Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Para o filósofo inglês William Whewell, a multiplicidade de observações e o refinamento dos resultados alcançados no decorrer dos séculos, através de uma forma elaborada de indutivismo, nos permitem compreender a ciência progredindo rumo às verdades necessárias e universais, além dos limites do psicologismo e do ponto de vista particular. A intuiçáo ocupa nesse processo um papel crucial, o qual vem recebendo dos comentadores diferentes interpretações. O estatuto epistemológico da intuiçáo e em que (...) medida ela se insere no processo de descobrimento de verdades sáo questões que analisaremos neste artigo. (shrink)

To consider Pierre Duhem’s conception of natural classification as the aim of physical theory, along with his instrumentalist view on its nature, sets up an inconsistency in his philosophy of science which has not yet been solved. This paper argues that to solve it we have to take Duhem on his own terms and that a solution can only be found by interpreting his philosophy as an articulated system which necessarily involves the following connections: 1. The association of natural classification (...) to the thesis of historical continuity as an essential condition to the possibility of assigning a goal to the evolution of physical theory, 2. The connection of Pascal’s esprit de finesse to Duhem’s conception of analogy as a heuristic criterion to the conception of hypotheses that are able to lead physical theory to an end that aims to approach the real structure of the world. (shrink)