Thematic, conceptual and iconic metamorphosis: the construction of a morphological history epistemological method

Abstract

In this essay, I propose the construction of an epistemological historical method through a morphological perspective. That involves the elaboration of a genetic rational process of conceptualization in which problems, themes and concepts organize in historical expressions increasingly more objective and determinated. Such expressions should be articulated generating a continuum of metamorphosis of a concept or conceptual core. This continuum should be capable of conferring intelligibility for scientific culture units without restrictions of spatial, temporal and conceptual amplitude. The connection of morphological and historical components that I propose is based on the results as well as the method used by Carlo Ginzburg in Myths, emblems and signs, especially in High and low: the theme of forbidden knowledge in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. After presenting a characterization of the minimal components of the historical epistemological method, I will start to incorporate elements of Ginsburg’s historical morphology through a dialogue in which I’ll try to understand how the author proceeds methodically and conceptually in his investigation. Finally, through a preliminary study of an alchemical emblem in which Hermes is the central figure, I will make a morphological experiment of application of this procedure to the scope of the scientific culture of chemistry