What is the relationship between discerning the consciousness of self – in the sense of an individual’s apprehension of his own existence – and the perception of time? Psychoanalyst Leopold Nosek devoted his conference on April 25 at the Intercontinental Academia to an analysis of this matter.

He said that, given the fact that consciousness of self includes temporality and that humanization presupposes perception of time, one cannot but wonder how time presents itself to, and is perceived by, human beings.

In his reasoning, Nosek made use of analogies with works by “two writers who addressed the relativity of time from within the rationalist tradition:”  The Magic Mountain (1924) and Doctor Faustus (1947), both by German-born Thomas Mann (1875-1955); and The Leopard (1958), by Italian author Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957).

In the passage from The Magic Mountain quoted by Nosek, Hans Castorp, the main character, has just reached the conclusion that, for the mind, time does not flow uniformly; the mind only assumes it does so to maintain the proper order of things. Therefore, all measurements of time are no more than conventions.

According to Nosek, time and consciousness of self are contemporary themes. He mentioned Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) as one of the landmarks, from the viewpoint of perception, for most texts that discuss Modernity.

He said that in this work by Freud one can see the loss of our naïve trust in the conscious mind and the inexorable breach between the conscious and the unconscious. For Nosek, we could speak of Modernity as the awareness of disruption.

Addressing the emergence of this disruption, Nosek said we must remember how brief the Renaissance actually was, “with its glorious view of the individual as part of circumstances over which he had control.” However, it did not take long for Mannerism to come about, “with its distorted figures, its suffering subjectivity.”

He said that art historian Arnold Hauser (1992-1978) saw Mannerism as the onset of the perception of modern man, “the perception of a shattered unity, of a broken harmony.”

As for The Leopard, Nosek noted that the novel is set in the mid-19^th century, the time of Italy’s reunification and modernization. The main character, Don Fabrizio, prince of Salina, after a dance, realizes that he, unlike others, captures the passage of time, which is accompanied by “progress, destruction of old structures, creation of new wealth and new desolations.”

According to Nosek, “the prince of Salina, in a sudden glimmer of his own skin, grasps his circumstances, his historical destiny and his subjective self; his own place is revealed to him. What more could he obtain?”

For Nosek, grappling one’s circumstances and one’s time blends in with the apprehension of the limits and the space of human existence: “We continue, therefore, within our theme: the interconnection between the consciousness of self, the awareness of one’s ‘proper place,’ and the image of time defined by frustration and limitation.”

In Doctor Faustus, the main character, the musician Adrian Leverkühn, makes a pact with the devil, Mephistopheles, giving his soul in exchange for 24 years of genius as a composer. Nosek noted how Mephistopheles warns the musician to pay attention to the hourglass.

For Nosek, Mephistopheles’ warning means Leverkühn should remain aware of life. As a result of the pact, Lerverkühn becomes part of Modernity, “through atonal spaces, the spatial expansion of musical contradiction, accompanied by scientific inquiries and by the theory of uncertainty and chance.”

He finished his presentation with some propositions by psychoanalyst Donald Meltzer (1922-2004) in his book Explorations in Autism (1975), where he organizes the space of life in a “geography of fantasy" that moves along in time.

According to Meltzer, experienced time can be a cloister where events are not available to memory and to thought (as happens in autism); it can be circular, undeveloping, where there is no death; or it can be oscillating, moving from within to outside the object and vice-versa, a continuous operation of omnipotence that makes the differentiation of self from object reversible, and also makes the direction of time itself reversible.

According to Nosek, remaining unidirectional and linear, from birth to death, requires a painful process, never completed, of renouncing the fusion between the self and the object, of struggling against narcissism, of assuaging omnipotence.

Photo: Leonor Calasans/IEA

Coordenado por Olgária Matos, professora sênior do Departamento de Filosofia da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH) da USP, o novo grupo será voltado para a influência da temporalidade acelerada na cultura contemporânea. De acordo com o projeto de pesquisa, o objetivo é analisar "as relações entre a aceleração do tempo, a cultura da inovação e a guerra com o fenômeno urbano como sociedade da comunicação, da informação e do saber".

O projeto é construído em torno de quatro eixos: a cultura do excesso; o distanciamento com as formas de sociabilidade da tradição iluminista; o capitalismo contemporâneo; e a incidência das transformações socioculturais da contemporaneidade no aparelho psíquico do ser humano.

Esses eixos serão investigados a partir de uma perspectiva ampla, que abrange a ética, a política, a ciência e a estética, com foco em núcleos temáticos, como a crise de valores e de identidade, a ruptura com a tradição, o declínio das noções de democracia e de república; o aumento da violência; o capitalismo contemporâneo; o advento da tecnociência; e a obsolescência do gosto.

Entre as questões-chave a serem abordadas pelo grupo estão a crescente desagregação da comunidade política; as lutas por hegemonia; o enfraquecimento dos ideais de direitos universais, espaço público e vida em comum; a emergência do individualismo; o arrefecimento do sentimento de culpa e da preocupação com o outro; a intensificação de diferentes formas de incivilidade; e o desaparecimento do simbólico e do transcendente como estruturantes da vida social e cultural.

PESQUISADORES

De caráter multidisciplinar, o novo grupo é composto por pesquisadores de diversas áreas, entre as quais filosofia, história, literatura, antropologia e psicanálise. A ideia é que cada integrante se dedique a um subtema do projeto, relacionado à sua linha de investigação e a seu domínio de conhecimento. De dois em dois meses, o grupo se reunirá para que os integrantes possam apresentar os resultados parciais, relatar em que estágio da pesquisa se encontram e dialogar com os outros integrantes.

Além de ter como integrantes permanentes professores da USP, da Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp), da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) e da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), o grupo contará com pesquisadores convidados da Accademia de Belle Arti Di Frosinone, Itália, do Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), França, e da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp).

Helen Longino, Clarence Irving Lewis professor of philosophy da Stanford University, Estados Unidos, considerada um dos expoentes da filosofia da ciência na atualidade, faz duas conferências no IEA nos dias 22 e 23 de outubro, às 9h30.

Os eventos integram a programação do Grupo de Pesquisa Filosofia, História e Sociologia da Ciência e da Tecnologia e serão realizados em inglês, com tradução simultânea. Quem não puder comparecer poderá assistir às transmissões ao vivo das conferências pela internet.

As duas conferências terão a participação de três pesquisadores do grupo: Hugh Lacey, do Swarthmore College, EUA, e Marcos Barbosa de Oliveira, da Faculdade de Educação (FE) da USP, serão os debatedores; Pablo Mariconda, da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH) da USP e coordenador do grupo, será o moderador.

