[pt] O tema desta pesquisa diz respeito ao problema da demarcação entre ciência e não-ciência, proposto no âmbito da filosofia da ciência anglo-saxã do século XX. O estudo do caso da astrologia mostra-se relevante para enriquecer essa discussão demarcatória e revelar suas dificuldades, considerando-se que vários filósofos da ciência, como Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Thagard e Laudan, usaram a astrologia como exemplo ao tentar dar conta do problema da demarcação ou problematizar essa questão. O objetivo desta dissertação é, portanto, esclarecer um pouco mais o problema da demarcação da ciência, analisando especialmente o caso da astrologia, e examinar a relevância dessa questão no contexto atual dos estudos sobre a ciência. Com essa inserção no diálogo epistemológico contemporâneo, pretende-se contribuir para um melhor entendimento não só do que é ciência e de quais são suas fronteiras, mas também para a construção de uma visão mais precisa e menos preconceituosa da astrologia. / [en] This research concerns with the demarcation problem which was proposed by the Anglo-Saxon philosophy of science in the twentieth century. Astrology as a case study is relevant to enrich this debate and to reveal its dificulties since various philosophers of science - as Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Thagard, and Laudan - have used astrology as an example to account for demarcation problem or to question it. Therefore the goal of this dissertation is to clarify a little bit more the problem of distinguishing science from non- science, in particular the case of astrology, and to examine the pertinence of this discussion in the current context of the science studies. This survey is inserted into the contemporary epistemological dialogue and it intends to contribute to a better understanding of what is science and which are your frontiers, as well to give a more precise and less prejudicing view of astrology.

Borderline conscious creatures are neither definitely conscious nor definitely not conscious. In this thesis, I explain what borderline consciousness is and why it poses a significant epistemological challenge to scientists who investigate phenomenal consciousness as a natural kind. When these scientists discover more than one overlapping kind in their samples of conscious creatures, how can they identify the kind to which all and only conscious creatures belong? After assessing three pessimistic responses, I argue that different groups of scientists can legitimately use the concept of phenomenal consciousness to refer to different kinds, in accord with their empirical interests. They can thereby resolve three related impasses on the status of borderline conscious creatures, the neural structure of phenomenal consciousness, and the possibility of artificial consciousness. The thesis has three parts: First, I analyse the concept of borderline consciousness. My analysis counters several arguments which conclude that borderline consciousness is inconceivable. Then I explain how borderline consciousness produces the multiple kinds problem in consciousness science. Second, I assess three recent philosophical responses to this problem. One response urges scientists to eliminate the concept of consciousness, while another judges them to be irremediably ignorant of the nature of consciousness. The final response concludes that scientific progress is limited by the concept's referential indeterminacy. I argue that these responses are too pessimistic, though they point to a more promising approach. Third, I propose that empirically constrained stipulation can solve the multiple kinds problem. Biologists face the same problem because of their longstanding controversy over what counts as a species. Building on new arguments for stipulating the reference of species concepts, I demonstrate that this use of stipulation in biology is neither epistemologically complacent nor metaphysically capricious; it also need not sow semantic confusion. Then I defend its use in consciousness science. My approach is shown to be consistent with our understanding of natural kinds, borderline cases, and phenomenal consciousness.

