Ciência e Cultura, v. 51, n.º 1, janeiro/fevereiro de 1999, p. 26-33 (ISSN 0009-6725) 26 CULTURE AND PLEASURE: THE PLACE OF SCIENCE ALDO LUIZ BIZZOCCHI Abstract: Cultural activities — science, art, sports and religion — are social discourses having a non- utilitarian character, based on the principle of pleasure. By emphasising that science is also a cultural practice, the role played by it in the scope of culture, as a hedonic activity, opposing the utilitarian, pragmatic conception of science, in force nowadays, is discussed. Finally, the paths through which science can follow its public vocation and more directly attend the society that has instituted it and which it should ultimately serve are analysed. Resumo: As atividades culturais — ciência, arte, esporte e religião — são discursos sociais de caráter não utilitário, fundados no princípio do prazer. Enfatizando que a ciência é também uma prática cultural, discute-se o papel da mesma no âmbito da cultura, enquanto atividade hedônica, por oposição à concepção utilitarista, pragmática, de ciência, atualmente em vigor. Analisam-se, finalmente, os caminhos através dos quais a ciência pode seguir sua vocação pública e atender mais diretamente à própria sociedade que a instituiu e a quem deve, em última instância, servir. Introduction What distinguishes man from other animals is his ability to transform nature according to his intelligence and will. In other words, man, unlike the other species living on the planet, is basically a cultural being. However, when it comes to talk about culture, a fundamental distinction between two different, although semantically related, acceptions of this word, culture soon comes into the scene: in a broader sense, whatever man has added to nature, through his transformative labour, belongs to the universe of culture, that is, all that, in man, is not an exclusive product of biological instinct and genetical inheritance. In this sense, all the human activities (hunting, farming, handicraft, industry, trade, communications, transportation, politics, war, etc.) are cultural activities. One can then assess the degree of civilisation of a society at a given moment of its history through its cultural manifestations, represented by all these activities. Now in a stricter sense, the term culture is used to designate some activities of the human being which presuppose a specific learning and which, consequently, produce a fund of knowledge that can be transmitted from generation to generation. If we take the set of all human activities of non-instinctive character, we will have what is called culture in a wide sense (culture lato sensu). These activities can be divided, in a first approach, into five main categories: science, art, sports, religion, and technique. Examples of scientific activities include physics, chemistry, biology, history, philosophy, sociology, etc. As examples of artistic activities we have literature, music, fine arts, theatre, cinema, etc. Sporting activities include football, basketball, car-racing, gymnastics, athletics, swimming, mountain-climbing, etc. Amongst religions we have the Christianity, the Islam, the Judaism, the Buddhism, etc. Under the category technique we have included the rest of the human activities: applied sciences and technologies (engineering, medicine, law, journalism, management, etc.), applied arts (architecture, cookery, couture, hairdressing, jewellery, handicraft, etc.), applied sports (all physical activities not aiming at competition, but physical trimming or the improvement of health conditions, as in the case of fitness, water-gymnastics, etc.), applied religion, that is, divinatory practices (astrology, fortune-telling, etc.) and magical practices (spiritual healing, quackery, sorcery, etc.), teaching in general (science-teaching, art-teaching, sports-teaching, religious teaching, technical and professionalising teaching, etc.), military and paramilitary professions (army, navy, air force, police, etc.), politics, medium-level specialised professions (clerk, secretary, translator, etc.), basic level specialised professions (cabinet maker, car mechanic, driver, etc.), non-specialised and hand professions, and many other activities. All the aforementioned activities can, on the other hand, be classified into two basic groups: activities aiming at the satisfaction of material needs of the human being, which will be called utilitarian activities, and activities aiming at obtaining pleasure, which will be called hedonic activities. Note that the utilitarian activities are means-activities, existing to assure the survival and life quality of the human being, as well as to provide the necessary infrastructure for the performance of hedonic activities. These latter, in their turn, are activities having an end in themselves, whence comes the conclusion, in the wake of Epicurus, that the ultimate aim of human activity and, even, existence is the search for pleasure. The hedonic activities correspond to what can be called culture stricto sensu. In this paper, we seek to analyse more closely the cultural activities stricto sensu, regarded as social practices of eminently semiotic character, that is, begetting cultural goods characterised as social,