Ciência e valores

Helen é uma inovadora na introdução das contribuições feministas à filosofia da ciência. Seu trabalho tem tido impacto considerável no pensamento contemporâneo sobre ciência e valores e tem influenciado o desenvolvimento do modelo de interação entre ciência e valores (M-SV) pelo grupo de pesquisa do IEA.

Mesmo concordando em termos gerais com a tese do modelo, a visão de Helen sobre a questão apresenta diferenças importantes. As conferências serão uma oportunidade para os integrantes do grupo de pesquisa testarem suas ideias com ela.

O tema da primeira conferência (dia 22) será Empirismo Crítico Construtivo: O Caráter Social do Conhecimento, Focando no Aspecto Discursivo Crítico da Objetividade e nas suas Consequências para o Entendimento do Papel dos Valores na Ciência.

Helen caracteriza a abordagem da conferência como epistemologia social para a ciência e explica que essa posição “surge da consideração de argumentos sobre a indeterminação de hipóteses por provas”.

Ela vai desenvolver esse argumento e propor que os desafios que ele coloca para as reivindicações de objetividade "só podem ser cumpridos se nós nos dirigirmos para o pensamento do conhecimento como um alcance em um contexto social e interativo". A filósofa sugere que "a observância de determinadas normas em e por uma comunidade de inquiridores reduz (mas não elimina) o papel dos valores na ciência".

Na segunda conferência (dia 23), Helen falará sobre Valores, Heurística e Política: Uma Exploração da Relação entre Valores Sociais e Metodológicos em Ciências. Ela argumenta que os chamados valores cognitivos ou virtudes tradicionalmente invocados como verdade ou objetividade podem, em certos contextos de utilização, ser os veículos para intencionalmente ou não introduzir os valores sociais e políticos em investigação científica.

Esse argumento contrasta dois conjuntos de valores, segundo ela: o tradicional ou ortodoxo (simplicidade, generalidade etc.) com um conjunto alternativo (heterogeneidade, complexidade), elaborado a partir de práticas feministas e de oposição, e mostra como cada um pode ser utilizado em apoio das hipóteses com implicações sociais muito diferentes.

Na conferência, Helen apresentará a proposta de que ambos os conjuntos de valores sejam considerados como heurísticos, mas que os elementos dos conjuntos não sejam indicadores independentes do contexto da verdade ou objetividade.

Conferências da filósofa da ciência Helen Longino
22 e 23 de outubro, 9h30
Sala de Eventos do IEA, rua Praça do Relógico, 109, bloco K, 5º andar, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo
Eventos em inglês (sem tradução) gratuito e aberto ao público, sem inscrição prévia – Transmissão ao vivo pela web
Informações: Cláudia Regina Tavares (clauregi@usp.br), telefone (11) 3091-1681
Fichas dos eventos: www.iea.usp.br/eventos/critical-constructive-empiricism e www.iea.usp.br/eventos/values-heuristics-and-politics

Foto: arquivo pessoal de Helen Longino

The construction of narratives on the symbology of environmental themes will be discussed on April 17

Joanne Garde-Hansen, director of the Center for Cultural and Media Policy Studies at the University of Warwick, UK, will be at the IEA on April 17, from 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm, to discuss the theme Water: Nostalgia and Trauma - Narratives, Rights and Policies in England. At the meeting, to take place in the former University Council Room, she will suggest a reflection on diversity related to issues that deserve more attention in scientific terminology and public policy.

Garde-Hansen has been working with Brazilian researchers in order to construct social narratives linked to water and public policies, and argues that seeking connections and convergences between terms such as "drought" (which assumes different meanings in Brazil and in Europe) may favor dialogue between nations and cultures. The event will be held in English and broadcast live on the IEA's website.

Moderation will be in charge of professors Pedro Jacobi, from USP's School of Education (FE), Danilo Rothberg, from the São Paulo State University (UNESP), Antonio Almeida, from USP's Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture (ESALQ), and Gilson Schwartz, from USP's School of Communications of Arts (ECA) and a participant of IEA's Sabbatical Year Program in 2017. Schwartz is also coordinating the event.

The fluid theme relating water, cultural sharing and memory invites for a dialogue on concepts between cultures, social narratives, rights and public policies. "The term 'drought', for example, assumes a meaning in Europe that does not coincide with the perception of the fact in Brazil or in other countries," says the researcher. "There is no universal definition of terms that only theoretically have the same value or meaning."

Organized by the IEA, the debate is supported by USP's Center for Research in Technology of Architecture and Urbanism (NUTAU), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), UNESP and the University of Warwick.

The speaker

Joanne Garde-Hansen is a lecturer in the field of Culture, Media and Communication, responsible for the Master's course in Global Media and Communication, and director of the Center for Cultural and Media Policy Studies at the University of Warwick. She conducts researches on media, memory, archives and patrimony, and keeps multidisciplinary collaborations with scientists of the most diverse areas, among them geography, natural resources, computation, history, besides communication and culture.

In Crateús, in the dry region of the Brazilian State of Ceará, residents pay R$ 0.50 for 20 liters of non-potable water

Some of her latest books are Emotion Online: Theorizing Affect in the Internet (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), with Kristyn Gorton; Media and Memory (Edinburgh University Press, 2011), with Andrew Hoskins and Anna Reading, and Social Memory Technology: Theory, Practice, Action (Routledge 2016).

Since 2012, she has been working on projects funded by FAPESP, the British Council and the Warwick Brazil Partnership.

She is the co-investigator of the project Developing a Drought Narrative Resource in a Multi-Stakeholder Decision-Making Utility for Drought Risk Management, or DRY (Drought Risk and You), from 2014 to 2019.

Since 2016, she has been visiting the city of Bauru, in the countryside of the State of São Paulo, exploring the theme "Narratives on Water and Digital Hydrocity", a research carried out with Professor Danilo Rothberg, from UNESP, with funding from FAPESP and the University of Warwick.

Images: Fernanda Carvalho/Fotos Públicas; Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil

Related material

Videos:

History of Time and Calendar in Japan

Circadian Clock System in Peripheral Tissues of Mice

Truth and Time in Brouwer’s Intuitionism

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During the workshop In Search of Interdisciplinary Dialogue, sponsored by the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS) as part of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), several experts met in Tokyo on March 14 to discuss interdisciplinarity between different kinds of knowledge.

