Por uma nova abordagem da interface ciência/sociedade: a tarefa da filosofia da ciência no contexto dos science studies

Abstract

This thesis aims to exam the problem of the relationship between science and society. We focus on the new discussions inside the philosophy of science, which were mainly brought up by the empirical works from science studies. It is a thematic approach in which I shall discuss the main theses that have been carried out by the most notably writers in English Literature in the fields of history of science, sociology of science and philosophy of science, such as Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, David Bloor, Ian Hacking, Bruno Latour, Peter Galison, Joseph Rouse and Steve Fuller. The argument which I defend is that despite the contribution that those authors have made, one can still notice an asymmetric approach to the problem mentioned above. On the one hand there has been available a richer and more adequate conception of science thanks to their works, but on the other hand still remains a much reified conception of science. The philosophy of science in partnership with science studies could help to change this undesired picture by making use of its critical arguments and its overview of the problems concerning the so special relation between science and society.