Por uma história econômica da ciência e da tecnologia

Abstract

In the last two centuries it has become ever more difficult to separate and differentiate the progress of scientific disciplines from the development of technology. This is due not only to the scientific basis of modern technology, but also to the fact of an increasing number of scientific discoveries having resulted fundamentally from the technical progress embodied in research equipments and instruments endowed with growing power and precision. Consequently the History of Science ceased to be merely a history ofscientific thought, while the History of Technology definitely lost its autonomous and self-contained character. This paper proposes the coupling of both to the history of the economic development, which provides their basis and context.