Abe: "Japanese punctuality is not restricted to trains."

Professor Masashi Abe, from the WIAS, has addressed aspects of the Japanese calendar and the relationship of the Japanese people with time. History of Time and Calendar in Japan was the title of the lecture, which focused on how the modernization of the calendar has transformed the temporal culture in Japan, leading to one of the most punctual people in the world.

Abe said that foreigners visiting Japan get very impressed by how everything there is timely. In fact, this is true. To confirm this assumption, one just has to cite the high-speed rail network (shinkansen) between Tokyo and Osaka as an example. Despite having a territory that is usually battered by earthquakes, the transport has an average delay of 30 seconds, according to the professor.

"But punctuality is not restricted to trains. The Japanese are also very punctual. People are always anxious not to be late to their appointments. In general, they arrive 10 or 15 minutes before the scheduled time. Therefore, time regulates the life of the modern Japanese citizen. But it has not been like this forever," said Abe. By the end of the 19th century or during the Edo Period (1603-1868), many Europeans visited Japan and always complained about the Japanese being late.

There was a reason for it. Ordinary citizens had no mechanical watches. The clocks of the temples or towers had to beat 12 times a day to announce time. Time was measured by incense clocks, never by mechanical ones. This was a type of clock traditionally used in China, and then adopted by Japan and some Asian countries. It consisted of burning incense that allowed to have an idea of minutes, hours or days at a particular rate of combustion.

In the Edo Period, day and night were sectioned into six parts, with each part of the evening having a different length in relation to the day. In addition, the duration of each period of time also changed depending on the different seasons. There was no precise division of seconds and minutes. The smallest unit of time was the shihamtoki, representing a quarter of a session (tokki), or approximately 30 seconds, said Abe.

The Japanese abandoned the traditional calendar and the old time system in 1872. The week was divided into seven days and the day into 24 hours. The smallest units of time such as minutes and seconds were also introduced.

"From that, through the educational, social and military systems, the Japanese began to be taught how to be punctual. Moreover, in the Meiji Era, citizens adopted mechanical watches," the professor said.

Abe also showed a brief history of the old systems used in a more distant past. During the Kofun Period (centuries 3-7) the Chinese calendar was introduced in the country. This system was used in China since the 2nd century B.C. In 554, a Chinese expert was sent to introduce the calendar among the Japanese. In 602, the Chinese calendar was taught to children of the Japanese elite. In 604, the system was being used on a large scale, introduced by Empress Suiko (554- 628). In 660, Emperor Tenchi reached to build a water clock. But to modern times, the Chinese system prevailed.

Biological clock and the relationship with the genes

Tahara studies oscillations of the biological clock in mice via a non-invasive method.

Circadian Clock System in Peripheral Tissues of Mice was the theme of the presentation by Professor Yu Tahara, also from the WIAS. Tahara presented the results of research conducted in the laboratory led by Professor Shigenobu Shibata at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the School of Advanced Science and Engineering at Waseda University.

Tahara studies the expression of genes in biological clocks of mice. He has established a methodology to capture in vivo images from the bioluminescence in genetically modified tissues. A special high-resolution camera captures images of different tissues and organs.

His research group has developed an imaging protocol that easily measures the biological rhythms in individual mice in a non-invasive and longitudinal way. Thus, it is possible to detect the circadian oscillations (or biological rhythm) of tissues such as kidney, liver and submaxillary gland.

"It used to be necessary to sacrifice mice after an injection of luciferin in order to remove the tissues and carry out the analysis. Now this is no longer necessary. The method also allows longitudinal studies," he said. Luciferin is the substrate of luciferase, an enzyme capable of catalyzing biological reactions, transforming chemical energy into light energy. Thus, it is possible to record images of the behavior of cells and tissues of interest.

The researcher said that he puts the mice in a dark place and injects the enzyme every four hours throughout the day. After 10 minutes of each application he takes photos of the tissue, obtaining a series of images which indicate the increase and the decrease of biomass in different regions of the body according to the lightness at which the mice are submitted.

In this study, Tahara verifies the importance of light to the biological clock, or the incidence of what he calls "entrainment". The concept relates to adjusting the biological clock phases to different environmental conditions for the organism's survival. The researcher also studies the action of insulin, caffeine, physical exercise and stress on the circadian clock. Studies of insulin are associated with fish oil administration in the diet of mice. According to him, this improves the sensitivity of the metabolic substance.

The research has shown that caffeine has a high impact on the modulation of the biological clock, according to the scientist. The administration of caffeine in the morning showed no change of the biological cycle of mice compared to the control group. But eating at night before sleeping prolonged the awake cycle, ie, caused a delayed biological clock. The scientist cited research showing that this change also occurs in humans. "Coffee has the ability to wake up and also change the circadian clock. So the message is do not drink coffee at night before bed," he joked.

The effects of food on the biological clock make up a branch of study called chrono-nutrition. According to Tahara, research on nutrition conducted so far have focused on what and how much we eat, that is, the necessary items and the proper amount of food for each meal. "But now new research tell us when to eat, that is, the right time for meals. This is the new strategy with regard to nutrition," he said.

Tahara studied the same variables taking the age factor into account. With age there was a decrease of the REM-sleep period. The results also indicate that none of those factors influenced the biological rhythm of aged mice as much as food.

Akiyoshi has spoken of the relation of mathematics to other fields of knowledge, such as philosophy.

Brouwer's Intuitionism

The philosophy of mathematics from the point of view of Dutch mathematician Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (1881-1966) was the subject presented by Professor Ryota Akiyoshi, from the WIAS.

In the lecture Truth and Time in Brouwer's Intuitionism, Akiyoshi analyzed the tension between what is mathematical truth and what is a mind construct. He explained conceptual problems on logic and philosophy, and interdisciplinary aspects.

According to the professor, the object of philosophy can be anything: language, knowledge, mathematics, physics, biology and so on. Mathematics or logic, therefore, have been a central topic in philosophy since Aristotle. With the development of language and, consequently, mathematics, philosophy of mathematics deals essentially with the origin of mathematical objects.

Platonism seeks to address this issue by showing that there is an abstract and immutable world that contains all the mathematical elements. As assumption, all mathematical objects already exist, but not all have been discovered yet. The role of the mathematician would be to find objects that have not been discovered yet in this abstract and unchanging world.

On the other hand, part of the mathematical community did not accept the ideas of Platonism and disagreed with classical mathematics. The antagonism to Plato was called constructivism, the intuitionism being the best known branch of this intellectual tradition. It was believed that a mathematical object exists from the moment when a mathematician can build it in their mind.

