Sull’inadeguatezza della mereologia formale husserliana per l’ontologia regionale degli insiemi chimici

In his book, History as a Science and the System of the Sciences, Thomas Seebohm articulates the view that history can serve to mediate between the sciences of explanation and the sciences of interpretation, that is, between the natural sciences and the human sciences. Among other things, Seebohm analyzes history from a phenomenological perspective to reveal the material foundations of the historical human sciences in the lifeworld. As a preliminary to his analyses, Seebohm examines the formal and material presuppositions of phenomenological epistemology, as well as the emergence of the human sciences and the traditional distinctions and divisions that are made between the natural and the human sciences. As part of this examination, Seebohm devotes a section to discussing Husserl’s formal mereology because he understands that a reflective analysis of the foundations of the historical sciences requires a reflective analysis of the objects of the historical sciences, that is, of concrete organic wholes (i.e., social groups) and of their parts. Seebohm concludes that Husserl’s mereological ontology needs to be altered with regard to the historical sciences because the relations between organic wholes and their parts are not summative relations. Seebohm’s conclusion is relevant for the issue of the reducibility of organic wholes such as social groups to their parts and for the issue of the reducibility of the historical sciences to the lower-order sciences, that is, to the sciences concerned with lower-order ontologies. In this paper, I propose to extend Seebohm’s conclusion to the ontology of chemical wholes as object of quantum chemistry and to argue that Husserl’s formal mereology is descriptively inadequate for this regional ontology as well. This may seem surprising at first, since the objects studied by quantum chemists are not organic wholes. However, my discussion of atoms and molecules as they are understood in quantum chemistry will show that Husserl’s classical summative and extensional mereology does not accurately capture the relations between chemical wholes and their parts. This conclusion is relevant for the question of the reducibility of chemical wholes to their parts and of the reducibility of chemistry to physics, issues that have been of central importance within the philosophy of chemistry for the past several decades

The Chemical Philosophy of Robert Boyle: Mechanicism, Chymical Atoms, and Emergence

This book examines the way in which Robert Boyle seeks to accommodate his complex chemical philosophy within the framework of a mechanistic theory of matter. More specifically, the book proposes that Boyle regards chemical qualities as properties that emerged from the mechanistic structure of chymical atoms. Within Boyle’s chemical ontology, chymical atoms are structured concretions of particles that Boyle regards as chemically elementary entities, that is, as chemical wholes that resist experimental analysis. Although this interpretation of Boyle’s chemical philosophy has already been suggested by other Boyle scholars, the present book provides a sustained philosophical argument to demonstrate that, for Boyle, chemical properties are dispositional, relational, emergent, and supervenient properties. This argument is strengthened by a detailed mereological analysis of Boylean chymical atoms that establishes the kind of theory of wholes and parts that is most consistent with an emergentist conception of chemical properties. The emergentist position that is being attributed to Boyle supports his view that chemical reactions resist direct explanation in terms of the mechanistic properties of fundamental particles, as well as his position regarding the scientific autonomy of chymistry from mechanics and physics

Turbulent drag reduction over curved walls

This work studies the effects of skin-friction drag reduction in a turbulent flow over a curved wall, with a view to understanding the relationship between the reduction of friction and changes to the total aerodynamic drag. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are carried out for an incompressible turbulent flow in a channel where one wall has a small bump; two bump geometries are considered, that produce mildly separated and attached flows. Friction drag reduction is achieved by applying streamwise-travelling waves of spanwise velocity (StTW). The local friction reduction produced by the StTW is found to vary along the curved wall, leading to a global friction reduction that, for the cases studied, is up to 10\% larger than that obtained in the plane-wall case. Moreover, the modified skin friction induces non-negligible changes of pressure drag, which is favorably affected by StTW and globally reduces by up to 10\%. The net power saving, accounting for the power required to create the StTW, is positive and, for the cases studied, is one half larger than the net saving of the planar case. The study suggests that reducing friction at the surface of a body of complex shape induces further effects, a simplistic evaluation of which might lead to underestimating the total drag reduction

Retratos de hinchas organizados de fútbol profesional de Brasil, el caso de “Gaviões da Fiel”

