We present in this article a discussion about gestures produced from the childhood entry in the interface with the experience of school time. It is a discussion woven inside the center for studies and research in education in particular, the times group of the faculty of education of the federal university of Juiz de Fora/MG. Throughout history, time has been discussed in various ways and still is, as well as childhood, conceptually constructed as a result of social, political, religious, and (...) cultural influences. In the attempt to "start thinking", we ask ourselves about what theoretical formulations have been based on childhood at the interface with school time in the field of education? We defend the central thesis that childhood, in a western cut, has been presented in productions still as social time. It is a recent movement to consider childhood as an event, experience, as opposed to the idea of childhood as the stage of life. As a result, considering infancy related to the tension between social time and time as intensity of the present, implies the need for pedagogical gestures that think this tension and, thus, consider the children of the current, narrowing their relations with the school, with knowledge and with life. To enlighten the issues sewn from our concerns, we chose authors such as Agamben, Leal, Bakhtin/Volochinov, Kohan, Vieira, Bento and Meneghel, Kramer, Borba, who focused on childhood and education. In order to problematize the time category, we dialogued with St. Augustine, Oliveira, Marques C. and Marques L, Skliar. The reading of our interlocutors and our listening with/to the school could subsidize the thought that we can invent ways not only imagined as possible with the perspective of reflecting time, childhood, experience and school on other bases. The interrogation, not the conviction, enables the sense of knowledge in the materiality of our practices, produced inside/outside the university. These are underprivileged subjects in curriculum matrices and disciplines that address the issue of children, their childhoods and temporalities. (shrink)

What makes people behave ethically continues to be at the forefront of business ethics research. The stylistic makeup of the decision-maker has been suspected to influence individual ethical behavior; however, this body of research accounts only for a handful of studies. This paper investigates the influence of decision-making styles as an individual difference on unethical behavior, independently from other personal characteristics. Covering a sample of 230 managers, we utilize the preeminent measures of these two constructs in a self-report survey. Our (...) results suggest that the decision-making styles of managers do influence their ethical behavior. Whereas managers with a dominant rational or spontaneous style behave ethically, having a more intuitive or avoidant makes them behave less ethically. The results also reveal that with higher levels of education, managers become more unethical. This research conveys important implications for management practice, education, and training. (shrink)

Brazilian and US American children were compared for differences in tolerance and punishment expectancy. We hypothesized that participants would be less tolerant and more punishing of moral than conventional violations; tolerance and punishment expectancy would relate with age; Brazilians would tolerate less and expect more punishment than US Americans; and social domain would moderate effects of age and nationality. The sample had 129 matched children from Brazil and the USA. Moral/conventional-violation vignettes were used. Mixed-model GLMs suggested that children were less (...) tolerant and more punishing of moral than social-conventional violations. Age effects were significant for tolerance. Brazilians scored lower on tolerance and higher on punishment expectancy than US Americans; they also differentiated less between violation domains than US Americans. These and other results suggest that Brazilians tolerate less but expect more punishment for violations than US Americans. Discussion is based on cultural and socio-historical differences between the two nations. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende analizar el monopolio de la verdad de los medios de comunicación tradicionales y su capacidad para influir en los votantes, cambiando los resultados electorales. El rendimiento y la importancia de los medios tradicionales y las redes sociales se estudiarán a través de un enfoque histórico y comparativo. Este trabajo también pretende comprender la transformación social en la era de la posverdad, que cambió el mercado editorial, fomentando la difusión de noticias falsas. La prioridad clave es captar el (...) verdadero impacto en el debate político y democrático de las redes sociales, los medios de comunicación tradicionales y las noticias falsas, así como su capacidad para influir en las elecciones. (shrink)

