Los principios metafísicos de la naturaleza

Esta investigación introduce los momentos fundamentales que constituyen una metafísica de la naturaleza, en diálogo con Aristóteles, Kant y Hartmann, entre otros. Nuestro método es una «reducción al fundamento» como una resolución en las causas de la naturaleza y del ser.

El proyecto filosófico de una "ciencia de la preciencia"

La realidad de la naturaleza, en el último Merleau-Ponty, irrumpe como el verdaderosentido de la «actitud natural» husserliana. Al resultar entonces definitivamente cuestionada la primacía de la conciencia, emerge una inesperada filosofía del mundo natural. A partir de este momento, la naturaleza es concebida como un «surgimiento inmotivado e incontrolable», o sea como el inicio continuamente' renovado que corresponde a una génesis pura. Estainsistencia en el carácter «originano» de la naturaleza, además de evocar el compromiso deSchelling con una erste Natur o «naturaleza primordial» y su comprensión del mundo natural como «productividad originaria», suscita la posibilidad de profundizar en la actividad indagadora que es plausible denominar «ciencia de la pre-ciencia» por su propósito de reconducir el pensamiento científico al mundo natural, preteórico y antepredicativo, del cual procede, y a la que se asignan dos finalidades explícitas: 1) denunciar la ceguera de la cienciaante la realidad primordial de la cual subrepticiamente se nutre, y 2) advertir en nuestra vida perceptiva una profundidad y una riqueza que, al igual que sucede en el caso del arte, habrían permanecido ignoradas sin esta paradójica intervención de la ciencia.

Water scarcity, social power and the production of an elite suburb: the political ecology of water in Matadepera, Catalonia

This article investigates the history of land and water transformations in Matadepera, a wealthy suburb of metropolitan Barcelona. Analysis is informed by theories of political ecology and methods of environmental history; although very relevant, these have received relatively little attention within ecological economics. Empirical material includes communications from the City Archives of Matadepera (1919-1979), 17 interviews with locals born between 1913 and 1958, and an exhaustive review of grey historical literature. Existing water histories of Barcelona and its outskirts portray a battle against natural water scarcity, hard won by heroic engineers and politicians acting for the good of the community. Our research in Matadepera tells a very different story. We reveal the production of a highly uneven landscape and waterscape through fierce political and power struggles. The evolution of Matadepera from a small rural village to an elite suburb was anything but spontaneous or peaceful. It was a socio-environmental project well intended by landowning elites and heavily fought by others. The struggle for the control of water went hand in hand with the land and political struggles that culminated – and were violently resolved - in the Spanish Civil War. The displacement of the economic and environmental costs of water use from few to many continues to this day and is constitutive of Matadepera’s uneven and unsustainable landscape. By unravelling the relations of power that are inscribed in the urbanization of nature (Swyngedouw, 2004), we question the perceived wisdoms of contemporary water policy debates, particularly the notion of a natural scarcity that merits a technical or economic response. We argue that the water question is fundamentally a political question of environmental justice; it is about negotiating alternative visions of the future and deciding whose visions will be produced.

The “Death of environmentalism” debates: forging links between SEA and civil society discourses

Social and environmental accounting (SEA) is currently going through a period of critical selfanalysis.Challenging questions are being raised about how SEA should be defined, who should be doing the defining, and what the agenda should be. We attempt to engage and enrich these debates from both a process and content perspective by drawing on the political philosophy of agonistic pluralism and a set of debates within the environmental movement – “the death of environmentalism” debates. The contribution of the paper is twofold: to set forth the death of environmentalism debates in the accounting literature and, in doing so, to contextualize and theorize the contested nature of SEA using agonistic pluralism. In contrast to consensually oriented approaches to SEA, the desired outcome is not necessarily resolution of ideological differences but to imagine, develop, and support democratic processes wherein these differences can be recognized and engaged. We construe the “Death” debates as illustrative of the contestable practical and political issues facing both SEA and progressive social movements generally, demonstrating the context and content of the deliberations necessary in contemplating effective programs of engagement. The SEA community, and civil society groups, can benefit from the more overtly political perspective provided by agonistic pluralism. By surfacing and engaging with various antagonisms in this wider contested civic sphere, SEA can more effectively respond to, and move beyond, traditional politically conservative, managerialist approaches to sustainability.

Technical innovations at the service of cheaper labour in pre-industrial Europe. The Enlightened agenda to transform the gender division of labour in silk manufacturing

In 1749, Jacques de Vaucanson patented his or tour pour tirer la soie or spindle for silk reeling. In that same year he presented his invention to the Academy of the Sciences in Paris, of which he was a member1. Jacques de Vaucanson was born in Grenoble, France, in 1709, and died in Paris in 1782. In 1741 he had been appointed inspector of silk manufactures by Louis XV. He set about reorganizing the silk industry in France, in considerable difficulty at the time due to foreign competition. Given Vaucanson’s position, his invention was intended to replace the traditional Piémontes method, and had an immediate impact upon the silk industry in France and all over Europe.