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Francis Bacon’s works are pervaded by the firm belief that he was living in a new epoch. He thought of this epoch as based on knowledge and mechanical arts, which would permit dominion over nature. This dominion arises from mankind’s taking concrete action to improve the living conditions of humanity. Defining the nature of this action leads to individuate a plural historical subjectivity in Bacon’s thought. The different kinds of agency, and different kinds of technologies, define peoples in ethnological and spatial terms. Imperiality, that is human dominion over nature, implies the necessity of improving the conditions of the whole mankind, in a manner that opens the way of thinking in which ‘backward’ peoples are subject to this action of improvement. Colonialism is strictly related to imperiality. The idea of colonialism, in the New World in particular, rests on the assumption that human race can improve its living conditions, exercising power over nature. Therefore, imperiality and colonialism are not simply a tool of a British dominion, but elements of the new epoch that Bacon is theorising. In this sense, imperiality and colonialism are part of the philosophical structure of Bacon’s modernity. Fil: Scalercio, Mauro. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

Este ensayo interpreta la colonialidad del poder como una síntesis del sometimiento eurocéntrico del mundo y del dominio antropocéntrico de la naturaleza. La colonialidad de la modernidad, que se estableció a través la conquista de América, experimentó una expansión y transitó hacia un proyecto de colonización de la naturaleza. El occidentalismo se convirtió así en un proyecto del progreso técnico. En la actualidad, este programa atraviesa por una fase de expansion de una ‘colonialidad de tecnociencia’, basada en el pensamiento cibernético. En este artículo se presentan, por lo tanto, nuevas perspectivas de la descolonización epistemológica a traves de una crítica a la epistemología tecnocientífica., This article interprets the coloniality of power as a synthesis of the eurocentric submission of the world and the anthropocentric domination of nature. The coloniality of modernity, which was established with the conquest of America, was expanded and transited to a project of the colonization of nature. Occidentalism thus became a project of technical progress. At present, this program undergoes an radicalization due to the spread of a ‘coloniality of technoscience’, based on an cybernetic thinking. Finally in the article will be presented new perspectives of epistemological decolonization by a critique of techno-scientific epistemology.

O objetivo deste ensaio é explorar o auto-controle como alternativa às práticas de controle ou dominação da natureza, no contexto dos problemas ecológicos, primeiro pelos indivíduos, depois pela sociedade e, por fim, pela ciência. O ponto de partida é uma análise em três componentes da tese da neutralidade da ciência, uma das quais a tese da neutralidade factual reflete o caráter puramente descritivo das proposições científicas e tem uma estreita ligação com o controle da natureza. A supervalorização do controle da natureza característica da modernidade, por sua vez, é vista como parte das causas dos problemas ecológicos, cuja superação demonstra a necessidade da adoção do auto-controle, não apenas pelos indivíduos, mas ainda mais crucialmente pela sociedade, sendo o auto-controle social incompatível com a dinâmica do sistema capitalista. Na seção final, identifica-se o auto-controle no domínio da ciência com a autonomia, mostra-se como a reivindicação tradicional da autonomia, baseada na neutralidade, não mais se sustenta, em virtude dos processos de mercantilização a que a ciência é submetida. Como conclusão, propõe-se uma modalidade alternativa de autonomia, em que a ciência é colocada não acima, mas ao lado de outras formas de conhecimento e outras instituições sociais. The aim of this essay is to investigate self-control as an alternative to the practices of control, or domination of nature, in the context of ecological problems, first by individuals, then by society, and finally, by science. The starting point is an analysis of the thesis of the neutrality of science into three components, one of which the thesis of factual neutrality reflects the descriptive character of scientific propositions, and is strongly linked to the control of nature. The high value attributed to the control of nature characteristic of modernity is in turn seen as one of the causes of ecological problems. In order to overcome those problems, it is argued that the adoption of practices of self-control is needed, not only by individuals, but also, and more crucially, by society, and that social self-control is incompatible with the dynamics of the capitalist system. In the final section, self-control in the domain of science is identified with autonomy, and it is shown that the traditional claim of autonomy, made on the basis of neutrality, is no longer tenable, given the processes of commodification to which science is subjected to. To conclude, an alternative kind of autonomy is suggested, in which science is placed not above, but at the side of other forms of knowledge and other social institutions.

