Construction and reality: Mario Bunge's scientific realism and the teaching of sciences through models

Abstract

In this paper we criticize the constructivist movement, which according to our view has overestimated the role of individual constructions, in detriment to the ontological dimension of scientific knowledge. It will be developed based on some critical papers directed to the constructivist movement and on an analysis of the reception of Thomas Kuhn's ideas by research in science teaching. One of our conclusions will suggest that constructivism does not place enough emphasis in the grasping of a reality that is associated to the physical world. That ends up reflecting a weakening of scientific knowledge in face of other forms of knowledge., establishing a kind of epistemological relativism among the various forms of knowing. In this sense, we present Mario Bunge's ideas on the role of models in science and their linkages to reality. Thus, we aim at minimizing the excesses contained in constructivist and realist theses, that is, the trend to view each human construction as an activity that does not have any links to the ontological dimension of the world, and to see all realism as a purge of human action.

Keywords

• constructivism
• scientific realism
• models
• science teaching