Epistemologia, contravérsias e pragmática

Abstract

The paper presents and discusses the impass that characterizes current Epistemology and the History of science, after the failure of the positivism project. The main thesis is that the impasse in question is due to the neglect of the role of controversies in the formation, evolution, and evaluation of scientific theories. It is argued that the study of controversies is a key elementfor the solution of the impasse, especially if they are analyzedwith the help of pragmatics - the theory of language use.