Ma recherche a pour but de faire le point sur les derniers développements de l’historical epistemology, modalité d’enquête de la connaissance qui a émergée au cours du XX siècle au sein de l’épistémologie française et qui reste actuellement active dans une variété de formes. En dépit de son succès auprès de nombreux auteurs contemporains, l’épistémologie historique ne bénéficie encore d’aucune systématisation ni d’aucune liste d’auteurs et d’ouvrages canoniques. Mon travail de thèse se propose de traiter directement la question même de la légitimité et de l’originalité de ce type d’épistémologie en discutant sa nature, sa méthodologie et son unité. En analysant les ouvrages les plus importants dans ce domaine, j’accorderai un rôle central d’un coté à Michel Foucault et de l’autre à Ian Hacking, qui, à maintes égards, ont entretenu des rapports complexes, controversés, et pourtant révélateurs, avec l’épistémologie historique. Les deux phases de l’épistémologie historique, l’une « originaire » et l’autre « contemporaine », seront analysées dans un rapport biunivoque, dans un souci de clarification réciproque. Le développement à l’étranger de l’épistémologie historique dans sa phase contemporaine a créé une sorte de vide et une perte d’intérêt étonnante dans son lieu de naissance. La reconnexion de ce type d’épistémologie au cadre philosophique originel de son émergence représente l’occasion de ré-ouvrir le débat en France. / What is historical epistemology? Why does this field, despite its current proliferation,seem to be permanently haunted by questions relative to its nature, limits and ultimatetasks? What kind of historicization is at stake in this sort of inquiry? What is the relationbetween contemporary historical epistemology, as it is practiced by a growing number ofEnglish-speaking historians and philosophers of science, and the French “tradition” ofépistémologie historique? To address these questions, my research aims to provide arecursive analysis demonstrating how the two phases of historical epistemology, the“classical” and the “contemporary”, can clarify each other. In this process, the“archaeological method” of Michel Foucault, which draws on and transforms fundamentalinsights by Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem, will be shown to exert an enduringinfluence on the field, especially through Ian Hacking and his philosophical cum historicalanalyses of probability. / Che cos’è l’epistemologia storica? Perchè questo campo, nonostante la sua proliferazione attuale, sembra essere permanentemente minacciato da questioni relative alla sua natura, ai suoi limiti e ai suoi obiettivi ultimi? Che tipo di storicizzazione caratterizza questo tipo di indagine? Qual è la relazione tra l’epistemologia storica contemporanea, come è praticata da un numero crescente di storici e filosofi della scienza di lingua inglese, e la tradizione francese dell’épistémologie historique? Per affrontare tali questioni, la mia ricerca intende fornire un’analisi ricorsiva che dimostri come le due fasi dell’epistemologia storica, quella “classica” e quella “contemporanea”, possono chiarificarsi reciprocamente. In questo processo, il “metodo archeologico” di Foucault, che trae spunto da e trasforma intuizioni fondamentali di Gaston Bachelard e Georges Canguilhem, sarà mostrato nella sua influenza su questo campo di indagine, specialmente attraverso Ian Hacking e le sue analisi storico-filosofiche della probabilità.

Die Dissertation wendet sich insbesondere der Rolle der Ökonomik auf der Metaebene der wissenschaftsphilosophischen Argumentation zu. Ziel ist zu klären, welchen Erklärungsgehalt ökonomische Instrumente in der Wissenschaftsphilosophie haben können. Mit der Economics of Scientific Knowledge (ESK) hat sich seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre ein Literaturzweig herausgebildet, in dem genau diese Zielsetzung verfolgt wird, nämlich das Erkenntnisobjekt der wissenschaftlichen Koordination mit unterschiedlichen Methoden und Instrumenten der Ökonomik zu untersuchen. Es wird gezeigt, dass den analytischen Modellen der ESK einige Probleme inhärent sind, die prinzipiell durch neue Methoden und Instrumente gelöst werden können. Als ein geeigneter Kandidat wird die Agentenbasierte Modellierung (ABM) identifiziert, die eine realitätsnähere Abbildung der Akteure, eine ergebnisoffene Modellierung ihrer Entscheidungen und des Koordinationsprozesses erlaubt. Der Analyse von der ESK zuzuordnenden analytischen und agentenbasierten Modellen folgt im zweiten Teil der Dissertation die Programmierung einer eigenen ABM Continuous Opinions of Satisficing Agents and Discrete Actions (COSDA) mit Hilfe der Multi-Agenten-Programmiersprache NetLogo. In der heuristischen ABM COSDA werden zentrale wissenschaftsphilosophische und ökonomische Prämissen, die im ersten Teil der Arbeit als Problemfelder identifiziert wurden, aufgegeben. Mit Modellierung heterogener Agententypen, die - mit unterschiedlichen Präferenzen und Verhaltensheuristiken ausgestattet - miteinander interagieren, wird eine mögliche Mikrospezifikation für die Emergenz eines Makrophänomens erzeugt. Das Makrophänomen, d.h. die unterschiedlichen Resultate im wissenschaftlichen Koordinationsprozess, sind aus den selbstverstärkenden Effekten der Interaktion erklärbar, aber nicht vorhersehbar. Die Mikrospezifikation kann als relevante, durch eine kohärente Fiktion formulierte Möglichkeit interpretiert werden, die anders als analytische Modelle der ESK kein rationales Entscheidungskalkül der Agenten voraussetzt.

