Fragmentos da construção histórica do pensamento neo-empirista

O presente trabalho procura identificar as idéias principais na construção histórica do pensamento neo-empirista a partir da visão mecânica do mundo e do método hipotético-dedutivo de Descartes. O método indutivo moderno é apresentado por Bacon e os empiristas ingleses colaboram na questão do pensamento “a posteriori”. No século XIX surge o positivismo que exclui a metafísica e considera a explicação dos fatos apenas como relações de sucessão e similidade. É nesse âmbito que se constroem as bases do método experimental moderno. No início do século XX, se desenvolve a ciência neoempirista cujas principais proposições são (1) a idéia da verificabilidade como forma de conferir a veracidade das teorias a partir da indução e das probabilidades e (2) o crescimento contínuo e acumulativo do conhecimento científico. Popper apresenta a impossibilidade de se obter grandes teorias oriundas da indução e sugere a substituição da indução pela dedução e da verificabilidade pela falseabilidade. Kuhn afirma que o conhecimento científico depende de paradigmas convencionais e Lakatos explica que a ciência não é uma sucessão temporal de períodos normais e revoluções, e sim sua justaposição.

Hume: ceticismo e demarcação

Propomo-nos a mostrar que, ao contrário do que supõe o senso comum, é possível separar o problema da cientificidade do problema da verdade, ou seja, podem-se estabelecer critérios de acordo com os quais um conhecimento é legítimo, embora não se possa nunca saber se ele ou qualquer outro é verdadeiro; pode-se, ainda, aplicar esses mesmos critérios para identificar e desqualificar pseudoconhecimentos. Para tratar dessa temática familiar à Filosofia da Ciência, tomamos como exemplo um pensador que lhe é precursor, o filósofo empirista do século XVIII, David Hume.

A concepção de ciência de Popper e o ensino de ciências

Procurou-se identificar as consequências mais importantes da concepção de ciência de Popper, que deu origem a um rico debate na Filosofia das Ciências, para o Ensino de Ciências. O acompanhamento deste debate permite perceber a riqueza do processo científico, reconhecendo as contribuições daqueles que debateram com Popper; bem como a importância dos aspectos da ciência que Popper valorizou e procurou preservar. As críticas e os debates em torno das abordagens de mudança conceitual contribuíram para a percepção da riqueza e complexidade desse processo. Quando considerados os objetivos institucionais das escolas e as expectativas sociais em torno da compreensão adequada e da procura de superação dos paradigmas vigentes a manutenção de certos aspectos, inerentes ao processo de mudança conceitual, pode se mostrar relevante. Neste sentido, a obra de Popper pode oferecer importante apoio para valorizar aspectos racionais que poderiam presidir o processo de aprender Ciências.

Controvérsias sobre a natureza da luz: uma aplicação didática

Researches in the field of Science Teaching have shown, in recent decades, that students from high school level have difficulties in understanding basic concepts of science, in general, and physics, in particular. The specific literature indicates, as a priority for a scientific education of better quality, a more structured understanding about science. This work proposes the introduction of elements of History and Philosophy of Science in high school as an aid to learning the concepts of optics, in general, and of aspects concerning the nature of science, specifically. Making use of historical episodes regarding the controversy on the nature of light, especially during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as clippings of the history of optics in relation to the development of models that explain the process of vision, we formulated a teaching unit and implemented it on two night high school classes of a public school in the city of Parnamirim (RN). The unit involved, primarily, the reading of three historical texts containing written questions followed by a collective debate ("moot"). The results indicated some difficulties in overcoming the misconceptions related to the process of vision and the nature of light. Nevertheless, we believe that the teaching unit has succeeded in relation to the learning of most students, both in relation to a better understanding of science as well as concepts of optics

Educação científica no contexto pós-ontológico: por uma concepção plural de conhecimento e educação

