The Consolidation of Rules of Signs and Stages of the Scientific Spirit in Bachelard

Resumo

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the historical path of the consolidation of the rule of signs from Gaston Bachelard’s epistemological perspective, as well as explore the epistemological obstacles still present in the teaching and learning processes of such rule nowadays. The consolidation was a slow and surprising process, marked by advances and setbacks. We suggest herein the presence of three scientific stages of mind: concrete, concrete-abstract, and abstract. It is possible to realize that the two first stages related to the development of the rule of signs are still very present in pedagogical activities and teaching. However, some studies have been indicating that teaching such rule formally, i.e. avoiding metaphors related to concrete examples, can stimulate the transfer from the concrete to the concrete-abstract spirit, and later on to the abstract state of scientific spirit.