This study aims to trace points of intersection between the too often divorced disciplines of literature, continental philosophy, and the hard sciences in Angela Carter’s “The Lady of the House of Love.” In short, this thesis will not only explore how such conversations surface within the short story, but will also serve as an explication of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of body and space, and the theory of epigenetics. Through these explications, the thesis itself will also gear one discipline towards the other as both theories intimately bind the environment with the body, and the body with the environment. Thus, the body and the environment are not separate and passive, but active and intertwined in a manner much like the aforementioned disciplines I posit are. Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to first postulate that such conversations between literature, philosophy, and science are already occurring, and as such, stress that such conversations need further discussion and exploration.

abstract: Over the last half century, global healthcare practices have increasingly relied on technological interventions for the detection, prevention, and treatment of disability and disease. As these technologies become routinized and normalized into medicine, the social and political dimensions require substantial consideration. Such consideration is particularly critical in the context of ableism, in which bodily and cognitive differences such as disabilities are perceived as deviance and demand intervention. Further, neoliberalism, with its overwhelming tendency to privatize and individualize, creates conditions under which social systems abdicate responsibility for social issues such as ableism, shifting accountability onto individuals to prevent or mitigate difference through individualized means. It is in this context that this dissertation, informed by critical disability studies and feminist science and technology studies, examines the understanding and enactment of disability and responsibility in relation to biomedical technologies. I draw from qualitative empirical data from three distinct case studies, each focused on a different biomedical technology: prenatal genetic screening and diagnosis, deep brain stimulation, and do-it-yourself artificial pancreas systems. Analyzing semi-structured interviews and primary documents through an inductive framework that takes up elements of Grounded Theory and hermeneutic phenomenology, this research demonstrates a series of tensions. As disability becomes increasingly associated with discrete biological characteristics and medical professionals claim a growing authority over disabled bodyminds, users of these technologies are caught in a double bind of personal responsibility and epistemic invalidation. Technologies, however, do not occupy either exclusively oppressive or liberatory roles. Rather, they are used with full acknowledgement of their role in perpetuating medical authority and neoliberal paradigms as well as their individual benefit. Experiential and embodied knowledge, particular when in tension with clinical knowledge, is invalidated as a transgression of expert authority. To reject these invalidations, communities cohering around subaltern knowledges emerge in resistance to the mismatched priorities and expectations of medical authority, creating space for alternative disabled imaginaries. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2020

Orientador: Sandra Regina Teodoro Gatti / Resumo: No Ensino de Química, a abordagem tradicional está presente no desenvolvimento de vários conteúdos, sendo um deles os elementos químicos da tabela periódica, que foram o foco desta pesquisa. Consideramos que uma abordagem histórico-filosófica acerca dos estudos sobre esse tema pode suscitar discussões e reflexões que possibilitam o desenvolvimento do pensamento crítico dos alunos, além de aprimorar a compreensão dessa temática por parte deles, pois a História e Filosofia da Ciência (HFC) tem sido pensada como uma possibilidade de abordagem recorrente no Ensino de Ciências (EC). Entre os vários fatores que dificultam sua inserção no EC, pesquisas apontam a falta de material didático adequado como um dos principais. Dessa forma, optamos por desenvolver uma História em Quadrinhos (HQs), pois estas possuem uma linguagem diferenciada, que mescla o visual e o verbal e vem conquistando espaço nas pesquisas sobre o EC. A partir disso, o objetivo da pesquisa visa responder os seguintes questionamentos: 1) de que maneira o contato de alunos do Ensino Médio com uma HQ acerca da história das pesquisas sobre o elemento químico Lítio, elaborada a partir de reflexões sobre a HFC, pode propiciar o aperfeiçoamento