Este estudo coloca em questão o descaminho na América portuguesa (1700-1750), partindo do pressuposto de que ele é uma prática social constitutiva e formadora daquela sociedade colonial. Os descaminhos não se reduzem ao roubo, ao furto ou à corrupção, mas configuram um determinado tipo de prática, encoberta pelas formalidades oficiais, porém radicalmente ativa e penetrante, irradiada por todo o corpo social, inclusive os escravos, formando e redefinindo, afirmando e negando, isto é, afirmando pela negação, enfim, caminhando pelo descaminho. / This study brings to light the going astray of Portuguese America (1700-1750), departing from the assumption that this waywardness is a social practice, not only part and parcel, but also influential in the constitution of that colonial society. This waywardness is not only confined to robbery, theft, or corruption but it also configures a kind of practice, covered up by official formalities, that is notwithstanding radically active and penetrating, irradiated by society as a whole, including slaves, shaping and redefining it, affirming and denying it, that is to say, affirming it by denying it - in short, walking on the path of waywardness.

Este estudo coloca em questão o descaminho na América portuguesa (1700-1750), partindo do pressuposto de que ele é uma prática social constitutiva e formadora daquela sociedade colonial. Os descaminhos não se reduzem ao roubo, ao furto ou à corrupção, mas configuram um determinado tipo de prática, encoberta pelas formalidades oficiais, porém radicalmente ativa e penetrante, irradiada por todo o corpo social, inclusive os escravos, formando e redefinindo, afirmando e negando, isto é, afirmando pela negação, enfim, caminhando pelo descaminho. / This study brings to light the going astray of Portuguese America (1700-1750), departing from the assumption that this waywardness is a social practice, not only part and parcel, but also influential in the constitution of that colonial society. This waywardness is not only confined to robbery, theft, or corruption but it also configures a kind of practice, covered up by official formalities, that is notwithstanding radically active and penetrating, irradiated by society as a whole, including slaves, shaping and redefining it, affirming and denying it, that is to say, affirming it by denying it - in short, walking on the path of waywardness.

This dissertation is an empirically responsive philosophical exploration into the incorporation of technological tools within a framework comprising the structures of experience laid out in the early phenomenological tradition and an analysis of agency drawing from the analytical tradition. Technological tools have become so deeply integrated in our lives that they function like a part of us, transforming what we feel we can do and even who we are. Although new spaces of autonomous agency have been opened up, since the inner workings of technological tools can remain invisible, we risk diminishing our own capacities. Since we are fundamentally embedded in the world, we cannot understand ourselves without reference to the world and we cannot understand the world without reference to the way we are. The uniqueness involved in our use of technological tools grows out of a more primordial uniqueness that makes technological tool use possible and sets us apart from our closest evolutionary relatives. Several animals extend their physical influence on the environment by means of tools. We humans, however, use tools to extend our cognitive abilities as well. And since the computer is the most universal human tool, which can be put to sensorimotor and cognitive purposes alike, we take the computer to be...