Editorial

Abstract

EDITORIAL

Approaching several themes, united by a common interdisciplinary perspective, we present once more our online journal concerning the second semester of 2008.

To begin with, we have an intriguing article by Fabio di Clemente, Doctor in Philosophy from the University of Urbino (Italy), where he was a professor of History of Peoples’ Traditions and director of the Master’s course in History of the Philosophical, Political and Pedagogical Thought. The text tries to investigate, mainly through the works of Merleau-Ponty, the meaning of a possible recovery of the notions of foundation and subjectivity.  Before the self criticism, the crises and the wish for overcoming which such notions have produced in themselves throughout history, the author tries to requalify them   in relation to the philosophical tradition as well as in relation to the reflection on science itself, defending the overcoming of a dualist and reductionist methodological frame. Under this perspective, the notion of subjectivity, situated in the corporeity,   and inside the “plan of being”, can be rediscovered in its “ontological vocation” far beyond all equivocity. In short, the text aims at being a rereading of the relations between philosophy and science, starting from the concept of body.

Next, Antônio Macena Figueiredo, Doctoral Student at the Program of Post Graduation in Sciences of Health (UnB/DF), Volnei Garrafa, PhD in Sciences from UNESP, advisor of the Program of Post-Graduation in Sciences of Health, Coordinator of UnB Bioethics of UNESCO, Coordenator of the Program of Post Graduation in Bioethics of  UnB, and Jorge Alberto Cordón Portillo, PhD in Sciences of Health from UnB, discuss the teaching of bioethics in the area of the Sciences of Health in Brazil. Based on an exploratory and descriptive study, and on data collected from scientific periodicals, dissertations and theses, the results of the research have shown that there are very few papers related to the teaching of bioethics in the field of health. Thus, the authors intend to call the attention to the need of more research in the area of health, focusing bioethics from an interdisciplinary perspective.

In the third article, Ivan Amaral Guerrini, Professor at the  Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP) in Botucatu-SP, areas of Applied Physics, Teaching of Physics and Education, with present emphasis on papers of .University Extension and on Transdisciplinary Science Propagation, and Regina Stella Spagnuolo, Professor at the Universidade do Norte do Paraná (UNOPAR), Doctoral student in Collective Health from the Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, UNESP, have tried to analyze the great ruptures of Science in the 20^th Century, altering the philosophical and epistemological  bases valid since the 17^th century. The article stresses that the principles of Quantum Physics, the Chaos Theory, the Systemic Thought and    the transdisciplinary approach emergent in the last century haven’t been properly assimilated by professionals of science, mainly by those who use the so called techno science, which focuses only on the practical results of the scientific advances, and also by those who only think of the publication of their experimental data to their peers at the Academy.  In general, the authors try to .make people aware of the exaggerated emphasis on the academic productivity, in disfavor of a desirable “enchantment” of the activities of the contemporary educators and scientists.  

In the fourth article, Anselmo Fábio de Moraes, Professor at the Departament of Civil Engineering of the   Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC), Beatriz Goudard, Professor at the   Department of Economic Sciences of the Centro de Ciências da Administração e Sócio-Econômicas (ESAG/UDESC), and Roberto de Oliveira, Associate Professor at the Departament of Civil Engineering of the  Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Doctor in  Methodology Of Housing Projects from the University of  Waterloo, Canada, with Post Doc on the influence of the urban design on housing costs, focus their look on the city, its urban equipments and the quality of life in the Brazilian cities.  Taking into account this triple aspect, they mention a few factors which have contributed to the decrease of the quality of life in urban areas, and which have been caused by a serious problem, which is, the constant increase of the rural exodus. Besides, they show the implementation of urban equipments and their adequacy to an urban management with quality.   

In the fifth article, the everyday consumption practices are discussed by Maria Elisabeth Goidanich, Doctoral student at the Interdisciplinary Program of  Post-Graduation in Human Sciences from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). The researcher writes an essay on the consumption at Christmas time, when the sales are higher and the messages circulation is intense due to the meaning of the celebration to many.  Using the significance of the Christmas supper to middle-income women aged between 36 and 47, especially concerning the consumption of poultry -  Chester and/or turkey -  the author makes a comparison among the concepts of identity, tradition, authenticity, confidence and distinction, related to the behavior of consumption and the imaginary of these women.

At last, the review by Leandro Oltramari, Professor of Psychology at the Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina (UNISUL) and at the Universidade do Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI), Doctor in Human Sciences at the Program of Interdisciplinary Post-Graduation in Human Sciences, presents and comments a text by Celso Castro (2008), entitled Researching Files, which discusses the importance and the difficulties inherent to the files research in Brazil.

Selvino J. Assmann and Silmara Cimbalista

Editors