How a Translation Error of Hegel Influenced the Adoption of a Virginian Owl in the School of Philosophy and Letters

Abstract

This theoretical article explores the series of events that led from the goddess Athena’s selection of a nocturnal bird of prey as her symbol to the adoption of a live Virginian owl by a School of Philosophy and Letters. A literature review was carried out, including some scientific documents and various sources of dissemination, since several of the topics investigated have not been treated scientifically, thus achieving a conceptual approximation that documents a series of fortuitous events that have gradually evolved, thanks to the intervention of various figures from the intellectual and artistic world, to shape the current concept of the owl and what it represents. The experiences narrated describe a continuous dialogue of knowledge between various themes and disciplines such as institutional image, falconry, philosophy and sustainability. It is concluded that this experience in choosing the owl as the image of an educational institution, the reasoning of the creators of its shield and the adoption of a live mascot, helped the students of the Faculty of Philosophy, who are eminently humanistic, to become interested and involved in other knowledge that is more traditionally addressed by the hard sciences, clearly contributing to the search, integration and appropriation of knowledge from various disciplines.