Professor Akiyoshi also showed some essential concepts of intuitionistic logic, including the sequence of choices and the notion of creative subject.

According to Till Roenneberg, "we are loosing our critical view into how we make science.”

LIVE ON WEB

"It seems like they are trying to eliminate the humanities because there is an idea that apparently this field does not bring much money or many students to the institutions. This is the worst direction we could take. There is a crisis in the way we deal with the humanities and we should change it."

The quote by chronobiologist Till Roenneberg seeded his conference on interdisciplinarity given at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS) during the 1st Intercontinental Academia (ICA). The dialogue between different kinds of knowledge, or what academia calls interdisciplinarity, will be the topic discussed by Roenneberg on July 19, in the IEA Events Room, from 10 am.

Invited by the IEA to revisit the presentation of the ICA, the scientist from the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) will give the conference Why Science needs more than Interdisciplinarity. The event will be broadcast live on the web.

The IEA, an interdisciplinary body par excellence, is revisiting the issue of interdisciplinarity from meetings with renowned experts. German sociologist Peter Weingart, board member and director of the Bielefeld University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), has shown that the achievement of interdisciplinary model will only be effective through an institutional restructuring in teaching and research institutions. Despite being fashionable in academia for over 20 years, interdisciplinarity was still a concept "empty of meaning" until recently, he said during his lecture at the IEA.

In Roenneberg's vision, science needs more than interdisciplinarity. "Modern science uses objective methods and criteria to find the ‘true’ mechanistic causes behind observed associations. While we have made great advances in explaining extended putative causal networks, we are loosing our critical view into how we do this," he says.

For the scientist, not biological dogmas or physical theories, not genes or quarks are at the centre of our scientific endeavours. "Only one thing is the central commonality of every scientific discovery: our own brain, which is basically a story-telling machine," he says.

At this meeting, Roenneberg will remember the necessity that we have to fuse as many different brains as possible to make larger jumps in our scientific insights.

The conferencist

Till Roenneberg is a professor of chronobiology at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in München, Germany. He explores the impact of light on human circadian rhythms, focusing on aspects such as chronotypes and social jet lag in relation to health benefits. Roenneberg attended both the University College London and LMU, where he began by studying physics. He switched to medicine in order to focus on the science of the human body, but ended up studying biology. As a postdoctoral fellow, he studied again under Jurgen Aschoff, studying annual rhythms in the body, then moved to the United States to study the cellular basis of biological clocks under Woody Hastings at Harvard University. In 1991, he began the tradition of giving the Aschoff’s Ruler prize to a chronobiologist who has advanced the field. He is currently the vice-chair of the Institute for Medical Psychology of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the head of the Centre for Chronobiology, the president-elect of the European Biological Rhythms Society, the president of the World Federation of Societies for Chronobiology, and a member of the Senior Common Room of Brasenose College, University of Oxford. From 2005 to 2010 he was the coordinator of "EUCLOCK" and coordinator of the Daimler-Benz-Foundation network "ClockWORK", and from 2010 to 2012 was the member at large of the Society for Research of Biological Rhythms.

Relacionado

Vídeos:

History of Time and Calendar in Japan

Circadian Clock System in Peripheral Tissues of Mice

Truth and Time in Brouwer’s Intuitionism

Mais informações:

Programação completa ICA - Nagoya

Todas as notícias da Intercontinental Academia

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Durante os workshops In Search of Interdisciplinary Dialogue, promovidos pelo Waseda Institute of Advanced Studies (WIAS), da Waseda University, Japão, diversos especialistas se reuniram em Tóquio para discutir a interdisciplinaridade entre os saberes, no dia 14 de março. Além dos cientistas convidados, a segunda fase da Intercontinental Academia (ICA) reuniu, de 6 a 18 de março, 13 jovens pesquisadores selecionados para desenvolver estudos sobre o tema “tempo”. O conteúdo das pesquisas subsidiará a criação de um Massive Open Online Course (Mooc), que será disponibilizado gratuitamente na plataforma Cousera.

Abe: "A pontualidade japonesa não se restringe apenas aos trens."

Entre os palestrantes, o professor Masashi Abe, do Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS), abordou aspectos do calendário japonês e a relação desse povo com o tempo. History of Time and Calendar in Japan foi o título da palestra, que focou como a modernização do calendário transformou a cultura temporal no Japão e tornou aquele povo um dos mais pontuais do planeta.

Abe disse que os estrangeiros que visitam o Japão ficam muito impressionados como tudo por lá é pontual. De fato, isso é verdade. Para confirmar essa premissa, basta citar como exemplo a rede ferroviária de alta velocidade entre Tóquio e Osaka, a Shinkansen, conhecida como Trem Bala no Brasil. Apesar do território habitualmente maltratado por terremotos, o atraso médio desse meio de transporte é de 30 segundos, citou o professor.

“Mas a pontualidade não se restringe apenas aos trens. Os japoneses também são muito pontuais. As pessoas estão sempre preocupadas em não chegar atrasadas aos seus compromissos. Em geral, elas chegam 10 ou 15 minutos antes da hora marcada. Portanto, o tempo regula a vida do cidadão japonês moderno. Mas isso não foi sempre assim”, disse Abe.

No passado, os japoneses costumavam ser muito impontuais. Até o final do século 19, ou durante o Período Edo (1603 – 1868), muitos europeus visitavam o Japão e sempre reclamavam da impontualidade japonesa, contou.

Mas havia uma razão para isso. Os cidadãos comuns não tinham relógios mecânicos. Os relógios dos templos ou das torres tinham que bater 12 vezes ao dia para anunciar a hora. Nesses equipamentos, o tempo era medido através de relógios de incensos, nunca mecânicos. Trata-se de um tipo de relógio tradicionalmente usado na China e depois adotado no Japão e alguns países da Ásia. Era composto por incensos que queimavam a uma daterminada taxa de combustão que permitia ter uma ideia de minutos, horas ou dias.

No Período Edo, o dia e a noite eram seccionados em seis partes, sendo que à noite cada parte tinha uma duração diferente em relação ao dia. Além disso, a duração de cada parte de tempo também mudava em função das diferentes estações do ano. Não havia uma divisão precisa dos segundos e minutos. A menor unidade de tempo era o shihamtoki, que representava um quarto de uma sessão (tokki) ou, aproximadamente, 30 segundos, disse o professor.