ResumoEm que medida a proposta de uma nova ética para a civilização tecnológica, elaborada por Hans Jonas, possuiria o condão de convocar os cientistas para o efetivo exercício de sua responsabilidade perante à natureza ameaçada? O esclarecimento, que sua obra pretende levar a termo a respeito dos crescentes perigos associados ao progresso técnico-científico, não procura fundamentalmente refrear, em caráter emergencial, a cega compulsão de aplicação tecnológica, com os perversos efeitos associados à tecnolo gização e à mercantilização da ciência em nossos dias? Com efeito, sua crítica da ideologia legitimadora do progresso tecnocientífico procura, em última instância, debelar o processo compulsivo de aplicações tecnológicas, considerado perverso em si mesmo, não se permitindo considerar de que outra forma o progresso tecnocientífico poderia vir a desenvolver-se, de modo a tornar-se efetivamente capaz de atender valores humanos, sociais e ambientais. A partir da explicitação dos impasses a que conduz a proposta de Jonas, respaldamo-nos nos estudos de Hugh Lacey para apresentar uma forma alternativa de estru turação das atividades científicas. Visando suplantar esses impasses, procuramos investigar em que medida o desejável acolhimento de valores morais, sociais e ambientais, por parte das práticas científicas e tecnológicas vigentes, poderia estar conjugado com uma experiência propriamente estética capaz de propiciar a abertura à alteridade e o acolhimento de valores alheios. A investigação do concurso de uma experiência deste teor é realizada à luz de motivos de pensamento presentes nas obras de Theodor Adorno e Herbert Marcuse. AbstractTo what extent does the proposed new ethics for technological civilization, developed by Hans Jonas, have the power to convene scientists for the effective exercise of their responsibility to nature that is under threat? Does not the clarification, which his work is intended to further about the growing dangers associated with technical and scientific progress, seek basically to restrain, as a matter of emergency, the blind technological compulsion that leads to the perverse effects associated with technologizing and commercializing science today? Indeed, his critique of the legitimating ideology of techno-scientific progress ultimately intends to overcome the compulsive process of technological application, considered perverse in itself, that does not allow that other forms of techno-scientific progress could be developed that would become able to attend effectively to human, social and environmental values. Starting from the explanation of the impasses to which Jonas' proposal leads, we based ourselves on studies of Hugh Lacey in order to present an alternative way of structuring scientific activities. Aiming to overcome these impas ses, we investigate to what extent the desired attention to moral, social and environmental values by current scientific and technological practices could be connected to an aesthetic experience that is able to provide openness to otherness and the reception of foreign values. Investigating the contribution of an experience of this kind is conducted in the light of thought motifs of Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse.

This paper deals with Kant’s differentiation between artistic beauty and the sublime in nature. In this latter, Kant subsumes everything wild, uncultivated, inanimate and makes it – apparently – available to Aesthetics. As the quintessence of resistence, the “stone” stands for everything that remains the most estranged from the human sphere. In texts of Romantic authors such as Novalis, it can be seen how the “stone” in its turn takes possession of human beings and move them away from human nature. From Romanticism up to contemporary art, the sublime establishes thus a dominion of total alterity, which evades control and keeps consciousness alert to the fact that also in human beings there is an uncontrollable element demanding its rights. O artigo tematiza a diferenciação de Kant entre beleza artística e o sublime na natureza. Neste último, Kant engloba tudo o que é selvagem, não-cultivado, inanimado e o torna – aparentemente – acessível à estética. Quintessência do resistente, o pétreo representa tudo aquilo que permanece de mais estranho à esfera humana. Nos textos de autores românticos como Novalis pode-se observar como esse „pétreo“, por sua vez, se apossa dos homens e os afasta de sua natureza humana. Do Romantismo até a arte da modernidade, o sublime estabelece assim um domínio da total alteridade, que se furta ao controle e mantém a consciência alerta para o fato de que também no homem há um elemento indomável a exigir seu espaço. Der Artikel behandelt Kants Differenzierung von Kunstschönem und Erhabenen der Natur; im Letzteren fasst der Aufklärer all das Wilde, Unkultivierbare, Unbelebte und macht es der Ästhetik – scheinbar –verfügbar. Als Inbegriff des Widerständigen ist das Steinerne das, was der menschlichen Sphäre am fremdesten bleibt. In Texten der Romantiker, etwa bei Novalis, lässt sich beobachten wie dieses Steinerne seinerseits vom Menschen Besitz ergreift und diesen von seiner Menschennatur entfremdet. Von der Romantik bis in die Kunst der Moderne stellt das Erhabene damit einen Bereich des ganz und gar Anderen dar, der sich der Beherrschung entzieht und das Bewusstsein dafür wachhält, dass auch im Menschen ein nicht Beherrschbares sein Recht beansprucht.

The concept of a river basin as a management or planning unit has gone through several stages and is in a state of flux. From its western “discovery” in the 18th century to its advent as the overriding concept behind European water policy, the river basin has been conjured up and mobilized in evolving contexts with varying intentions. Associated with utopian ideas of the late 19th century, it supported ideas of full control of the hydrologic regime and multipurpose dam construction in the 1930–1960 period, then partly faded and was revived to address water-quality problems, before reemerging in the 1990s as the cornerstone of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), enriched and blended with watershed- and ecosystem-management approaches. This article recounts the evolution of the concept of a river basin and how it has been associated with various strands of thinking and sometimes co-opted or mobilized by particular social groups or organizations to strengthen the legitimacy of their agendas. Beyond its relevance as a geographical unit for water resources development and management purposes, the river basin is also a political and ideological construct, with its discursive representations and justifications, closely linked with shifting scalar configurations, both ecological and in terms of regulatory regime or governance. How interconnected and nested waterscapes can be managed by discontinuous nested political/administrative and social levels remains a fundamental question fuelling an endless search for elusive governance systems that would unite nature and society.