Os Gaviões da Fiel: ensaios e etnografias de uma torcida organizada de futebol is a collection of texts from different areas of knowledge – History, Sociology, Anthropology, Administration, Communication, among others – which brings out the aspects that make “Grêmio Gaviões da Fiel Torcida Independente” the main organized Brazilian fan club.The work would be appealing enough for this close look at the relation between soccer and Social Science. However, the selected texts, by focusing on moments of its history and many of the main characteristics of this organized soccer fan club, end up indicating interesting roads of discussion outisde the sporting spectrum, allowing the reader to come across situations that problematize various issues of contemporary society.Os Gaviões da Fiel: ensaios e etnografias de uma torcida organizada de futebol é uma coletânea composta por textos de diversas áreas do conhecimento - História, Sociologia, Antropologia, Administração, Comunicação, dentre outras -  que destacam aspectos que fazem do Grêmio Gaviões da Fiel Torcida Força Independente uma das principais torcidas organizadas do futebol brasileiro.  Nesse sentido, já é um grande atrativo atentar-se à obra por sua íntima relação entre futebol e ciências sociais, porém, diante dos textos selecionados, ao se debruçar sobre momentos da trajetória e muito das principais caraterísticas dessa torcida organizada, o livro acaba por indicar caminhos interessantes para discutir algo que ultrapassa o espectro meramente esportivo, permitindo ao leitor se deparar com situações que problematizam diversas questões da sociedade contemporânea.Os Gaviões da Fiel: ensaios e etnografias de uma torcida organizada de futebol es una colección compuesta por textos de diversos campos del conocimiento - Historia, Sociología, Antropología, Administración, Comunicación, entre otros – destacando los aspectos que convierten al “Grêmio Gaviões da Fiel Torcida Força Independente” en uno de los principales grupos de hinchas organizados del fútbol brasileño. En este sentido, la obra ya resulta atractiva por la estrecha relación entre el fútbol y las ciencias sociales, sin embargo, los textos seleccionados en el libro, al detenerse sobre algunos momentos de la trayectoria y las principales características de este grupo de seguidores organizados, acaban por mostrar caminos interesantes para discutir algo que va más allá del espectro puramente deportivo, permitiendo al lector depararse con aspectos que cuestionan diversos problemas de la sociedad contemporánea

Black Orpheus and Aesthetic Historicism

This essay offers a novel approach for understanding the poetry of negritude and its role in the struggle for black liberation by appealing to Giambattista Vico’s insights on the historical, cultural, and myth-making function of poetry and of the mythopoetic imagination.  The essay begins with a discussion of Vico’s aesthetic historicism and of his ideas regarding the role of imagination, poetry, and myth-making and then brings these ideas to bear on the discussion of the function of negritude poetry, focusing primarily on the writings of Aimé Césaire and on Jean-Paul Sartre’s essay, Black Orpheus

La consulenza familiare per le professionalità educative

Nel presente contributo si discuterà dell’apporto che gli studi sulla consulenza pedagogica possono offrire per rileggere la professionalità dell’educatore che è impegnato in compiti di educazione familiare. Se da un lato i sistemi familiari sono il luogo dell’apprendimento dei saperi primari, dell’apprendimento informale e della realizzazione dell’identità, dall’altro diventano spazi che si contraddistinguono per essere liquidi, al cui interno convivono sentimenti di stabilità e richieste di sicurezza. È consolidata la consapevolezza che in alcune fasi le famiglie necessitano di un supporto educativo e di disporre di spazi specifici in cui poter imparare a gestire eventi inediti, impegno questo che sembra che possa assolvere una forma particolare di consulenza come quella educativa

Retratos de hinchas organizados de fútbol profesional de Brasil, el caso de “Gaviões da Fiel”

Os Gaviões da Fiel: ensaios e etnografias de uma torcida organizada de futebol es una colección compuesta por textos de diversos campos del conocimiento - Historia, Sociología, Antropología, Administración, Comunicación, entre otros – destacando los aspectos que convierten al “Grêmio Gaviões da Fiel Torcida Força Independente” en uno de los principales grupos de hinchas organizados del fútbol brasileño. En este sentido, la obra ya resulta atractiva por la estrecha relación entre el fútbol y las ciencias sociales, sin embargo, los textos seleccionados en el libro, al detenerse sobre algunos momentos de la trayectoria y las principales características de este grupo de seguidores organizados, acaban por mostrar caminos interesantes para discutir algo que va más allá del espectro puramente deportivo, permitiendo al lector depararse con aspectos que cuestionan diversos problemas de la sociedad contemporánea