Mas, em 1868, a família Tokugawa  Shogun perdeu o poder. Era o início da Era Meiji (1868-1912). O novo governo abandonou as tradições e deu início à modernização do Japão. Mudaram as roupas, o sistema educacional e o de saúde, as danças, as pinturas, a arquitetura, as comidas, refletindo em parte a cultura ocidental dos Estados Unidos e da Europa, disse.

Foi no ano de 1872 que os japoneses abandonaram o calendário tradicional e o antigo sistema de horas. A semana foi dividida em sete dias e o dia, em 24 horas. Também foram introduzidas as menores unidades de tempo, como minutos e segundos.

“A partir disso, através do sistema educacional, social e militar, os japoneses passaram a ser ter treinados para serem pontuais. Além disso, na Era Meiji, os cidadãos passaram a adotar relógios mecânicos”, disse.

O professor Abe também mostrou um breve histórico sobre os sistemas antigos usados num passado mais remoto. Foi durante Período Kofun (século 3 ao 7) que o calendário chinês foi introduzido no país.

Esse sistema já era utilizado na China desde o século 2 A.C. Em 554, um especialista Chinês foi enviado para introduzir o calendário entre os japoneses. Em 602, o calendário chinês passou a ser ensinado para crianças da elite japonesa. Em 604, esse sistema passou a ser utilizado em larga escala, introduzido pela imperatriz Suiko (554- 628). Em 660, o imperador Tenchi chegou a construir uma clepsidra, ou relógio de água. Mas até os tempos modernos, prevaleceu o sistema chinês.

Relógio biológico e a relação com os genes

Tahara pesquisa oscilações do relógio biológico por meio de metodologia não invasiva em ratos.

Circadian Clock System in Peripheral Tissues of Mice foi o tema apresentado pelo professor Yu Tahara, também da Waseda Institute of Advanced Studies. Tahara apresentou os resultados das pesquisas realizadas no laboratório coordenado pelo professor Shigenobu Shibata, do departamento de fisiologia e farmacologia da School of Advanced Science and Engineering, da Waseda University, de Tóquio.

Tahara estuda a expressão dos genes no relógio biológico de ratos. Estabeleceu uma metodologia de captação de imagens in vivo a partir da biolumenescência em tecidos geneticamente modificados. O uso de uma câmera especial de alta resolução permite captar imagens de diferentes tecidos e órgãos.

Seu grupo de pesquisa desenvolveu um protocolo de imagiologia que permite medir os ritmos biológicos facilmente, de forma não invasiva, e longitudinalmente, em ratinhos individuais. Assim, é possível detectar as oscilações circadianas (ou ritmo biológico) de tecidos como rim, fígado e glândula submandibular.

“Antes era preciso sacrificar os ratos após a injeção da luciferina, a fim de retirar os tecidos e realizar a análise. Agora isso não é mais necessário. O método também permite realizar estudos longitudinais”, disse. Luciferina é o substrato da luciferase, enzima capaz de catalisar reações biológicas, transformando energia química em energia luminosa. Dessa forma, é possível registrar as imagens do comportamento das células e tecidos de interesse.

O pesquisador conta que coloca os ratos num local escuro e injeta a enzima nos ratos a cada quatro horas durante o dia todo. Após 10 minutos de cada aplicação, fotografa os tecidos, obtendo uma série de imagens que indicam o aumento e a diminuição de biomassa em diferentes locais do corpo, conforme a luminosidade a que os ratos são submetidos.

Nesse estudo, verifica a importância da luz para o relógio biológico, ou, a incidência do que chamou de “entrainment”. O conceito diz respeito ao ajuste das fases do relógio biológico às diferentes condições ambientais para a sobrevivência do organismo.

O pesquisador também estuda a ação da insulina, da cafeína, do exercício físico e do estresse sobre o relógio circadiano. Os estudos com insulina são associados com a administração de óleo de peixe na alimentação dos ratos que, segundo o pesquisador, melhora a sensibilidade daquela substância metabólica.

A pesquisa revelou que a cafeína tem alto impacto sobre a modulação do relógio biológico, segundo o cientista. A administração de cafeína na parte da manhã não mostrou alteração do ciclo biológico dos ratos, em comparação com o grupo controle. Mas a ingestão à noite antes da hora de dormir prolongou o ciclo acordado, ou seja, provocou um atraso no relógio biológico. O cientista citou uma pesquisa mostrando que essa alteração também ocorre em humanos. “O café tem a capacidade de despertar e também de mudar o relógio circadiano. Portanto, a mensagem: é não beba café à noite antes de dormir”, brincou.

Os efeitos da alimentação sobre o relógio biológico compõem um ramo de estudo chamado de crono-nutrição. Segundo Tahara, as pesquisas sobre nutrição realizadas até o momento focavam o que e quanto deveríamos comer, ou seja, os itens necessários e a quantidade adequada de alimento para cada refeição. “Mas agora as novas pesquisas nos dizem quando comer, ou seja, o momento adequado para as refeições. Esta é a nova estratégia no que diz respeito a nutrição”, afirma.

Tahara estudou as mesmas variáveis levando em consideração o fator idade. Com a idade, houve um decrescimento do período de sono-REM. Os resultados apontam ainda que nenhum daqueles fatores influiu tanto no ritmo biológico de ratos idosos quanto a alimentação.

Intuicionismo de Brouwer

Akyoshi falou da relação da  matemática com outros saberes, como a filosofia.

A filosofia da matemática vista à luz das ideias do matemático holandês Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (1881-1966) foi o tema apresentado pelo professor Ryota Akiyoshi, da Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS).

Na palestra Truth and Time in Brouwer’s Intuitionism, Akiyoshi analisou a tensão entre o que é verdade matemática e o que é um construto da mente.  Explicou problemas conceituais sobre a lógica e filosofia e seus aspectos interdisciplinares.

Segundo o professor, o objeto da filosofia pode ser qualquer coisa, seja a linguagem, o conhecimento, a matemática, a física, a biologia e assim por diante. A matemática, portanto, ou a lógica, tem sido um tópico central na filosofia desde Aristóteles. Com o desenvolvimento da linguagem e, consequentemente, da matemática, a filosofia da matemática passa a se ocupar essencialmente sobre a origem dos objetos matemáticos.

O platonismo procura responder a essa questão mostrando que existe um mundo abstrato e imutável que contém todos os elementos matemáticos. Como pressuposto, todos os objetos matemáticos já existem, mas nem todos foram descobertos ainda. O papel do matemático seria então encontrar objetos que não foram ainda descobertos nesse mundo abstrato e imutável.

