GIOVANE AUGUSTO GUIMARÃES SALIMENA

Course
Master's degree
Research title
The dialogue between Feyerabend and Laudan and its repercussion for a model of methodological change via pursuit
Research abstract

In this thesis I examine comparatively the contributions of Paul Feyerabend and Larry Laudan to the subjects of foundations and dynamics of methodological rules with emphasis on their relations to the innovation problem, namely the issue of the rationality of utilizing nascent theories, which are possibly incompatible with part of the accepted body of knowledge. In a preliminary step, based on the works of these philosophers, I address two crucial points for understanding the role and the limits of methodology: the character of methodological rules e the relation between methodology and history. Next I undertake a reconstruction of the debate between the two authors, examining in particular their disagreement over the relevance of counternormal behavior, i.e. violations of the methodological canon that nonetheless resulted in recognized advances, and I propose that it was related to their diverging views over the limits of the rationality of the context of pursuit. As another part of this reconstruction, I analyze other two foci of dialogue: their alternative solutions to the problem of reconciling descriptive and normative components in a methodology that is supported by history; and their different conceptions of the relation between axiology and methodology. Based on this dialogue, I elaborate a model of the rationality of scientific change via pursuit. Finally, I employ this model in a reinterpretation of Richard Dawid’s stance on the need for a reassessment of scientific method in the field of high energy physics to account for the greater role of non-empirical criteria. I propose that the model via pursuit offers an alternative perspective, which makes more clear the prospective rationality of scientists in a context of innovation.

Graduate Advisor
Valter Alnis Bezerra
Date of defense
21/09/2022