On entropy and responsibility in the thought of Ivan Illich

This paper explores the concept of entropy in Ivan Illich's overall thinking while delivering a dialogue with other authors. Our goals are twofold. First, we aim to point out how Illich's early work is relevant for critically thinking about entropy in its relationship to forms of social organisation and technology usage. Secondly, we point to how Illich's later works consider a planetary responsibility. By gathering matter, energy and information, technology is an ambiguous force of both hominisation and alienation, world-building and world destruction. For an early Illich, liberation from such new heteronomy was possible. The late Illich, however, adverts against the dangers of collective responsibility. The attempt to "save life" is a necrophiliac manipulation, dependent on a planetary extension of Promethean power. Instead, humankind must nurture the return of Epimetheus: a powerless relationship with the future that places hope as the constitutive force of the social fabri

A paisagem no Diário de Miguel Torga

O Diário de Miguel Torga constitui uma obra ímpar no contexto da literatura portuguesa. Publicado em dezasseis volumes ao longo de sessenta anos do século XX, a leitura das suas páginas permite o acesso a vários tópicos reflexivos caros ao autor. Destes, a paisagem assume especial interesse, mormente na originalidade das suas referências entrecruzadas com a escrita, a ruralidade, o corpo, o progresso técnico e Portugal. Não obstante estas considerações acerca da paisagem, o Diário não apresenta nenhuma definição clara e unívoca da mesma. Perante esta ausência pretendemos, em diálogo com outros autores, tentar surpreender o conceito de paisagem que o autor tinha presente para si mesmo. Por fim, queremos igualmente articular tais tematizações da paisagem com o próprio acto de escrita diarística e o concomitante processo heurístico de auto-gnose. Deverá tornar-se claro como o Diário prefigura uma proposta de apelo e valorização das virtudes concomitantes a um enraizamento telúrico

A esperança e a expectativa: da impotência no Antropoceno

Face à pluralidade de ameaças que pendem sobre a humanidade e a Terra, as narrativas pessoais e institucionais tendem a adquirir uma conotação salvífica ou lutuosa que faz depender o destino do planeta do (in)sucesso da mobilização de políticas públicas, dos meios apropriados ou do voluntarismo esclarecido de um qualquer líder mundial. A retórica da ciência e do poder surgem como a única bússola que pode orientar a navegação: a acumulação de mais ciência é a etapa que antecede a sua tradução em poder, isto é, num fazer que afectará benevolamente a praxis. Estas narrativas são porém a continuação da profissão de fé de vários pressupostos modernos. Sob o auspício de uma crescente gestão planetária, é esquecido haver uma classe de problemas que pode bem não admitir resolução. Através da consideração da impotência surpreendemos uma superação conceptual da equação entre conhecimento e poder e uma nobilitação da acção nos seus limites próprios.Given the range of threats that nowadays have a bearing over mankind and the Earth, too many times personal and institutional narratives are crossed with a salvaging or a mourning meaning that places the Earth's fate in either the successful mobilization of public policies, more appropriate means or the enlightened awareness of a world leader. The rhetoric of power thus appears as the only guiding principle for faring in an unknown ground: one acquires more knowledge before translating it into power, that is, into a making that will benevolently affect praxis. Such narratives are nevertheless nothing more than a continuation of modern prejudices. Under the spell of an encroaching global management, one forgets how there is a class of problems for which a straightforward solution might not be available. By considering powerlessness, one goes beyond the equation between knowledge and power while granting action its proper limits

Arte e natureza no budismo japonês: recursos conceptuais para uma estética do ambiente

Tese de mestrado, Filosofia, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2012A dissertação é um exame crítico da possibilidade teórica do Budismo japonês poder fornecer recursos conceptuais profícuos para a compreenssão de um tipo de relação diferente com a natureza; sugerida por Lynn White, essa possibilidade poderia encetar tipologias de posturas diferentes daquelas que o autor advoga terem conduzido à crise do ambiente contemporânea. O primeiro capítulo concerna à exposição teorética das principais ideias e pontos de partida das correntes de pensamento oriental que influenciaram o Budismo japonês. O segundo capítulo versa sobre a especificidade do Budismo japonês e da forma como a sensibilidade estética nativa é transfigurada religiosamente através da vivência do mundo natural. Esta evidência teórica é demonstrada pela génese de várias obras de arte de cariz naturalista, entre as quais a poesia errante, a pintura paisagística e os jardins japoneses. O terceiro capítulo aborda a questão de como é que o Budismo japonês e a estética homóloga poderão contribuir para o entendimento e resolução crise do ambiente hodierna. Será defendido que ambos encerram a possibilidade de uma estética do ambiente semelhante à defendida por alguns autores contemporâneos e que essa mesma estética do ambiente é relevante para a compreensão crise do ambiente.Abstract: The thesis is a critical examination of the theoretical possibility that japanese Buddhism can provide fruitful conceptual resources to the comprehension of a different relation with nature; suggested by Lynn White, this possibility could account for somewhat different stances from those that the author sustains have led to the contemporary environmental crisis. First chaper concerns the theoretical exposition of the main ideas of the eastern currents of thought that influenced japanese Buddhism. The second chapter details the specificity of japanese Buddhism and how the native aesthetic sensibility is religiously transfigured through the encounter with the natural world. This theoretical evidence is illustrated by the genesis of several naturalist works of art, like errant poetry, landscape painting and japanese gardens. The third chapter addresses the question of how japanese Buddhism and aesthetics can be relevant to understanding and resolving the environmental crisis. It will be argued that both inclose the possibility of an environmental aesthetics similar to that helded by some contemporary authors and that same enviromental aesthetics is relevant to compreehension of the environmental crisis