Por outro lado, parte da comunidade matemática não aceitava as ideias do platonismo e rompeu com a matemática clássica. O antagonismo a Platão foi chamado de construtivismo, sendo o intuicionismo a linha mais conhecida dessa corrente. Partiam do pressuposto de que um objeto matemático existiria a partir do momento em que o matemático conseguisse construí-lo na mente.

O professor Akiyoshi também mostrou alguns conceitos essenciais da lógica intuicionista, entre eles a sequência de escolhas, além da noção de sujeito criativo.

The first conference of the Intercontinental Academia on the subject of “Time”, on April 21, addressed what is known about the history and the possible future of the universe, as well as the concept of “arrow of time,” which posits only one direction for the flow of time, and considers that past and future are different, a notion closely related to cosmology.

The lecturer was theoretical physicist Matthew Kleban, from NYU, who dedicates himself to the study of string theory and the early history of the universe.

He noted that, contrary to what is assumed by the arrow of time, there are physical laws that posit dual direction, i.e., symmetry between past and future, although he stressed that this idea is still very confusing to physicists.

Entropy

According to Kleban, if this idea is correct, then the difference between past and future must be related “to an ‘environmental’ aspect, to an accident of history, such as the difference between North and South Americas, albeit universal, applicable anywhere and anytime.”

When entropy (“disorder”) is low, it tends to increase and the direction of its increase defines the future, said Kleban. Thus, entropy, which was very slight in the early universe, is the “environmental” factor that distinguishes the past from the future. “However, nothing prevents the arrow of time from having a reverse movement due to some other ‘environmental’ aspect.”

Cosmology

With regard to cosmology, he first defined what this science is: “The branch of astrophysics that studies the structure of the universe in the largest accessible scale; this includes the study of the birth, death (or future) and evolution of the Universe over time.”

However, because the universe is 14 billion years, we can only see a portion of it, although quite vast, corresponding to the distance traveled by light in these 14 billion years, he said. “Looking at the past, we see that the universe was hotter and opaque 14 billion years ago, so we cannot see (at least directly) its birth.”

Continuing with his presentation, Kleban addressed the current contents of the universe. He said there are about 100 billion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. The Milky Way has nearly 300 billion stars and a colossal black hole exists in the center of the galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, with mass equivalent to 4 million Suns, but with radius (at least in theory) only 17 times the size of the Sun. The solar system also orbits the galactic center, but the orbit lasts 200 million years.

Hubble's Law

The panel on galaxies was used by Kleban to introduce his comments about the expansion of the universe. The central figure here was American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1989-1953), whose telescope in the 1920s was able to observe approximately 50 galaxies (the Hubble Telescope, orbiting the Earth for 25 years, allows us to observe 10,000 galaxies when aimed at each 10/1,000,000 slit of the heavens).

Kleban explained that Edwin Hubble noticed something odd in the galaxies: the farther away they were, the faster they moved away from Earth. This observation led to the so-called Hubble’s Law: v = Hd, where H is a constant with units of 1/time. With this law, it became possible to calculate when the entire content of the universe was bundled together, so to speak: 14 billion years ago.

Kleban then reversed the arrow of time, as if the history of the universe moved backward, from when galaxies were just gas, through the increased warming, the opacity, the nucleosynthesis of protons and neutrons of helium and lithium, the inflation (when the volume of the universe spiked dramatically in a tiny fraction of a second), until reaching what is known as the singularity, “where even mere speculation collapses.”

He pointed out that each of these phases of the universe produced enormous entropy and that, even today, entropy is increasing. “Life can be seen as a process that accelerates the production of entropy, as stars and black holes do even more so.”

Hubble’s observations about the expansion of the universe created a profoundly strange idea, namely, the notion of the Earth as the center from which everything moves away, a kind of resumption of Ptolemy’s geocentrism.

Relativity

Kleban explained that in 1916, ten years before Hubble’s observations, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) developed the General Theory of Relativity, a sequence to the Special Theory of Relativity (1905), which had unified space and time (and energy and momentum). “In Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, time is relative, elapsing slower for an object moving at high speed or immersed in a gravitational field. Even in relativity, however, time does not flow in reverse.”

According Kleban, general relativity is a theory of gravity and also a radical reformulation of the nature of space and time that establishes their intimate and dynamic connection. Thus, the apparent force of gravity ceases to be a common force and becomes something like a “pseudoforce” or “fictitious force.”

After detailing some implications of this scenario, including the curvature of space-time, Kleban explained why Hubble’s Law works: “It is because the universe is expanding, and this has implications for the past and for the future.”

With regard to the future, some believe that the expansion will continue infinitely; the speed of expansion will decrease gradually, but will never cease. According to this hypothesis, Kleban explained, stars will eventually consume all their fuel and the universe will become cold and dead, even though this would probably not be the end, which would occur later.

Other researchers think the expansion will reach a maximum level and the universe will then begin to contract. After a finite span of time, density will be infinite, a singularity that is called “Big Crunch” (major collapse).

There are also those who consider that a threshold situation is possible between these two scenarios.

However, Kleban explained, these hypotheses hold two surprises: the first is that over the last billion years the expansion of the universe has accelerated because of dark energy. The second is that the speed of the expansion seems to be very close to the threshold speed. This would mean that the universe will continue to expand forever and will never reach zero degree or undergo an actual “hot death.”

Multiverse

And how about the beginning of everything, the Big Bang? Kleban said, “some well-intentioned additions to the laws of physics can dramatically affect the nature of the Big Bang and remove the singularity without altering any experiment carried out on Earth.”

One of his main interests is the so-called “multiverse” of string theory. “In string theory, the Big Bang was not a singularity or the beginning of time. It was the birth of a ‘bubble’ of a new ‘phase’.” The multiverse could harbor the emergence of numerous such bubbles.

String theory allows us to understand what existed before the Big Bang and what exists “beyond the universe” (or rather, what exists outside the visible bubble where the observable part of the universe is inserted), according to Kleban. However, he cautioned that the theory does not work with regard to “big crunches” (due to the arrow of time, actually) that the theory itself envisages. “Likewise, the theory does not work in low entropy situations.”

In conclusion, Kleban said that, for him, the most attractive idea is an overall timeless universe, where almost all of time in a state of balance with near‑maximum entropy – only rare fluctuations of reduced entropy, which would produce a local arrow of time. However, “this idea does not seem to work, but rather predicts miracles.”

