The waning popularity of logical empiricism and the supposed discovery of insurmountable technical difficulties led most philosophers to abandon the project to formulate a formal criterion of empirical significance. Such a criterion would delineate claims that observation can confirm or disconfirm from those it cannot. Although early criteria were clearly inadequate, criticisms made of later, more sophisticated criteria were often indefensible or easily answered. Most importantly, Carnap’s last criterion was seriously misinterpreted and an amended version of it remains tenable.

Neste artigo apresentamos as propostas de Otto Neurath para o problema da unidade da ciência. Conhecido integrante do Círculo de Viena, Neurath defende que a ciência deve ser unificada por meio da chamada concepção de mundo científica, uma orientação ou atitude em relação ao mundo e aos problemas que é característica da ciência. Neste artigo apresentamos o caráter social dos projetos de Neurath, como o da Enciclopédia Internacional da Ciência Unificada. Contrastamos a proposta de Neurath com a crítica pós-modernista da (...) abordagem contextualizada dos estudos sobre a ciência. Essa crítica parte de estudos de comunidades científicas e, em geral, apresenta a conclusão de que não há um fator que unifique a ciência. O termo "ciência" denotaria apenas uma coleção de atividades sem características relevantes em comum. A comparação feita mostra que a posição de Neurath é compatível com a abordagem contextualizada, apesar de defender a unidade da ciência. Por fim, avaliamos o aspecto político da proposta de Neurath diante da crítica pós-moderna e notamos que as ideias do Círculo de Viena e da Enciclopédia podem ser valiosas nos dias de hoje. This paper discusses Otto Neurath's proposal for the problem of the unity of science. This author, a well-known member of the Vienna Circle, proposes that science is to be unified by the so-called scientific world-conception, a characteristic orientation or attitude of science towards the world and the problems it deals with. In this paper, emphasis is given to the social aspect of Neurath's projects, as found, for instance, in the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. It contrasts Neurath's proposal with the post-modernist criticism, developed in the contextualized approach to science studies, that stems from studies of scientific communities and, in general, presents the conclusion that there is no unifying factor for science. The term 'science' would then denote just a collection of activities with no relevant common characteristics. The comparison made shows that Neurath's position is compatible with the contextualized approach, even though he defends the unity of science. Finally, the political aspect of Neurath's proposal is evaluated in the light of the post-modernist criticism, and it is pointed out that the ideas of the Vienna Circle and the Encyclopedia might be valuable nowadays. (shrink)