Abstract

BASTOS, Cleverson Leite. Intelligibility and language: epistemological assumptions. Trans/Form/Ação [online]. 2012, vol.35, n.2, pp. 239-256. ISSN 0101-3173.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0101-31732012000200012.

The present article presupposes that scientific contexts are reduced to linguistic contexts and that therefore, assuming a Wittgensteinian thesis, "mystery is not in things; it is in the confused way we adopt to talk about them". The epistemological presuppositions of this thesis are founded on four characteristics of reason itself: that the exercise of reason is done through concepts which are to a certain extent inaccurate and vague; that the concepts elaborated through rational activity are established in categories of  thought; that rational activity is discursive, that is, fixes itself, expresses itself, and communicates itself through language; and lastly, that the final products of rational activity are rational contexts or scientific contexts, which are, in fact, linguistic contexts.

Keywords : Concepts; Categories; Discursive; Rational context; Scientific context; Linguistic context.