Photo: Sandra Sedini/IEA-USP

Kirill Thompson addresses the perception of time in consciousness.

Daoism, Zen, Time Awareness, and the Reality of Time was the title of the lecture given by Kirill O. Thompson, from the National Taiwan University (NTU), during the Humanities / Social Sciences Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 10.

An expert on neo-Confucian philosophy and Chinese philosophy, Thompson has examined the perception of time in the human consciousness according to Eastern traditions such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism, and compared this notion to the Western philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).

Taoism and Zen Buddhism are religious philosophical traditions of East Asia intended to reorient the common personal experience to a broader life experience. The consciousness of time is a part of that shift, said Thompson.

For Kant, time is not simply inserted in the experience: time is the very condition of the experience, the pure form of inner intuition. Time summarizes the flow or the pulse of consciousness and thus the mind synchronizes and applies this time to the world's events flow, said Thompson, who is a professor at the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, and serves as Associate Dean for Humanities at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (IHS) of the NTU.

The German philosopher also conceptualizes the perception of objects as a basic experience that requires "time" to allow the mind to refer to memory and identify the object. Neurologically, this happens in a "self-centered" way because it is molded by mental filters. It is a sensory response that requires "time" to be filtered by personal experience, said Thompson.

The recognition or perception of objects or people is an experiential phenomenon reasoned by the Noumenon, which for Kant is inaccessible. The Noumenon (from the German Ding an sich, meaning "the thing itself") is the sphere of higher reality within the philosophic mind. It can also be understood as the essence of something or that what makes something what it is. The Noumenon exists in itself regardless of the conditions of the common experience phenomena, including time and space. In neurological terms the Noumenon is independent of mental filters of experience, said the professor.

Thus, the common experience is never a raw sensation; it is always conditioned by the forms of intuition and categories of understanding. The object, as a phenomenon, is seen in the context of subjective needs, desires, dislikes, goals or in addition to its own character and relationships.

According to the professor, the social sciences tend to value a self-centered point of view, referring rational interests as the great guide of ideal personal conduct. On the other hand, the Taoist response to existence is the negation of the ego and the dissolution of the mind filters.

Thus, the oldest Taoist text, the Laozi, challenges and refutes the independence and the ultimacy of objects, showing its origin from the non-being (invisible, formless) and mutual codependency. "But how could it be possible to experience that?," asked Thompson.

First, he said, we should note that the common egocentric experience is based on ego as a unified system or a set that brings together the expertise and its categories, and forms of intuition which filter and shape the experience. In this case, linear time is a condition for the exercise of memory, recalling past events and planing the sequence of future events.

In Taoism, the appropriation of time requires a "step back" in the common experience of being, and of its forms and categories of understanding. This involves a change of perspective, a general reorientation so that Laozi and Zen Buddhism can convey their message. The key is to relax and focus the mind through meditation.

One can directly see things as co-emerging and interdependent, according to Thompson. If this mindset - meditation - is successful, the result will be a dissolution of the intuition model, of the understanding categories, of the mind filters simultaneously including the dissolution of the ego, and of course of linear time. Meditation opens the path to be holistic and time gets suspended, said Thompson.

Thompson cited American neurologist James H. Austin, who engaged in holistic trial through Zen Buddhism. Author of Zen and the Brain, Austin seeks to relate the neural activity of the human brain and the practice of meditation. His book was awarded the Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize in 1998.

"Austin underwent Zen Buddhist trial and tracked its impact on the neural processes during meditation. He confirmed that the internal neural metronome turns off in relation to clock time and thus time ceases. Such dissolution of the filters that connect the experience and divide subject and object open the path for a direct and holistic orientation," he said.

The sense of achronia (cessation of time, eternity) accompanies the deep kenshi and the satori experience when a person opens into the void. Thompson defines achronia as the absence of any sense of time during meditative detachment. It is not a sense of timelessness or loss of time.

The horizon of consciousness opens beyond all notions of previous limits. There are neither past nor present. This lack of time enters the nonverbal experience as eternity. Neurologically, this kind of orientation contrasts with the egocentric pattern of the Western experience outlined above.

In the allocentric experience - which has interests and considerations centered on the other, contrary to the egocentric orientation - the being can grasp objects as they really are. Instead of a subjective perception filtered by wants and needs, a person acquires an objective perception to themselves and to others.

When consciousness is freed from rigid categories and mental filters, the path will be open to more flexibility and fluidity in thought and action, which enhances creativity in the arts, in problem solving, in life management and in the field of ideas.

Ultimately, the Zen notion about the nature of Buddha in regard to "empty" and "enlightenment" complements Kant's Noumenon (Ding an sich), said Thompson. The philosopher's ideas are static and logically chained, and posit the object as it is, ie, prior to the intuition of taxes, categories and mental filters that shape the common experience.

In theory, the concept of the Noumenon (Ding an sich) encourages us to see through the phenomena as they primarily appear.

Linear time as pure form of inner intuition is a common experience condition. Given this form of intuition, the internal neural metronome follows the pulse and the flow of the experience from within, which also keeps us in sync with the flow of events in the world.

In contrast, at the deepest level of allocentric experience, when the ego is dissolved and the internal neural metronome stops, time is suspended. Therefore, time such as distance is related to the forms or time measuring systems, said Thompson.

Throughout their studies, Jan and Aleida make a distinction between two types of memory: a communicative one, related to memories passed from one generation to another in an informal and daily way, usually by oral tradition, and a cultural one, referring to the collective memories of the past that have a symbolic character and that last through texts, images, rites, monuments and other mnemonic supports.

The main aspects of the theory developed by them are synthesized in the research project "The Past in the Present: Dimensions and Dynamics of Cultural Memory", on which they have been working since 2011. The seminar is supported by the Department of Modern Languages of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) of USP.

Lecturers

Aleida Assmann is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Konstanz. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Heidelberg and in Egyptology from the University of Tübingen. Her published papers cover fields such as Egyptology, English Literature and History of Literary Communication, but since the 1960's she has been working on memory theory. Her research focuses on cultural memory, with particular interest on the tensions between individual experiences and official memories of Germany's history in the post-World War II period.

