Herminio Martins

In this chapter the author argues that modern technology rests on the axiom formulated by Giambattista Vico, the famous verum ipsum factum, verum factum convertuntur – we only understand that which we do or realize, or only fully understand all that we do or realize, to the precise extent that we actually do it or realize it. This is a reason-based concept, in the tradition of which we find thinkers such as Vico, Marx, Dewey and Bachelard, asserting the epistemic value of the maker’s knowledge. In this text, Hermínio Martins searches for the epistemological foundations of technical reason, arguing that in the age of cybernetic technologies and bio-engineering, the human being has become the “god of artefacts”.

The Kuhnian 'Revolution' and its implications for sociology --Verdade, realismo e virtude 2.0 -- Images and imaging in science : modes of perception, algorithmic imagism and big data -- Dos experimentos de pensamento na ciência e na filosofia em relação com outras modalidades de experimentos -- Um savant-philosophe : Michael Polanyi e a filosofia da ciência -- Tempo e explicação : pré-formação, epigénese e pseudomorfose nos estudos comparativos nas ciências sociais -- Why some physical theories should never die -- Sobre a relação entre filosofia natural e teologia natural no pensamento de Newton -- L'harmonie de l'inattendu : Henri Poincaré entre physique et philosophie -- A recepção das ideias do Círculo de Viena em Portugal : duas tentativas de teses de doutoramento sobre o empirismo lógico -- Riscos tecnológicos, agricultura transgénica e alternativas.

The controversy over imageless thought versus picture thinking , with the recent reconsideration of model-based reasoning in the physical sciences is briefly examined. The main focus of the article is on the role of instrumentally elicited images in the sciences, especially in the physical sciences, with special reference to optics, experimental particle physics and observational astronomy, against the background of the civilization of digital images, though to some degree every scientific discipline is implicated. Imaging, today chiefly in the mode of electronic digital visual imaging, reaches into every phase of scientific inquiry, observational, experimental, simulational, even in mathematical research. The combination of algorithms and image-intensive science with the plethora of big data results in an epistemic pattern of "mathematical imagism". The epistemological issues regarding the image-intensiveness as of data-intensiveness of scientific research deserve further probing, in pursuance of the discussions of the ideal of mechanical objectivity in machine vision versus trained judgment in the selection and assessment of scientific images: as for now tacitly we depend on conventions regarding what we called "warranted imageability"

In Debating Durkheim, leading international scholars are brought together to discuss controversial issues in the work of this increasingly important founding father of sociology. The subjects covered relate to Durkheim's Jewish background and its influence on his life and thought; a positive reinterpretation of Durkheim's study of primitive thought in terms of social classification; an attempt to shed new light on his book on methodology, The Rules, which has been much criticized; a philosophical and sympathetic analysis of the notion of the social; a discussion of Durkheim's sociology of morals based on a study of social facts; a careful consideration of the problems of Durkheim's references to state, nation and patriotism; and finally, an application of The Rules to data relating to first names and raising the issue of social imitation. The appendix is an extension of the first chapter and covers new translations and hitherto unpublished material by Durkheim on the issues of Jewishness and anti-semitism. As these essays will show, Durkheim raises basic issues which must be examined if contemporary society is to be understood.