Epistemologia em conflito: Uma contribuição à história das guerras da ciência

Abstract

At the end of the XXth century, a group of scientists engaged in a series of intellectual disputes that came to be known as the Science Wars. Throughout a number of books, articles and lectures, these scientists wanted to defend a vision of science against the advancement ofpositions accused of relativism. The approaches that caused this kind of reaction emerge from the turn suffered by areas like History, Sociology or Philosophy of Science. The Science Wars assumed the tone of an epistemological debate, in which significant questions on the scientificknowledge interpretation tradition were enrolled. On one side, the scientists defended an "objectivist" attitude, on the other side, the science analysts that had developed an "non objectivist"epistemology. In this dissertation, I have tried to examine the Science Wars as anhistorical phenomenon which articulates epistemological questions and political tensions.