de noções referentes ao processo científico e dos aspectos que envolvem a ideia de elemento químico?; 2) Quais as dificuldades encontradas ao longo desse processo, e como tais informações podem auxiliar no aprimoramento do material didático e do roteiro de trabalho propostos?. Para ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In Chemistry Teaching, the traditional approach is present in the development of various contents, one of which is the chemical elements of the periodic table, which were the focus of this research. We believe that a historical-philosophical approach to studies on this topic can incite discussions and reflections that can enable students to develop critical thinking, in addition to improving their understanding of this theme, as the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) has been recurrently thought of as a possible approach to Science Teaching (ST). Among the several factors that hinder its insertion in ST, researches point out the lack of adequate didactic material as one of the main reasons. Thus, we chose to develop a comic story, as they have a different language, which mixes visual and verbal languages and has been gaining space in ST researches. Based on this, the objective of the research aims to answer the following questions: 1) How the contact of high school students with a comic story about the research history on the chemical element Lithium, based on reflections from HPS, can promote the improvement of notions related to the scientific process and to the aspects that involve the idea of chemical element?; 2) What are the difficulties encountered during this process, and how can this information help improve the didactic material and the proposed work flow?. For this, we developed a Case Study, whose participants were high school freshmen at a public school. The... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Si la conscience semble d’abord poser un ensemble de problèmes philosophiques, l’étude de la conscience est aussi un domaine florissant des neurosciences cognitives. Au lieu d’un travail de philosophie de l’esprit visant à déterminer a priori si la conscience est explicable scientifiquement, cette thèse offre une analyse détaillée des pratiques scientifiques impliquées dans l’étude de la conscience, et d’un ensemble de problèmes philosophiques surgissant de l’intérieur même de ce programme de recherche. Cette nouvelle approche, relevant de la philosophie des sciences, donne toute sa place à un problème identifié comme central dans la constitution des sciences de la conscience, celui de développer des procédures permettant de déterminer si les sujets ont des états mentaux conscients, ou non, c’est-à-dire, des procédures de détection de la conscience. Parce qu’elle présente une synthèse complète des procédures de détection de la conscience utilisées par les scientifiques, et des problèmes impliqués par l’utilisation de ces procédures, cette thèse s’adresse tout à la fois aux philosophes soucieux de comprendre la façon dont les scientifiques étudient la conscience, et aux scientifiques à la recherche des fondements épistémologiques de leur discipline. Les sceptiques, enfin, y trouveront un ensemble de réponses à leurs arguments, fondées pour la première fois sur une épistémologie cohérente des sciences de la conscience. / Although consciousness might appear as a primarily philosophical topic, the scientific study of consciousness has been an integral part of cognitive neuroscience for about thirty years. Instead of a work in philosophy of mind, debating whether or not consciousness can be explained scientifically, this dissertation provides a detailed examination of the scientific practices involved in the scientific study of consciousness, and of a wide variety of philosophical problems arising from within the science of consciousness itself. Through its original philosophy of science approach to the scientific study of consciousness, this dissertation focuses on one of the most central problems in the field: that of developing procedures for determining whether subjects have conscious or unconscious mental states, namely, procedures for detecting consciousness. As the first detailed epistemological analysis of the detection procedures used in consciousness science, and the problems they face, this dissertation is of interest for philosophers who want do understand how scientists study consciousness, aswell as for scientists who desire to reflect on the epistemological foundations of their field. Those who are skeptical about the prospects of the scientific study of consciousness will also find, for the first time, answers to their arguments based on a coherent epistemology of consciousness science.