In Brazil, the CNPq provides grants, funds and fellowships to productive scientists to support their investigations. They are ranked and categorized into four hierarchical levels ranging from PQ 1A to PQ 1D. Few studies, however, report and analyse scientific productivity in different sub-fields of Biomedical Sciences, e.g., Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Biophysics and Physiology. In fact, systematic comparisons of productivity among the PQ 1 categories within the above sub-fields are lacking in the literature. Here, the scientific productivity of 323 investigators receiving PQ (...) 1 fellowships in these sub-fields of BS was investigated. The Scopus database was used to compile the total number of articles, citations, h-index values and authorship positions in the most cited papers by researchers granted CNPq fellowships. We found that researchers from Pharmacology had the best performance for all of the parameters analysed, followed by those in Biochemistry. There was great variability in scientific productivity within the PQ 1A level in all of the sub-fields of BS, but not within the other levels. Analysis of the most cited papers of PQ 1 researchers in Pharmacology revealed that the citations of researchers in the 1C and 1D levels were associated with publications with their senior supervisors, whereas those in the 1B level were less connected with their supervisors in comparison to those in 1A. Taken together, these findings suggest that the scientific performance of PQ 1A researchers in BS is not homogenous. In our opinion, parameters such as the most cited papers without the involvement of Ph.D. and/or post-doctoral supervisors should be used to make decisions regarding any given researcher’s fellowship award level. (shrink)

In Brazil, the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) provides grants, funds and fellowships to productive scientists to support their investigations. They are ranked and categorized into four hierarchical levels ranging from PQ 1A (the highest) to PQ 1D (the lowest). Few studies, however, report and analyse scientific productivity in different sub-fields of Biomedical Sciences (BS), e.g., Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Biophysics and Physiology. In fact, systematic comparisons of productivity among the PQ 1 categories within the above sub-fields are lacking (...) in the literature. Here, the scientific productivity of 323 investigators receiving PQ 1 fellowships (A to D levels) in these sub-fields of BS was investigated. The Scopus database was used to compile the total number of articles, citations, h-index values and authorship positions (first-, co- or last-listed author) in the most cited papers by researchers granted CNPq fellowships. We found that researchers from Pharmacology had the best performance for all of the parameters analysed, followed by those in Biochemistry. There was great variability in scientific productivity within the PQ 1A level in all of the sub-fields of BS, but not within the other levels (1B, 1C and 1D). Analysis of the most cited papers of PQ 1(A–D) researchers in Pharmacology revealed that the citations of researchers in the 1C and 1D levels were associated with publications with their senior supervisors, whereas those in the 1B level were less connected with their supervisors in comparison to those in 1A. Taken together, these findings suggest that the scientific performance of PQ 1A researchers in BS is not homogenous. In our opinion, parameters such as the most cited papers without the involvement of Ph.D. and/or post-doctoral supervisors should be used to make decisions regarding any given researcher’s fellowship award level. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a ética do cuidado de enfermagem no tratamento de pacientes oncológicos. Optou-se pela pesquisa bibliográfica de abordagem qualitativa cuja metodologia foi dividida em etapas. Na primeira etapa, foi realizado um levantamento de artigos publicados, no período de 2000 a 2009, em periódicos do Scielo, utilizando os descritores: saúde/doença, enfermagem, ética do cuidado e oncologia. Esse levantamento culminou com a seleção de 28 artigos, 21 dos quais foram eleitos posteriormente para leitura aprofundada, assim como para (...) utilização no estudo. Na segunda etapa, foram explorados dados do campo, com a transcrição e análise de depoimentos de profissionais da enfermagem sobre a concepção de cuidado bem como de dados sobre pacientes oncológicos, acompanhados no período de 2007 e 2008. A pesquisa e suas exigências protocolares, sob o número CAAE - 0147.0.213.000-10, foi aprovada pelo Comitê de Ética da PUC Minas em 31 de agosto de 2010. O referencial teórico foi composto por autores que discutem o cuidado na perspectiva filosófica e teológica - Boff (2001, 2005 e 2006), Efken (2005) - e autores da área da saúde oncológica, entre eles, Carvalho et al. (2002), Popim & Boemer (2005), Visentin, Labronici & Lenardt (2007) e Araújo et al. (2009). Os resultados evidenciaram o cuidado na enfermagem como princípio ético essencial, assim como a necessidade de investimentos em políticas públicas de saúde no Brasil, que efetivem o trabalho de prevenção, educação e cura do câncer. Palavras-Chave: Saúde/Doença; Enfermagem; Ética do cuidado; Oncologia.The objective of this article is to analyze the nursing care in the treatment of oncology patients. We have opted for bibliographical research of qualitative nature, a methodology divided into stages. In the first stage we gathered articles in a publication called Scielo from 2000 to 2009, which described: health/illness, nursing, ethics of care, and oncology. Through this process the selection of twenty-eight articles was accomplished, however only twenty-one articles were utilized in the production of this study. In the second stage field data were explored, we transcribed and analyzed the statements of nursing professionals on the conception of care and on oncology patients overseen by them in the period of 2007 to 2008. The research protocol and its requirements under the number CAAE - 0147.0.213.000-10, was approved by the Ethics Committee of PUC Minas on August 31, 2010. The theoretical support was provided by authors who discuss care in a philosophical and theological perspective: Boff (2001, 2005, and 2006), Efken (2005); and authors in the field of healthcare, among them Popim & Boemer (2005), Silva et. al , (2005), Souza et al. (2005), Visentin, et al. (2007), and Araújo, et. al. (2008). The results demonstrated the care in nursing as an essential ethical principal, as much as the necessity of investment in public health policies in Brazil, for the effective promotion of cancer prevention, education and cure. Key words : Health/Illness; Nursing; Ethics of Care; Oncology. (shrink)

