produção da caiçuma, especialmente da caiçuma fermentada, que constitui um dos principais catalisadores da socialidade

Semiclassical approximation of the Wigner function for the canonical ensemble

The Weyl-Wigner representation of quantum mechanics allows one to map the density operator in a function in phase space - the Wigner function - which acts like a probability distribution. In the context of statistical mechanics, this mapping makes the transition from the classical to the quantum regimes very clear, because the thermal Wigner function tends to the Boltzmann distribution in the high temperature limit. We approximate this quantum phase space representation of the canonical density operator for general temperatures in terms of classical trajectories, which are obtained through a Wick rotation of the semiclassical approximation for the Weyl propagator. A numerical scheme which allows us to apply the approximation for a broad class of systems is also developed. The approximation is assessed by testing it against systems with one and two degrees of freedom, which shows that, for a considerable range of parameters, the thermodynamic averages are well reproduced

Contracepção e controle da natalidade: enfoque bioético

The following article composes a discussion about the contraception issue. The author presents ideasexplaining why birth control is needed and refutes arguments against contraception as those which claim that it is something wrong because it is artificial or unnatural.No presente artigo, desenvolve-se uma reflexão a respeito da contracepção. O autor demonstra anecessidade do controle de natalidade e rebate argumentos contrários aos métodos contraceptivos, como os que afirmam tratar-se de algo condenável por ser artificial ou antinatural

Effects of distance on moral response

O autor, assinala o enorme efeito produzido pelo distanciamento dos fatos nas decisões e respostas de natureza moral. As diferenças são nítidas, tanto no que respeita às distâncias temporais quanto no que respeita àsdistâncias físicas. Após exemplificar com situações reais e hipotéticas, o autor propõe que a discussão crítica franca e livre pode, ao menos, ajudar a extirpar grande parte do nosso tácito consentimento intelectual a algumas dessas atitudes falsamente emocionais.The author emphasizes the enormous effects of distance of facts on our decisions and moral answers. The differences are well marked not only in relation to time distance but to physical distance as well. After some real and hypothetical examples the author proposes a critical, unprejudiced and free discussion as a means to help to eliminate a large portion of our tacit intellectual assent to some of these pseudo emotional attitudes