EMPIRICAL AND RATIONAL SCIENCE THINKING IN BRAZILIAN LIBRARY STUDIES

Abstract

Parts from debates initiated in the classroom, particularly, within the subject of Scientific Thought in the Library Studies Course, offered in the Library Studies Bachelor Degree at the Federal University of Pernambuco. It aims to identify and analyze the state of the art on empiricism and rationalism in the brazilian library studies debate. It considers as an assumption observed in the classroom that a great part of the students, when entering the university, have difficulties or resistance with respect to the debate on empiricist and rationalistic ways of thinking. The methodology used was exploratory, regarding the object of the research, and the procedure used was the bibliographical review of articles retrieved from the Reference Database of Periodical Articles in Information Science. The proposed debate is divided into four sections: an introduction followed by the bibliographical review of two prominent thinkers of empiricism and rationalism (Francis Bacon and René Descartes, respectively); a third section in which the state of the art about these schools of thought in brazilian library studies is commented; finally, some final considerations are made. It also points out, as a final consideration, that this writing can contribute as didactic material for the use of neophyte university students.