Jan Assmann is Honorary Professor of Religious and Cultural Theory at the University of Konstanz, where he currently teaches, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Heidelberg, where he served until 2003. He holds a Dr. honoris causa title in Theology from the University of Münster. His publications cover the fields of Egyptology, focusing on interpretations of the origins of monotheism, Reception of Egypt in the European Tradition, History of Religion, Historical Anthropology and other topics. In recent years, he has been focusing on the dimension of cultural memory in a distant timeline, dating back more than 3000 years. From this, he seeks to understand the role of memory in disputes between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East and between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

The exhibitor will be the Italian researcher Tatiana Bazzichelli, who studies the relationship between artistic manifestations and the business of social media. The conference will be held in Italian with consecutive translation by Massimo Canevacci, visiting Professor at IEA.

At the event, Bazzichelli will talk about the conditions for hacker and artistic practices on Web 2.0 and how social networks can develop and incorporate these digital culture practices. Examples of network art and hacking in California and Europe that challenge the notions of power and hegemony will also be presented.

Bazzichelli is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center of Digital Media’s Innovation Incubator of the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany, and holds a PhD in Media Studies and Information from Aarhus University, Denmark. She is also a member of the curatorial team of Transmediale Festival Berlin and author of Networking. La rete come arte (2006) /Networking. The Net as Artwork (2008).

Canevacci is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and of Digital Art and Culture at Università Degli Studi di Roma 'La Sapienza', Italy. His studies focus on ethnography, visual communication, art, and digital culture. The research he has been developing at IEA, situated among these themes, includes four main conceptual frameworks: self-representation, ubiquity, visual fetishism, and critical and experimental theory.

At the conference, Rapchan will talk about the relationship between humans and other primates focused on ethnographic records. The researcher will discuss the controversial idea of the existence of specific ‘cultures’ among these animals and the consequent formation of a new otherness of non-human nature.

Rapchan studies the relationship between nature and culture and between sociocultural anthropology and life sciences, with emphasis on primatology, biological anthropology, and ethology. Her most recent research deals with the relationship between humans and animals based on the ethnography of the behavior of capuchin monkeys, as well as the possibility of a ‘culture’ among chimpanzees.

Cycle

The cycle covers the origins, legitimacy, and ethical-political consequences of differentiation of living beings in humans, animals and sub​​-humans (this last case defined by the prejudiced view of certain groups of individuals of certain ethnicities, body types or gender, considered inferior humans).

The aim is to discuss the most relevant philosophical and epistemological fundamentals to what is meant by human from an interdisciplinary approach, encompassing various perspectives, including those of anthropology, biology, and ethics.

The cycle comprises five meetings. The last two are scheduled for June and August. The organization is from IEA’s Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science and Technology Research Group, the Philosophical Scientiae Studia Association and Fapesp’s Thematic Project ‘Genesis and Meaning of Technoscience: On the Relationship between Science, Technology, and Society’.

The panelists will be the teachers Gustavo Caponi, of the Center for Philosophy and Human Sciences of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Maurício de Carvalho Ramos, of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) of USP, and Hernán Neira, of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (UCS). Mediator will be Baravalle Lorenzo, researcher of a postdoctoral program at FFLCH.

Themes

In his exhibition 'Typology and Phylogeny of the Human', Caponi will address the misconceptions that result from the mixture of typological and phylogenetic definitions (related to the genealogy of a biological group) to determine whether a living being belongs to a zoological or botanical species, especially when the opposition between animality and humanity enters the scene.

Ramos will speak on ‘The Relationship Between Animals and Humans Designed as a Biocultural and Ethical-Epistemic Continuous’. The aim of the teacher is to debate a theoretical continuist perspective that takes into account the inseparability between epistemic and ethical judgments and between the biological and the cultural dimensions in the understanding of differences and similarities between humans and animals.

Neira will reflect on ‘Sensitivity and Sovereignty: Descartes and Condillac in Relation to Animals’. The researcher will consider the ideas of these two philosophers to discuss the central role of comparison between animals and humans in the understanding of humanity and to discuss issues on animality faced by modern Zoophilosophy.

Cycle

The cycle covers the origins, legitimacy, and ethical-political consequences of differentiation of living beings in humans, animals and sub​​-humans (this last case defined by the prejudiced view of certain groups of individuals of certain ethnicities, body types or gender, considered inferior humans).

The aim is to discuss the most relevant philosophical and epistemological fundamentals to what is meant by human from an interdisciplinary approach, encompassing various perspectives, including those of anthropology, biology, and ethics.

The cycle comprises five meetings. The last two are scheduled for June and August. The organization is from IEA’s Philosophy, History and Sociology of Science and Technology Research Group, the Philosophical Scientiae Studia Association and Fapesp’s Thematic Project ‘Genesis and Meaning of Technoscience: On the Relationship between Science, Technology, and Society’.

Related news

Meeting discusses the ‘culture’ of other primates

The conference entitled ‘The Concept of Style in Art and Science’ will be Bueno’s way to explore what is distinctive and common in applications of the concept in both fields. He comments that science historian Alistair Crombie (1915-1996) believed that in science there are well-defined styles that feature forms of specific investigation (deductive, experimental, hypothetical, taxonomic, statistical and evolutionary). Bueno compares this observation to the fact that well-defined pictorial styles (considering only painting), such as naturalism, impressionism, cubism and abstract expressionism, have set major movements in art history.

Bueno is full professor and head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Miami. He dedicates his research to the fields of philosophy of science, philosophy of logic and philosophy of mathematics. More recently he has been involved with aesthetics. He is one of the editors of the epistemology and philosophy of science journal ‘Synthese’.

The conference is an initiative of IEA’s Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science and Technology Research Group.

On October 14, at 9.30 am, Wylie will speak on gender research in archaeology at the meeting ‘Feminist Research from the Standpoint Theory Perspective’. The opening will be in charge of philosopher Hugh Lacey, professor emeritus from Swarthmore College and visiting professor at the IEA.

Wylie will defend that a feminist perspective, explicitly critical and constructivist towards knowledge production, can serve as a fundamental epistemic resource in empirical research. From this argument, she will re-conceptualize ideals of objectivity.

The second event, to be hold on October 15, also at 9.30 am, will be a conversation with Alison Wylie, dedicated to the discussion of the work and ideas of the philosopher.

Wylie is a professor of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Washington and co-editor of the feminist philosophy journal ‘Hypatia’. She was chosen Philosopher of 2013 by the Society for Women in Philosophy. She develops research in the field of philosophy of social science and history, particularly archaeology, and feminist philosophy of science, with a focus on the ideals of objectivity and the ethical and political dimensions of scientific practice.

Organized by IEA’s Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science and Technology Research Group, the event will take place in Auditorium 2 of the Institute of USP’s Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG).

Video of the first event

Photos of the first event

Photos of the second event