Recetas de la cocina de la torre de marfil

Resumen

Cooking recepies from the ivory tower.

This article attempts to give a sound reason for the split between theory and practice, as well as other separations, namely mind and body. It argues that this is not a division inherent to the essence of knowledge, neither to the subject matter of knowledge; instead, it is a division that belongs to the ways in which Western culture has evolved. It argues too that the question is in fact a matter of places, that is, of situations which are been built historically. In order to develop this argument, this article takes as examples, or as metaphors, monasteries and kitchens during the Middle Ages, and its derivations in libraries and laboratories, respectively, in modern universities. Finally, it concludes that practical knowledge coming from laboratories and the like, together with its model of science, is of not value to the problems of our present society.

Key words. Kitchen, theory, praxis, universities, place-situation, thought, laboratory, critical-philosophical sciences, natural sciences.