The scientific community has debated the importance of “return” activities after ethnobiological studies. This issue has provoked debate because it touches on the ethics of research and the relationships with the people involved in these studies. This case study aimed to investigate community perception of an ethnobotany research project that was carried out in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil. Furthermore, we reported how the residents of this rural community felt about participating in the activities of “return” that arose from (...) the projects. Our findings demonstrate that “return” activities should be planned from the design phase of the research until its closure as a lifelong process that allows the communities involved to gradually take ownership of the information and actions that are being generated. Similarly, we argue that such activities must be negotiated with the people of the community so that they have decision-making power and autonomy to decide what is most relevant to their lives. (shrink)

The scientific community has debated the importance of “return” activities after ethnobiological studies. This issue has provoked debate because it touches on the ethics of research and the relationships with the people involved in these studies. This case study aimed to investigate community perception of an ethnobotany research project that was carried out in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil. Furthermore, we reported how the residents of this rural community felt about participating in the activities of “return” that arose from (...) the projects. Our findings demonstrate that “return” activities should be planned from the design phase of the research until its closure as a lifelong process that allows the communities involved to gradually take ownership of the information and actions that are being generated. Similarly, we argue that such activities must be negotiated with the people of the community so that they have decision-making power and autonomy to decide what is most relevant to their lives. (shrink)

Although in Italy there is currently no effective law on physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia, Decision No. 242 issued by the Italian Constitutional Court on September 25, 2019 established that an individual who, under specific circumstances, has facilitated the implementation of an independent and freely-formed resolve to commit suicide by another individual is exempt from criminal liability. Following this ruling, some citizens have submitted requests for assisted suicide to the public health system, generating a situation of great uncertainty in the application (...) processes. As a matter of fact, shared and defined procedures are lacking as Decision 242/2019 merely added some principles on which the legislature will have to base its future intervention. This paper analyses the advisory role that the Decision attributes to territorial ethics committees with the aim of stimulating discussions on their role in oversight mechanisms. The proposed conclusion is that the envisaged role does not appear consistent with the functions of these bodies and is ultimately substantially undefined and unjustified. (shrink)

Public health emergencies such as pandemics can put health systems in a position where they need to ration medical equipment and interventions because the resources available are not sufficient to meet demand. In public health management, the fair allocation of resources is a permanent and cross-sector issue since resources, and especially economic resources, are not infinite. During the COVID-19 pandemic resources need to be allocated under conditions of extreme urgency and uncertainty. One very problematic aspect has concerned intensive care medicine (...) and age discrimination has been among the most hotly discussed issues, as age has been touted as a probable criterion for selection. In this paper we analyse some documents originating from scientific societies and medical associations, mainly related to EU sphere and available in English, French, Spanish and Italian, concerning the criteria for admission to the intensive care units. We highlights how, in most of these documents, it is explicitly stated that “age itself” is not a criterion for patient selection. Our conclusion is that these criteria should be defined in advance of a crisis situation and be grounded in clinical indicators. Establishing “cut-off” policies with regard to criteria such as age or chronic disability is definitely an unjustifiable form of discrimination even in the context of a public health emergency. (shrink)

The distinction between propositional and doxastic justification has been of undisputed theoretical importance in a wide range of contemporary epistemological debates. Yet there are a host of intimately related issues that have rarely been discussed in connection with this distinction. For instance, the distinction not only applies to an individual’s beliefs, but also to group beliefs and to various other attitudes that both groups and individuals can take: credence, commitment, suspension, faith, and hope. Moreover, discussions of propositional and doxastic justification (...) have rarely focused on broader meta-epistemological issues, and yet meta-epistemological positions can have important implications for first-order views about this distinction. This volume addresses these and other issues by bringing together 16 essays that advance the state-of-the-art thinking on propositional and doxastic justification and explore how such thinking shapes and is shaped by a range of issues previously neglected in contemporary epistemology. (shrink)

The use of human biological materials involves a number of issues from both an ethical and a legal point of view. In recent decades, the purposes for which this material has been used have i...

