The most basic assumption of the sociology of knowledge is that ideas do not exist independently. They are part of the whole structure of human life. But this structure is not an "a priori" and universal premise, as was thought for a long time. Structures are built by men to meet the important necessities of man's relationship with his environment in order to solve the problem of survival. Thus, ideas and even conscience emerge as the result of the interaction between man and his world in the sense of orienting human activity, in order to solve the problems which this dialectic permanently creates. In other words, conscience and ideas derive from practical necessities and they function in the effort to face them.2 Berger and Luckmann, in the book referred to above, indicate that one of the paradoxes of human experience is that man, who is able to shape the world, often regards experience it as if it it had an independent
Não será verdade que toda ciência, no final, se reduz a um tipo de mitologia? (De uma carta de Freud a Einstein em 1 932) .As ciências que se instauraram no mundo Ocidental têm tendido a classificar a religião como uma forma de falsa cons ciência e como uma fôrça conservadora. "A religião é a consciência-de-si e o como-sentir-se do homem que ou ainda não se encontrou ou que voltou a perder-se" ( 1 ) nos diz Marx. Ela é a flor com que o homem cobre a corrente que o aprisiona de forma que, não mais vendo a corrente, êle se imagina num jardim. E jardins não devem ser destruidos. Jardins devem ser cultivados, preservados, defendidos. Em decorrência disto, a religião teria uma função permanentemente conservadora: os homens "devem reconhecer e aceitar como uma concessão aos céus o próprio fato de serem êles dominados, controlados, possuídos". ( 2) Dentro de certos limites êste diagnóstico é correto. En tretanto, creio que é necessario fazer a Marx uma reserva crítica muito próxima daquela que êle fez a Feuerbach. Não se pode falar de uma essência do homem, em abstrato (3) • De forma idêntica, não se pode falar de uma essência da reli gião, como se ela fôsse um fenômeno simples, permanente mente idêntico consigo mesmo, exercendo sempre as mesmas funções .
Like a woman in labour, Latin America is a Continent in crisis, racked with pains which convulse every aspect of its life. It is searching for its true destiny. Its condition promises a radical transformation of life. In Latin America strength and movement combine with a determination to fashion a genuinely new future. But this means breaking with the past inertia of traditional society and its half-hearted efforts at adjustment. The crisis is a struggle for a future already present in the vigour and determination of the people and against out-dated social structures struggling desperately for survival.
“A philosophy of revolution believes that through the dialectics of negation a new social order will be created. The revolutionary act is essentially negative. One hopes that from it a new social order will, of necessity, come into being.… But the symbol of the People of God does not derive its meaning from a vision of history as a process of successive resolutions of its contradictions through revolutions. It is therefore impossible to extract from the Bible any theology of revolution.”
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