The development of this work arises from the research of sociological and philosophical characters contemplating also other approaches which aims to answer the followingquestions: what is the responsibility of science teaching for the image one has about science? ; which scientific education should be designed for nowadays? . After considering the assumptions brought along by rationalism and the criticisms to the illuminist model proposed by sociology and philosophy of science, as well by the biology of the knowing process, going through discussions concerning post-modernity issues, one is given to understand that the image of science has become the central point of discussion in the last hundred years, including what concerns the area of science teaching, and that practically none of those discussions really reached natural science classes indeed. We adopt the term postontological to characterize the recent proposals on philosophy and sociology, because we evaluate that this term allows a better identification of the scientific realism crisis, which supports the existence of an ontological domain which science, and only science, is able to understand. One notices that the general public is not aware of those discussions, mainly if they are science teachers and students. So we believe that discussing the logic in which science is structured, the new understandings concerning the scientific undertaking, especially those of an externalist character, and the relationship between science and society, all of this contributes to build up a science teaching which contemplates a reflective contribution, besides allowing the inclusion of the study of other epistemologies in the educational practice. We argue that a revisionist posture seems to be the most appropriate for the contemporary scientific education, contemplating, besides the teaching of the usual science contents, discussions on the issues involving that knowledge, as well as respecting epistemologies alternative to the modern Western scientific one, in order one can work on the perception of local knowledge generated from other epistemological bases. We describe here practical activities we did involving teachers (short-term courses) and high-school students in an inland school in the Rio Grande do Norte state, in Brazil, as a way to demonstrate the possibility of interventions which can take those conceptions, discussions and changes to the classroom

História da ciência como estratégia didática no ensino médio: um breve olhar de conteúdos da óptica

From a critique of aspects of the current teaching of physics, we propose in this paper an investigation into the conceptions of Nature of Science (NOS) submitted by students from the high school level, as well as the inclusion of discussions about some elements of NOS, through the History and Philosophy of Science, understanding them as facilitating strategy for more effective learning of Physics and, more specifically, the contents of optics. Based on the historical period corresponding to Greek antiquity to the mid-nineteenth century, built and applied a teaching unit to a high school class at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN) Ipanguaçu campus. Our teaching unit involved the reading and interpretation of texts with historical content, observation and assembling five experimental activities, among other activities. Data analysis occurred through questionnaires investigative applied before and after the completion of the teaching unit, as well as questionnaires for content present in the texts. Although not significant, the results indicated that the application of the teaching unit allowed the (re) construction of some conceptions about NOS targets students present in our work, and contribute to a better learning content and greater optical science approach and its nature

Ensinando sobre a natureza da ciência: uma abordagem explícita e contextualizada a partir da história do vácuo

In last decades, the importance of including the contents of the Nature of Science (NOS) in Science Education has been emphasized. Several studies have focused on investigating the conceptions of NOS, supported by students and teachers, as well as design, implement and evaluate proposals that aim to provide a reflection on this theme in the educational context. Considering the complexity of such content, studies indicate the need for explicit and contextualized approaches and the History of Science (HS) is one of the possible paths to this inclusion. We started from the premise that, through a historical study, that aims to discuss the meaning and the basis of our "beliefs", we can know the process of building on what we "believe" and better understand its meaning. This thesis is part of this perspective, proposing to explore the History of the Vacuum, a themed high didactic potential still little used, in order to collaborate with the teaching content of NOS. We present actions on different fronts that originated three products in the context of this research. On the first front, we insert the research and production of instructional materials (three historical texts) to subsidize people interested in the implementation of HPS for educational context through this material. The relevance of this front is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the production of such material for the context of teacher training. However, we consider that the preparation of instructional material of good quality and accessible does not guarantee that these resources will be used, if they will not be accompanied by discussions in teacher training, on how to use them, contexts and obstacles to be faced. The second part presented refers to the organization and implementation of a workshop for undergraduate students in physics and physics teachers, considering the instrumentalization of these individuals to the preparation and use of teaching strategies to approach aspects of NOS through episodes of History of the Vacuum, as well as the preparation of the text orientation for people interested in implementing the instructional material for secondary education. This guidance text contemplates the difficulties anticipated by the literature of the area and the main challenges faced by the participants about the didactic transposition of HPS for the educational context they were noted during the workshop. The relevance of this second front, in particular, is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the inclusion of the theme of NOS and the HPS teacher training

Fontes primárias da história do vácuo e da pressão atmosférica na sala de aula: cartas e jornais históricos em articulação com o livro-texto do ensino médio