What is considered ugly, grotesque or unpleasant by the fashion world? The first collection presented by Rei Kawakubo in Paris was classified as offensive to Western aesthetic standards, for it questioned the French ideal of beauty and elegance. Through silhouettes covered in frayed, perforated and monochromatic fabrics, Kawakubo disrupted the established notion of the beautiful body, stripping it of the clichés of femininity, explicit sexuality and glamour. Under the lens of Vilém Flusser’s philosophy, the Japanese fashion designer created the new, (...) the beautiful, that which is capable of expanding the parameters of the real. (shrink)

Historicamente os estudos da informação se relacionam diretamente com os estudos da linguagem. Recentemente, entra nesse cruzamento, a tecnologia. Procurando identificar caminhos que possam servir aos estudos informacionais para refletir e construir suas estruturas de linguagem para mediação do conhecimento, é desenvolvido um ensaio sobre qual seria o lugar da linguagem na obra “Ensaio sobre a origem dos conhecimentos humanos” (1746), de Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715 – 1780). Procura-se, ao final, defender as perspectivas do filósofo como um dos pontos (...) de partida prévios que poderiam também ser assumidos pela Ciência da Informação para distinguir aquilo que atualmente concebemos como linguagem, conhecimento e uso da informação. (shrink)

O plano ampliado e reconfigurado dos fluxos de informação na contemporaneidade sugerem novas condições para que a ação da leitura e da interpretação possa ser estabelecida. Com o objetivo de refletir sobre as implicações que fazem parte destas ações desenvolvemos um exame dialético parcial sobre três obras - Ser e Tempo, de M. Heidegger, Investigações Lógicas, Sexta Investigação: Elementos de uma Elucidação Fenomenológica do Conhecimento, de E. Husserl, e Investigações Filosóficas, de L. Wittgenstein - que, embora não tenham tido o (...) objetivo direto de analisar a leitura e a interpretação, parecem oferecer elementos para refletirmos sobre estes fenômenos na contemporaneidade. Ao final, nos posicionamos a favor da interpretação enquanto uma ação social a priori e discorremos, sinteticamente, sobre a configuração dos atuais sistemas de informação, considerando tal condição. ABOUT THE LIMITS AND SCOPE OF INTERPRETATION: REFLECTIONS FROM HEIDEGGER, HUSSERL AND WITTGENSTEIN AbstractThe expanded and reconfigured plan of information's flow in contemporary can suggest new conditions for the action of interpretation be established. In order to reflect on the implications of this action be part of interpreting process, we have developed a partial dialectical examination of three works - Being and time, of M. Heidegger, Logical Investigations, Sixth Research: Elements of a Phenomenological Elucidation of Knowledge, of E. Husserl, and Philosophical Investigations, of L. Wittgenstein - which, although these works had not the direct interest to address the phenomenon of interpretation, seem to offer the necessary elements to reflect on this phenomenon in the nowadays. In the end, we position ourselves in favor of interpretation while social phenomenon placed a priori, and commented above, briefly, about the configuration of current information systems, considering that condition. (shrink)

Resumen: En el presente artículo buscaremos analizar los diversos tratamientos que Walter Benjamin ha realizado a lo largo de su obra acerca de la crítica como temática eminentemente filosófica. Para ello abordaremos, en primer lugar, su acercamiento a la poesía del Romanticismo alemán, luego a la poesía barroca y, finalmente, a la obra de Baudelaire con el objetivo de justificar que una comprensión acabada de la crítica implica necesariamente para el filósofo alemán recuperar la actualización como clave de lectura de (...) la historia. En efecto, si actualizar presupone para Benjamin la asunción de la no coincidencia del tiempo consigo mismo, esto es, la supervivencia del pasado en el presente y el potencial significante de sus emergencias, buscaremos mostrar cómo la noción de crítica benjaminiana descansa en ese diferencial temporal y encuentra allí su fuente de sentido.: In this article we intend to analyze the different considerations that Walter Benjamin carried out in his work on the problem of critique as an eminently philosophical subject. To do this, we will address, first, his approach to German romantic poetry, then baroque poetry and, finally, Baudelaire’s work, in order to explain how a full comprehension of critique means, for the German philosopher, to recover the idea of “actualization” as a key for reading History. In fact, if the actualization presupposes, for Benjamin, the assumption of the non-coincidence of time with itself, that is, the survival of the past within the present and its potentiality to signify, we try to show how Benjamin’s notion of criticism rests on that temporal difference and finds there its source of meaning. (shrink)