In this study, the effects of an explicit reflective intervention on Swaziland elementary preservice teachers’ understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) were investigated. The factors that had an impact on the development of participants’ NOS views were also investigated. The intervention made use of de-contextualized and contextualized activities as well as historical narratives as contexts for reflecting about the empirical, creative, subjective as well as the tentative NOS. The intervention included a discussion of the relationships and differences between observations and inferences as well as scientific laws and theories in the context of the aforementioned learning activities. Participants were 24 elementary pre-service teachers enrolled for their final year of their three year teacher development programme. An adapted version of the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire-Form C (VNOS-C) was used in conjunction with individual interviews, to assess the participants’ understanding of NOS at the beginning and conclusion of the intervention. At the end of the programme, data from interviews, concept maps and reflective journals of seven participants were analysed to ascertain their perceptions of the elements of the course and other factors that had an impact on their development of more informed NOS views. These participants were selected on the basis of their differential gains in NOS understanding. The data that was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques revealed that the intervention brought about significant gains in some participants’ understanding of NOS. Information obtained from the document analysis of journals and concept maps as well as exit interviews of the selected group revealed that the pre-service teachers’ development of more informed views was mediated by motivational and cognitive factors. These were the participants’ perception of the value of teaching and learning NOS, their views about teaching and learning science, and their ability to engage deeply with the NOS concepts as well as their epistemic beliefs. The explicit reflective attention to NOS as well as metacognitive strategies was reported by most of the selected participants as responsible for changes in their NOS views. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

Die Arbeit fragt zunächst nach der Existenz von Wissenschaftsphilosophie in Hegels System, da sie traditionellerweise von denjenigen geleugnet wird, die fest an den naturalistischen Wissenschaftsbegriff glauben. Es wird zwischen zwei Konzeptionen von epistemologischen Untersuchungen unterschieden, nämlich einer positivistischen-objektorientierten und einer selbstreflexiven. Hegels Wissenschaftslehre entspricht der letzteren, d.h. einer Art noesis noeseos, denn Wissenschaft ist für ihn das Selbstwissen des kollektiv verstandenen Geistes. In diesem Sinne kann Hegel als Mitbegründer der modernen Wissenschaftsphilosophie avant la lettre angesehen werden. Die Kernbestimmung von Hegels Metawissenschaft wird dann im Lichte der vor kurzem entfachten Debatte um seinen angeblichen Naturalismus des Geistes untersucht, weil auch diejenigen neueren angelsächsischen Hegelinterpretatoren, die einen epistemologischen Diskurs in Hegels System durchaus anerkennen, irreführend behaupten, dass Hegel die Geistaktivitäten und Geistentäußerungen naturalistisch auffasst. Es folgt die kritische Analyse von vier exemplarischen naturalistischen Hegellektüren und die Rekonstruktion von Hegels Argumentation für einen nichtnaturalistischen Geistbegriff sowie Naturbegriff. Im Gegensatz zu diesen Auslegungen, welche vom Menschen als bloßem Bedürfniswesen ausgehen, macht die Analyse der Hegelschen Texte deutlich, dass für Hegel der Geist nicht durch irgendein biologisches Interesse oder Organ allein bedingt ist, sondern vielmehr durch eine sozialkulturelle Seinsweise und dabei besonders durch sprachlich vermittelte generische Formen eines Wir-Subjekts. Hegel nimmt die Aufgabe auf sich, der Philosophie zu einer selbstbewussten Wissenschaft zu verhelfen, da er die gravierenden Probleme von rein empirischen, rein rationalistischen sowie romantischen „unmittelbaren“ Wissenskonzepten identifiziert und beheben will. Es wird gezeigt, dass trotz massiver Kritik der posthegelianischen Philosophie, sowohl der analytischen als auch der kontinentalen, Hegels Idee von Philosophie als Wissen des Wissens keinesfalls blinde Orientierung an der Methodologie gegebener Sach-Wissenschaften bedeutet. Vielmehr entwickelt Hegel eine allgemeine, begriffsorientierte und nichtformalistische Logik, die als innovative Theorie der Geisteswissenschaften verstanden werden soll.