The use of the History and the Philosophy of Science (HPS) for the teaching of science and scientific subjects has been advocated in recent decades. It has been pointed out that the History of Science could make for a deeper learning of scientific concepts, since it would promote a contact with the problems which that knowledge has set out to solve. Furthermore, historical episodes would serve to put the discussions about the nature of scientific knowledge into context. With a view to explore those potentialities, the literature in the field has sought to identify the challenges and obstacles for the didactic transposition of subjects from the History of Science. Amongst many aspects, the deficiencies in the training of teachers, so that they can work with the insertion of HPS in the classroom have been highlighted. Another aspect that has been mentioned to be a challenge has to do with the didactic transposition of the Primary Sources, that is, of the original texts on the History of Science. The Primary Sources have significant potentialities: making a connection possible between scientists and concepts, showing the difficulties faced during scientific endeavors, perceiving the role of mistakes as obstacles to be surpassed, not as defeat, etc. On the other hand, there has been little exploration of these concepts in an educational context, due to their own peculiarities. The original texts are often hard to understand and their interpretation demands knowledge of the historical and scientific context in which they were written, as well as skills pertaining to the conduction of research in the field of the History of Science. With this scenario in mind, the research towards this Professional MSc degree starts from the challenge of elaborating and discussing proposals which could enable the didactical transposition of the Primary Sources. We have worked specifically with Primary Sources on the History of the Vacuum and of the Atmospheric Pressure, because of the insertion of these subjects in the Brazilian High School curriculum, in connection with the didactical textbooks. "Historic Journals" were made up from clippings of the original historical texts, as was a Didactical Unit, which takes the usual textbooks as a basis and contemplates using the Journals and the entire Primary Sources in High School. At last, we have elaborated and implemented a course designed for the preparation of teachers and for being an opportunity for the discussion of the feasibility of putting these kinds of proposal into practice

Uma nova tecnologia no pensamento de Herbert Marcuse: arte e técnica na sociedade unidimensional

This dissertation addresses the issue of technology in the work of Herbert Marcuse, explaning the merger between technology and domination that result in a totalitarian technological apparatus. Thus, technological civilization is supported and justified by a rational technological apparatus in the society, we have come not only the philosophy of Marcuse, but other great thinkers too, like Heidegger, Hegel, Marx. We also present a debate involving the philosophy of science, logic and linguage. Marcuse points to the need for a new technological rationality that emerge from a new sensibility, where the technique would allow a new relationship between man and nature. From then on, would emerge the need for a new subject. This transition would be possible by means of sensitivity, where art would become the art of live. With the link between art and technique made possible by new sensitivity, the author leaves one of its main contribution: he leaves open the possibility for the subject to choose new targests for technological development

Uma nova tecnologia no pensamento de Herbert Marcuse: arte e técnica na sociedade unidimensional

This dissertation addresses the issue of technology in the work of Herbert Marcuse, explaning the merger between technology and domination that result in a totalitarian technological apparatus. Thus, technological civilization is supported and justified by a rational technological apparatus in the society, we have come not only the philosophy of Marcuse, but other great thinkers too, like Heidegger, Hegel, Marx. We also present a debate involving the philosophy of science, logic and linguage. Marcuse points to the need for a new technological rationality that emerge from a new sensibility, where the technique would allow a new relationship between man and nature. From then on, would emerge the need for a new subject. This transition would be possible by means of sensitivity, where art would become the art of live. With the link between art and technique made possible by new sensitivity, the author leaves one of its main contribution: he leaves open the possibility for the subject to choose new targests for technological development

A metafísica de Isaac Newton

The general objective of this dissertation is to analyze the metaphysical aspects of "rational mechanics" of Isaac Newton, clarifying, by scientific and philosophical discourse, their main elements, with emphasis to the presence of one entity infinitely rational behind all the phenomena of nature, and to the Newton's insight as certain empiricist which, however, accepts deductions metaphysics; a philosopher-scientist. The specific objectives are detailed below: a) brief presentation of the development of modern science, since the Pre-Socratics, seeking to understand the historical conjecture that enabled the rise of Newtonian mechanics; b) presentation of the elements of scientific methodology and philosophical, aimed at comprehension of certain "Newtonian methodology", understanding how this specific methodology able to present empirical aspects, mathematics, philosophic and religious in communion; c) to understand, from the Newtonian concepts, both concerning man's role in the world as the "notional notions" of mass, space, time and movement, necessary for analysis and understanding of certain metaphysical aspects in the Newtonian physics; d) to present the Newtonian concepts related to the ether, to understand why it necessarily assumes metaphysics characteristics and mediation between the bodies; e) to present and understand the factors that lead the empiricist Newton to assume the religion in his mechanics, as well as, the existence and functions of God in nature, to object to the higher content of his metaphysics; f) to highlight the metaphysical elements of his classical mechanics, that confirm the presence of concepts like God Creator and Preserver of the natural laws; g) at last, to analyze the importance of Newton to the modern metaphysics and the legacy to philosophy of science at sec. XVII to science contemporary