According to attention-based theories, to explain organizational attention is to explain organizational behavior. In our study, we test the model of situated attention and firm behavior by examining the effects of attention structures and allocation of attention on organizational outcomes. We hypothesize a positive relationship between attention structures and the allocation of organizational attention that, in turn, has an effect on financial performance. Using a unique data set composed of indicators of social responsibility published by 338 Brazilian organizations between 2001 (...) and 2007, we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings suggest that organizational attention to social issues fully mediates the relationship between attention structures and financial performance. (shrink)

En este artículo se trata de investigar qué tipo de relación conceptual es posible determinar entre la noción de poder y la noción de libertad en los últimos trabajos Michel Foucault. La propuesta es mostrar que determinados textos de Foucault permiten establecer un vínculo especulativo entre ambos términos, entendiendo por ello que éstos sólo tienen lugar en su mutua interrelación y no existen fuera de ella. Esto supone, a su vez, señalar las limitaciones de aquellas interpretaciones que o bien se (...) centran en la noción de poder o bien en la noción de libertad. Mientras que las primeras desembocan en una lectura demasiado unilateral de la noción de poder, las segundas, en cambio, desatienden las posibilidades políticas que se desprenden del concepto de libertad. Por tanto, una lectura especulativa que atienda a ambas nociones a la vez puede ser capaz de abrir una vía de problematización a explorar. (shrink)

In the graphical representation of ontologies, it is customary to use graph theory as the representational background. We claim here that the standard graph-based approach has a number of limitations. We focus here on a problem in the graph-based representation of ontologies in complex domains such as biomedical, engineering and manufacturing: lack of mereotopological representation. Based on such limitation, we proposed a diagrammatic way to represent an entity’s structure and various forms of mereotopological relationships between the entities.

Kristen Ghodsee continue avec cet ouvrage la récupération de l’héritage historique de l’activisme international des femmes du bloc de l’Est, thème qu’elle avait lancé en 2015 avec The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe. Elle y ajoute un nouveau volet : l’expérience de l’Afrique postcoloniale et la lutte de ses militantes politiques pour les droits des femmes pendant la Décennie des Nations Unies pour la femme, 1975‑1985. K. Ghodsee co...

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um panorama do percurso que levou ao esclarecimento da Síndrome de Down, principalmente a partir da segunda metade do século XX, no que diz respeito à sua caracterização e etiologia enquanto uma condição genética. Para isso, nos baseamos em fontes primárias e em fontes secundárias, levando também em conta os aspectos sociais envolvidos. Esta pesquisa mostra como o conhecimento sobre a Síndrome de Down foi sendo construído e seu impacto no tratamento pela sociedade, levando-a (...) reconhecer os indivíduos com a síndrome a partir de uma condição genética e não como doentes. Esperamos que este estudo possa contribuir para a compreensão das ideias atuais sobre o assunto. (shrink)

Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar e discutir a filosofia da experiência de John Dewey, enfatizando suas concepções sobre experiência, experiência educativa e propósito. Além disso, apresentar e discutir como os projetos de programação desenvolvidos por crianças no Scratch podem ser entendidos como um propósito no contexto de sua filosofia, o que nos levou a relacionar o conceito de propósito construído por Dewey à ideia de projeto pessoal desenvolvida por Papert, no âmbito do construcionismo. Tal relação se torna importante para (...) ampliar as investigações que tratam problemáticas relacionadas ao ensino de programação na educação básica. A fim de exemplificar as possíveis relações, apresentamos um projeto de programação desenvolvido por um aluno do quinto ano do ensino fundamental, reconhecendo nele os pressupostos teóricos da teoria de Dewey discutidos no texto, relacionando-os às ideias de Papert. (shrink)

In Contagious Architecture, Luciana Parisi offers a philosophicalinquiry into the status of the algorithm in architectural and interaction design.

