History of science, epistemology and dialects

Abstract:

This work discusses theses on scientific activity in their concrete historical reality based on the applied rationalism of Bachelard and the historical-dialectical materialism of Marx and Engels. For that, two aspects of scientific activity, called epistemological and ontological aspects, are defined and analyzed. They discuss, on the one hand, the tension and double realization relations between science and its referential (reality) and, on the other, the material relations established between the elements present in the production of scientific knowledge (language, tradition, techniques, socioeconomic conditions etc.), always using illustrative examples of the history of biology. Consequently, the concrete historical reality of science is defined as that of a movement of contradictions and syntheses, animated by quantitative accumulation and episodes of qualitative leaps.

Keywords: Historical-dialectical materialism; Gaston Bachelard; Philosophy of Science; History of Biology