Ciência e racionalidade em Thomas Kuhn

The work aims to explore the impact that Thomas Kuhn‟s philosophical work had on the philosophy of science, especially on the common idea of scientific rationality. Besides this, it aims to make clear the position of the author about his understanding of what is to be rational in science. In order to achieve this goal we start giving a panoramic view of the philosophical scientific scene of the first half os the twentieth century, to evince the main character of the concept of rationality more accepted at Kuhn‟s time. In a second moment we show how the ideas of this author contrast with that concept, which gives rise to a series of criticisms of irrationalism. Lastly, we show how Kuhn circumvents these accusations by pointing to a new rationality concept, through which we can conciliate his philosophy with a description of the rational development of science

Fonoaudiologia: epistemologia, implicações pedagógicas e educacionais

Tendo em vista os atuais preceitos socioconstrutivistas da Ciência e da Educação em Ciências, neste estudo, o nosso objetivo foi analisar a vertente epistemológica em artigos científicos que tratam de linguagem escrita. Para tanto, analisamos o conteúdo de seis desses artigos, baseando-nos em indicadores educacionais: concepções de ciência, de sujeito, de linguagem e de intervenção fonoaudiológica. A análise destas concepções, em seu conjunto, nos permitiu o enquadramento do conteúdo desses artigos em uma vertente epistemológica mais ou menos técnica ou humanista, lógico-positivista ou pós-positivista, e, ainda, inferir sobre as implicações dessas vertentes na construção de um conhecimento pedagógico e educacional no campo da Fonoaudiologia, para a formação continuada e em serviço de um profissional fonoaudiólogo capaz de atuar também na escola. Os resultados mostraram que as visões dos autores dos artigos analisados se enquadram em uma vertente predominantemente lógico-positivista, o que aponta para a importância de reestruturar os cursos formadores desses profissionais com base em preceitos de Educação em Ciência e à luz de uma nova Filosofia da Ciência.

Construção de conceitos de física moderna e sobre a natureza da ciência com o suporte da hipermídia

Apresentam-se os resultados de uma pesquisa sobre a construção de conceitos de Física Moderna e sobre a natureza da Ciência com o apoio da hipermídia, que envolveu a produção e avaliação de um software educacional. A proposta didática fundamentou-se na Teoria da Aprendizagem de Ausubel, em orientações para a implementação de sistemas hipermídia educacionais e em abordagens derivadas da pesquisa em Ensino de Ciências, dentre as quais o enfoque Ciência-Tecnologia-Sociedade, ponderações quanto à importância pedagógica da História e Filosofia da Ciência e considerações sobre a inserção de Física Moderna no Ensino Médio. O programa foi avaliado por pesquisadores de Ensino de Física e licenciandos de Física e, após a incorporação de algumas sugestões realizadas, foi testado por estudantes do terceiro ano do Ensino Médio de uma escola pública. Obtiveram-se indícios de que o uso do computador foi fator de motivação dos estudantes; a diversidade de elementos de mídia auxiliou-os a fixar a atenção sobre o conteúdo e favoreceu a visualização e interpretação dos fenômenos, facilitando ainda o raciocínio; o hipertexto estruturado em conformidade com princípios ausubelianos contribuiu para a percepção da relação entre os conceitos e ajudou no desenvolvimento de subsunçores para apoiar a aprendizagem subseqüente. Constatou-se que a proposta didática avaliada favoreceu a evolução das concepções da maior parte dos estudantes quanto ao conceito de equivalência massa-energia e suas implicações; às relações entre Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade, incluindo aspectos ambientais e políticos; ao papel da Ética no desenvolvimento e aplicação dos conhecimentos científicos; ao progresso da Ciência ao longo do tempo.

Uma aproximação didática por meio da história do conceito de circulação sanguínea

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