O jardim japonês na estética da natureza contemporânea

Neste trabalho pretende-se explicitar as principais ideias, decorrentes do Budismo Zen, que presidiram e possibilitaram o advento e fecundo desenvolvimento do jardim japonês. Algumas referências históricas, geográficas e culturais deverão ser feitas quando se pretende abordar toda a sua especificidade de um modo fidedigno; contudo, como se procurará demonstrar, as suas linhas orientadoras são tão universais quanto a disseminação global dos vários estilos de jardim japonês noutros contextos culturais que não o país do sol nascente o testemunha. E tal só poderá radicar na própria autonomia, pertinência e fertilidade da estética e ontologia das quais eles estão imbuídos. Essa visão que atravessa o jardim japonês será também ilustrada, quando necessário, através das várias semelhanças e diferenças no confronto com outros autores, nomeadamente Kant e os conceitos sustentados pela sua Crítica da Faculdade do Juízo, o que permitirá um enriquecimento mútuo de ambas as perspectivas

Methodological Luddism: A concept for tying degrowth to the assessment and regulation of technologies

This article sets out an alternative approach to the assessment and regulation of technology and innovation, situated in and aiming at degrowth and building on an idea first put forward in the late 1970s by Langdon Winner called “methodological Luddism”. Methodological Luddism does not have the original meaning of destroying machines, nor does it reflect a prejudiced attitude or a negative view of technology. As outlined in this article, it sets out to overcome the presumption that technology is valueneutral and to lower the inflated expectations with which it is generally associated. Technology and forms of life are mutually interdependent, and this implies examining the constructive possibilities for withdrawing from some technologies and adopting others, while ensuring that their role is limited to means designed to achieve certain predefined ends. The article draws on the work of Hans Jonas and Albert Borgmann, authors yet to be acknowledged by the degrowth literature. Jonas’ principle of responsibility is a response to the excessive prowess of modern technologies, while Borgmann suggests a reform of technology through focal things and practices. Building on these concepts, methodological Luddism advocates reassessing and reorienting technologies so that informed decisions may be taken as to how they should be designed and developed as means to socially equitable and ecologically sustainable ends. In this way the technological sphere may become an important ally in the transformative change in society which is required to fulfil the axiological parameters of degrowth.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Air and wall mycobiota interactions—A case study in the Old Cathedral of Coimbra

The microbiota present in public buildings - fungal, algae and fungi that thrive in buildings and in their construction materials - influence the structural condition as well as, potentially, the health of those who live, work, or visit them. These organisms can colonise and deteriorate all kinds of construction materials such as stone, wood, bricks, glass, steal and metals, concrete, ceramics, tiles, among others. One of the vehicles that helps to spread and therefore contributes to this biological contamination is the air and its microbiome in such environments. In this work we analysed the fungal air burden existing in the cloister of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, in four chapels and the central square of this cloister, in two differentseasons. This allowed relating the fungal air burden with the established fungal communities (mycobiota) that were present in biodeteriorated spots on the walls of the studied chapels, in the context of a previous work from our research team. The fungal air burden was higher in the summer, although with lower diversity. Patterns of distribution varied between sites, but in general, the most abundant species were found present in both the central square and chapels, suggesting that the air flows between these places are likely to vector the exchange of fungal propagules. Moreover, some less frequent species were found specific to particular chapels, and were not found in the air samples from the central square. These findings support the idea of the specificity and environmental requirements of most retrieved isolates, while showing that the chapels have the potential to host a large set of organisms that are not present elsewhere. Many of these fungi are linked to biodeterioration phenomena of the walls and/or are associated to pathogenic and toxigenic effects in humans. This study highlights the relevance of assessing the microbiota that thrive in such settings, and how the design and architecture can influence the composition of the established microbiota