O desenvolvimento das TDVs possibilita a ampliação dos espaços de relação e interação entre os seres humanos, modificando, assim, a forma de viver e conviver em espaços digitais virtuais, fazendo emergir outra cultura. A cultura emergente é construída por homens e mulheres que configuram o pensar, as ações e reflexões das novas gerações. Nesse sentido, a educação tem como comprometimento qualificar o processo de reflexão, a fim de que as novas gerações tenham consciência sobre o seu pensar e o seu (...) agir, nos espaços digitais virtuais. O MDV3D é uma das TDVs mais significativas para propiciar os processos de interação e relação na construção do conhecimento, potencializando o ensinar e o aprender. O viver e o conviver implicam o fato de seres humanos estarem em congruência com o meio; neste sentido, é fundamental compreender as possibilidades e limitações do MDV3D para a construção da cultura emergente. (shrink)

Quaestio, Volume 20, Issue, Page 523-526, January 2020.

The paper focuses on the manifestations of structural and symbolic violence against women during the communist regime by addressing the most important mechanisms and embedded beliefs that allowed the proliferation of spousal violence in communist Romania, in what I see as a continuation of the interwar patriarchal state, and a bridge to the new discriminatory policies developed by the democratic structures, after 1990.

The paper explores the extent to which “gender”, as category of analysis, can be a useful tool in explaining the nature and the impact of humanitarian aid of western organizations towards children in Europe, between 1980 and 2007, using as case study the relation France ‑Romania. By Humanitarian aid I refer to the material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, as it evolved during the twentieth century and culminated with the emergence of a new, transnational humanitarianism, with permanent, professional (...) actors.”. For this study gender is understood as social construction and the assignment of specific roles, responsibilities and expectations to women and to men in the social sector, which includes the policies regarding health, education and sanitation. (shrink)

The paper investigates how formal/informal networks of scientists, while facilitating the scientific West-East transfer in the Cold War context, shaped the scientific field of sexology by imposing personal scientific credos, in a particular national context. The paper shows that in the Cold War context, sexual science was present in Communist Romania, but neither as imitation of the regional scholarship, nor as a simple reproduction of western advancements in the field. The post-war Romanian scholarship in the field of sexology was the (...) result of scientific interests of Stefan Milcu – long time party protégée and respected member of the international scientific community – and of its personal circle that included remarkable personalities such as Victor Săhleanu or Tudor Stoica. Presenting the public with information about sexual and re­productive functions, and sometimes even elaborated descriptions of sexual techniques, certainly was never meant to enhance the individual gratification or provoke any form of sexual revolution. The Romanian production of sex/educational manuals and of sexology works was part of a state policy towards a better, stable, family life, aiming for collective and social happiness. (shrink)

The paper focuses on the manifestations of structural and symbolic violence against women during the communist regime by addressing the most important mechanisms and embedded beliefs that allowed the proliferation of spousal violence in communist Romania, in what I see as a continuation of the interwar patriarchal state, and a bridge to the new discriminatory policies developed by the democratic structures, after 1990.

En el presente artículo sostenemos que el abordaje benjaminiano del problema de la melancolía en El origen del drama barroco alemán (1928) pone en juego la posibilidad de acceder a la estructura profunda del mundo material, mediante el establecimiento de una singular relación entre el sujeto melancólico y la naturaleza caída. Pues, si como el propio Benjamin afirma, todo sentimiento es la resultante de un objeto o de cierta conformación material que opera como su causa, la melancolía, por su parte, (...) es aquel sentimiento surgido del lamento profundo de la naturaleza revelado por medio del lenguaje, capaz de contemplar la tristeza que la constituye y el dolor que le genera la imposibilidad de redención. In this paper we argue that Walter Benjamin's approach to the problem of melancholy in The origin of German tragic drama (1928) brings an access to the deep structure of the material world through the establishment of a unique relationship between the melancholic human being and fallen nature. Therefore, if, as Benjamin says, every feeling is the result of an object or some material conformation that operates as its cause, melancholy, for its part, is that feeling emerged from the deep regret of nature revealed by the means of a language able to contemplate the sadness which constitutes it and the pain that generates the impossibility of redemption. (shrink)