DANILO MIRANDA RODRIGUES

The aim of this work is carrying out a rational reconstruction of scientific cosmology, as this concept was conceived by Imre Lakatos, inserting itself in a tradition of “case studies” of conceptual instruments formulated by the hungarian philosopher. The model of universe formulated by the eminent physicist, Albert Einstein, in 1917 plays an important role in the nascent cosmology. Its static universe, however, cannot be classified as a research program in the Lakatosian sense of the term. The first cosmological program effectively emerged with the contributions of the Soviet Friedman and the Belgian Lemaitre. Both independently achieved models of the expanding universe, recovering part of the Einstein’s standard core. The expanding universe models are effectively tested in their empirical content over the following decades. With the help of different additional hypotheses, different conceptions of the universe were formulated. Despite such differences, the points in common among them are notable, configuring a phenomenon described in Lakatos' works: an empirically progressive series of theories that defended a common core. The nucleus of the “Friedman-Lemaitre Program” is therefore composed of some of Einstein's theses and the deviation between galaxies (Hubble's law), while the series of theories in this program is formed by Lemaitre's theory, by the Steady State theory (formulated by Hoyle, Bondi and Gold) and by the Big-Bang theory (formulated by Gamow, Alpher and Herman). In the final part of this dissertation, we discuss the relevance of this program nowadays and the reason for considering it, despite the notorious difficulties involving the concepts of matter and dark energy, still currently a progressive and extremely fertile program empirically. The discovery of some fundamental and difficult-to-detect particles, such as the “Higgs Boson” must be interpreted as a corroborative instance of such progressiveness. Einstein's universe, after all, is the first proposal for a program, a proposal that does not materialize due to the absence of falsifiability, testability or, in Lakatos' conception, empirical content.