Chemical and organic fertilization in development of native species used in slope recovery / Adubação química e orgânica no desenvolvimento de espécies nativas utilizadas na recuperação de taludes

The aim of the study was to evaluate the development of Senna spp. and Solanum palinacanthum used in initial process of slope recovery with application of chemical and organic fertilizer. The experimental area is located on Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia in Parauapebas city, Brazil, the experimental design was completely randomized with three treatments, as specified: Control (without fertilization), organic fertilization (goat manure mixed with palm residue) and chemical fertilization with NPK (04:30:10), with three replications, totalizing nine compound plots. The experimental data were subjected to analysis of variance, by the Tukey and Wilcoxon tests, at 5% probability. The percentage of seedling emergence was higher than 70%, in which the chemical fertilizer promoted a greater increase in growth and initial development of Senna spp. and Solanum palinacanthum, with higher values of height and diameter compared to plants treated with organic fertilizer.The aim of the study was to evaluate the development of Senna spp. and Solanum palinacanthum used in initial process of slope recovery with application of chemical and organic fertilizer. The experimental area is located on Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia in Parauapebas city, Brazil, the experimental design was completely randomized with three treatments, as specified: Control (without fertilization), organic fertilization (goat manure mixed with palm residue) and chemical fertilization with NPK (04:30:10), with three replications, totalizing nine compound plots. The experimental data were subjected to analysis of variance, by the Tukey and Wilcoxon tests, at 5% probability. The percentage of seedling emergence was higher than 70%, in which the chemical fertilizer promoted a greater increase in growth and initial development of Senna spp. and Solanum palinacanthum, with higher values of height and diameter compared to plants treated with organic fertilizer

Phytosociological survey of spontaneous plant communities in a conventional corn crop area in the region of Carajás, Pará, Brazil

The presence of spontaneous plants in agricultural cultivation areas can result in damage to the crop of interest due to competition for natural resources and allelopathy, requiring systematic monitoring for an adequate cultivation management. In this way, the objective was to identify the spontaneous plant communities species in an area of a one-year fallow conventional corn crop in the southeastern of Pará state, in the Brazilian amazon. A phytosociological survey of the plants in the experimental area of the Technological Center of Family Agriculture (CETAF) was carried out, by applying the inventory square method with 1.0 m2, randomly launched twenty times in an area corresponding to 1.1 hectare. The phytosociological parameters analyzed were frequency, relative frequency, density, relative density, abundance, relative abundance and importance value index (IRI). It was found 19 species of spontaneous plants distributed in 11 botanical families, being, Euphorbiaceae (4), Asteraceae (3), Amaranthaceae (2) and Poaceae (2) the most representative in numbers of species sampled. The most important species were Sorghum arundinaceum (IRI = 55.70), Commelina benghalensis (IRI = 47.78) and Synedrella nodiflora (IRI = 42.39). A high diversity of spontaneous plants was verified, emphasizing the need for phytosociological surveys for the definition of integrated control practices in face of the type of cultivation system adopted

Protein analysis and gene expression indicate differential vulnerability of Iberian fish species under a climate change scenario

Current knowledge on the biological responses of freshwater fish under projected scenarios of climate change remains limited. Here, we examine differences in the protein configuration of two endemic Iberian freshwater fish species, Squalius carolitertii and the critically endangered S. torgalensis that inhabit in the Atlantic-type northern and in the Mediterranean-type southwestern regions, respectively. We performed protein structure modeling of fourteen genes linked to protein folding, energy metabolism, circadian rhythms and immune responses. Structural differences in proteins between the two species were found for HSC70, FKBP52, HIF1α and GPB1. For S. torgalensis, besides structural differences, we found higher thermostability for two proteins (HSP90 and GBP1), which can be advantageous in a warmer environment. Additionally, we investigated how these species might respond to projected scenarios of 3° climate change warming, acidification (ΔpH = -0.4), and their combined effects. Significant changes in gene expression were observed in response to all treatments, particularly under the combined warming and acidification. While S. carolitertii presented changes in gene expression for multiple proteins related to folding (hsp90aa1, hsc70, fkbp4 and stip1), only one such gene was altered in S. torgalensis (stip1). However, S. torgalensis showed a greater capacity for energy production under both the acidification and combined scenarios by increasing cs gene expression and maintaining ldha gene expression in muscle. Overall, these findings suggest that S. torgalensis is better prepared to cope with projected climate change. Worryingly, under the simulated scenarios, disturbances to circadian rhythm and immune system genes (cry1aa, per1a and gbp1) raise concerns for the persistence of both species, highlighting the need to consider multi-stressor effects when evaluating climate change impacts upon fish. This work also highlights that assessments of the potential of endangered freshwater species to cope with environmental change are crucial to help decision-makers adopt future conservation strategies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio